What can we do to make the Windows desktop GUI more efficient? I admit that I'm addicted to "tweaking", which is what I consider to be finding new ways to make myself most efficient with standard tools from Microsoft.

Terra Soft Solutions, Inc. is pleased to announce the immediate release of 64-bit Yellow Dog Linux.

Microsoft has a number of ideas, which it is sharing with its hardware and software partners, as to how to ratchet up Windows desktop revenues by billions per year.

The 'Hoary Hedgehog' release of Ubuntu Linux is here, and the Free Agent likes what he sees.

In the second part of my Open Source advocacy series, Trust and Zeal in Open Source Advocacy, the article covers the importance of trust and the potential risks of zeal in pushing Open Source forward and creating change.

What's the easiest way to ensure that GPS tracking technology doesn't become the tool of an evil elite? Make sure everyone has access to it! For people already thinking along these lines, the availability of tracking technologies such as RFID tags and (GPS) chipsets is confirmation that we're all living in a Panopticon. The saving grace is that the CIA and the Trilateral Commission don't have a monopoly on these technologies -- maybe we can turn a world of mass observation to our benefit.

"As a test release, Fedora Core 4 Test 2 shows just how good FC4 will be when it's officially releases. Should you punt FC3 and upgrade? Frankly, not on your primary system unless you don't need the guarantees of an official, complete release." Read the rest of the preview here.

OneStat.com today reported that Mozilla's browsers (all Gecko-based browsers except Netscape) have a total global usage share of 8.69 percent. The total usage share of Mozilla increased 0.24 percent since February 2005. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the global browser market with a global usage share of 86,63 percent which is 0.65 percent less as at the end of February.

OpenMFG, the makers of open source ERP software, have released OpenRPT, a report writer for ad-hoc Web-based reporting. It creates graphical, embeddable reports, similar to the commercial software Crystal Reports or Microsoft Access report designer, but runs on on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It supports graphs, integrated barcodes, label printing, and watermarks and report definitions can be stored in a PostgreSQL database as XML, or exported to individual files.

Wow! With Solaris 10, Sun Microsystems has done a marvelous job of bringing Solaris fully into the x86 world. Gone are the days when Solaris only runs on Sun hardware or when it only runs well on Sun hardware. Solaris 10 comes with greatly expanded off-the-shelf x86 hardware compatibility and a license that is hard to beat. It's a binary right to use and Open Solaris, the open source version is soon to come. IT Managers that have been wanting to bring a stable, scalable Operating Environment into their network infrastructures, but who have been unwilling to commit to the Sun hardware platform, for various reasons, are now free, pun intended, to bring Solaris on board and to run it on the hardware of their choice.

What makes Tiger innovative, rather than merely iterative, is that it breaks down the barriers between the self-contained computer and the Internet. It is the first operating system to incorporate and expand upon the intensive hard-drive search popularized by Google says MacNewsWorld.

Microsoft has further watered down the Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) technology that will ship with its forthcoming Longhorn operating system. Many systems which Microsoft claims are "Longhorn ready" will not be able to support the security technology, vnunet.com has learned, and only part of the original security vision will be ready in time for the operating system's launch.

Windows 2000 is just two months away from ending free support. While there are alternatives, costly migration can cause many headaches and expenses. Do you still use Windows 2000? How are users going to be affected? You can read the story here.

This could be a decisive moment for the software market. Microsoft's big cash cow is the Windows/Office combo. If you look through the company's financial reports, you'll see that profits come mainly from Windows and Office. This means that Windows sales support the existence of other products and services. An unexpected drop in demand of Windows could cause a domino effect. At the moment this seems highly improbable because Windows desktop market share is over 90%, even though there is an increasing interest in MacOS X and Linux.