The Sony PSP is a very popular gadget this year. Coupling not only 3D gaming but also web, podcast support, mp3, photo and video viewer makes it not only a formidable multimedia device but also a great Christmas present. Geeks.com sent us in a PSP for multimedia testing and we also got the newly-released Neuros Recorder II to test the full capabilities of the device as a multimedia one.

Asteria Solutions Group, Inc. has taken the latest gentoo installer for a test drive. It's not finished yet, but promises to bring the powerful distribution to a larger base of users.

The Open Source Development Labs has voiced cautious optimism that its latest initiative could finally herald a mass-market for Linux on the desktop. OSDL is pushing ahead with Project Portland, to develop a common set of core technical requirements for Linux and open source software on the desktop, following a meeting of 47 companies and organizations it hosted earlier this month. Portland has identified a core set of areas, spanning the interface, plug-and-play, drivers and the kernel, that OSDL members will flesh out.

A new study on the major players in the Unix server market has declared IBM the clear customer favorite and brought to light some serious issues with Sun Microsystems' product line. Most alarmingly for Sun, the company appears to have lost its cachet as the dominant Unix player and done so while alienating customers. Sun finished last in almost every one of the Gabriel Consulting Group survey's categories, spanning technology performance, customer satisfaction and software tools.

Microsoft has decided which icon it will use for RSS feeds in Internet Explorer 7. Now, I hear you say, so what? Well, the funny thing is, Microsoft teamed up with the Mozilla team on this one. They decided that it's in the user's best interest that both browsers use the same icon for RSS. And so it happened that Microsoft chose Firefox's icon.

The Amanith Framework is a cross-platform (Linux, Win32, MacOS X, FreeBSD and IRIX) open source C++ framework for vector graphics. The new 0.2 release adds support for MacOS X Tiger (XCode 2.2) and implements a new drawboard in OpenVG/SVG style, built on top of OpenGL. Version 0.2 has been released today.

Microsoft on Wednesday clinched Common Criteria security certification from the US government's National Information Assurance Partnership for six versions of its flagship Windows OS. At the Security Summit East here, Microsoft announced that all the products earned the EAL 4 + (Evaluation Assurance Level), which is the highest level granted to a commercial product.

The first version of the Mozilla Foundation's Thunderbird was a serviceable e-mail client; the latest version may be a great one. At first, Thunderbird Version 1.0 made a good impression. On a longer acquaintance, however, problems such as poor search functionality and memory leaks tarnished its reputation. Now, with Thunderbird 1.5 Release Candidate Two in hand, the program stands poised to regain its good name and far, far more.

The second milestone of the development of Ubuntu Linux 6.04 "Dapper Drake" has been reached: There is now a new graphical x86 CD bootloader screen, using gfxboot; default vga16fb resolution changed to 640x400; new udev-based PCMCIA infrastructure supporting the new kernel etc.

PCStats is going to look at the new features which Microsoft plans to bring to the table with Internet Explorer 7, and examine how the underlying unctionality of the browser has changed to better protect your computer.

GNOME 2.13.3 has been released. As with the Linux kernel, odd-numbered releases are developmental releases; meaning that 2.13 is the developmental branch for 2.14. You can compile it using these jhbuild modulesets. Detailed notes on the release can be found here: platform, desktop, and bindings.

The gospel according to LUA (least-privileged user account) took center stage at Microsoft's Security Summit East here with a pair of Redmond consultants pitching the idea of a well-funded security deployment repository to help developers create applications for non-admin users. The LUA principle, which promotes the use of accounts with fewer access rights than Administrator accounts, has been largely ignored by end users, but if Aaron Margosis and Shelly Bird have their way, code writers will have a central place to get tools and training to create least-privilege applications.

When the first announcements came out that a new Sharp Zaurus would "run Linux," the Linux community was abuzz with fascination and rumors. Years later, there are still handheld devices running Linux that draw inspiration and ideas from Sharp's work, even though the Linux-based Zaurus has faded to obscurity in the U.S. market. In this article Peter Seebach dismantles the Zaurus SL-5600 to get a better look into history. Elsewhere, Linux boots on Palm devices.

As the end of the year approaches, it appears that virtualization's time in the open source spotlight has all but come. Whether it is because of the machinations of companies like XenSource or analyst endorsement, emulating an enterprise-class infrastructure environment using open source has been on the rise in 2005. And, now, it looks ready to burst next year.