It’s been roughly two-and-a-half years since Nine Lives Media Inc. launched WorksWithU, the independent guide to Ubuntu. When we started this site we made a few assumptions about how the Ubuntu community and Ubuntu business markets would evolve. How have those assumptions evolved from 2008 to 2010t? Here’s an eight-point reality check.

No doubt, you know Ubuntu 10.04 debuts today. Most Ubuntu trackers are focused on the desktop and server editions — where Canonical seems to be making progress with ISVs and partners. But during a recent discussion with Canonical Chief Operating Officer Matt Asay (pictured), it became clear to me that Canonical thinks Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud may unlock key revenue opportunities for the company. Here’s why.

Who’s running Ubuntu — and why? You can find the answers in our WorksWithU 1000 survey and associated research report — which will ultimately track 1000 businesses, schools, government agencies and non-profit organizations running Ubuntu servers, desktops and mobile devices. Here’s some background.

Dear Mark: You’ve made Ubuntu the most popular Linux distribution on desktops. You’ve established a footprint on notebooks and netbooks. But a lot of people wonder why you’re marching Canonical — and Ubuntu — in new directions like the server. Don’t listen to your critics. Keep marching upward. Here’s why.

What is an OS? A way to make a collection of words, pictures, videos, content, show up on a screen? A way for us to take ideas out of our heads and put them into a form that is accessible by another? For me this is Ubuntu, and, as the saying goes, it just works.

Ubuntu’s objective of becoming the distribution that finally brings Linux to “human beings,” i.e. non-geeks, is certainly ambitious.  Its simultaneous (and thus far successful) pursuit of the server market, however, is perhaps yet more impressive.

Conventional wisdom says Ubuntu’s popularity is limited to desktop PCs and laptops. However, a reader survey by Works With U reveals that nearly 80 percent of organizations running Ubuntu depend on at least one production Ubuntu server. Here’s the scoop.

Advertising and marketing agencies have been loyal to the Apple Macintosh for more than two decades. But Yooter InterActive Marketing Agency is breaking from tradition and standardizing on Ubuntu Server Edition and Ubuntu Desktop Edition, Works With U has learned. Here are the details.