THERE?S been a lot of chatter on the Internet about the Macworld Expo this week, much of it focused on the absence of its iconic keynote speaker, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. As you might expect, the announcement by Apple triggered rumors that Jobs, successfully treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004, might be seriously ill again. Apple?s silence on Job?s health has probably helped spark even more such speculation. One blogger for Ziff Davies, Joe Wilcox, suggests that Apple must come clean at Macworld.

This non-disclosure approach is a wheelbarrow full of poop. Give it up. Is he sick, or not? Will he continue as CEO, or not? [T]here are no private matters at public companies. Steve?s health isn?t private. The whole last-Macworld announcement was a smokescreen to distract from Steve?s Macworld keynote no-show,? Wilcox writes in a piece brashly entitled ?What Apple Must Do At Macworld.?

The unsolicited advice comes at a crucial time?for both Apple, which is gaining market share, and Microsoft, which has seen its dominance in operating systems eroding, albeit very slowly. The latest surveys show Windows? share of the market slipping below 90 percent for the first time and Mac OS X rising above 9 percent. Linux accounts for the rest?barely 1 percent.

Windows Vista, the albatross around Microsoft?s neck, is clearly opening up opportunities for Mac OS X and Linux, but we won?t have Vista to kick around anymore, once Windows 7 is released late this year, ahead of its original 2010 schedule. Already, what appears to be a leaked pre-beta test copy is already being circulated on torrent sites and generating buzz, a sign that Microsoft is eager to put Vista behind it and reassert its dominance.

Under these circumstances, I would argue that this year is a crucial time for Linux as well, if it ever hopes to move beyond 1 percent of the market.

My decision to focus on Ubuntu doesn?t disparage other distributions in any way. I chose it simply because it is one of the most popular versions of the free operating system, and the flavor with which I am most familiar. I should also make clear that I have not installed the latest version of Ubuntu, Intrepid Ibex, because its new features do not really make it worth my while to upgrade from Hardy Heron, which I find works well. The next major upgrade, Jaunty Jackalope, is expected in April, and here?s what I hope it will do.

Fix all sound issues. Although sound support has improved, it is still a stumbling block. Implementation of Pulse Audio, the sound system that Ubuntu adopted starting with Hardy Heron, has been a mess with applications such as Skype and Audacity breaking (the latter simply stopped working) because of poor audio support. Options in the Pulse Audio Preferences menu are so incomprehensible they are practically useless.

Make all the non-free goodness available at the click of one button. Open source ideologues may scream bloody murder, but the fact is, most end-users want the non-free stuff?the standard Microsoft core TrueType fonts, the audio and video codecs, the graphics card drivers and the Flash plug-in?because the digital content they consume demands it. I understand being unable to bundle non-free programs with an open source operating system, but one button should enable users to download and install all of the most commonly used packages in one fell swoop. Why should a user have to go through the Add/Remove application and check these options separately? Ideology shouldn?t get in the way of making the operating system easier to use.

Make it easier to install fonts. Users shouldn?t have to go to Google to look this up, run a script or drag the font files into a hidden folder (which is what you have to do today). It should be an option in the System Preferences menu.

Make sure everything else just works. Ubuntu?s sponsor, Mark Shuttleworth, set the bar high, when he said the operating system should ?just work? like OS X, but he?s right. Ubuntu developers have done a decent job, even though they can?t predict what kind of hardware is out there (unlike Apple, which knows exactly what kind of hardware they are working with because they also make it). Still, there is some room for improvement. The online forums are still full of users who need help in as basic a requirement as getting Ubuntu to recognize the Wi-Fi card on their notebooks. That shouldn?t be the case with Jaunty.

Make really cool features part of the standard installation. If Ubuntu can detect a capable graphics card and install the right driver for it, why not have it turn on Compiz the moment it does? I know this is only eye candy, but it makes the system so much more visually compelling, and some of its features, such as the ability to see all open windows as thumbnails, are really useful.

Some of the features that Shuttleworth wants built into Jaunty are spot-on. For instance, the goal to make booting or resuming Ubuntu ?blindingly quick? is a winner. But as the Ubuntu team tackles more esoteric features such as integrating Web applications onto the desktop, they shouldn?t lose sight of the meat-and-potatoes issues that can make or break an operating system.

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