The latest version of GNUStep's StepTalk was recently posted. StepTalk is a language independent scripting framework providing access to GNUStep's functionality, including the ability to dynamically load modules, utilize various programming languages, and other good stuff. This version contains a few additions and subtractions from the previous one.

The Gnome Project released version 2.12 yesterday. We had a quick look at it by using the latest Gnome Live CD (1.12-pre) and Foresight 0.9.0 (2.12 final) and here are our thoughts over 2.12 and Gnome's status in general.

The Mandriva developers have released the first (and maybe final) release candidate of Mandriva 2006.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer delivered keynote addresses from the Microsoft Redmond Conference Center that were broadcast via satellite to customer events being held simultaneously throughout the USA and at major Microsoft subsidiaries around the world. You can find links to the webcasts here.

Here is an interview with the CEO of Opera. "There are obviously some users who go between Opera and Mozilla. They have Opera one week, Mozilla the next week, and back to Opera... But we have a shared common goal: we would actually like to see open standards prevail."

"The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 6.0-BETA4. ISO images are available for i386, amd64, pc98, alpha, powerpc, and ia64. Sparc64 is still in the process of being built and will be uploaded as soon as it is ready."

IBM has unveiled a major upgrade to its flagship platform with the launch of Lotus Notes and Domino 7. Lotus D7 includes new collaboration features and tools designed to improve productivity for IT administrators and corporate developers, as well as new productivity enhancements to help Lotus Notes users work more efficiently. They are available for multiple platforms including AIX, Solaris and Linux.

Here's a brand new series of tutorials (free reg. req.) to help you learn Linux fundamentals and prepare for system administrator certification exam 201, however they are of use to anyone willing to learn the fundamentals of Linux. These eight tutorials cover the Linux kernel, file and service sharing, system customization and automation, and more.

"Today, the GNOME Project celebrates the release of GNOME 2.12, the latest version of the popular, multi-platform free desktop environment." Important changes include, but are not limited to: Clearlooks set to default theme, improved file manager (Nautilus), new document viewer (Evince), and much more. The release notes are here, download information can be found here.

Confirming long-standing rumours, Apple has today announced the iTunes-enabled phone together with Motorola in a special press event. The phone will automatically pause when you get a call, explained Jobs. The ROKR can only hold about 100 songs, according to Jobs. "The way we think of this phone is, it's really an iPod shuffle on your phone," he explained. "Both devices can shuffle, both can autofill, neither has a click wheel - but the phone has a display." Meanwhile, Microsoft joins hands with Orange to challenge Apple Motorola iTunes Phone.

"Novell today announced SUSE Linux 10.0 will be available in retail and online stores in early October 2005. SUSE Linux 10.0 is uniquely designed among Linux distributions to create an easy, user-friendly experience, delivering everything that enthusiasts and home users need to get started with Linux." This release is the first to recieve input from the OpenSUSE project.

Intel, AMD, IBM and all other chipmakers are doomed. In any case, that's the case if you were to believe the claims made by the Atom Chip Corporation, "which maintains it will show off a 2TB diskless notebook based on a 6.8GHz 'quantum-optical' microprocessor at next January's Consumer Electronics Show." Pictures of the notebook and various parts are available. Whether these claims hold truth is of course under debate, "but Gendlin (creator) has his patent - and more pending, apparently - and so we look forward to seeing Atom Chip's kit in the flesh at CES."

The San Jose, Calif.-based hardware maker is expected to unveil a new generation of AMD Opteron-based servers, known by the code-name Galaxy, at an event in New York City. There, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s executives are expected to detail four new machines, along with its plans for software and services surrounding them.

MontaVista Software today announced the release of version 4.0 of its embedded Linux OS, MontaVista Linux Professional Edition. The new release is based on the 2.6 Linux kernel and includes hard real-time capabilities.