Rumors were swirling around the halls of LinuxWorld that the often troubled DCC Alliance was going to fold its tents and disappear. What actually happened was that several of the members met quietly and agreed to a tenuous plan to move forward under a new president pro tem, Kevin Carmony, Linspire's CEO.

A RealNetworks executive has claimed that Linux risks being excluded from the consumer market if it does not add support for copy-restriction technologies. But the Free Software Foundation Europe countered this claim on Thursday, saying that consumers have made it clear that they do not want DRM restricting their use of digital media.

"We present several ways of installing BSD on the IBM Netvista S40, a so-called legacy free computer. Difficulties arise because the machine has no standard AT keyboard controller, and the subroutines controlling gate A20 and the keyboard create inappropriate results. We discuss replacement bootstrap code, which more carefully deals with the A20 issue. Some simple modifications to the FreeBSD kernel code are considered too. A manual method for preparing a bootable installation CD, suitable for both Netvista and all standard configurations, is examined. Installations of DragonFly, NetBSD, OpenBSD and OS/2 are also discussed."

Heise, an influential German tech website, stirred the BeOS community up today by reporting that YellowTAB filed for bankruptcy -- however, this bankruptcy was not filed from within YellowTAB, but by a 3rd party, possibly to damage YellowTAB. This news quickly spread accross BeOS related websites, but none of them could confirm the story. I emailed Bernd Korz, YellowTAB's CEO, and he confirmed that indeed someone from outside the company filed for bankruptcy, but that YellowTAB is in fact not bankrupt. Bernd could not disclose full details yet, as the company was still discussing this with its lawyers. Bernd did confirm that within a few days, the company will release an official statement concerning the issue.

"All too often the desktop operating system market is looked upon as some sort of epic struggle between Microsoft and Linux. This 'versus' mentality is fun to perpetuate, it is not helping anyone in the long run. Since it is clear that each party is going to be around for a long time, what is needed a bit of mannerly coexistence. While the name calling may persist, it is more important that efforts are made to enable the two operating systems to work together more efficiently than they do now."

"Here are 10 steps to set up a CD-less install server if you are using the Solaris 10 03/05 OS for x86 platforms or a version of Solaris for x86 platforms with GRUB. Booting off the Pre-boot Execution Environment is a lot easier and painless now, as this example shows. This process does not include profiles so you will have to sit through the install process and answer questions. It is just a quick and easy way to get the Solaris OS for x86 platforms installed on a remote machine without burning CDs."

"Over a year ago at the Fall 2005 Intel Developer Forum, Intel formally announced that they would be dropping the Pentium 4's Netburst microarchitecture in favor of a brand new, more power-efficient microarchitecture that would carry the company's entire x86 product line, from laptops up through Xeon servers, into the next decade. This past IDF saw the unveiling of some significant details about this new microarchitecture, 'Merom' or 'Core'. Intel presented many of these details in a presentation on Core, and others were obtained by David Kanter of Real World Technologies. The present article draws on both of those sources, as well as my own correspondence with Intel, to paint what is (hopefully) an accessible picture of the new microarchitecture that will soon be powering everything from Windows Vista servers to Apple laptops."

"I recently received an iPod Nano as a gift. My Nano is amazingly small, contains a gigabyte of storage, and sounds very good through its ear buds. It didn't take long for me to learn that folks have been putting Linux on iPods for a couple of years now, courtesy of the iPodLinux Project. Granted, the software for the Nano and most fourth- and fifth-generation versions of the iPod is experimental. Linux on my desktop, workstation, laptop, Tivo, and router. I had to have it on the Nano, too. Here's my report how I converted my stock iPod Nano into a dual-booting, sweet MP3-singing, iDoom-playing monster."

Parallels beats big shots Microsoft and VMWare in being the first to offer a virtualization solution for Intel Macs. "Parallels announced today that it is beginning beta testing for Parallels Workstation 2.1 for Mac OS X, the first virtualization software that gives Apple users the ability to simultaneously run Windows, Linux or any other operating system and their applications alongside Mac OS X on an Intel-powered Apple computer." Some users complained about Apple's Boot Camp, which is merely an elegant form of dual-booting, and actually wanted virtualization.

"LinuxForums takes a look at Xgl, and concludes: "In conclusion, Xgl is an exciting technology, it still needs some work to be done mainly to do with non nvidia/ati graphics cards and extending support to a wider variety of graphics chipsets. I for one will wait a bit longer (until the holidays) before attempting to install it onto my computer, perhaps by then more animations/plugins will be made available and support for other DE's would be available." Lots of videos inside, boys and girls, so rejoice.

"In seven years of attending LinuxWorld conferences, I've witnessed its transformation from an IT Woodstock to an expo populated by Fortune 500 executives. Although the penguin has definitely changed out of the tie-dyed tee shirt and into a three-piece suit, LinuxWorld still turns heads as the heartbeat of this vibrant community. And, the latest installment has proven to be no different. Despite the presence of men in suits, this IT gathering focused on populist topics, and I'm going to talk about the hottest ones: the $100 laptop for every child; a fight between two free platforms; and wikis."

A cell phone rings in the middle of Mark VandenBrink's presentation. He tells the audience member, "Go ahead and answer it -- I'm a phone guy, so please, leave your phones on! It's better for me." VandenBrink, Motorola's director of mobile devices software, delivered a talk on his company's experiences in the Linux-powered mobile device arena at LinuxWorld Tuesday morning, outlining what the company has learned from its first generation of Linux phones and the changes Motorola plans for the next. Note: Expect tomorrow a review of the A780 Linux phone here at OSNews.

Apple's Boot Camp has stirred things up quite a bit around the net. eWeek states: "CIOs have a lot invested in Windows and aren't going to junk the OS for Apple. However, if a CIO can get a twofer - Windows XP and Mac OS on one machine - a flyer may make some sense." In an analysis, eWeek concludes: "Boot Camp might give businesses and consumers another reason to look at the Mac, analysts and IT managers say." Cnet wonders if all this is good news for MS, while Ars looks at the limitations. Apple also released firmware updates for Intel Macs, which supposedly add BIOS support to EFI so you can just boot an XP (or Linux!) CD without using Boot Camp.

"Last June, Red Hat announced its intention to launch the Fedora Foundation. We've had a lot of smart people working hard to make this Foundation happen, but in the end, it just didn't help to accomplish our goals for Fedora. Instead, we are restructuring Fedora Project, with dramatically increased leadership from within the Fedora community. The next obvious question - 'Why no Foundation?' - deserves a detailed explanation."