"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!"

Kellen wrote a nice introduction to incremental encrypted backups which might be useful to Linux users who've never setup anything similar. Often Encryption isn't given a lot of focus when creating remote backups; but if you don't trust the remote host it is essential.

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.

Trusted Computing is generally associated with Microsoft, and, as of a short time ago, now Apple as well. On the other hand, little time is spent on the idea of integrating Trusted Platform Module support deep into GNU/Linux and other Free Software desktops. Maybe it is time for that to change.

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.

"After discussing this with several people I have decided to stop working on EGL and Xgl. The recent work on EXA is going to have the side effect of pushing out any hope for an Xgl release by a year or more. By extending the 2D drivers to accelerate composite end user demand for Xgl will also be reduced. I can not justify devoting further time to this project without reasonable hope of it reaching completion."

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.

Echo2 is an open source Java web development framework that aims to simplify the development of web applications using the AJAX model. I read the online tutorial, downloaded the library and wrote a simple test application to see if Echo2 lives up to its promise.

"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.

"The objective of this whitepaper is to explain some of the features and benefits provided by FreeBSD, and where applicable, compare those features to Linux. This paper provides a starting point for those interested in exploring open source alternatives to Linux."

One of the big unknowns of the Apple Switch that not many people are talking about right now is Rosetta, the translation software that Intel-based Macs will use to run legacy PPC binaries. Prior to the release of the first Intel-based Mac it's difficult to assess just what kind of performance Rosetta will yield on the majority of legacy OS X software. Will most legacy PPC apps be usable? Mostly usable? Barely usable?

NetBSD has been ported to toaster. At the LinuxWorld Expo in San Fransisco, the NetBSD Project showed off a toaster running NetBSD.

Sun Microsystems this week matured a bit as an x86 server vendor by kicking off a broad partnership with VMware that will see the companies team on engineering and sales efforts. Of most immediate help to customers is the support of VMware's highest-end partitioning product - ESX Server - with Sun's line of Opteron-based hardware.

Do you think the pixel is the only unit of measurement for building graphical displays? Come on, you can measure better than that! This article offers tips for user-friendly HTML layout and interface design, and explains why pixels aren't always the best unit for the job.