It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

The good news is that Dell is now shipping Ubuntu Light, an instant-on version of Ubuntu, on at least one Dell Windows laptop. The bad news is that Dell isn't telling you this and that their Windows systems can be cheaper than their Ubuntu systems.

We're beginning to see who ends up with Unix and other intellectual property in the Novell deal. Hint: Microsoft did just fine for itself.

Attachmate may be the official owner, but I believe Microsoft is the real power behind the Novell buyout. Here's why.

VMware dropped out and Attachmate, with some help from Microsoft, ends up buying Novell.

A new, small scheduler patch may give the Linux desktop an incredible speed boost.

It won't happen immediately, but the X Window System, the long time mainstay of Unix and Linux graphical interfaces seems to be on its way out.

Technically, there are no big surprises in the just released RHEL 6. What's more important is that, with this announcement, RHEL has become one of the two mainstream server operating systems.

And, the future of Java lies in the balance.

Ubuntu isn't just changing their desktop look; they're changing the Linux desktop itself.