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As the twenty-fifth birthday of the Linux kernel approaches, it's high time to take a look back at this and other major developments in the history of open source software. Here's The VAR Guy's overview of milestones in open source history, from the introduction of Unix to today's Microsoft-Linux lovefest.

How open is Android, Google's Linux-based mobile operating system? That's a question European regulators are now asking as they level antitrust charges against Alphabet, Google's parent company. To gain some perspective on the issue, a brief history of Android and its role in the open source ecosystem is in order.

Most politicians probably don’t use Linux. After all, some of them have barely figured out computers at all. But since the American presidential campaigning season is once again upon us, I’ve been wondering to myself lately: If the candidates did run Linux, which distribution would they choose? At the risk of offending various groups of people, here are my answers, for better or for worse.

If companies like Microsoft are the imperial powers of the digital world, domineering their way into new markets and not always playing nicely with adversaries, open source projects tend to thrive on a universalist, internationalist spirit. But it would be foolish to pretend that the open source channel is oblivious to national boundaries, a fact which Canonical’s Steve George highlighted in a recent blog post. Read on for the details, and some thoughts.

If you've used a computer anytime in the last 30 years, chances are good you've misplaced a file once or twice. If GNOME developers have their way, however, such frustrations will become a thing of the past, thanks to the Zeitgeist project. Here's a look at this radically new approach to file management and where it might end up in the future.

Jon McCann, lead designer for GNOME Shell, shares his thoughts on Ubuntu's decision to replace GNOME with Unity. He is not happy.

Over the last few years, various figures have been put forth as measures of Ubuntu’s desktop market share, with some sources contradicting themselves and most sources contradicting the other ones. This piece takes a look at different attempts to put a number on Ubuntu’s popularity, and explores the various shortcomings and ambiguities involved in all of them.