Alert! 20% off all orders on our web shop this weekend (minimum spend £15). eg. a UK subscription now only £47.99. Voucher code: BANKH2013. More info here.

With its Distrowatch ranking falling faster than Man Utd now that Sir Alex Ferguson has departed, Ubuntu is no longer the all-conquering force that it was. So what's happened? Has it, in fact, lost it, or is there a more subtle game afoot? We answer this conundrum (sort of) in the latest Linux Format.

We also invite you discover the ethos that's powering Trisquel, the freeest distro of all named after a Gaulish God; learn the fundamentals of programming with Scratch and Coding Concepts; and get acquainted with your ancestors without travelling through time with the excellent Gramps genealogy application. All this, plus Hotpicks, Sysadmin, tutorials and more, in Linux Format!

On The DVD: Our own Privacy Enhanced remix of Ubuntu and regular versions of Kubuntu and Xubuntu. Plus Manjaro, free (as in speech) books, software and more.

Title: Final Frontier + 1

In this episode: There's a critical vulnerability in the kernel. But relax, it's been fixed. The International Space Station is switching from Windows to Debian. But not Debian 7, which has just been released. The beginner's programming environment, Scratch 2.0, is out and the Raspberry Pi gets a super-light camera module. As always, hear our discoveries, our reports on the challenge and your own opinions in the Open Ballot.

Linux has long been one of the key operating systems in space. It powers all manner of satellites and such like, but now it's taking over space desktops as well. NASA has announced that it's migrating the International Space Station (ISS) laptops from Windows to Debian 6 (http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/debian-6-now-onboard-international-space/240154787).

Title: Kernel Saunders

In this episode: Firefox OS phones go on sale and promptly sell out. Ubuntu 13.04 has been released. There's a new alternative to Dropbox from BitTorrent, although its licencing isn't yet clear and the BeagleBone Black is slightly cheaper than a Raspberry Pi. Hear our particularly good discoveries, our report on last episode's KDE challenge and your own opinions in the Open Ballot.

A Double DVD Spectacular! Choice is natural. Choice ensures competition. Choice is good. But sometimes there's too much choice, and we need a helping hand through the forest of indecision. Take the act of choosing a Linux distribution, for example: of the hundreds that are out there, all with their slightly different goals and values, how do you know which one is going to be right for you? You could try every single one of the top 50 ranked Linux flavours on Distrowatch, or you could let us do it for you – brilliant!

Depending on how you pay for it, you'll probably have to part with at least fifty quid for Windows 8, and double (or more) for OS X, and they come with almost no software compared to the average Linux distribution. Yet almost all Linux distributions are free as in zero-cost.

This fortnight we've got a simple question for you: would you (or indeed, do you) pay for Linux?

Title: The Sultans Played Creole

In this episode: We've got oodles of Google news, Nvidia's new Optimus driver, Dell selling Ubuntu games PCs and our own discoveries. Plus a new podcast challenge and the Open Ballot.

Microsoft (along with Nokia, Oracle and a host of other outdated tech companies) have lodged a complaint with the European Commission saying that Google is unfairly abusing its dominant market position: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22078746.

Need some reading material this weekend? Our digital back issues are currently half price! This goes for both our Google Play store and the magazines on Apple’s Newsstand. Google Play is UK, US, Canada and Australia only, whilst the Apple Newsstand offer is global and the offer expires Tuesday morning.

The internet is full of unpleasant people who would love nothing more than to steal your passwords, crack into your WordPress site and generally make a nuisance of themselves at your expense. So we learned their black arts so that you can protect yourself against them, and in the process we discovered that protection rackets have moved online through the power of DDOS attacks.

Title: SS Nostromo

In this episode: Samsung laptops have been fixed. OpenShot launches a Kickstarter campaign. Canonical courts Chinese officials and Ubuntu gets closer to a rolling release. Hear our suprisingly good discoveries, our woeful excuse for the lack of a live episode and your own questions in the Open Ballot.

As usual, we’re rushed off our feet and we don’t think we’ll have enough time to arrange a live podcast this week. We’ll try our best to make it happen next time.

We’re hoping to meet up with Eben Upton and the Raspberry Pi team next week. So, for this episode’s Open Ballot question, we’d like to ask you what you’d like us to ask them. Do you want to know if they’re thinking of upgrading the hardware, for example, or when Eben’s darkest hour might have been whilst designing the Pi, or his thoughts on IT education in the UK? Let us know your questions and we’ll do our best to get some answers. We’ll also discuss our own thoughts in the podcast. Oh, and thanks for your continued patience with our terrible captcha!

Title: Muphry's Law

In this episode: OpenSUSE 12.3 is out, Red Hat takes ownership of Java 6, SecureBoot is coming to FreeBSD and Ubuntu ditches Wayland for Mir. We report back on our challenge from a couple of episodes ago, come up with a new challenge, and discuss IT education in our Open Ballot.

What is Linux? We asked the question, and sent our reporter down into the depths of the OS to find out the answer.

But we didn’t stop there. We got a full Ubuntu system running on a Nexus 7, played games on Steam and chatted with Jacon Kaplan-Moss. As usual, we’ve got some great ways to spruce up your Linux system with tutorials ranging from building a smart TV with a Raspberry Pi to command-line music management.

Title: Burgess Meredith

In this episode: Canonical launches Ubuntu Touch for tablets. Steam has been officially released for Linux. LG has bought WebOS for its televisions. Tizen SDK 2.0 has been released and Mozilla says there's plenty of interest in its Firefox OS. Hear our discoveries and the interim results of our challenge, plus your own opinions in our internet famous Open Ballot.

As reported by Andrew on our own Twitter account yesterday, Canonical has announced that it is bringing its famous touch interface to tablets. Nexus-bound developer previews of silky smooth transitions will be available tomorrow - at the same time as its smartphone previews, and early videos and renders look pretty convincing. We want to know whether you think Canonical is living the dream, bringing to fruition devices that the Linux community has long lusted over - or do you think it’s all too little too late in the face of Android dominance? Let us know your thoughts and we’ll mingle them with our own when we record the podcast, either on Friday or Monday morning.