Look, if you want a great Apple-free music experience that not only does more than what the iPod does, but also supports open formats such as Ogg Vorbis, go with a Cowon player. Better still, take a look at this round-up linked here for some ideas.

For my money, nothing beats the Cowon players…especially if you are into solid players that are not locked into the Apple anti-Linux mentality. No one expects them to create drivers for the devices, but to actively DRM it so it is unusable without specific software is just stupid. Hence, why I leave Apple product ownership to others.

Clearly based on Ubuntu, it seems like Chromium is pulling focus off of other distros that already offer Google based functionality and instead, make it something official for Google.

Chrome and it’s open source component, Chromium, are clearly trying to target netbooks as it means there is no real let down when wanting to use this as a full blown OS. Again, if you want an open source operating system that is cloud based, I’d stick with something like gOS. Then again, I am an Ubuntu user who is none too keen on trusting Google with yet more data.

Sadly though, it’s not Photoshop which translates into it not being widely accepted by people who prefer the Adobe based alternative. Then comes this news - Ubuntu is opting to remove GIMP as it is believed to be too complicated for their target audience. Uh, newsflash - I am your typical user! And I think removing it is a mistake.

All of this aside, at least it will be available for easy installation via the repositories. And sticking with F-Spot, is not going to go well with new converts. Sorry, but that software has a ways to go before it is really going to be useful to most people I think. I’d gone with gThumb any day of the week for simple editing, but this is just my take.

So what new features are available from the latest Banshee? Blockbuster movies? Kindle access? None of the above? Yes, nothing that most people will actually care about, sadly. While the technology behind the Internet Archive functionality is cool, the content is about as stunning as a typical Creative Commons movie.

As some others have likely already pointed out, Banshee needs to stick to the music. Despite being unable to do something cool with Amazon MP3s and OneBox, at the very least spare us with useless features no one outside of the nerdiest of the nerdly are going to give a flying rip about. Seriously, Internet Archive? Why??

Apparently SourceForge is being renamed “GeekNet”. Yes, instead of having a name that indicates source code and forging something, we are going to see the title merge into something that sound like a social network. Geek-Net - really, this is the best you guys came up with?

Again, I get the need for a name change. There is a network of websites involved, so trying to capture them all with a new company name is kind of a big deal. But for the love of common sense, just because geeks are among those using your services does not mean this is how you name the company!

No, as it was recently made clear that this mouse was not actually made by the Open Office team, rather another company. So where does this leave us? Well we now have a mouse with a lot of buttons available. Assuming you are used to using advanced mice such as this, this would not present a big problem for you.

Yet for those of us who are not into LOTS of button functionality will likely do better with a more run of the mill type of mouse. Perhaps it’s just too much of a good thing. Guess it really comes down to perspective if anything.

The above being said, Ubuntu us not really something that I would point to for bragging about ease of upgrades. Myself personally would say it’s about 50/50 with regard to doing an upgrade successfully from PC/release to PC/release.

I do agree with the piece however, that out of the box, there is much more software readily accessible to the end user. And the hardware compatibility is pretty darned good as well. So would I say it is easier to install than Windows 7? Yes, but which it easier to configure depends on your point of view I think. I found Win 7 to be a fairly smooth setup overall. But not enough to fork over that kind of cash for an OS.

But it appears that there may be a new day for this telephony software after all. I discovered that there is very serious talk of Skype going open source. Perhaps not with the protocol, but with the client itself. And to me, this makes a lot of sense as it has in the past been the client on Linux that has provided some frustration.

Do I care that Skype is not using something like SIP? No, if I wanted SIP, I would simply using one of the available SIP clients. To me, the news of the otherwise problematic client is going to be a good thing. After all, it took them all this time to get the Ubuntu client working reasonably well with pulseaudio.

What is truly frightening is not who made the statement that Microsoft ought to consider going further into the open source realm, but that they are pointing out that it eventually, may have to happen anyway.

Whether the business models of the future for an open source OS from MS is running proprietary or open source apps, must likely a combination of both, remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, Microsoft BSD would be a home run and Microsoft knows damned well it would be, too. It would allow them to create, the next OS X if they put their noses to the grind stone and left the idiocy that is NTFS and the Windows kernel.

Personally, I cannot name any one thing that would provide a reason for Ubuntu success. That being said, I think there are a number of reasons for Ubuntu success. Among them has to be in part to their frequent release schedule, bundled with using the latest cutting edge improvements from Debian testing.

Five years later since Ubuntu first rolled out, I am still amazed at how people still don’t get it. Rather than enjoying it for what it is, they bitch about it and exclaim that Windows is still easier. Yes, so is sitting on your butt and collective welfare. This does not mean that it’s the wisest approach though. Just something to consider. In the end, I am all about people using the right tool for the job. If that is Windows or OS X, awesome. But use that instead of complaining about something that was not a good fit for you. It would be like me complaining about OS X, which I detest by the way. It gets me nowhere.

