The new gcc 4.0 compiler shipped with Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 makes use of a new component, the loop vectorizer. This allows gcc to compile code that will take advantage of altivec optimizations without the need for the developer to explicitly use altivec code.

An anonymous commenter on OSNews posted the snarky comment, "There is no OpenSolaris. Show us the code or quit mentioning it." That made a couple of Sun engineers angry enough to fight back on their blogs, and the battle is now immortalized in a ZD Net article. Well, Mr. Anonymous commenter, you have been inducted into the OSNews Troll hall of fame. A plaque of a blank face representing you will be posted in our Troll hall of fame, under the bridge.

In a continuing look at the Mac mini as an embedded development platform, this article shows how to rapidly prototype a simple application, looking at the variety of tools and glue available natively in Mac OS X.

PalmOne plans to announce later this month its first hard drive-based product line, broadening its device portfolio and leading another trend in the handheld market.

Mono 1.1.7 is out, more information here.

Fortress is a new language for from a team that includes Guy Steele, Common Lisp guru and contributor of Java. Language is introduced as the "next Fortran". Fortress language spec and an early overview.

Why did computers come to adopt the GUI as their primary mode of interaction, and how did the GUI evolve to be the way it is today?

James Gosling sees new uses for the programming language he created 10 years ago, such as making his home-entertainment system work right.

Ubuntu Down Under (UDU) was the third Ubuntu conference and was held in Sydney, Australia. The first was held in Oxford, United Kingdom and the second one in Barcelona, Spain. The conference went for a whole week, starting on Monday 25th of April.

Apple Computer released 20 patches for its OS X operating system designed to fix flaws that could catch users off-guard. The vulnerabilities apply to Mac OS X v10.3.9 and Mac OS X Server 10.3.9, according to Apple's advisory. The advisory also falls just days after Apple's much ballyhooed release of the latest version of its operating system, Mac OS X 10.4, widely known as Tiger.

A developer who's spent five years working on Java/J2EE applications for the enterprise takes Mono for a spin. He's a self-described Java lover, and isn't afraid to say it. What does he think of Mono?

Mobile security is a hot issue, but who is listening? The mere word 'security' sends most people running. Investing in preventative IT security has never been a very popular topic. It often needs a competitor or an organisation itself to become a victim of crime before senior executives sit up and listen. read more

After more than two years in the making, DarwinPorts 1.0 is now available in binary and in source form. The DarwinPorts Project's main goal is to provide an easy way to install various open-source software products on the Darwin OS family (OpenDarwin, Mac OS X and Darwin).

The suit claims that the "Free Software Foundation has entered into contracts and otherwise conspired and agreed with individual software authors and commercial distributors of commodity software products such as Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc. to artificially fix the prices charged for computer software programs through the promotion and use of an adhesion contract that was created, used and promoted since at least the year 1991 by the Free Software Foundation" Update: A Groklaw article casts some serious doubt on the validity of the suit and sheds some light on serious inaccuracies in the Linux Business News article linked above.