If a Linux distribution is not named after a Red Hat, does it still exist? Do sports teams improve their chances with Linux-inspired monikers? Do Linux administrators need to learn fencing to keep up with the tech industry?

No, I’m not trying to throw you back into the fog that was the college philosophy class in which the only question on the final exam was “Why?” Rather, as a former philosophy student working as an assistant site editor at SearchEnterpriseLinux.com, I have pondered these questions of late.

Many Linux distributions have names that one would not expect of an open source software product, and some of these names have begun to grow into the broader culture because of it.

The Boston Celtics, for example, recently adopted the word Ubuntu. The word Ubuntu is South African for “a philosophy of life that promotes the greater good rather than individual success.”  CNET cited Ubuntu as also having the connotation, “I am what I am because of who we all are.”

Apparently, athletes and open source software developers draw from the same inspirational pool. Perhaps they operate on the same principles.

Before making that jump, though, let’s take a look at the differences between sports and open source software.

Athletes are well paid; open source developers are lucky to have a salary. Athletes are viewed as social and sexual heroes; open source developers are not. Athletes each play a defined role on a team to achieve a win, while open source software developers work independently to lose all limitations upon their engineering creativity. Athletes have simplified public personas and often resort to assuming imaginative names to represent themselves to society; open source developers do … too.

Red Sox, Red Hat; EnGarde, Cavaliers; Ubuntu, Saints; Seattle Seahawks, Linux Penguin.

All right, so the last one might stretch things a bit. Yet all of this name talk highlights a broader fact: Creativity is green and made of paper in these fields. Both the Linux software developers who succeed and the athletes who do the same cast their work in mythical terms.

If you’re looking for a sports team or a Linux distribution on which to place your bets, look at the stats. Read the records. Then consider the options and choose the one with the Odyssean name.

Ubuntu may not be a household word, but the increasingly popular Linux operating system is no stranger at Fox News. A Ubuntu blogger who complained that he couldn’t view video on FoxNews.com got a personal response from David Denis, Fox News Digital’s director of development. Denis not only went to the trouble to solve the problem (which actually stemmed from Fox’s video vendor, Maven Networks) but acknowledged the growing use of Ubuntu.

“Most of our developers actually run Ubuntu, so we’re definitely focused on correcting [the problem],” he wrote, according to the ERACC Web Log.

Martin Owens, the leader of the Massachusetts Ubuntu Local Community Organization, said, on the one hand, that he was surprised that Fox would allow its employees to use Ubuntu. On the other hand, technical people “are on the cusp of understanding what all this IT mumbo jumbo is about,” so it’s only natural that they would want to use Ubuntu’s advanced features at work, he said. Maybe the feedback from technical teams will convince the rest of the Fox gang to try it too, he added.

Move over, Windows … Ubuntu wants more room in the nest.

Ubuntu fans may be passionate geeks when it comes to free software, but last night’s happy love fest at the Globe Bar & Grill in Copley Place was more about enjoying the moment and being together than serial computer installs. Nearly two dozen members of the Massachusetts Ubuntu LoCo (Local Community) cozied into the mezzanine of the downtown Boston night spot to celebrate the launch of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) for desktops and servers.

“I’m here for the cake,” joked Craig Andrews, a software engineer with girlfriend in tow. “I want to see who’s here. This is a social opportunity.”

And Andrews got his wish.

A highlight of the event was the arrival of Jono Bacon and his London entourage midway through the event. Bacon, the Ubuntu community leader worldwide, made his way from the office in Lexington, Mass., which he had been visiting on business, and stopped in to mingle with the crowd and cheer the troops. No doubt, Bacon’s appearance was due in part to the hard work by the active, certified local chapter, which generally meets across the river, in Cambridge at MIT.

Although there were a few laptops running Ubuntu 8.04 on tables about the room, the kickoff event was more about clusters of Ubuntu fans, mostly longtime users but also a smattering of newbies, talking up the new release and sharing the excitement of Ubuntu’s growing popularity and added features.

“There’s more people than I thought,” said Martin Owens, a programmer and one of the leaders of the group. “I see a lot of new faces.”

