Reports of the popular Linux distro ditching Firefox get clarified.

Many writers, including WorksWithU's Joe Panttieri, have suggested that Google's recently announced Chrome OS is bad news for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions struggling to establish a foothold on the desktop, especially in the netbook market.  While only time will tell how this development will really pan out, I'm not so convinced it will be to Canonical's disadvantage.  Here's why.

Flock — the so-called social web browser — has dumped its traditional Firefox core in favor of Chromium, the open source incarnation of Google's Chrome browser. CEO Shawn Hardin calls Flock 3 — released today as a public beta — the first major browser other than Chrome to use a Chromium base, and in making the switch, the Silicon Valley outfit is dumping nearly six years of history.

Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 might not feature Firefox as the browser of choice, and will instead offer Google's Chrome as the default Internet browser

Ubuntu Netbook Edition (formally netbook remix) is a collection of applications that make Ubuntu more usable on smaller screens. But you don't have to be running a netbook to benefit. This article looks at how to use the best netbook remix features in a standard Ubuntu 10.04 install.

"Mozilla Firefox continued its slow but steady march against the worldwide dominance of Microsoft Internet Explorer in 2007. Though the" [Free Software] "web browser continues to sit firmly in second place behind IE, where it's been for years, usage of Firefox is still on the rise. The browser is even threatening to tip the scales in some European countries -- most likely thanks to the rapid internationalization efforts made possible by the open-source development model..."

Mozilla Firefox has been outperforming Internet Explorer for a number of years, and its latest version is even faster than ever. However, there is a new, lean, free web browser on the block which runs web pages at lightning speed. It goes by the name of Google Chrome. Google released the source code of Chrome, including its custom JavaScript engine as an open source project entitled Chromium.

After a discussion @ UDS-m, the blueprint for UNE default app selection was updated seconds ago and it now points out that some default applications might be changed in Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10.

"According to a recent comprehensive Web browser report, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is losing market share to Mozilla Firefox. The overall report shows that IE has dropped below 70 percent. [...] Each month since October, IE has dropped a point while Firefox gained a point..."