Mandriva has long had its Linux fans, but it's recently been turning its efforts toward the business and desktop markets and, if CEO François Bancilhon has anything to do with it, Mandriva will become as big a Linux name as Red Hat and Novell in the enterprise.

"BeleniX is a free live CD based on the OpenSolaris kernel. With it you can have Solaris, which once ran exclusively on SPARC, powering your modest desktop computer. But with few applications and lacking an installation script, the Live CD does little more than slake a nerd's thirst for a taste of Solaris."

"Every year the Inquirer announces nominations for awards but with a little difference. Often the nominations are there because products or strategies have made just that, little difference. This time round we've invited nominations from our team of worldwide hacks and those who could be bothered have come up with a list of contenders for the Gongs of Little Difference."

"FreeBSD is an enterprise-grade operating system that leaves little to be desired. Most people have tried Linux by now, but a surprisingly large number of people have not yet taken FreeBSD for a spin. Now may well be the optimal time to take the plunge, as FreeBSD 6.0 provides the same rock-solid stability for which FreeBSD is known, and also implements some outstanding new features."

"With the recent introduction of dual-core processors come more questions about system performance. Does a dual-core computer really perform better than a single-core CPU? How does it compare to a true multi-CPU system? What about Hyper-Threading Technology -- is it a thing of the past? Read on for an explanation of dual-core processors and symmetric multiprocessing and what it means to your computing experience."

Virtualization allows you to have multiple "virtual machines," each with its own operating systems running in a sandbox, shielded from each other, all in one physical machine. Each virtual machine shares a common set of hardware, unaware that it is also being used by another virtual machine at the same time. More here.

3D has practically taken over video gaming. Lifelike, if not very pleasant, worlds exist aplenty--worlds that most users find easily navigable without any training whatsoever. Is the world of spreadsheets, word processors, and the like just unsuitable for 3D? Is it a case of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Or is it that we've lacked imagination? John Littler recently talked to Hideya Kawahara about an open source 3D desktop project that he started and that Sun subsequently took under its wing.

An unwritten consensus in the IT industry is that data shared between object-oriented software and relational databases is best exchanged with object/relational (O/R) mapping frameworks where the entity relationship (ER) model follows the object-oriented model. This article proposes a reversed, lightweight approach supported by a small framework called Amber.

The Iyonix desktop graphics acceleration package Geminus has been officially launched after last month's initial beta release. ArtWorks, Oregano 2, MessengerPro, PDF and similar applications will benefit from Geminus's ability to speed up graphics that are repeatedly drawn on the screen. It is understood there are early plans to make the acceleration available for the RiscPC and A9home platforms. Blueprints also include future support for digital DVI output and alleviating the need for physical modifications to be made to Iyonix video cards for them to work on RISC OS.

Raquel Velasco and Bill Buck have announced that there will be a new developer program similar to the one with the Open Desktop Workstation for the Open Server Workstation (dual 970MP) and the EFIKA 5k2 board. If you are interested to apply please send an email directly to Genesi.

Intel's chairman chided plans by rival AMD and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to build a $100 laptop for the developing world. At a press conference in Sri Lanka on Friday, Craig Barrett said that potential computer users would scoff at the computer's lack of features. Barrett also said the device isn't worthy of being called a laptop. "I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget'," he mused. "The problem is that gadgets have not been successful."

"These machines are the ultimate in small form factor, trading power and performance for size, portability and convenience. The navigation of this tradeoff is of paramount concern: give up too much power, and the device is useless; too little, and it'll be inconveniently large. I've taken a look at how two products, The BlackDog Pocket Linux Server and the Waysmall 200BT, navigate these waters."

"Mandriva Linux 2006, released last month, feels very much like a natural evolution of earlier Mandrake releases - in both good and bad ways. As I tested the PowerPack edition, I was disappointed to find many of the same rough edges that drove me away from Mandrake still present in this new incarnation."

International technology standards organization Ecma voted Thursday to approve the creation of a technical committee to begin looking into standardization of Microsoft Office's Open XML document format. The effort has been backed by Apple, Intel and Toshiba. The vote to create the committee would have been unanimous, however OpenDocument supporter IBM voted against the proposal while HP abstained. Critics outside of Ecma questioned the organization's move to standardize what they consider to be a proprietary format. Micorsoft submitted its new Office format to Ecma a few weeks ago.