Noted PC Magazine columnist John C. Dvorak was one of the first to predict the release of Boot Camp. His prophesizing continues in his lastest column. "A cloud is rising over Mac OS X and its future unless Apple makes its boldest move ever: turning OS X into an open-source project. That would make the battle between OS X and Linux the most interesting one on the computer scene. With all attention turned in that direction, there would be nothing Microsoft could do to stem a reversal of its fortunes."

A U.S. judge has quashed Microsoft's attempts to obtain documents in its antitrust battle against the European Commission, ruling the software giant was trying to undermine European Union law. Elsewhere, Burst.com has filed a countersuit against Apple Computer claiming that the iTunes software, the iPod and the Quicktime streaming software all infringe on patents held by Burst.com, Burst announced Monday.

" Let's start with Vista. Fine, so it got delayed by a few months. No big deal. If people can wait for a year, they can definitely wait for a few more months. But with Vista, Microsoft is definitely taking a big leap forward. Right about now, all you Mac fans are clamoring to be heard claiming that Mac OS had all these features for years. True. But with 2-3 percent marketshare in the desktop area, I really don’t think Microsoft is all that worried about the Macintosh platform. And with Vista, most Mac enthusiasts wouldn’t be able to point fingers at Windows users about how sleek (appearance and functionality) their OS looks, because Vista definitely looks comparable. I agree it feels quite raw, but it’s still in Beta, so I’m willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt here."

Robert X. Cringely thinks that Apple will offer virtualization in Mac OS 10.5, but in order to do that, he thinks Apple will need to drop Mach. "So Apple will at least offer the option for users to run a virtualized version of Windows Vista atop OS X. Don't be surprised, either, to see that OS X 10.5 has a new kernel, finally giving up Mach and a big piece of its NeXTstep heritage. I write this for one thing - because OS X has kernel problems and needs some help, especially with swap space. I say it also because of the departure of Avie Tevanian, Apple's chief software technology officer, and the guy who hung onto Mach for so long." The Mach kernel has recently been the target for complaints; esp. in server duties, OSX' kernel lags behind significantly compared to i.e. Linux.

MadPenguin takes a look at Flight 5 of Ubuntu Dapper, and concludes: "All in all, Ubuntu 6.06 is gearing up to be quite an impressive release. Granted, I saw some bugs during my stay on the distribution, but can I really complain? It's not a full release, so it deserves some breathing room. Considering some of the horribly authored software I've looked at over the years, I feel that Ubuntu in pre-release form is more stable than other distros when they reach final release status. It's not quite in the league of Slackware and Red Hat/Fedora in that respect yet, but it's surely getting there in a hurry."

Defect removal is preferred over defect survival. If some defect slips through the cracks, however, the C++ exception handling mechanism helps to fortify your software's fault tolerance, as Cameron and Tracey Hughes explain. Also, elsewhere on the same site, old maps were marked with the phrase "Here be Dragons" to help seafarers steer away from dangerous places; in programming the best way to avoid dealing with bad code is to avoid writing it. Diomidis Spinellis points out 10 giveaways to spot bad code that you (or others) may have written.