Together with sharing files over a network, being able to control another computer remotely is particularly appealing to users with their own networks - especially when printers, scanners and other gadgets are connected to the alien machine. RISC OS has a number of applications to achieve this and while each are very similar, they have their own individual features that make them stand out in different ways.

If you are a security developer and need to interface a Java application with the local operating system user registry, what do you do? This article gives you the answer: UNIX/Linux PAM-compatible systems that use authentication based on the GNU MD5 extensions to the crypt() system call. A pure Java implementation of MD5 crypt can provide a simple interface that can be used by Web applications to authenticate against the local UNIX registry.

Users of Windows who have set the Automatic Updates option to "Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them" were surprised to find that the latest WMF patch had overridden these settings and not only installed the patch, but rebooted the machines as well.

This article, the second in a three-part series titled "GTK+ fundamentals," introduces you to programming with GTK+. It analyzes a sample GTK+ application written in C, then shows that same application written in Python and C#. Finally, it discusses some useful tools that can help you develop better applications faster with GTK+.

Back in November, VMware released version 5.5 of their Workstation virtual machine product. Overall it's not a big improvement over version 5.0, but might be just the right "next step up" for those still on Workstation 4.x, says TheJemReport.

Office 12 is all about taking it to a whole new level in terms of interaction with the core Office applications and new ways of managing Office documents. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook Composer 12 all feature an innovative “new” user interface. This new user interface promises to deliver on that dream of making access to the tools you use the most in your Office applications not just easier, but with more relevance to the entire user experience and task at hand, writes ActiveWin.

"Today Apple announced the MacBook Pro. It has quite a few changes compared to the previous PowerBook. For one, it uses an Intel Core Duo (formally known as Yonah) chip. This is a dual core processor and no, unlike what Steve Jobs stated, this does not have two processors. This will help a lot with responsiveness. I've been dreaming of a dual core laptop for quite a while. However, the realization of my dream coupled with the changes seen makes me cry", writes Unsanity. UPDATE: Windows XP won't run on the new Intel Macs because of EFI. Vista is supposed to work though.

Red Hat is letting Novell's Mono software only into its noncommercial Fedora product line, the Linux seller said Tuesday. Red Hat has no plans at this time to include the Novell software in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, company spokeswoman Gillian Farquhar said, meaning that there are no plans right now to make it a standard part of the commercially supported product from the Linux leader.

Businesses, educational institutions, governmental agencies and other organizations around the world are converting1 their computer operating systems from Microsoft Windows to Linux at an increasing pace. They are likewise converting their application programs from commercial software to free software (also referred to as open source software). There are at least 25 reasons for this situation, including:

Tests at Microsoft's Linux lab show that counting the raw number of security updates required by the various operating system flavors is not as meaningful as examining the efficiency of the update process.

It's early, but developers say they are laying the groundwork for the Mac and Windows to be interchangeable in the workplace if needed. Microsoft's Virtual PC will go Intel, and Office for the Mac will go XML.

Oracle and Sun yesterday renewed their vows of collaboration and detailed their plans to give Microsoft .NET a Java-based run for its money.

After 2 years of examination the U.S Patent and Trademark Office has reversed its two earlier unofficial decisions and decided that Microsoft's File Allocation Table file system constitutes a "novel and non-obvious" system enabling it to be patented. This coupled with Microsofts plans to charge licensing fees for use of the system could cause many problems for open-source operating systems that implement the file system, or even to mp3 players. Elsewhere, APCMag.com has an interview with Microsoft's "open source point man" Martin Gregory.

"This article fairly eloquently expounds some of the reasons why Linux's job is not to become increasingly Windows-like, nor is it Open Source's duty to merely provide free duplicates of every Windows-user's favorite program. The issue has never been anything about Elite Snob vs. Concerned Newbie. It is simply a misunderstanding of what the Linux and the Open Source world is all about. Linux is not about repeating Windows with its features and flaws. It is an opportunity to experiment with new and wonderful alternatives", says OSNews reader Bob Jamison.