It would seem that the upcoming release of Microsoft's Windows Vista does not seem like a good thing for the desktop Linux community. After all, this update to Windows XP is going to focus on two attributes which have pushed users to Linux for years- security and stability. Upon closer inspection though, the move to Vista may be the perfect time for the Linux community to make headway on the desktop and increase its user base dramatically. The number of features which Microsoft has cast aside since Longhorn and the hardware requirements of Vista have set the stage for a large scale move to desktop Linux.

This question and answer article features WebSphere consultant Roland Barcia, who talks about developing J2EE and Web services applications on Rational Application Developer V6. You can download the Linux version of Rational Application Developer V6 here.

AROS Developer Adam Chodorowski is interviewed at The AROS Show. AROS community have also, been discussing browsers and work on numerous drivers has taken place in recent months.

I've just incremented the OSNews version number from 3.0 to 3.1. I'm not really sure if now is too early or too late to make this change, but some fairly large backend changes have occured recently that prompted me to revisit whether or not this is really the same site that 3.0 was at rollout. Anyway, there's a nice new feature that comes along with the change to 3.1 -- THREADING. Read on to find out about it.

For off Windows XP machines offer several options - including hibernate, stand by and shut down. However, many users don't know the difference. What's worse, however, is that applications and drivers can veto a user's decision to hibernate or similar. In Vista however, applications will be warned that a computer is entering sleep and have a second or two to save what ever they need to, but the programs won't get a say in whether the machine slumbers.

The third beta of SUSE 10.0 has been released. The most important highlight is the PPC version, which is now also available. Furthermore, a lot of bugs have been fixed too.

After getting approval from shareholders to take over Macromedia, Adobe must now overcome competition worries. Adobe took another step towards completing its takeover of digital media company Macromedia on Wednesday, after both company's shareholders approved the deal.

The three companies behind the PowerPC CPU known as "Cell", have released details about the CPU in order to try and shake the image that it's only good for gaming.

"Kadischi is an application for Fedora-based Live CD generation. It is still in the early stage of development, but has basic functionality and can be run successfuly. If you are interested, you can download it via CVS and try it out. All comments and suggestions are welcome."

What is Cell? The Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (CBEA, or, informally, "Cell") defines a new processor structure based upon the 64-bit Power Architecture technology, but with unique features directed toward distributed processing and media-rich applications. This article provides a concise view inside the Cell's architecture.

Microsoft officials have admitted one of their biggest challenges in continuing to grow the company's Windows business is the impression among some of its installed base that older Windows versions are good enough. The users of Windows 95, which turns ten years old on Wednesday, are a case in point. Elsewhere, here is a story about the launch of Windows 95 exactly 10 years ago.

GNOME 2.12 RC1 has been released. Download: platform, desktop and bindings.

Intel, happy with its success launching the Centrino brand, on Wednesday introduced a new brand called VIIV for entertainment PCs. One feature of VIIV will be automatic transcoding--ensuring that audio or video encoded in one format can be translated into one the user's computer can actually handle without user intervention. Another feature will be instant shutdown and start-up that will work as fast as it does in consumer electronic devices such as DVD players.

The MorphOS team has released MorphOS 1.4.5 PowerUp for Commodore A1200, A3000 and A4000 computers equipped with PowerPC accelerator cards by phase5 & DCE. The MorphOS team does not provide any support, but community support is here.