It’s official: Ubuntu 10.04 Long Term Support arrives April 29, and this particular blogger was privy to the press conference about it. Canonical Chairman Mark Shuttleworth and CEO Jane Silber discussed the plans and progress of new operating system, and then fielded some Q and A. The key news:  More than 80 ISVs are supporting Ubuntu. But here’s what it means for the desktop users and Canonical as a whole…

The drive to create faster, cooler, and more energy-efficient CPUs has led to a diversification of processor architectures recently, with the venerable x86 facing competition it hasn’t seen in years.  If this trend continues, it will assure Ubuntu and other Linux distributions a substantial advantage over Microsoft, which so far has announced no plans to build Windows for chipsets that are not x86-compatible.

I wrote a post a few days ago about the bits and pieces of proprietary software that are still a necessary part of my technological life.  As a follow-up, I thought it might be interesting to look at the other side of the coin, by considering how many people would be able to survive without free software.

There’s been some speculation (albeit with minimal supporting evidence) that Microsoft is crafting a ’software center’ for Windows that will resemble the package-management system Ubuntu users have known and loved for years.  While I don’t doubt the possibility that Microsoft might try to implement something like that, I strongly suspect that it will fail.  Here’s why.

My brother-in-law wants to buy his daughter a cost-effective laptop for her 13th birthday. As I made my recommendations, I realized the terrible bind consumers currently face. He’s frustrated with Windows, too price sensitive to buy a MacBook and vaguely familiar with Linux. Here’s where the conversation went, and how you can help his decision process.

Whether you attended this weekend’s Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) or another recent open source event, one trend is clear: Linux advocates certainly love their Apple MacBooks.

I’d love to hear from readers who know a bit about the new Everex PC that Wal-Mart is carrying. It sounds like an under-powered PC to me. And at $200, I wonder if it’s too cheap to be an effective Web/personal productivity home computer for my kids. Anyone have any thoughts? I already have a Dell Ubuntu PC (I like it) and a MacBook Pro (I love it). I’m leaning toward an iMac for my next family PC. But I’m wondering if there are some good, reliable, low-cost alternatives with Ubuntu pre-installed. Thoughts on the Everex system — and alternatives — are welcome.

Yes, The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg is an influential guy. He can make-or-break products with his columns and product reviews. And he has taken a look at Ubuntu. Before you slam Walt for pointing out Ubuntu’s potential weak points, I think the Ubuntu community has to take a deep breath and admit the Walt has some valid points.

You might recall that I’ve got both a MacBook Pro (running Mac OS) and a Dell PC (running Ubuntu). I’m in the market for another PC, and just received a friendly reminder from the PR folks at Parallels — the company that makes virtualization software for Mac hardware. One of my PR sources at Parallels tells me that the company has sold 650,000 licenses for the virtualization software over the past year. And as I work at trade shows and conferences, I can’t help but notice all the Mac users who leverage Parallels for Windows and Linux virtualization.As I weigh my next PC purchase, I’m leaning toward an iMac for my kids — though the Dell/Ubuntu system will remain my personal productivity PC at home. Will Ubuntu also land on my forthcoming iMac? Not sure yet. I’ll let you know when I actually make the iMac purchase and get the new system home.

A few days ago, I mentioned that my biggest challenge with Ubuntu involved my son. The only reason he continues to use our Windows PC is because of iTunes support. So I asked readers for some suggestions: Are there ways to (A) make Ubuntu work well with iTunes and/or (B) make Ubuntu work well with an iPod. I got flooded with suggestions. Here are some of the most interesting ones.