ATI has released the 8.29.6 version of its proprietary Linux drivers, with the announcement that the 9000, 9100, and 9200 IGP and Mobility Radeon chipsets are no longer supported by the new version. Radeon 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200, and 9250 devices are also dropped from support. Thankfully, these models are supported in 2D/3D mode by the open source DRI driver.

The first Beta build for the FreeBSD-6.2 Release Cycle is now available on most of the FTP mirror sites. If the release cycle goes as planned it is the first of two BETAs, which will be followed by two Release Candidates (RCs) and then the final release.

David Wheeler does a cross-examination of the GPL and BSD and why the GPL and Linux specifically have managed to attract a larger number of corporate contributors. "If your goal is to get an idea or approach widely used to the largest possible extent, a permissive license like the BSD (or MIT) license has much to offer. If your goal is to have a useful program that stays useful long-term, then a protective license like the LGPL or GPL licenses has much to offer. Protective licenses force the cooperation that is good for everyone in the long term, if a long-term useful project is the goal."

Phoronix has published an article covering a majority of the changes that will be making their way into NVIDIA's next Linux display drivers: the 1.0-9XXX series. Of the changes to come is Quad SLI, improved nvidia-xsettings, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, OpenGL 2.1, GLSL 1.2, and other fixes. No release date is reported.

Sun Microsystems makes new releases of Solaris about every four to six months, in many cases all the new release contains is bug fixes and some changes in functionality. More often than not most releases go by without a great deal of fanfare. Just as Solaris 10 3/05 broke new ground with Zones, Dtrace and the Service Management Facility. Solaris 10 6/06 introduces ZFS or Zettabyte File System and the SATA framework and Xorg 6.9, which will be the primary focus of this review.

The launch of Microsoft's new Vista operating system has been a long time coming. Missing the important pre-Christmas slot earned the software company a lot of criticism from partners and customers but Microsoft has committed to shipping the OS in January. But now some analysts claim that a number of 'events' in the IT industry have made it more likely that Microsoft may delay the launch of Vista again until at least May next year. The reservations hinge around a research note, 'Events aligning to make Vista delay more likely', published by analyst Gartner late last week, and take in market, political and industry issues that the researcher believes are beginning to stack up.

SGI is ready to become emergent all over again. A judge has okayed the company's reorganization plan, paving the way for it to come out of bankruptcy protection in October. The 'new' SGI will be a trimmed down version of its former self with just 1600 staff. In addition, it will have a new board of directors to complement new CEO Dennis McKenna. With so much newness on its side, SGI expects to reach profitability in fiscal 2007.

Novell plans an October launch for its Suse Linux Enterprise Real-Time product, an operating system geared for Wall Street traders and others who watch every microsecond of the clock. Novell plans to announce the product at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo on Oct. 9, said Justin Steinman, Novell's director of marketing for Linux and open-platform solutions. Novell will share the stage with Concurrent Computer, which did much of the engineering work behind the real-time version that Novell will market, he added.

DigitalLife 2006, a consumer technology, gaming & entertainment conference will be held at the Javitz Center in New York City on October 12-15 this year. If you'd like to attend, you can register and print out tickets at this page. Plus, if you use the source code "INSIDER", it's free.

Serenity Systems International is pleased to announce the first public beta of OpenOffice.org 2.0 for eComStation and OS/2. This build is based on the 2.0.3 sourcecode of OpenOffice.org, making it on par with the current Windows releases. Beta 1 is available for immediate download in English, German, Italian and Dutch to all customers of the Support Agreement for OpenOffice.org for eComStation and IBM OS/2, via their download-area at the Mensys Online Shop.

The Linux kernel 2.6.18 was released, changelog is 3 MB in file size.

Support for assistive technologies enhances your application, and Cocoa does much of the work for you. Learn how to implement accessibility support in your Cocoa application.

An effort by the Open Source Development Labs to help developers defend themselves against software patents has come under fire from FSF founder Richard Stallman, who believes that the plan could backfire. The controversy centers on the issue of patents on software processes, which many believe could threaten the future of open-source software and software innovation in general. Because software processes are abstract, critics say such patents effectively let companies monopolize ideas, without which software can't be developed.

Microsoft and its security rivals are feuding over a key piece of Windows Vista real estate. The fight is over the display of technology that helps Vista owners manage the security tools on their PC. Symantec, McAfee, Check Point Software Technologies and other companies want Microsoft to change Vista so their products can easily replace the operating system's built-in Windows Security Center on the desktop. But Microsoft is resisting the call.