Ubuntu, a popular open source operating system has a new sister site that called Ubuntu Brainstorm. This is a site preoccupied the Digg ideas where users determine the hot stories will go to the front page, but this time, it’s not the hot general stories, but the hot topics surrounding Ubuntu. On the Ubuntu Brainstorm, you’ll read all those stories that posted by Ubuntu users, from technical issues, wanted features, future direction to the know-how that most of the Ubuntu users want to learn. I think most of the questions or issues that posted there are that Ubuntu can’t afford to say ‘No.’ Like this one, the WiFi issue, as I experienced with my friend, it’s indeed not easy for a beginner to configure the WiFi connection. Unlike Windows, you just install the driver, the system will automatically detect the connection for you.

I like the purpose of this site, in spite of the idea was inspired by Dell IdeaStorm. If Ubuntu managed to take advantage from the sincere ideas posted by its users, it won’t be far behind Windows or Mac.

As I visited the LinuxMCE home page, the webmaster said their server got flooded. The mainly reason is the massive traffics that sent to the LinuxMCE when a Digg’s user wrote about it has take the site down, as shown in the picture above. In other word, it mean Digg’s readers is that massive and everyone is fascinated about the LinuxMCE 1.0 release. Moreover, there have been a spike and as a consequence, exceeding the available bandwidth of LinuxMCE’s server. Great news for them as they have just launched in one (1) week time.

LinuxMCE is an open-source feature-rich Ubuntu add-on that offer ten (10) beautiful desktop-like user interface (UI). My first impression is that it’s on par, if not better than the Microsoft Vista UI. It was founded with the aim to compete with the Windows XP Media Center Edition (Windows MCE), a Windows version that designed for the use in media and entertainment areas. LinuxMCE offered three different types of UI, as being discussed in this page, is a complete, stable, easy to use media solution that come with personal video recorder (PVR) and distributed media. I believed it has secured some sort of partnership with MythTV, an organization that focused on the PVR project of Linux versions.

At this moment, I’m still not sure how many of the Ubuntu users have downloaded this LinuxMCE product, but it seems that the huge groups of Linux users are closely watching the progress of this media edition. More than 10,000 readers have accessed to the LinuxMCE Screenshots page since it first prepared on the web on 14th this month.

Kudos to the software development team of LinuxMCE.

Source: http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Image:MainMenuUI2M.jpg

Source: http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Image:MainMenuUI2B.jpg

The other day I came across the newest version of Ubuntu, i.e. 5.10 has been released by Canonical Ltd, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu. Ubuntu launched in October 2004. Its commercial sponsor, Canonical Ltd. is based in Europe, with employees throughout Europe, North America, South America and Australia. In fact, Canonical Ltd. is a private company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth with the aimed to develop and promote softwares in a open-source environment. If you’re interested in this version 5.10, you can download it by clicking here. For some Ubuntu users that prefer to buy the DVD instead of waiting few hours in download the version 5.10, they simply can visit Amazon to buy the Ubuntu 6.10 (PC Edition) at $9.99 or Kubuntu 6.10 (PC Edition) at the same price as well. To avoid confusion, Kubuntu is another project undertook by Canonical Ltd, but the operating system is based on K Desktop Environment (KDE).

Until today, Ubuntu has developed several versions since its first inception. It has grew from a non-support model to the supported version as you can see on the download page. Ubuntu has developed the Long-Term Support (LTS) software model since version 6.06, which provides security updates for 5 years on the server and 3 years on the desktop edition after its officially release in the market. The series of Ubuntu products were favorably received by the users. Most recently, they also made a big leap forward by launching the global partner program in an attempt in gaining a foothold in the global software market. There are several partnerships such as software partners, hardware partners, system builder/OEM partners, and etc. in the program with the purpose to establish a sound network of partners for Ubuntu products throughout the world. This is a strategic move by Ubuntu in achieving the competitive advantage of being scalability and reliability.