"This time of year, even the most hard-core geek thinks thoughts of festive cheer. And there's nothing like, oh, say, a beer, to enhance the mood of seasonal glee. And after a few beers comes the song. '99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer'... Oh - sorry - where was I? What, you ask, does such a scurrilous ditty have to do with serious developers? Well, nothing - except that it was the vector for an entertaining and informative experiment in programming."

"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."

There have been some interesting updates over at SkyOS. First of all, it now has a VNC viewer, so you can control other computers from SkyOS. Another interesting addition are a set of VMWare tools; SkyOS now has full clipboard integration with the host OS when running in VMWare. Also added is seamless mouse integration, so you can just move your mouse to the edge of the VMWare window, and it will automatically ungrab it. There have been more changes, you can see the most prominent on SkyOS's website. For the under-the-hood changes, see the changelog.

"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."

"In this article, you learn how to work with files. First, we review a simple way to output data in Python, using the print statement, then learn about the file object, which is used by Python programs to read and write data to a file. The different modes with which a file can be opened are demonstrated, and the article concludes by showing how to read and write a binary file."

"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."

When Apple introduced the latest incarnation of its iMac G5 product line, the reactions were almost exclusively those of praise. They had managed to make the iMac G5 even thinner, while at the same time upgrading its specifications. Apple also introduced Front Row, a remote control, and a built-in iSight camera. MacSupport was so kind as to provide OSNews with this new iMac G5; here are our findings.

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'll promise this will be the last set of rumours about His Steveness' MacWorld keynote tomorrow. "With Macworld Expo San Francisco 2006 set to kick off Tuesday, Think Secret presents a compilation of information we have received and reported over the last number of months concerning Apple's anticipated announcements."

"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."

"Parallels officially released its Workstation 2.0 product at the end of 2005, entering in the desktop virtualization market where VMware, Microsoft and Serenity Systems International are already. Parallels Workstation 2.0 raised a lot of attention because is the first time a desktop virtualization product features the hypervisor technology. In the following interview Benjamin Rudolph talks about Parallels 2006 roadmap, mentioning enterprise virtualization products and touching hot topics like Microsoft Vista Aero support and Apple MacOS x86 virtualization."

"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 first draft of GNU General Public License Version 3 will be unveiled next week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., but that milestone is likely to be more of a beginning than an ending. The release of the draft will kick off months of debate over the content and exact wording of the license that will govern much open-source software for the foreseeable future.

"One of the big concerns of anyone considering moving to Windows Vista is 'How many of my applications will work on Windows Vista?' We have spent a lot of time trying to answer that very question for our company so I will share with you some of the common problem areas we found for applications to help give you an idea of what applications might have problems for you."