"Can the ordinary computer user ditch Windows for Linux? The question came up when I decided that my six-year-old version of Microsoft's Windows operating system had to be replaced. My Sony Vaio computer was still too young for the trash heap. And I was hesitant to spend $200 on the Windows XP operating system, especially with Microsoft planning to launch XP's replacement, Vista, in January. So, I decided to give the operating systems that run on Linux technology a try."

"This mini how-to shows you how to dual boot between AIX and Linux operating systems in a clustering environment, where available hardware resources are limited. The information presented in this document is based on actual experience. It should be used only by those who have some knowledge of system administration and skills in working with the IBM System p5 architecture."

And no, the microkernel debate is not over yet. In a reply to various comments made over the past few weeks, Andy Tanenbaum has written an article to address these. He first clearly states he respects and likes Torvalds, and that "we may disagree on some technical issues, but that doesn't make us enemies. Please don't confuse disagreements about ideas with personal feuds." The article states: "Over the years there have been endless postings on forums such as Slashdot about how microkernels are slow, how microkernels are hard to program, how they aren't in use commercially, and a lot of other nonsense. Virtually all of these postings have come from people who don't have a clue what a microkernel is or what one can do. I think it would raise the level of discussion if people making such postings would first try a microkernel-based operating system . Has a lot more credibility."

A top Microsoft engineer has thrown out a weekend challenge to the Windows Vista team: find and fix a bug in the current code and earn US$100. The employee who installs the latest Vista build at home and squashes the most bugs before Monday will get an extra US$500. Brian Valentine issued the challenge Friday in an e-mail to members of the team working on Vista, the next update of the company's Windows operating system.

The world is rapidly moving away from technology-based solutions toward end-user facilitation. Simple grammars provide a surprising solution to the problem of "driving" IT infrastructure to achieve business ends. In this article, Stephen Morris shows you how to use the interpreter design pattern to create a simple C++ grammar, which can be extended to produce surprisingly powerful capabilities.

This chapter supplements currently available project management materials and books about application porting projects. Topics such as how to use formalized requirements processes, how to better communicate between software developers, and how to practice extreme project management are topics that modern-day project managers are already well informed of. However, because software development is not exactly the same as porting and migrating software, a gap exists in current publications—a gap that this chapter addresses.

Computer-generated animation in film and television, as well as state-of-the-art video games, features realistic water, fire, and other natural effects. Many people new to computer graphics are astounded to learn that these realistic and complex models are simple triangles and pixels as far as computer graphics hardware is concerned. In this chapter, OpenGL Distilled covers the OpenGL primitive types and how to control their appearance with several basic rendering features.

"We have received an email claiming that the Kororaa Xgl Live CD is in violation of the GPL. I have been researching this as much as I can, asking many prominent people in the Linux world for their opinion. So far, no-one has agreed with the email, however a few have said to seek legal advice, which I cannot afford to do (but can't afford not to do, if I want to continue the Live CD). As such, the Live CD has been put on hold, until I can sort this out. If I cannot sort this out I will be forced to cease work on the Xgl Live CD."

User Mode Linux is a virtualization technology which can be used to create Linux virtual machines within a Linux host. What is unique about UML is that unlike other virtualization technologies, the UML patch has been already incorporated into the official Linux kernel source. This is a review of a book on User Mode Linux authored by Jeff Dike. The fact that Jeff is the creator of UML lends some credibility to this book which pursues a niche area.

Apple's security update train rumbled into the station late May 11 with fixes for a whopping 43 Mac OS X and QuickTime vulnerabilities. The company's Security Update 2006-003 patches 31 flaws in the Mac OS X, most of them serious enough to cause 'arbitrary code execution attacks'. Apple also shipped QuickTime 7.1 as a major security overhaul to correct 12 code execution and denial-of-service flaws.

Belenix, a live CD based on OpenSolaris, has seen the release of version 0.4.3. The Belenix people say this release is major performance upgrade, and includes several fixes such as a new file sorting algorithm to process the DTrace output, some stuff regarding Xserver which leads to boottime being decreased by 20 seconds, various installer bugs, and much more. Rejoice. By the way, here is a chart comparing ZFS with Linux RAID/LVM options.

SoftwareInReview, well, reviews FreeBSD 6.1, and concludes: "Overall I found FreeBSD 6.1 to be another step in the right direction, and I think it's encouraging that there weren't any revolutionary base system changes in this release. Sometimes big changes are unavoidable, but historically the FreeBSD team has bungled such leaps as the switch to the ULE scheduler, the introduction of SMP, and the liberation of the base system from the big giant lock. Sometimes you have to stop and make sure that what you presently have is working properly, and it looks like now is that time for FreeBSD. I applaud their efforts with 6.1 and look forward to testing 6.2."

"Microsoft's Monad provides a new command processor and a new way to create batch tasks. They leave the antiquated batch file in the dust. Monad offers you the full power of the .NET Framework to create your batch files. Its depth of functionality makes it part batch file and part application environment. Theoretically, you can create a full-blown application using just this scripting environment."

The developers behind Word 12 have added a blogging feature to Word 12. They have promised that the blogging feature wil output clean, unmangled HTML: "That's right. No more verbose Word HTML. The goal for this feature is not pure fidelity, but the right fidelity for your blog."