GTK+ 2.8.0 has been released. You can download it from here, and read the release notes here. GTK+ 2.8.0 depends on the Cairo vector graphics library for rendering most of the GTK+ widgets, bringing graphics capabilities as antialiased shapes, alpha blending, and gradients.

After a few months of quiet activity, the Appeal desktop project has rolled out a new project website that documents what everyone has been up to and discussing. Since the the last public announcement many things have occurred, including another Appeal meeting being held in Germany. The project is looking forward to sharing its experiences and gathering input from the general KDE developer community at aKademy 2005 later this month.

Knoppix, a Linux live CD, will boot a computer from the optical drive and give a slow but usable graphical user interface. The most recent version comes with Firefox and OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta, so if you're already using the Windows equivalent, Knoppix is that much easier to pick up. This still leaves the question, what can be done on a computer without a hard drive?

Entrepreneur Jeff Hawkins has left his palm prints all over the high-tech industry. After selling off two high-profile companies, the creator of the PalmPilot handheld computer and the Treo smart phone now works as chief technology officer at PalmOne Inc., the corporation that now churns out both those products. BizJournals interviews him.

Many reviews of Apple's new Mighty Mouse have already appeared on the web, and most of them were quite negative. Walter Mossberg even concluded: "Microsoft has beaten Apple on hardware design, at least in this one case." Are these findings correct? To find out, we put the Mighty Mouse to the test.

"It looks like the first part of my KDE 3.5 previews was extremely popular. Much more than I could ever anticipated. I even got Slashdotted. Anyway, here is the second part of the look into KDE's near future. Enjoy the tour!"

Cheetah templates are easy to understand and maintain. This article shows you how to generate any kind of text-based content quickly. One aspect of Cheetah's philosophy: "Python for the back end, Cheetah for the front end." Follow this rule of thumb, and you should have no trouble reaping the benefits of this templating system.

Intel will unveil its next-generation processor architecture in just under two weeks' time, the chip giant said today. Due to ship in H2 2006, the architecture will result in "processors that are high-performance, energy-efficient and multi-core", the company said. "New form-factors" for PCs will be enabled, it promised. The beans will officially be spilled on 23 August.

A senior Palm executive says his company could benefit from building a mobile computing device that runs on the Windows operating system made by once-bitter rival Microsoft but he is stopping short of confirming the maker will do so.

Find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions concerning Windows Vista and WinFX Basics. The Windows Vista Developer FAQ is designed to put a wealth of answers at your fingertips. From setup and hardware issues to questions about future plans and about what it all means, this FAQ is an excellent companion to the WinFX newsgroups.

The second beta of Mandriva Linux 2006 has been released. Read the release notes, and download it from one of the mirros listed on that same page. Update: screenshot gallery.

Microsoft recently posted to its Web site for download a user's guide for WAIK. Microsoft describes WAIK as "a new set of tools designed to help Original Equipment Manufacturers, system builders, and corporate IT professionals deploy Windows Vista onto new hardware." Read more.

As part of our OSNews v3 project, we have a framework in place that would allow registered users to not only comment on existing stories and suggest stories for OSNews editors, but also post their own thoughts on their own personal pages and allow others to comment on them. Read more to learn about some ideas we've had, and to give your feedback and suggestions. Most of all, we'd like to know whether this is functionality you'd be interested in using.

"It's unusual for a Beta 1 version of Windows to have both the final shipping name of the product and as many new features as this build shows. And that's a strong sign of two things. Firstly: Windows Vista remains an ambitious release of Windows, despite some of the features that Microsoft has pushed off the side of the boat. Secondly: Microsoft is trying to get serious, both internally and externally, about this development program. Windows Vista is now the company's top priority." Read on, ten pages, here.