Hi-Mobile.net was very kind to send us in the Linux-based Motorola A780 cellphone for this review. This is the most affordable PDA-like phone in the market today, selling for less than $280 at Hi-Mobile's store. Although this phone was released over a year ago, it came pre-installed with the latest available English firmware released around November 2005 (R52_G_0D.74.A2R) which also contains a newer build of the Opera 7.50 browser. Check inside for our review and lots of screenshots.

"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."

Like I predicted a few days ago, Microsoft is thinking about officially supporting Windows on Apple's Intel Macs. According to The Wall Street, Microsoft said it is still studying whether it will offer technical support for Windows on Macs. "There are several open questions to address before we have a final answer," says Kevin Kutz, director of Microsoft's Windows client group told the publication. The report also notes that Apple's Boot Camp requires a new copy of Windows XP, which it notes is available for suggested retail prices of $199 and $299. "It won't work to use less-costly upgrade versions or software installation disks for PCs that users already have." Update: Microsoft Watch's Mary Jo Foley wonders who want's Windows on a Mac, and why.

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.

Microsoft plans to launch a Web site to share the activities of its internal Linux laboratories, an effort to sample feedback from customers who combine Microsoft and open-source software. Customers will be able to submit requests to Microsoft employees. For example, a person could ask how to best test the use of Linux desktops working with Microsoft's directory software.

"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."

"The FreeBSD Foundation is pleased to announce the availability of the official Java Runtime Environment and Java Development Kit for FreeBSD. The Foundation negotiated a license with Sun Microsystems to distribute these FreeBSD binaries. The binaries are based on JDK 1.5 and work with the official FreeBSD 5.4 and FreeBSD 6.0 releases on the i386 platform."

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.

Proponents of the free and open-source software development model are using the recently announced delays in the shipping of Microsoft's Windows Vista and Office 2007 products as an example of how the company's software engineering process simply does not work well. They are also pointing to how it stands in direct contrast with the way software gets developed in the free and open-source community, and using the delays to explain why theirs is the better choice.

Microsoft has urged UK PC vendors not to give customers the opportunity to buy a PC without a pre-installed operating system. Supplying base systems, or 'naked PCs', is a missed opportunity, according to Michala Alexander, Microsoft's head of anti-piracy. Writing in Microsoft's Partner Update magazine, which is distributed to computer dealers, Alexander estimated that 5 percent of computers sold in the UK in 2006 would not include an operating system.

"Jan Schaumann has been an important contributor to the NetBSD project for several years. He spent a lot of time working on the NetBSD package system, known as pkgsrc, and he currently uses NetBSD as his desktop system. We will try to learn from his experience during this interview."

"In GNU/Linux, file access is restricted. Users don't necessarily have the same rights when it comes to deleting, executing or even reading files. In fact, every file contain data such as its owner, its permissions and other information which defines exactly what can be done with it, and by whom."

The Mono team has just released the latest version of the Mono integrated development environment, MonoDevelop 0.10. This new relase introduces the Gtk# designer (screenshot), refactoring operations, printing support, and more.

"Visual XForms Designer is a set of graphical tools and interfaces for expediting the creation and editing of documents with XForms-based content. This stamdards-based, easy-to-use Eclipse plug-in makes the process of creating documents with XForms content easier, faster, and simpler."