In the future, PCs infected with worms or viruses may try to contain the plague by putting themselves in quarantine. Automatic Network Outbreak Containment was one of a number of future technologies shown off on the final day of the Intel Developer Conference in San Francisco.

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.

The idea of porting RISC OS to x86 comes up regularly, and although it sounds like a good idea, it's not. This article discusses the problems, and why in reality, it's simply not a good use of resources.

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.

FreeBSD 6.0-BETA3 has been released to ftp. You can select a mirror near you from this list. There's no announcement yet, however, the release has been uploaded on August 24th.

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.

When Google unveiled its instant messaging client yesterday, there was only one problem: Google Talk requires a Gmail account, which has been invitation-only since its beta debut in 2004. This changed on Thursday, however, as Google opened Gmail to anyone in the United States with a mobile phone. Other countries will follow.

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.

"Onebase Linux DevelopGo is a special Live-CD released by the Onebase Linux Project. As the name indicates, it is meant exclusively for programmers. Although I am a Windows programmer, I was searching for such a Live-CD that would allow me to experiment with different types of toolkits and IDEs available in Linux. Onebase DevelopGo matched exactly what I wanted to have with a suite of developer tools and compilers."

"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."

Head-Tracking Pointer is an application that, using an inexpensive camera, lets users control a mouse pointer by aiming their face around the screen. It works with virtually any camera that can be connected to a computer, and without the user wearing anything. This solution provides computer access for those unable to use traditional pointing devices due to temporary or permanent physical impairment.

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.

Here is a review of E17. "On the whole, I am very happy with the new Enlightenment. On their homepage, the Enlightenment team states "We believe your desktop should not be an eyesore. It should be functional AND beautiful." They are doing well on both fronts." Screenshots included.

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.