"QEMU is an open source cross-platform emulator for Linux hosts. It allows you to emulate a number of hardware architectures (x86, x86-64, and PowerPC are currently known to work, with others, including SPARC and MIPS, in development). QEMU thereby lets you run another operating system on top of your existing OS. Going through the process of installing and configuring QEMU not only gave me a worthwhile new software tool, but also helped me learn a few things about Linux."

According to recent news, global shipments of smartphones are up 75% in Q3 2005, with PDA-only handheld shipments falling 18% and converged devices more than doubled in volume. So, what are the tech-inclined OSNews readers are opting for? Come in and vote.

From Distrowatch.com: "BeleniX is the first live CD based on the OpenSolaris source base that boots into a full graphical desktop (with XFce). Developed at the India Engineering Centre of Sun Microsystems in Bangalore, BeleniX is trying to popularise OpenSolaris in the growing open source user and developer community in India and abroad." OSDir provides the screenshots, as usual.

While demonstrating the rudiments of anonymous methods, Paul Kimmel answers the question "Are anonymous methods just someone being a bit too clever?"

"The philosophy of Arch is simply simplicity. The user is in total control of the system. There are no flashy GUI installers - only a simple ncurses based installer that is easy to use and does its job well. No services ae started by default and their rc.conf is a thing of beauty - very simple to understand and maintain."

PPCNux (German) as well as Pegasos-Forum (German) report about new information about Genesi's new G5 based mainboard. The mainboard which will feature the PowerPC 970MP CPU will have the new microBTX format (26.4x26.7cm/10.4"x10.5"). As system controller IBM's 945 northbridge was chosen which is the corresponding version of the current PowerMac's system controller. ATI will provide the graphics chipset for the new mainboard. It is currently not known which product name the mainboard will have. In addition, Mupper 1.0 has been released.

The 2nd beta of Windows' new shell (Monad) has been released for use with the just released .NET 2.0. "The Windows 'Monad' Shell is a new interactive command-line and task-based scripting technology in Windows that enables administrators to more efficiently and securely automate and control system management tasks on both desktops and servers." Download for x64 and x86.

CosmoPOD offers free remote KDE desktops over NX. Anyone can sign up to have their own desktop accessible from any computer with a network connection. CosmoPOP uses KDE's Kioskstyle.html framework to ensure security for their system. To find out more about the service and why KDE was the chosen desktop, KDE Dot News spoke to the man behind CosmoPOD, Stephen Ensor.

Now that full complement of 12544 Power5 processors have been installed, the Blue Gene/L supercomputer has hit 260 teraflops. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and IBM unveiled the Blue Gene/L supercomputer on Thursday and announced that it has broken its own record again for the world's fastest supercomputer.

BentUser has Part II of an in depth preview of Windows Vista, which includes a look at some more Vista features as well as some analysis of overall performance, including a numerical comparison with Windows XP. Also takes a look at the new error reporting/self healing features and the cross-computer syncing features.

The Free Software Foundation is just weeks away from announcing the roadmap and process that will govern the release of the first draft of the rewritten GNU General Public License.

Gregory John Casamento just announced the release of Gorm 1.0 on the gnustep mailing lists. Gorm is the GNUstep graphical interface builder which let you easily create GUI applications.

Hyperion Entertainment, creator of various Linux game ports and currently working on the next generation Amiga OS, has now unveiled their new dedicated Amiga OS 4.0 website. It showcases important features and is targeted to current and new users as well as potential OEM clients.

According to some, one of the adoption problems of the Gnome development platform is the lack of good documentation for new developers. And so the GNOME Foundation has hired Shaun McCance as a contractor to write such documentation. Elsewhere, the Gnome developers discuss about which new apps should be included in the upcoming Gnome 2.14 release.