The Java programming language is powerful, but it has significant limitations for lightweight development. For certain problems, other programming languages such as Ruby may lead to better productivity. This article shows you what's important for productivity in an application's language.

"With release, Apple was tested - and they failed miserably. Not only did I warn Apple to take 95 more seriously, I also accurately forecast the massive decline that would happen to them if they didn't do just that. The MS platform has changed dramatically and it is much greater than just the operating system these days. Apple, on the other hand, hasn't advanced nearly as much but they are predominantly consumer-based today and less vulnerable to this comparative weakness as a result. Just like the last time, they will largely leverage hardware this time, and, as before, they will be up against companies with resources that eclipse their own."

Exigo is a new desktop environment project, being developed in Python and C++ using GTK+ as the GUI toolkit. The main aims of Exigo are usability, simplicity, and flexibility. Exigo also aims to introduce new concepts to the desktop, such as the use of tabs instead of standard windows. It mainly revolves around a desktop search engine, which indexes all your applications and files, and displays a list of matching files and apps when the user searches for something. See a mockup here, and read docs here. Please note that there is no release yet.

"Writing a tips article is tricky. Especially for such a hallowed and 'hardcore' distribution as Slackware. Veteran users want incredibly good tips. New users considering giving Slack a whirl, and who may be afraid of the BSD-style and command line mystique, want tips that bring accessibility and understanding to Slackware. Find that balance here. From simple bash techniques, to assuring your anonynimity on public Wi-Fi, this article will walk you through the Slackware tips most valuable to you."

In a recent interview, ESR shocked a lot of people when he said, "We don't need the GPL anymore." Federico Biancuzzi recently contacted RMS, founder of the Free Software Movement and initial developer of the GNU system (the G in "GLAMP"), to talk about the past, the present, and the future of the GNU GPL. Among other things, they discussed the new clauses of the upcoming GPL version 3.

Graphics drivers developed for Vista, Microsoft's next generation operating system, will be far more stable than their Windows XP-based counterparts, and not crash the operating system anymore, an executive of graphics chip developer ATI said.

Powerscale4ppc (Power and Frequency Scaling for the IBM PowerPC 970) is an IBM free-trial emerging technology power management solution that demonstrates a power management implementation for the PPC970FX and CPC925 bridge chips on the Maple-D PC970FX evaluation platform running on Linux. This technology demonstrates how to dynamically scale the system’s operating frequency from F to F/2, in order to create a cooler, more power-efficient system.

ExtremeTech concludes its Hacking Firefox series with a how-to on tweaking navigation and tab browing settings in Firefox. Some hacks are pretty basic; other hacks involve a little programming.

The wraps have been taken off of new Palm PDAs. The most notable one is the new Treo 700w: a 1.0 megapixel camera, EV-DO, Bluetooth, 64MB of memory, and, most notably, Windows Mobile 5.0. A new Zire (Z22) and Tungsten (TX) have also been revealed.

"Usually, a distro's most recognizable feature is the desktop environment. With SymphonyOS, the screenshots are the first hint that this is not your ordinary remix. SymponyOS is a bold step into a new desktop paradigm. It features such innovations as the Mezzo desktop environment, the Orchestra application environment, and the apt-plus software installation tool. Ryan Quinn, the lead developer of SymphonyOS, took some time out to talk with me about the distro and a few other subjects."

This article gives you a good understanding of the fundamental principles of Ajax and a nuts-and-bolts knowledge of the client and server side components that participate in an Ajax interaction. These are the building blocks of a Java-based Ajax Web application. In addition, you will be shown some of the high-level design issues that come with the Ajax approach.

Castle have issued a new RISC OS 5 ROM for brave Iyonix users to beta test. Version 5.10 is mainly a bug fixing exercise, and coincides with a USB mass storage update that also corrects a few glitches. "It is intended that these updates will go in general circulation in a few days time, unless anything hugely untoward crops up. We have been running these for a while now," said Castle's John Ballance. This update also includes the updated GeForce 2 driver, bringing 3D acceleration to RISC OS.

As of September 20, 2005, you can download object code (free reg. req.) for the PowerPC 405 and PowerPC 440 core models for Open SystemC-compatible EDA design tools. The code is useful for software engineers interested in developing boot firmware, operating system, or application code for a PowerPC-based chip. Also, for hardware engineers interested in architecture decision support, early benchmarking, or high-level system design trade-offs.

"The amazing thing isn't that Windows beat the pants off Unix; it's that so many of the Unix companies survived until today. Linux came into the field though with two big advantages over the Unixes. The first was that it was open-source. The second advantage was it had Linus Torvalds." In other news, here you can read what various people have to say about the restructuring operation at Microsoft.