Canonical founder and CEO Mark Shuttleworth, developer of the Ubuntu open source operating system, announced in December that he was stepping aside to develop cloud product design and curry new partners. He named Chief Operating Officer Jane Silber to take his place as CEO. Several weeks ago, Silber announced the hiring of open source industry veteran Matt Asay to fill her old job as COO. Canonical set high performance standards with its commitment for new distro releases for its popular desktop and server editions every six months.

We may be halfway through February already, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to look back at the past 10 years and ponder what has been. No indeed! Bloggers did plenty of backward-gazing last month as well, of course, but recently a fresh example came up that caught Linux Girl’s attention. “Best Linux distributions of the decade” was the title of Jun Auza’s post, which kicked up quite a flurry of excitement in the already snow-covered blogosphere. “There’s no doubt that Ubuntu is the best Linux distribution of the last decade,” he concluded.

Smartphone manufacturing giant HTC on Tuesday unveiled three new smartphones and announced upgrades to its Sense user interface at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Two of the smartphones — the Legend and the Desire — run the Sense UI on top of Android. The third, the HD mini, runs Sense on top of Windows Mobile 6.5. The devices will be released in Asia and Europe. Both the Legend and the Desire support Bluetooth 2.1. For file transfer, they use FTP and Object Push Profile.

Toyota’s well-publicized problems with sudden, unintended acceleration have led Consumer Reports to issue a list of suggested fixes automakers can implement to prevent such problems. These include designing cars so that sustained pressure on the brakes can stop them even if the gas pedal is fully depressed, making it easier to turn off the engine in an emergency, and making it easier to shift into neutral when the car accelerates out of control. Toyota has recalled over 8 million cars and trucks worldwide because of the acceleration problem.

Trend Micro on Monday announced a new and completely overhauled version of its Software as a Service for small and medium-sized businesses. The new version, named “Worry-Free Business Security Services,” replaces “Worry-Free Business Security Hosted,” which was launched only 10 months ago. “This is a new solution built from the ground up,” Dal Gemmell, senior manager for product marketing at Trend Micro, told TechNewsWorld. Trend Micro also introduced several new features to the SaaS product that were initially available only in its enterprise solution.

It’s not every day that a major operating system gets opened up, never mind one that leads the global market in its category. So, when the news came out last week that that’s just what the Symbian Foundation had done — and four months ahead of schedule, no less! — it was hard not to get excited. Android is no longer the only big kid on the open source mobile block, it seems, and the scales are now tipped considerably more in FOSS’ direction.

Your most expensive piece of electronics probably is not your flat panel TV or your computer. More likely, it’s your car, which can pack 50 microprocessors to control everything from the fuel mix to the rearview mirrors. The recalls and other technical problems besetting Toyota in the last few weeks highlight the risks of relying on electronics instead of the mechanical rods and cables that controlled vehicles for most of the 20th century. Such advancements bring many benefits, but the worry is that the car is a computer on wheels that could freeze up and potentially crash.

Apple held most of the music industry virtually at knifepoint for years, and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if you were a consumer who wanted a legal way to get popular music at a fairly reasonable price. It was only about a year ago that iTunes let go of its dollar-store policy and allowed for a little leeway in its pricing. True, that leeway amounted to only a few cents per song, but the point is, for a very long time, it was the distribution channel dictating prices, not the publisher.

The comments were made during a town hall meeting. The person leading the town hall trashes a competitor who used to be a partner, and intemperate language may have been used. Another competitor who may yet end up as a partner is called “lazy.” A media primed to snap up conflict and sensationalism does so, splashing the headlines all over — just as the person who made the original comments may have suspected they would in the first place. A particularly juicy chapter in the political bestselller “Game Change” describing the 2008 Obama and Clinton campaign machinations? No.

Well, the snow continues to fall here in the Linux blogosphere, and Linux Girl is beginning to wonder if it will ever end. Bread and milk are still in short supply at the local FOSS-y-Mart; children are getting cabin fever; and the snow drifts are getting taller than many netizens. Down at the Broken Windows Lounge, in fact, the snow now blocks out most of the light that would be shining through, making it seem as if there are no windows there at all. Such, perhaps, was the inspiration behind a recent conversation that’s come close to fisticuffs.

Laws banning drivers from using handheld cellphones while behind the wheel don’t help to reduce crashes, a study by the Highway Loss Data Institute has found. The institute, which is affiliated with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, calculated monthly collision claims in New York, the District of Columbia, Connecticut and California before and after these states passed such laws. They compared this data to data from nearby jurisdictions that do not have specific laws banning the use of the devices.

The more I see devices like the new Apple iPad, the more I come to appreciate Steven Spielberg’s 2002 sci-fi spectacular “Minority Report.” It was the first thing I thought of when I saw video of the company’s newest “magical” creation and executives demonstrating its New York Times app. The app seamlessly integrated video content with the usual Grey Lady font and text. With a finger-tap on multi-touch screen, video boxes pop up to enhance what you’re reading on the iPad, and all done within the stylistic confines we’ve come to know and appreciate with the Times.

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