Feature-wise, it stacks up well against Burning ROM, its Windows cousin, although Nero hasn't yet ported any other components of its Premium suite, such as Nero Mobile or Sipps.

Sadly, a major stability gremlin reared its ugly head in our testing: massive lock-ups. Now, there are millions of software and hardware combinations in the Linux world, but this was on a vanilla Dell laptop running Ubuntu 7.04 and everything else was fine. If you're an Ubuntu fan and looking to buy Nero, we'd wait for a bugfix or workaround before you invest your money here.

That aside, Nero Linux 3 is excellent value for money, with a polished interface and support for all the essential burning options and tweaks.

If you're a regular Linuxer with a CD/DVD drive, happily running K3b or GnomeBaker, you won't find any incentive to switch at the moment. But if, on the other hand, you've got a shiny new Blu-ray or HD DVD writer in your possession - or you've just moved over from Windows and want a burning program you recognise - it's a must-buy. Expect the open source world to catch up soon, though...