As users become more experienced with Linux, the almost invariably learn to love (or at least tolerate) the powerful command line interface of the terminal. For super-quick access to the terminal window, I recommend a handy utility called Tilda, which places the terminal in a dropdown menu at the top of the screen. Hit a key and it slides out from just beneath the panel. Hit a key again and it slides back up again.

To install Tilda, just search for it in the Synaptic Package Manager. Once installed you'll need to make it autostart on each boot by adding an entry within System, Preferences, Startup Programs (click the Add button and type tilda into both the Name and Command fields). Tilda's preferences let you set a hotkey combination to hide/unhide the prompt, and I use Ctrl+Space (right-click Tilda's window and click Preferences to change the settings).

Keir Thomas calls trademarks a menace to open source, but I couldn't disagree more. When used properly, like copyright, trademarks are a handy tool to protect and promote open source projects.

A little background. For the last few months, the openSUSE Project (or at least a few of its contributors) had been knee-deep in creating what we hope is a workable trademark policy to allow as much remixing and redistribution as possible by community contributors -- while ensuring that there's clarity around what is (and isn't) an "official" openSUSE release or use of the openSUSE name.

I believe the browser will become the new operating system. I know, I know. That's a horrible generalization. It sounds dangerously similar to Sun's oh-so-successful slogan "The network is the computer".

But I really do believe it. I believe online applications are the future, and the purpose of the browser operating system will be to let you access them -- to patch through your computer’s core functions (video, sound etc.) so that applications can access them in a uniform and consistent way.

You need to actually use an online application to realize why they're so damned useful. It's easy to be dismissive until you do. As a long-time Gmail user, I genuinely find it astonishing that people still use email clients, and store their e-mail on one computer. It’s unimaginable for me not being able to access my email on my desktop and laptop computers, or even my cellphone or Nokia N800 handheld.

I use Google Docs too. This has fewer functions than the version of Write that came with Windows 3.1, but the convenience of being able to seamlessly work on documents across several computers is incredibly compelling. I was deeply sceptical about Google Docs until I actually started using it. Then I was hooked.

Many people are dismissive of online applications. This is perhaps because they take a look at what's currently available and see a lame duck. But such a view is short-sighted. It's like a cart driver looking at steam-powered motor vehicles in 1900 and declaring motoring a lost cause. Based on the evidence available to him, he's entirely right. But he hasn't the foresight to imagine the Volkswagen Beetle, or the Toyota Corolla, or the Ferrari Testarossa.

Even the phrase “online application” is old-fashioned and a significant misnomer. What we’re really talking about is online functionality. This might not come in an “application”-like framework or structure, such as we’re used to. This is because it doesn’t have to. The concept of an “application” was a necessary one for the past thirty years when we all used discrete desktop PCs.

Above all, remember that college kids love online applications. They already live their lives online. And the today's college kids will be tomorrow’s rulers of the world. The world is changing whether you like it or not.

FWIW, I understand Google Docs is already wildly popular amongst college kids.

The commercial sponsor and originator of the Ubuntu project, Canonical, has stepped into new territory with the launch of a storage and sync service called Ubuntu One. In the tradition of open source marketing, this has been a "quiet product launch", and appears to have come from nowhere in the last week or two.

It's essentially an online storage service for desktop users that's like the online storage/backup solution Dropbox. Although presently in invitation-only beta, once signed-up each user gets 2GB of online storage free of charge, and can buy 10GB for $10 per month.

As mentioned in my last posting, I'm not a very good Linux evangelist. I don't try and convert family and friends to Linux.

Therefore, as surprising as it sounds, putting Ubuntu on my dad's new laptop--as I did a week ago--was the first time I've ever directly converted another individual to Linux. It's safe to say I've indirectly converted 100s of thousands of people with my books (Ubuntu Pocket Guide) has been downloaded over 500,000 times, for example). But this was my first "hands on" experience.

It was fun. To my dad, a computer is primarily a magical eBay machine. Like many in the older generation, he loves online auctions. He knows practically nothing about how computers or operating systems work. He just has no interest. A computer is a tool, not an end in itself.

He also browses a lot and sometimes prints off letters using OpenOffice.org. I switched him to Firefox and OpenOffice.org years ago on his old XP laptop. As it transpired, this made the transition to Ubuntu a lot easier because I didn't have to deal with Microsoft's proprietary file formats. Additionally, everything on Ubuntu looked mostly the same as far as he was concerned.

My father's computing demands might sound trivial but are actually quite demanding. He has to be able to get photographs off his digital camera, for example, so he can put them online for his eBay auctions. He needs to be able to tweak them if necessary. He has to be able to print his letters. Like most people nowadays, he has DSL and a wifi router, so it was necessary to get wifi working.

Let's update from an Ubuntu perspective the points raised in the previous posting that drove him (and me) away from Windows Vista:

You might think that, as a Linux guy, I spend all my time converting friends and family to Linux. This is an epic cliche of the Slashdot-like Linux people, who will often post a comment like: "I switched my grandmother to Gentoo and she's never looked back! I had to teach her to use the optimization flag when compiling code, but now her system is running sweet!"

Mind boggling!

When Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference went on sale in January, I created a Web site to redistribute the free edition and act as a central information source for the book. And because the book was about Ubuntu, I made ample mention of the word "Ubuntu" and also used the familiar three-part circle logo.