"I like Ubuntu. I just do. There's a simplicity about it that appeals. Every successive release adds an additional layer of abstraction between the user and the 'plumbing'. While some might pass this off as soft-hearted pandering to a demographic that was never meant to use Linux in the first place, 'Debian for the Lazy', there is a gentle delight in taking a smooth, working OS and working your way down into its innards."

"There are plenty Linux reviews, though almost none of them are about Linux. You see, Linux is only a kernel, but most Linux reviews are about KDE, SuSE, the desktop and so on. Those reviews aren't about Linux, strictly speaking. In contrary, this review is about Linux, made for the people who normally don't configure and compile their own kernel."

The first release candidate for OpenSUSE Linux 10.1 has been released, but as you know, no release notes, changelog, or whatever, so I again cannot tell you what's changed, improved, or fixed. Download locations are listed in the release announcement.

FreeBSD 6.1-RC1 has been released. "The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 6.1-RC1. It is meant to be a refinement of the 6-STABLE, branch with few dramatic changes. A lot of bugfixes have been made, some drivers have been updated, and some areas have been tweaked for better performance, etc., but no large changes have been made to the basic architecture."

With the new operating system, Microsoft is offering plenty of new graphics tricks, including translucent windows, animated flips between open programs and 'live icons' that show a graphical representation of the file in question. But before Vista will display its showiest side, known as Aero, it will run a check to make sure the software was properly purchased. "Those who are not running genuine Windows will not be able to take advantage of the Windows Aero user experience," a Microsoft representative told CNET News.com on Wednesday. Note: We had a slight problem with our submission system today, but it is now fixed. Submit away, boys and girls!

Virtualization software that's all the rage today - chiefly VMware, Microsoft Virtual Server, and Xen - lets a single computer run multiple operating systems. Now, a newer variety of virtualization is emerging that employs a lighter-weight approach so that a single operating system can be sliced into independent sections. While details of the concept are just beginning to emerge, it's likely only a matter of time before it shows up in Windows and Linux.

Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer browser has undergone a major security makeover to plug 10 vulnerabilities that puts millions at risk of PC takeover, address bar spoofing and information disclosure attacks. The monster IE update includes a fix for the 'createTextRange()' code execution flaw that caused zero-day drive-by downloads and a significant modification to the way the browser renders certain ActiveX controls. In all, Microsoft shipped five bulletins with patches for 14 different vulnerabilities in a range of Windows products. At the same time Microsoft has begun requesting that users upgrade their ME/98 machines because support ends July 11th, 2006.

Will the delay in Microsoft's Windows Vista have a domino effect on other planned releases of Windows? Partner sources close to the company said that Microsoft has sketched out plans for Windows 'Fiji' (also referred to by some Microsoft watchers as Vista R2) - the version of Windows set to follow Vista - as for Windows 'Vienna', the successor to Fiji, partner sources close to the company said.

Linux Format has an interview with Bruce Perens. Having founded the Open Source Initiative and Linux Standards Base, Perens is a well-known spokesperson for the Free software community, and in this interview he discusses the problems with his UserLinux project, the rise of Ubuntu, and why figureheads are still important in the open source world.

"From time to time over the last few months, I’ve heard an argument along the following lines, often from people who should know better. 'Operating systems are commodities. There’s no special value in them. Operating system A may have a small technical advantage in one area, and operating system B may have a small technical advantage in another area, but there’s little to choose between them.' But there are many, many things wrong this argument."

"This write-up is intended to discuss the general principals involved in booting the operating system. We can define the booting process as something that starts an operating system when the user turns on his machine. This process, in addition to other factors, includes a boot sequence, which is a set of operations the system performs to load the OS."

"Last summer, IBM set up Power,org, to promote its PowerPC chip as what it called 'open hardware.' This year, Sun launched the OpenSPARC.net open source project around the source code for its Niagera microprocessor. But what does "open" mean in the context of hardware? You have to pay to participate meaningfully in Power.org, as well as pay royalties to implement - it's built on a traditional RAND consortium model. To use the Sun code, though, its just download the code under an open source license, and you're good to go to use anything except the SPARC name. All of which leads to the questions: 'what does open mean in hardware, and which approach will work?"

Over the past few months, Ivan Kelly has been working on porting MINIX to Xen as part of a university project. As last Monday was the final submission date for the project, he is now free to release it in the wild. Currently only the microkernel and the console driver have been ported, but a block device driver is in the works. The code and a compilation guide can be found on the website. Contributors are welcome to join the project. On a related note, a new test version of MINIX has been released as well. OSNews reported extensively on MINIX 3 last year.

"Be nice to your computers and examine some general guidelines for tuning server performance. A computer is like an employee who does tasks for you - it's a good idea to keep from overburdening them. One way to keep this from happening is to carefully tune the processes that run on it. The UNIX nice command is useful for doing just that."