"The MirOS Project is proud to announce the immediate release of MirOS XP, consisting of MirOS BSD #8 and the MirPorts Framework. This release is the first in the MIRBSD_8 branch and still highly experimental in some parts, especially ports, but has been throughoutly tested and deemed stable." You can download this Net/OpenBSD-based operating system here. Note: Don't mention the war!

"Microsoft's free Shared Computer Toolkit lets you configure a PC that can be used to search the Internet, look up resources, and run approved programs; it also stops users from making permanent system changes, running arbitrary programs, or introducing malware. Administrators on domain-based PCs have long been able to do this; the toolkit offers a similar level for any PC. You don't need an IT degree - the kit leads an administrator through the steps of locking down a system."

I was interested to see how Zenwalk differs from Slackware, and after reading on their web site that version 2.01 is 'the biggest jump in Zenwalk evolution since the beginning of the project', I wanted to see how far Zenwalk has come since it was reviewed here as MiniSlack.

"A year ago, Linux seemed poised to take on the living room, in the form of home media center PCs and systems. But last year's product announcements have not materialized into this year's Linux-based consumer systems. Before losing her job at the helm of Hewlett-Packard, CEO Carly Fiorina peppered a Consumer Electronics Show keynote with word of HP's coming Media Hub, a machine capable of television and display-centric computing that ran on Linux. The machine, announced alongside the company's latest PC-centric Digital Entertainment Center systems running Windows XP Media Center, was promised by fall of 2005. Today, it is nowhere to be found."

"This document was created to show non-KDE people what they're missing - and if you haven't used KDE a lot, you're missing a lot of things and you may interested in reading this page to learn how many wonderful things you've been missing. I promise, this is a subjective analysis of why KDE rules. I was a GNOME user for a long time, one of those users who loved GNOME UI, and I didn't know how much things I was missing with KDE until I tried it."

"The J operating system is primarily intended for programmers. I've attempted to lower the bar, so amateurs can contribute. I hope to recreate the dynamic environment that used to exist when the Commodore 64 was around and everyone was creating odd-ball software." You can download it from this page.

The Syllable team has released an update to their latest 0.6.0 release-- Syllable 0.6.0a. This release will fix the most pressing bugs found in the 0.6.0 release, which can be found in the changelog. If you have already installed 0.6.0, you can use the upgrade package. Downloads are here.

Right now the situation for developers of minor operating systems seems somewhat bleak. Windows and the Unixes compete in the server world, and Windows and MacOS X compete on the desktop. Linux even gets ported to every embedded device, leaving few niches for the hobbyist or sidelined operating system developer. Some have even gone so far as to say that New Operating Systems Won't Stand a Chance. As anyone who reads OSNews can tell you, however there are a wealth of new systems with new ideas that just aren't taking off. Given all these new ideas some - like capability security from EROS for example - should be good enough to catch on, so why aren't they?

Jeff Waugh is an employee of Canonical Limited, the firm behind Ubuntu Linux. In his spare time he works on the GNOME window manager program. Jeff formerly was the release manager for GNOME. On November 7, 2005, Jeff Waugh was far away from his native and current home in Australia. He was at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, as part of his BadgerBadgerBadger tour. Jeff offered his insights into GNOME and Ubuntu in a talk titled 'Running with Scissors'.

The omnipresent 'sources' of AppleInsider have told the rumoursite that Apple has 'outsourced' the design of the next PowerMac's motherboard to Intel. "In a move that may surprise some Apple watchers, reliable sources tell AppleInsider the Mac maker has contracted the design duties for its next-generation Power Mac motherboard over to industry heavyweight Intel. With Apple moving aggressively to introduce four Intel-based Mac models in the first four months of 2006 - iMacs, 15-inch PowerBooks, 13-inch widescreen iBooks and Mac minis - resources at the company's engineering labs have worn thin, sources said." Judge for yourself.

"I'm very sorry to report that Peter Quinn, the CIO of Massachusetts who has been at the center of a controversy relating to his efforts at the Information Technology Division to adopt the OpenDocument format for the use of the Commonwealth's Executive Agencies, has resigned."

"This first article in a new series on building accessible applications with Eclipse begins by looking at assistive technologies and disabilities. It then discusses the functions and features that make Eclipse well suited for creating accessible applications on Windows or UNIX."

"After trying out PCLinuxOS, I have included this wonderful Linux distribution in my list of Linux OSes I would recommend to newbies and power users alike. I am certainly impressed by its structure, stability and the choice of software bundled with it. Not to mention its out of the box support for proprietary file formats."

"The developers of Mandriva Linux have quietly released what appears to be a public beta of Mandriva Linux 2006.1. This release comes with many updated packages, including X.Org 6.9 final, KDE 3.5.0, GNOME 2.12, and OpenOffice.org 2.0.0. The kernel remains at 2.6.12, although it has been selectively patched with various fixes from kernel 2.6.13 and later. Other improvements affecting networking, printing and X.Org configuration have also been implemented. See the changelog for a detailed list of changes."