For a good part of last week, your reviewer's musings about Ubuntu Linux was among the top five most-read stories on washingtontimes.com. Since the other top stories concerned health-insurance reform or the H1N1 vaccine and similar weighty topics, the presence of a geek-oriented column came as a pleasant surprise.

What a day it was! So many people are curious about KDE4, and KDE in general. So many are eager to give it a[nother] shot. My throat hurts from all the explaining, demonstrating, screaming and laughing.

During the time in which I’ve followed Linux development and its various distributions, every year I come across several articles on “Why 200X will be the year of the Linux Desktop“. Every time I read those posts, I have just one reply in mind – “It’s not going to happen”.

I’ve had people using Windows 7 for about three months now, and everything about it so far seems to confirm my first impression that it’s a lot better than Vista. Once you get past the sheer shock of using a Microsoft OS that doesn’t fail daily, however, you start to fret about the things that aren’t there.

We all know we can use open source software without paying, but the real question is: what compels people to buy free stuff? Most widely used free and open source software can also be purchased. So what do you get for the money?

Software pioneer Mitch Kapor thinks Microsoft's war against open source is over – and that it must be seen in its historical context

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth on Oct. 26 is set to speak with the press about Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop Edition and Server Edition. WorksWithU will be extra careful not to "hype" Ubuntu 9.10 over the next few days. Instead, we hope to ask Shuttleworth some timely questions about the new Ubuntu and Canonical's long-term business strategy. Here's a sampling of issues on our mind.