The idea is a common request for help via VoIP. And honestly, the technology there. SSH X forwarding and various VoIP apps such as Empathy or Skype. So the technology is there. Now it is simply a matter of making remote support more in-tune with the functionality most people want.

Remote desktop options such as NoName already exist, now let’s get the Linux desktop onboard with a solid, integrated VoIP option while repackaging SSH solutions for desktop control to make the process of sharing easier while still being secure.

Not even sure how businesses are still getting away with this, but thankfully there are a couple of easy options to get around it. The first option, is to simply inform the bank that you will be closing out your accounts and using any one of the other banks out there that do support Firefox and IE8, regardless of OS.

The second and much less intense option, is to use the Firefox extension “User Agent Switcher.” This is going to translates into you being able to keep your existing online banking setup while still maintaining your operating system dignity.

It’s not a matter of being better or worse, rather the fact distros like Ubuntu lack a singular way to do any one thing. This tends to get people frustrated. See, I can broadcast with my webcams using WebcamStudio, snipe eBay auctions jBidder, use Twitter with various options and use OpenShot Video Editor for video editing as I know which apps are best. It was not even really a matter of learning to use them, as the UI for each is not that complicated. No, most people are under the false impression that there is a serious lack of software for Linux - nothing could be farther from the truth.

The trick, is getting out of the provided software repositories and discovering alternatives sources for apps. GetDeb.net, among others, make locating and installing new Ubuntu Linux software very simple. But because of the lack of cohesive cooperation within the community, only some users ever hear of these great options. How do you Google something specific if you don’t know what it is? This does, present an issue here.

Despite my skepticism, it does look like on the back end of things, Adobe does have some open source code rolling along after all - “who’d thunk it”? But Adobe remains steadfast in not making Flash open source.

Why can’t we see Flash migrating over to the open source side of the fence? According to Adobe, one of the biggest issues is the patents surrounding Flash’s use of codecs. So that pretty much kills that idea. No, the best bet is likely going to be HTML 5.

Better cooperation is certainly a fair statement to consider, but is making things feel more like OS X really the way to go? Are things really that bad? Well, I tend to feel like the two main desktop environments tend to either over simplify or over complicate. GNOME being overly simplified and KDE having options ontop of its options.

In the end, I would agree there is work to do. And yes, leaving the shell for troubleshooting is definitely where most people want to find their desktop operating systems. But at the same time, it should be a choice of each end user as to which approach to take.

My objections aside with regard to IBM, I am also not really too into my recent use of another cloud based product put out for Ubuntu called Ubuntu One. Based on the DAYS of it being DOA on all my PCs, one might as well refer to it as Ubuntu Offline as I have yet to get it working. And I am hardly the only one.

Perhaps, though, IBM and Canonical get it right this time? I enjoy my Ubuntu desktop after all, so now all we need to do is get a better handle on the cloud computing aspect of things. Then things will likely work out fairly well from then on out.

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Microsoft on the other hand, run by an arrogant CEO living with his head in the past, is busy playing master to everyone’s desktop. Hence their enterprise offerings are CLEARLY not getting the attention they need.

Still, there can be no doubt with the release of Windows 7, Microsoft will see its stock beginning to recover and not a moment too soon. Unless Windows 7 and Bing both start showing fruit as we ease into 2010, I see Microsoft in real trouble in the years to come. Not out of business mind you, but a hell of lot less profitable.

Where other editors are either terrible to use or so buggy that they can not seriously be relied on, I found OpenShot to be something that I have come to rely on. It’s still under heavy development, but with the recent release of transitions/effects, the editor is quite usable even this early in its life.

Does this mean that you are ready to go an create Hollywood movies with it? No, of course not. But I would say that for most people, it is a great option. And having used them all, I will be looking to rely on it as much as possible.

But it should be noted that we live in a wide world. And Mandriva is actually very popular overseas in places like France, Brazil and in Central America. North America has seemed to largely fall into the Ubuntu or OpenSuSE camps, along with some Fedora among others.

So even as they are ready to release Mandriva 2010, because their US marketing is so… invisible compared to other distros, no here really cares. And that is sad. It’s still a great distro and worth checking out. It is also the base of PCLinuxOS from what I have been told, which should, if nothing else, add to the curiosity.

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As long as the hardware detection is present, including Wi-Fi, I cannot see anyone having any issues at all with the switch from Ubuntu to Debian for the Eeebuntu project.

From here out, the real question is likely to be the next name for the project. As clearly sticking with the existing name is likely dancing on the trademark issue a bit too closely, there have been those who have suggested going with something like Deeebian or Eeebian. In either case, both would be fitting names for the switch.

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