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Ubuntu 10.04, aka Lucid Lynx, is the result of years of continuous work from the open source community and Ubuntu corporate sponsor Canonical. A new version of Ubuntu is released every 6 months, but version 10.04 is a special “long term support” (LTS) release which will be supported for an extended period on both desktops and servers. Lucid Lynx also brings us an incredible amount of changes in both the look and functionality of Ubuntu. Here is a list of the most noticeable changes and new features that you’ll find in desktop edition of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Many technologies such as Flash, MP3 and DVD are proprietary or patent encumbered and can not be included on the Ubuntu CD. Thankfully, it’s extremely easy to set up your new Ubuntu system to play just about any media file you can throw at it.

Setting up Last.fm streaming and scrobbling in Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx, is fast and easy. The Rhythmbox music player provides scrobbling support and the Last.fm client will let you stream your favorite stations in a nice stand-alone application. Here’s a screencast and written instructions on exactly how to set things up.

While Firefox is arguably still the champion of Linux web browsers, it can sometimes be slow and get bogged down by sites like Facebook. As a result (and just because it’s fun), some people have started to search for alternatives to Firefox on Linux. Thankfully, the Linux browser market has never been more full of competition. If you’re looking for a break from Firefox, there’s probably an alternative browser out there for you.

One new feature in Ubuntu 10.04 that caught my attention is the “Desktop in the Cloud” project. Until now, most of the attention on cloud technologies has been focused on servers in the cloud. If you wanted to use a desktop environment on EC2, you needed to do quite a bit of tweaking and installing of packages yourself. With the Lucid release, the Ubuntu team is making desktop in the cloud much easier.

CodeWeavers, supporter of the open source Wine project, have released their latest version of CrossOver for Linux and Mac. CrossOver 9.0 (codenamed “Snow Mallard”) is a commercial product that makes installing Windows applications via Wine extremely easy for Linux users. We’ve been waiting for this new release for several months, and it seems it was worth the wait. So far, we’ve tested it with Office 2007 and IE 7 with great results. Look for a full review at a later time. For now, here is an overview of the new features and some screenshots.

Canonical developer Robert Ancell is working on Simple Scan, a great little program that does exactly what it claims – it makes scanning things simple! Simple Scan is now the default scanning software in Lucid.

iPhone & iPod Touch Support, Gwibber and the MeMenu, Facebook Chat, and Improved Sound Controls.

Hi, my name is Jim and I’m a recovering Ubuntu fanboy. The Urban Dictionary defines a fanboy as “a person who is completely loyal to a game or company regardless of if they suck or not.” In the past, I’ve been exactly that, and I think that a lot of other people in the Ubuntu community have been too. We’ve been loyal fans of Ubuntu, telling all our friends, blogging the praises of Ubuntu and Open Source Software, being quick to point out the faults of the evil Microsoft, and all this time overlooking whenever there’s a problem with our favorite operating system. Let me be clear, I’m still a huge fan of Ubuntu. I still think Linux is the best operating system on the market today, and that Ubuntu is a great choice for most people’s desktop computers. What I’m saying today is that I no longer want to be a fanboy!

Not to be left out of the bit “ME” craze, the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 release will include the “MeMenu.” The MeMenu will be your one-stop spot for sending out all your social media broadcasts right from within Ubuntu.

A little more than 2 years ago, I made a switch away from Mac OS X to Ubuntu Linux. Today, I want to revisit the article I wrote 2 years ago about 10 things I missed when switching from OS X to Ubuntu.

Is Canonical partnering with any search engine that’s willing to pay, and selling the default to the highest bidder? I sure hope so! It makes great business sense. Bring on Bing! If it makes Canonical cash that they can use to fund Linux development, I’m all for them taking MS money too. As long as they give you a choice, people will have their favorite search engine, and Canonical makes money – win win.

A non-terminal based fix for a common Ubuntu problem. First screencast in a beginners series on Ubuntu.

For almost 3 years, Apple’s iPhone has set the standard for mainstream smart phones. Recently, Apple has taken over a large portion of the smart phone market, now manufactures like Nokia are taking the iPhone threat seriously and bringing out new phones to try to compete. One phone that looks like it has a real chance to compete with the iPhone is Nokia’s new N900 phone/internet tablet. Here are 15 ways we think that the N900 is better than the iPhone, and a few reasons why the iPhone is still better.

Do you really need a top-of-the-line computer, or can you get by with something as cheap as this $90 CPU/motherboard combo?

A collection of interesting web stats which help show if Ubuntu is still gaining in popularity. Or perhaps another distro has come in to challenge?

Determining which software we use can be a very social experience, often we’ll ask our friends what they recommend, so why not take this social aspect to the (currently) most popular social networking site?

Tomboy is an extremly handly note taking application for Linux, but I always found it annoying that it was so hard to sync across machines. With Dropbox, it’s amazingly simple.

An overview of notebooks available in the US with Linux pre-installed.

There is no doubt that Ubuntu’s popularity has grown dramatically over the past few years, but just how popular is Ubuntu? How many people have ever heard of Ubuntu?