As Ubuntu Linux continues to grow in popularity, most discussions of it tend to focus on the basics of the operating system itself, including especially details about its desktop environment and user interface.

What many forget--or don't even know about--is that users of Ubuntu also have a world of apps at their fingertips through the Ubuntu Software Center, ready and waiting to help them make the OS their own.

The Linux Mint project has made quite a splash in the Linux world over the past few months, not just for the growing popularity of its user-friendly operating system but also for the launch of Cinnamon, its brand-new desktop alternative.

There's been considerable interest in Cinnamon ever since it was announced back in December, and late last month the first stable version of the desktop made its debut. Created as a fork of the controversial GNOME 3 shell, Cinnamon 1.2 was launched in January as a free download for use with Linux Mint 12, Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16, OpenSUSE 12.1, Arch Linux, and Gentoo.

February seems to be shaping up to be the month of Linux tablets. Just last week we saw the announcement of the forthcoming Spark tablet running Mer Linux and KDE, which has caused plenty of excitement among Linux fans.

Now, the latest news appears to be the Trimble Yuma, a rugged tablet from SDG Systems that now runs Ubuntu Linux.

Ever since the news broke last weekend that a fully open tablet is on the way, the excitement has been tangible in the Linux community.

I wrote about the tablet on Monday, but since then KDE developer Aaron Seigo has revealed a number of new details. There's plenty of good news to share, including the fact that you can preorder one as early as next week; the main bad news as far as I can see is that you'll have to wait until May to actually get the thing.

When the KDE project announced the arrival of its Plasma Active Two tablet interface last month, it suggested that there would soon be news of at least two tablets that would ship with the software preinstalled.

Sure enough, that's just what came out over the weekend.

IBM's Lotus Symphony office suite has offered users a free Microsoft Office alternative since 2007, but last week saw the release of what's very likely the last version of the software.

Based itself on the open source OpenOffice.org suite, Lotus Symphony 3.0.1 adds enhancements including support for one million spreadsheet rows, bubble charts, and a new design for the home page. From now on, however, IBM will turn its attention instead to Apache OpenOffice, according to a recent blog post from Ed Brill, director of messaging and collaboration for IBM Lotus software.

It was exciting news back in December when HP announced that it was planning to open-source webOS, but at least as exciting now is how quickly and decisively it's moving to make that happen.

Not only did the company announce yesterday that it plans to have webOS fully open by September, but it also said it has made a number of key decisions regarding the Linux-based mobile platform, including the fact that it will use a mainline Linux kernel starting in March.

A new kind of interface is coming to Ubuntu 12.04 “Precise Pangolin” that will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications and recognize voice commands.

Called “HUD,” or “Head-Up Display,” the new interface is designed to recognize users' intent in interacting with the desktop rather than forcing them to navigate a rigid menu system to get things done.

Late last month the Linux Mint developers announced that they were working on a brand-new desktop environment designed to offer an alternative to the controversial GNOME 3, and on Monday they officially released the first stable version of the software.

Born as a fork of the GNOME 3 shell, Cinnamon 1.2 is now available as a free download from the project's site for use with Linux Mint 12, Ubuntu 11.10, Fedora 16, OpenSUSE 12.1, Arch Linux, and Gentoo.

Hard on the heels of the release of the bug-fixing LibreOffice 3.4.5 last Monday, the Document Foundation on Friday published a release candidate version of LibreOffice 3.5, which will be the next major version of the office productivity software.

More than 150 volunteers helped in a “bug hunt” to refine the free and open source software in late December, identifying and filing more than 70 bugs. Now, continuing that effort, this new release candidate was subjected to similar testing this past weekend in the second official LibreOffice 3.5 bug hunt.