The 5.0.59 version of Linspire was released in March of 2005. A new version 5.0.347 is now available for immediate download. This version does not add any new major functionality, as this is mainly a bug fix release that resolves some problems with the previous release. The Insiders are still beta testing new versions of Linspire that contain new drivers, new features, etc.

With the build 59 of Mustang (Java 6), Sun's Java Hotspot Client virtual machine gained substantial performance. According to some numeric intensive tests, the new register allocator mechanism provide the Client virtual machine with an average of %58 higher performance.

Apple on Thursday released an update to its developer tools bringing the Xcode package up to version 2.2. There are many changes in the recent release that affect the compilers, distributed builds, debugging and other functions.

Over a year ago we reported on the promising gaim-vv which was supposed to bring MSN/Y! webcam and voice support to Gaim, a feature sorely missed by many IM users today when running Linux. The lead developer of the gaim-vv project now says that the Gaim project leader (now employed by Google) has killed off most of his pending CVS patches and has instead replaced them with voice-only patches, patches coming from Google which are only to be used with the Google IM protocol, leaving all other voice and all video protocols in dissarray. Update: The other side has spoken explaining the situation, but unfortunately it says nothing about webcam support for now or in the future, but only about voice.

The first release candidate for PC-BSD has been released. It is based on FreeBSD 6.0, includes an improved installer and new Network Manager. This release also sees the upgrade of KDE to 3.4.3, and Linux-compatibility layer is installed by default allowing Linux PBI's to be run without having to install the compatibility layer first. Read the changelog here and the release notes here, then go here to download. Update by AS: Screenshots courtesy OSDir.

As part of a larger article about C++'s evolution, DevSource reports on a minor war in the C++ standards community. Don't get excited: the fighting is already over. At issue is whether Microsoft's compiler can say that std::copy is "deprecated" (which usually means "this feature will not be in the next version of the language") when they really mean "our compiler suggests you do not use it." Is this a silly semantic dispute or another sign that Microsoft is trying to hijaack the language?

Heise.de reports (English translation) that after talking with its customers, Novell decided that both KDE and GNOME will be equally supported in all its products, even though GNOME will be the default for the enterprise/server line. Opensuse instead will feature KDE (English translation) as the primary desktop. Both will be however developed further in the future.

"One of the often cited reasons for not switching away from MS Windows is it's breadth of commodity hardware support. The argument often goes something like this: 'Since Windows supports all the hardware I have why would I want to risk it not working under Linux? It's better to continue to use what I know will work.' While that may be true in and of itself, I'm finding this argument to involve a limited outlook."

Three of the world's biggest electronics companies - IBM, Sony and Philips - have joined forces with the two largest Linux software distributors to create a company for sharing Linux patents, royalty-free. The Open Invention Network, as the new firm unveiled Thursday is known, could mark a breakthrough in resolving how to protect vendors and customers from patent royalty disputes resulting from freely shared Linux code.

Big guns in the software industry are massing behind OpenDocument as government customers show more interest in open-source alternatives to Microsoft's desktop software. IBM and Sun convened a meeting on Friday to discuss how to boost adoption of the standardized document format for office applications. The ODF Summit brought together representatives from a handful of industry groups and from at least 13 technology companies, including Oracle, Google and Novell.

This article lists the 10 worst software bugs in computing history. "In 1945, engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark II system. The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found."

Popular blogger and Yahoo! manager Russell Beattie reveals some astounding networking numbers for Japanese mobile phone users in his blog: about 95% of these users are using their cellphones to connect to the web and retrieve information or just surf. We don't have numbers for the Europeans, but in USA the number went down to 10.9% from 12.7% in April this year. We guess that charging 10 USD per 1 MB is just too much too handle for most US customers who don't have special unlimited data plans (which can cost between 30-80 USD per month, additionally to the voice plan).

"The Luppi worm is blazing a trail with great potential for attackers. We might learn a lot about how secure Linux systems are in the next few months. While the authors are clearly still feeling their way around, there's no reason to believe that this will be a real biggie. But if someone writes a well-designed 'grab bag' worm to exploit the various bugs in PHP and other products common on Linux servers, we could have a problem on our hands."

Suse co-founder and kernel team member Hubert Mantel has resigned from Novell, the server software company that acquired the German Linux company in 2004. Mantel announced the move on a Suse Linux mailing list Tuesday, and Novell confirmed the move Wednesday. "I just decided to leave Suse/Novell. This is not (any) longer the company I founded 13 years ago," Mantel said in the e-mail. "I have been the maintainer of the Suse kernel for more than a decade now. I'm very confident the Novell management will find a competent successor very quickly."