Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Canonical ending support for Kubuntu, reassigning lead developer — Jonathan Riddell, the lead developer of the Kubuntu project, announced today that his work on the KDE-based Ubuntu variant will no longer be funded by Canonical after the upcoming 12.04 release.

Alex Howard / O’Reilly Radar:
With GOV.UK, British government redefines the online government platform — The British Government has launched a beta of its GOV.UK platform, testing a single domain for that could be used throughout government. The new single government domain will eventually replace Directgov, the UK government portal which launched back in 2004.

Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Ubuntu Wants to Replace Menus with a HUD — Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution, has been experimenting with a number of interface designs lately. Today, the project’s founder Mark Shuttleworth announced that the next major version of Ubuntu, 12.04 LTS, will feature a replacement for the menu bar.

Stefan Magdalinski / Mocality Kenya:
Google, what were you thinking? — I’m very proud of the business that we’ve created here at Mocality, but I’m especially proud of two things: — Our crowdsourcing program. When we started this business, we knew that (unlike in the UK or US, where you can just kickstart your directory business …

Antonio Rodriguez / The Grain:
Android as we know it will die in the next two years and what it means for you — I used to think that, as with Linux and web services in the early part of last decade, Android was going to be the mortar for the Internet of post PC devices— an essential ingredient to put stuff together.

Terrence O’Brien / Engadget:
Ubuntu TV making its debut at CES, gets short demo clip — Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth promised that Ubuntu would come to TVs eventually, but we never expected it would arrive so quickly. A concept preview is here at CES for convention goers to get their eyeballs on and we’ll be swinging through …

Royal Pingdom:
Symbian is still top mobile OS – finished 2011 with resurgence — As we’re quickly approaching the end of 2011 we take a last look at what the year for mobile operating systems was like. — Would it surprise you to know that Symbian finished 2011 stronger than it started the year?

Royal Pingdom:
Ubuntu Linux losing popularity fast. New Unity interface to blame? — Don’t panic Ubuntu fans but your favorite desktop Linux distribution has fallen to fourth place in DistroWatch’s latest ranking. — Ubuntu has been overtaken by Fedora, Mint, and openSUSE.

Jason Kennedy / ExtremeTech:
Linux Mint: The new Ubuntu? — In the Linux world, a war has been raging for a couple years. At stake are the hearts and minds of its user base, the combatants the various distributions of Linux itself. For some time, Ubuntu Linux has been the clear leader in the fight, amassing more users than any other.

Tom Warren / WinRumors:
Spotify app for Windows Phone 7.5 available today — Microsoft is expected to announce the availability of Spotify for Windows Phone on Monday. — The software giant is holding a “backstage” Windows Phone event in New York City and promotional materials at the event indicate that Spotify is on the menu.