6/30/2009 -- It's summer, and that means it's time to take a look at a number of Linux-related topics that have been building up like cobwebs over the last few months.

Ubuntu Keeps on Truckin'
I used to doubt the feasibility of Ubuntu's one-new-release-every-six-months pace, but I'm happy to have been proven wrong. The latest version of Ubuntu, 9.04, follows this distribution's tradition of maintaining market-leading quality. The newest release includes decreased boot time and more support for 3G, as well as support for Skype, Flash and the latest office tools.

Combining Ubuntu and Windows Vista
There are two great tutorials out there, both written by James Bannan, that detail how to dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows Vista. The first walks you through configuration if Vista is currently installed on the machine, while the second shows how to do this if Ubuntu is currently installed. These two tutorials are excellent -- well-written, easy to follow and spot-on.

Speaking of the Linux Desktop...
I think it's finally time to throw in the towel. The latest numbers are out, and even with Ubuntu and other distributions doing such a fantastic job, after almost 20 years Linux still has only about 1 percent of the desktop market. This is after Novell's strong attempts to take the operating system into the classroom (bringing the price of student PCs down substantially), after GNOME and KDE both offered a better interface than anything coming from Redmond, and after hardware vendors started offering PCs without an operating system pre-installed. The cold hard fact is that users just don't want to run Linux.

But the server market is another story: Linux rules the roost there. Users don't care what's running on the server, and in most cases don't even have a way of knowing. As long as they can retrieve the files they want, get their e-mail and send things to the printer, they're satisfied.

Why don't Linux vendors stop worrying about the desktop (read: accept it as a lost cause) and focus solely on the server? As great as it is to have sizable market share, there's still a lot of room for improvement here -- improvement that can come with stronger administrator tools and increased performance.

And Finally, What About the Netbook?
Outside of the server market, one area in which Linux has been able to get a foothold is the netbook. But as promising as they may be, sadly the press -- and users -- aren't falling all over themselves with praise for it. This article from The Wall Street Journal is a great read that outlines some of the shortcomings (the title pretty much telegraphs everything: "Little Laptops with Linux Have Compatibility Issues").

Rather than trying to get the Linux name in front of everything, why not let the name be used only where it's strongest? My suggestion? Let Linux be the name of the server operating system and come up with another name for these crippled operating systems intended to run in minimal environments. After all, there's no sacred decree that says every open source operating system created has to be called Linux.