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Ubuntu has come a long way. Now developers need to focus on polishing up this rough gem

A simple guide to the many mobile operating systems available. Android, Symbian, Bada, WebOS. The list goes on. The list of smartphone operating systems is growing by the day. Many are open source, a good number are proprietary and some are barely out of beta.

Linux-based mobile operating system is gaining momentum. It may be one of the least-cool names for an operating system but MeeGo is lining up to be the next-big-thing on mobile devices.

More than 90% of the world's largest supercomputers now run Linux - here are the fastest supercomputers in the world

Ext4, RPM, distro. A plain-English guide to Linux jargon. Linux is growing in popularity but unless you're up to speed with its jargon the open source operating system could make no sense. We offer a short, plain-English guide to some of the key concepts used by Linux users.

HTC dominates the Android phone market but other mobile makers are picking up the Android pace. The majority of Android-based mobile phones released to date have been made by HTC but there are also a number of other Android phones worth considering. We look at some of the alternatives to HTC if you're determined to own an Android phone.

Forget the browser wars, the operating system wars and the mobile phone wars. The one to watch now is the battle over video formats.

Open source is no guarantee of freedom in the world of cloud computing. The central promise of open source software has always been to release users from vendor lock-in. With open source software, users were no longer beholden to a single vendor.

Puppy Linux's latest release may be based on Ubuntu but it is still as small as ever. Puppy Linux, a long-time maker of ultra-compact versions of Linux, has released Lupu, its first release based on Ubuntu Linux.

Automatic driver installations, better mobile broadband and the end of PowerPC support can be expected from Fedora 13. Fedora Linux, the community release of Red Hat, is putting the final touches to its latest release, Fedora 13. Codenamed "Goddard", Fedora 13 has a number of features that will please end users as well as systems administrators. Fedora 13 also ends the relationship with PowerPC processors and now backs the KVM virtualisation system.

Google's Chrome browser is gaining ground fast while Internet Explorer slides. Google's Chrome browser is now well established as the third most popular browser and its ascendency hasn't stopped yet. Internet Explorer, on the other hand, is clearly in decline.

Custom versions of Ubuntu can offer anything from ease-of-use to a multimedia studio. Ubuntu 10.04, aka Lucid Lynx, has now been released and work has already started on version 10.10, its successor. But, if Ubuntu 10.04 isn't your ideal operating system then it's worth taking a look at some of Ubuntu's derivative versions. Chances are that one those will suit your needs.

Ubuntu gets a new, fast desktop interface. For some time now Ubuntu chief Mark Shuttleworth has been pushing developers to speed up boot times in the Linux operating system. Now he has revealed Unity, a new interface that is aimed at netbooks users. He's also announced Ubuntu Light, a fast, light, version of Ubuntu that will offer almost instant-on boot times

Gnome 3.0 is coming to give the Linux desktop a boost. Gnome, the desktop environment favoured by the likes of Ubuntu Linux, is getting an overhaul. For users this means a number of things, including a new way of interacting with files and a new way of launching and managing applications.

The Mozilla Foundation has released an early test version of Fennec, the mobile Firefox browser. Fennec, the mobile version of the Firefox web browser is now in testing for Android devices. The Mozilla Foundation, which controls the Firefox browser, has released a "pre-alpha" version of Fennec for Google's operating system.

The latest release of Ubuntu shows a great deal of promise but still needs time to really shine. Ubuntu 10.04, otherwise known as Lucid Lynx, was released last week and is the third long term support (LTS) release from Canonical. With much hype around the new Ubuntu theme, as well as the new social networking tools, Lucid had much to live up to. We took it for a spin to see how it fared.

Apple and Microsoft join to fight Opera and Firefox. The next big evolution of the Internet will be in the realm of video playing. Until now the rapid growth of online video has been built on Adobe's Flash technology. Flash has always been a workable solution but not the best platform because it requires an additional plugin to be installed before users can view video.

Mention email and most Windows users immediately think of Outlook. The Outlook email client from Microsoft has become so entrenched in the Windows desktop that most users don't even know there are alternatives. We look at five alternative email clients that run on Windows, and in most cases, other operating systems such as Mac OS X and Linux.

Things need to change and Apple needs to be seen for what it really is: a threat to innovation and freedom. For as long as anyone can remember Microsoft has been seen as the primary enemy of free and open source software (FOSS). Free software advocates over the years have held Microsoft up as the pre-eminent example of how software should not be produced and distributed; an example of how they did not want it to be.

Firefox is more than just a browser, it's also a research tool on steroids. Mozilla's Firefox is a pretty good browser. But, thanks to a number of add-ons, it can also be an essential research tool for anyone working online. We look at some of the best add-ons available for improving Firefox's research capabilities.