Enterprise Linux software maker Red Hat Tuesday announced that it has appointed Brian Stevens as its new chief technology officer and vice president of engineering.

"SWT is a growing Java GUI toolkit that is making inroads into commercial and corporate development because of its cross-platform interface to the operating system's native GUI toolkits. However, deploying SWT applications across an enterprise environment can be tricky and tedious if not done correctly. Using Java WebStart can bring these great looking applications to the desktop while eliminating manual deployment and updates for the IT department and end users."

Apple reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $430 million (E358 million), or 50 cents (E0.42) per share, on revenue of $3.68 billion (E3.06 billion). That compares with earnings of $106 million (E88 miillon), or 13 cents (E0.11) per share, on revenue of $2.35 billion (E1.96 billion) for the same period a year earlier. The most recent quarter's earnings included a benefit from tax-related issues. Excluding that benefit, Apple would have had earnings of 38 cents (E0.32) per share. Sales were somewhat less than some analysts were projecting, and investors sent shares down more than 10 percent in after-hours trading. Apple said it sold 1.24 million Macs and 6.45 million iPods during the past quarter.

"Debian is one of the most common Linux distributions in the world. With a possible total of fourteen CDs, it is also one of the biggest. As you may have gathered from the fact that this guide exists, Debian is not the easiest Linux distribution. However, anybody that is relatively competent with computers should be able to use Debian, and this guide is here to help you get started."

"Quartz is the heart and soul of Mac OS X's graphics layer, which directly supports the defining features of the Aqua desktop experience. Quartz is largely based upon Adobe's PDF specification, but it has roots tracing all the way back to PostScript. The two defining components of Quartz are Quartz Compositor and Quartz 2D. Tiger introduced Quartz 2D Extreme and Quartz Composer, an alternative way to explore the power of Quartz through a powerful visual programming environment."

Hot on the heels of yesterdays interview of Sun's Florian Reuter (part one in a series of three), comes a two-page interview with OpenOffice.org's Gary Edwards. In this installment, Gary discusses the importance of open document formats and hints to the release date of OpenOffice.org 2.0: "No one knows for certain when OOo 2.0 stable will be released, but Mad Penguin's bet is that the stable 2.0 release will come before any recently purchased cartons of milk expire in your refrigerator."

Slimline Open Firmware provides a largely machine-independent BIOS, illustrating what is needed to initialize and boot Linux. Three of the original SLOF developers discuss the development and usage of SLOF, initialization/boot source code for the PowerPC based on the Open Firmware standard.

Palm updated its low-end and upper-mid range of its PDA line with the Z22 and the TX respectively. The TX features a 312 Mhz CPU, WiFi, Bluetooth, HiRes+ 65k TFT, 100 MBs of free RAM, SD slot, but no voice recorder. The Z22 sports a 200 Mhz CPU, 24 MBs of free RAM, 160x160 CSTN 4096 color LCD and no voice recorder, SD slot, headphone jack or IrDA. Reviews here, here, here and here.

As promised, Microsoft on Tuesday issued nine separate security patches, fixing vulnerabilities in DirectX, Exchange, Internet Explorer, and Windows itself. Three of the fixes were deemed "critical," four "important," and two "moderate".

"Overall - DesktopBSD is a pleasure to run and a breeze to install. It is an excellent choice for a new BSD user, a not terribly sophisticated computer user, or an old salt who just wants a good, solid, reliable desktop that won't take days to install and weeks to configure and just wants to get on with it."

"Xara is pleased to announce that it intends to make its flagship graphics product, Xara X, open oource. Xara is also working to bring it to the Linux and Mac platforms. Xara X is the world's fastest and we believe the most versatile graphics software. It's primarily a vector graphics program but is one of the new generation of cross-over products that handles photos and drawings with equal ease."

As smartphone prices decline, they have become more popular every day. Symbian, PalmOS, Windows Mobile and Linux seem to be the big names in this high-end market of phones, all showcasing PDA-like features, native toolkits and fast processors. Today we are looking at one of the most popular Linux smartphones (especially in Asia), the Motorola E680i, which was released around May 2005 and was graciously provided by Geeks.com for this article.

Microsoft is nearing a settlement of RealNetworks' long-running antitrust lawsuit with a deal valued at $750 million (E624 million), according to reports. Under terms of the settlement, which could still fall through, Microsoft would offer a combination of cash and promotions for RealNetworks' music and game services through Microsoft's online services and software, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. In addition, the newspaper said, the two companies would collaborate on technology initiatives in the future. Update: It's official.

"As of Intel's launch on Monday, the dual-core Xeon's are finally here. Can Dell start rejoicing, now that they can put out a dual-core offering to compete with Opteron-based systems? Not exactly. The dual-core Xeon is big, hot, and really expensive. It's also, by Intel's own admission, destined to have a really short tenure at the top of the Intel x86 processor heap."