A surefire way to ignite a Web flame war is to say one programming language is better than another. James Gosling, known the "father of Java," understands that as well as anybody.

"More than five years ago the launch of Microsoft Windows XP - and its considerably improved features and reliability compared with Windows 98 and 2000 - made a comprehensive desktop rollout a no-brainer for companies. The other options were all far from desirable. Now, as the world gears up for the launch of Windows Vista, the conclusion may not be so cut and dry. Certainly, Vista is set to be feature-packed and reliable, and many companies will move to the new platform as a matter of course. However, Linux has come a long way in five years, with the concerted effort of hobbyists around the world supplemented by the resources of tech heavyweights to push its desktop features to near-parity with Windows XP."

"A lot of people have heard of GNU/Linux (more commonly referred to as just 'Linux') and are having trouble finding out what the differences are between different versions - or distributions - that are available. This article will show how they differ, and how GNU/Linux differs from similar operating systems."

"CES wasn't only about crazy gadget news and booth tours - we also scored a second chance to sit down with our new best friend Bill Gates and ask him all about the big announcements he made during his keynote last Wednesday. Read on to find out what he had to say about online video download subscription services, whether or not he was happy with the launch of the Xbox 360, which Xbox 360 games he's been playing, how he still thinks there's time to avoid a format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, why he doesn't think that Apple's switch to Intel chips makes a difference for Microsoft, and how he is now, finally, a Treo user."

"Back in 2001 Microsoft's early betas of Windows XP contained a user interface dubbed 'Watercolor'. But only months before the operating system shipped Microsoft completely replaced it with an entirely different look and feel called 'Luna' which became known as 'Windows XP Style'. That move has created speculation that current Windows Vista look and feel, called Aero glass, would be replaced by a different look and feel later in the beta process. However, this week's PowerUser.tv podcast has an interview with Microsoft developers who have confirmed that there will be no major change to the look and feel of Windows Vista from what is being shown in build 5270. In other words, Aero-Glass is it."

"Marcel 'Frostwork' Unbehaun released a new nice creation for your Pegasos II computer. This time a loader that loads and boots directly into the genuine Amiga operating system or CD32 on your Pegasos II, displaying a nice splash-screen during loading. By default it boots directly into an inserted CD32-CD."

"2005 was a busy year for free software. The early days of 2006 provide a good opportunity to look ahead at the wonders that the new year will bring, but it's also good to spend a small amount of time reflecting upon what 2005 delivered. Free software technology has made even more inroads into the corporate server space. Desktop and office applications have steadily improved as well, with implementations of them on the sharp increase. Awareness of free software, the business models, philosophy and its advantages are spreading well too. All in all a lot of positive things happened during the year, and that includes the last month, December."

Adobe introduced the public beta of Adobe Lightroom, an all-new digital imaging solution for professional photographers. With its modular, task-based and streamlined environment, Lightroom's goal is to deliver a complete photography workflow. As Adobe collects more feedback from photographers, modules and feature sets will likely change, as customers decide on their popularity and priority within digital photography workflows. Initially available as a beta for Macintosh, Lightroom will later support both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. UPDATE by ELQ: Previews here, here and here. It seems that Lightroom reads RAW images correctly and it has Curves support, compared to Aperture.

Linspire has started another attempt at selling computers pre-installed with their operating system - this time by teaming up with Mirus - called the Koobox. Ars looks at the situation: "At this point it is hard to assess the potential of the Koobox systems. If it succeeds, the product could help legitimize desktop Linux and bring it further into the mainstream. Regardless of how many get sold, the availability of yet another budget Linux PC illuminates the growing popularity of the Linux platform, and contributes to the perception that Linux is applicable to desktop computing."

"I've been working off-and-on writing a review/overview of the Zeta LiveCD, but one topic in particular kept distracting me: the question of whether or not the demo CD can be installed and run from a hard drive partition. My experimentation ended up growing into an article of its own and the short answer is 'no'. For all the gory details, read on."

"During its first-ever appearance at the CES, Internet search giant Google unveiled two initiatives, both of which are aimed, in part, to counter Microsoft, the company it considers a primary competitor. The first is called the Google Video Store: users of this service will be able to buy and rent a wide range of video content online, including prime-time and classic TV shows from CBS, NBA games from this season and the past, Sony BMG music videos, and news and historical content from ITN. The second initiative, and the focus of this review, is Google Pack. Google describes Google Pack as a free collection of safe, useful software from Google and other companies that improves the user experience online and on the desktop."

"Classpath hit 98% of 1.4 , and I think we'll see another big bump tomorrow since the XMLEncoder patch went in . I think we're in the 90s against 1.5, though it is hard to say since there hasn't been a branch merge in quite a while. Of course, japi isn't the final word on how we're doing, which is why Mark is going to talk about this at FOSDEM. The coming year looks as though it will be a very good one for gcj and Classpath. I think we'll finish 1.5."

"Introduced in ATI's v8.19.10 proprietary display drivers for their RADEON series was support for PowerPlay. For the uninitiated, ATI's PowerPlay allows the user to specify various 'power-states', or rather various frequencies and voltages at which the card can operate. The purpose for these various performance levels is ultimately to allow mobile users to save on battery life through running at reduced speeds when not performing strenuous 3D tasks."

The port of the OpenSolaris kernel to the PowerPC architecture ('Polaris') is now complete. As stated on the Blastware website: "Ladies and Gentlemen, The OpenSolaris kernel for PowerPC has been built." One of the bigger hurdles to having a full-fledged port of OpenSolaris running on your PPC hardware has now been taken.