Owens, who prides himself on “not working for anybody who doesn’t use Linux,” added that he particularly appreciates that the new release includes a Likewise Open plug-in to Microsoft’s Active Directory.

Michael Rushton, leader of the group, said the event was one of many worldwide all celebrating the new Ubuntu software release.

Rushton explained his love for Linux in just a few words. “You install it,” he said. “And it just works.”

The refreshments may have been a mite on the skimpy side, but the “Hardy Heron” cake was a feast, indeed.

Originally, Dell announced that it was going to ship Ubuntu systems only in the U.S.. Then Dell announced the addition of Germany, France and the U.K to the list of countries getting Ubuntu Dells. Now you can add Canada and all of Central and South America to the list.

Dell is clearly not doing this as a charity or public service; there is a real demand for these systems, contrary to what the occasional naysayer would have you believe (n.b., consider the source) .

I expect that in the not-too-distant future, Dell will add Australia and most of Europe to the list of nations being offered Ubuntu systems. I wouldn’t be surprised if the timing is planned for shortly after the Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04) release in April, or its update (aka ’service pack’ in Microspeak) 8.04.1 in June.

Mark Shuttleworth, “Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life” of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, has posted his vision for the (planned) October 2008 (8.10) release, code named the “Intrepid Ibex”:

A particular focus for us will be pervasive internet access, the ability to tap into bandwidth whenever and wherever you happen to be […] and access the web through a variety of wireless technologies. We want you to be able to move from the office, to the train, and home, staying connected all the way.

Details for 8.10 will be hashed out at the next Ubuntu Developer Summit in Prague from May 19th to the 23rd.

While the latest version of BackupPC is 3.1.0, the latest available version in the Ubuntu repositories is 3.0.0. Normally, I wouldn’t split hairs over a point release, but 3.1.0 has some very nice, new features of which IT administrators may want to take advantage.

The problem with downloading the 3.1.0 source and manually installing it is that the source doesn’t install cleanly over the Ubuntu version and ends up breaking BackupPC. Luckily, the Debian repositories already have an unofficial 3.1.0 package in them; however, the Debian version depends on some packages not present in the Ubuntu repositories, such as www-common. So you may want to extract the contents of the Debian BackupPC 3.1.0 package and repackage them for Ubuntu, without the dependencies that Ubuntu does not have.

You can download BackupPC 3.1.0 for Ubuntu at my website.

On Friday, Canonical released Ubuntu Hardy Heron Alpha 4 to the mirrors. Alpha 4 brings with it many updates to the Ubuntu desktop, but how does it impact enterprise customers?

Alpha 4 is the first release where KVM is an official part of the Ubuntu repositories, and lib-virt and virtmanager have been added to the platform as well. The kernel shipping with Alpha 4 also includes the new virtio instructions which provides incredible performance enhancements when running Ubuntu as a guest OS in a VM.

Review all the changes that Hardy Hero Alpha 4 brings over at the Canonical website.

Ubuntu server version 8.04 (which is currently available in alpha 4, released on February 2 as Hardy Heron) will feautre the 2.6.24 Linux kernel. This will be the first of the major enterprise Linux distributions to be released with the new kernel. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is at 2.6.18 with RHEL version 5.1. Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) is at kernel 2.6.16.12 for Novell SLE 10.

Canonical Ltd. has confirmed they will support version 8 of Ubuntu upon its scheduled April release, with the new kernel.

The AFP reports that the French police force is going all-Linux, completing its switch from Microsoft to Linux by replacing all 70,000 of its desktops with Ubuntu boxes.

That’s a lot of Linux.

We have good news for those awaiting the next version of Ubuntu Linux. The next version for the Ubuntu 8 platform, alpha release 4, is to be relased on January 31, 2008, and the list of bugs is getting smaller every day. Some of the new features for alpha 4 include using Firefox beta 3 as a browser which has some new visual effects and functional features. The alpha 3 website will link to alpha 4 when the version is available. Canonical does not offer support services for the beta releases (but you probably already know that.)

Look for a release candidate in April 2008 for Ubuntu server version 8.