3D graphics on X11: XGL vs AIGLX. This article delves into the inner workings of XGL and AIGLX. It shows that there are many similarities between these two competing/co-operating "rivals" and plenty of room for growth.

Although it is still working to finish the code for Windows Vista, Microsoft has reached a decision on which versions of the operating system to offer. Microsoft has settled on six versions, including an Ultimate edition that will combine the best of the company's corporate and consumer features. The company is aiming to have all of the versions ready for launch in the second half of next year.

Data is valuable only if it can be stored and accessed. With multiple vendors of directory services solutions competing for your business, you may worry that their disparate systems will not be able to interoperate and that it will be difficult for clients to support multiple vendors. This chapter will help you to store and access data on Mac OS X server.

I used to really like skinning my desktops to make them look like another operating system. I stopped doing that years ago; and not necessarily because I wanted to do something more useful with my time. I stopped doing it because I somehow saw how utterly pointless it was. Why? I'll explain-- using Aston Martins and Jaguars. Yes, it's time for another car analogy, boys and girls. Note: This is this week's Sunday Eve Column.

"Microsoft lately has been challenging Linux's suitability for older hardware, so it seems like a good time to look at Linux distributions that can run on older machines. I took six distributions for a test run on an old machine, and also tried software that turns old hardware into a thin client. The bottom line: Linux is still quite suitable for older hardware. It might not turn your aging PC into a powerhouse, but it will extend its lifespan considerably."

"This tutorial shows how to install and configure Apache2 with PHP5 and PHP4 enabled at the same time. Because it is not possible to run both PHP5 and PHP4 as Apache modules, we must run one of them as CGI, the other one as Apache module. In this document I will use PHP5 as Apache module and PHP4 as CGI, and I will describe the setup for the Linux distributions Debian Sarge and Ubuntu 5.10."

With speculation flying about what 'fun new products' Apple plans to announce next week, from video iPods to DVR-enabled Mac minis, Microsoft has its own surprise up its sleeve. The web is abuzz with guesses as to what the Redmond company plans to unveil at origamiproject.com on March 2nd. The site, registered by Microsoft and 'discovered' early this week, provides few hints. A Flash animation pops up three questions: 'do you know what I can do? Or where I can go? Or how I can change your life?' It ends with the text, 'Learn more on 3.2.06'.

In an unexpected move, Microsoft posted its formal response to the European Commission and correspondence used in the case in the EU's anti-trust case against the company. According to Microsoft, the EC had "not even bothered to read the most recent versions" of and "waited many months before informing Microsoft that it believed changes were necessary". And: "despite Microsoft's substantial and serious efforts to reach the ever-receding horizon of the commission's demands... The commission was not to be deterred from its pre-holiday rush to impose a punitive daily fine on Microsoft."

Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs, made some surprising remarks in an interview. Wozniak says that Apple should spin-off its iPod business to a separate division because it distracts Apple from its core business-- computers. While acknowledging that the switch to Intel was a necessary evil, Wozniak says: "It's like consorting with the enemy. We've had this long history of saying the enemy is the big black-hatted guys, and they kind of represent evil. We are different, and by being different we're better. All of a sudden we're the same in this hardware regard, so it's a little hard to swallow your words from the past." Update: Wozniak now denies having made the claims. Just like politics, boys and girls!

"Why is there more than one Java GUI tool kit? The best answer is that one size does not fit all, nor is there a one-size-fits-all GUI tool kit to be invented soon. Each tool kit offers advantages and disadvantages that make selecting one more appropriate, given your needs and intended audience. Read descriptions of each tool kit's basic features, and the pros and cons of using each."

Faster than you can count to five, the OpenSUSE team has released beta 1, 2, 3, 4, and now 5. The OpenSUSE team still refuses to put the release notes somewhere for all to see prior to downloading, so I have little to tell you about this new release, apart from the usual bug-fix and overall smoothening between beta releases, which they probably have done. Read it all in the release announcement.

Screenshots are available of Mandriva's 2006.0 beta, following the release announcement. "This live CD is a complete Mandriva Linux system, which you can use directly from the CD or install on your hard drive. It includes OpenOffice.org, KDE, Firefox, GIMP, Amarok, etc."

"Perl for zOS is a statically-linked, pre-compiled port of the Perl (Version 5.8.7) scripting language to the z/OS UNIX platform with all known defects resolved. This new porti of Perl 5.8.7 provides a pre-built version of Perl with a dedicated support team to address new problems that may arise."

"Yesterday, I got Qt running on top of the Glib main loop. By using the QAbstractEventDispatcher API, I was able to completely replace the entire event dispatching mechanism of a Qt 4 application with less than 600 lines of code. What does this mean?"