"Based on an operating system called GEOS that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Breadbox Ensemble is a small (a full installation weighs in at under 10 MB) and fast suite of incredibly useful programs. While small, Breadbox Ensemble has a graphical user interface that mimics the look and feel of the Windows desktop." Read more...

Microsoft has once again stirred up a hornets nest in the open-source community, this time approaching the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) to work with it on a joint, independent research project to do some facts-based analysis of Linux and Windows.

"Seigo has been working with the KDE project for some time, and is now working on the KDE Plasma project, a new direction in the way that users will work with the desktop. We asked Seigo if he'd spend a little time talking about the new project, and the direction of KDE, and he kindly obliged. Read on for an interesting look at what's going on with KDE."

It took 18 months for it to happen, but the hand of Bechtolsheim is about to touch Sun Microsystems. One of the more impressive features of the Becky Boxes is the way components can be replaced. Disk drives can be removed from the front of the system without pulling the box from the server rack and power supplies can be yanked from the back. Administrators can also remove fans by pulling the server only about 10 inches out of a rack. The system will ship in the same chassis as Sun's upcoming Niagara-based systems.

Just over a year ago, Tim Butler wrote an article which outlined why he thought the GNOME Project was clearly the free software desktop project with the best vision of the future. KDE’s Appeal Project, which has been brewing for some time now, looks to a different set of issues that need solving and has some very smart minds at work on solving those problems. In a few words, KDE’s got some of “that vision thing” too, according to Tim.

It appears that Marcus Overhagen, a well-known BeOS developer, has been recieving threats from YellowTAB. Marcus writes: "Using an alleged NDA (non disclosure agreement) breach, he promises to undertake everything that is possible to sue me. He claimes that even this mail is protected by the NDA that I signed with Yellowtab, but I'm certain that it doesn't apply here. At the end, he says that a copy of that mail was sent to their lawyer, who is now checking legal measures against me."

Got some spare time and an itch to try out the latest Haiku snapshot? Karl writes in with an easy install method for anyone wanting to try Haiku, using a BeOS Max Live CD.

Windows Vista beta testers have stumbled upon a networking feature in the operating system that could pose a security risk to them - but they say they're not worried.

Apple has announced a worldwide warranty extension for 1st generation iMac G5s. "The iMac G5 Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues applies to first generation iMac G5 computers that have video or power-related issues as a result of a specific component failure."

A brighter picture and less wires are some of the advantages to a new display standard for PCs, TVs and projectors being reviewed by the Video Electronics Standards Association, or VESA. Called DisplayPort, it allows for more colors, better resolution and refresh rates, and connections involving fewer cables.

Smart cards take the functions you've come to expect in magnetic swipe cards to a whole new level: they can contain a large amount of data and even executable programs. The Java Card spec brings the power of the Java language to smart cards. This article shows you how to use the Java Card to build Kerberos-based security to a mobile application with Java Card applets.

I have just posted a new OSNews feature, email notification on comment reply. It's not the only change we made around here today. Read on for further details.

SUSE Linux 10.0 Beta 2 has been released. Changes since beta 1 include: OpenOffice.org is part of the distribution again (the Sun Java dependency is optional now), XEN3 support got added, Gnome was updated to 2.12 beta 2, Hotplug changed heavily, and KDE received work on multimedia system and the media handling. Download mirrors are here, screenshots here.

After a long stretch of bad news for a company whose software once turned words such as "PDA" and "Palm Pilot" into household names, PalmSource is finally showing signs that maybe, just maybe, it can field the right product, at the right time, to turn its luck around.