Lunapark reviews Fedora Core 5, and concludes: "I would only recommend FC5 to people who do not own Nvidia video cards or do not mind tweaking a lot default settings to get things working. Otherwise stay with what you are using and wait for SUSE 10.1 or Ubuntu’s Dapper. But if you do stick with FC 5 and get past the quirks, it is quite impressive and I am already eagerly awaiting FC 6."

"Of the 344 functions in the Castle Shared C Library, Graham Shaw has so far managed to implement 200 in his alternative module. A hundred of those have been fully tested, and this is after six weeks of development. By Graham's reckoning, his target is to recreate the official SCL's 48 base functions, 185 C library functions, and 111 functions related to 64bit support, the C99 standard and other bits and pieces. The module is an open source affair, but will allow applications to use it without repercussions, such as requiring proprietary program authors to reveal their own source code. Developers can, it's expected, choose to use their own choice of 'stubs' library, as provided by the Castle C/C++ compiler kit, RISCOS Ltd's StubsG or with the GCCSDK."

At the MIX06 conference, Microsoft handed out new builds of Internet Explorer 7. They now also made it available for people who will not attend the conference. Also MIX06, Bill Gates promised more frequent updates to Internet Explorer in the future.

"Five years after Microsoft sparked a firestorm with new volume licensing and upgrade programs, customers are still struggling with the system many say is delivering less than promised. The programs have not adequately addressed the complexities of licensing, stemmed cost increases or provided a simplified upgrade path, customers say."

The authors of "Beginning PHP and PostgreSQL 8: From Novice to Professional" explain how, when and why PostgreSQL tops commercial database systems, as well as its suitability for enterprises and why end users have more control with this open source DMBS.

FOX v1.6.0 has been released with the biggest major new feature being Unicode support but also with a raft of new system code such as extra threading and I/O APIs. This should be viewed as an interim release as unicode keyboard input is as yet unfinished.

Not too long ago Mark Shuttleworth proposed a delay of six weeks for the release of Ubuntu Dapper Drake. Today, after discussion within the community, the delay was approved and announced. "June 1st 2006 is the updated release date for Ubuntu Dapper, Desktop and Server editions, a delay of 6 weeks over the previous release date of April 20." More information in the release schedule.

Sony's PS3, scheduled to be released near the end of this year, has been slated to have a hard drive that will support and will even include preinstalled Linux. This could be a breakthrough event not just for Linux but also for other alternative operating systems as well. The PS3 will almost certainly sell millions and millions of units, providing a unique opportunity for people to try something that would be more difficult on their regular computer.

LXer compares Ubuntu, Mac OSX, and Windows XP. "All three desktop operating systems have admirable qualities. Each has some weaknesses. Attending a recent User Group Fair, I had another chance to see them at work. Having used and programmed on each platform provides some unbiased insights."

"Apple have shown some absolutely stellar benchmarks with the Core solo and Core Duo processors outperforming their G4 based predecessors by quite a considerable margin in most areas, heavily vectorised applications are seemingly the only exception. The story is not quite so clear with the G5 based iMac but there is a difference even there. These benchmarks can be considered no doubt as justification for the decision to switch to x86 processors. However, in typical Apple style there is some slight of hand, in particular as regards timing of the switch. Making the transition 6 months early is no mistake, it was absolutely critical to get those benchmarks."

The fourth OpenZaurus release based on the BitBake build system and the OpenEmbedded metadata repository is out. It includes OPIE 1.2.1, GPE 2.7, cross-SDK is now provided, native SDK provided, WPA support, Linux Kernel 2.6.14-rc1 for C7×0 models and nearly 3000 source packages which result in 12000 packages to try out.

"One of the beauties that comes with Mac OS X is the Keychain that helps you manage your authorization needs as it acts as a depository of passwords. By using the Keychain you don't need to remember a myriad of passwords but rather just the Keychain password. Don't worry about losing your passwords either, since the Keychain can be backed up with ease."

"Recurring themes at this year's PyCON2006 Python conference, in Dallas, Texas, included quality control techniques for Python, and interoperable content management systems. Guido van Rossum presented some previews of features to be expected in Python 2.5, and Jim Fulton presented the 'State of Zope', with some musings on where to go from here with Zope 2 and Zope 3. Also starring at this conference was the S5 based on the Python docutils package - most of this year's talks were presented with this package, and one of the talks presented the S5 package itself."

Does a reinvented Novell matter anymore? As the company prepares to trumpet its focus on serving the open enterprise at its annual BrainShare conference this week, industry observers remain mixed on whether the former networking powerhouse has a relevant place in today's corporate software market.