Ark Linux has released its first stable version: after 3 years of development and testing, the Ark Linux team have decided to release the first stable version, Ark Linux 2005.1.

Flexbeta.net has got an extensive look at setting up Mandrake Linux as a firewall. The article goes deep inside the setup process from setting the firewall rules to testing and enhancing the firewall.

"It's a sad day when an ancient fork bomb attack can still take down most of the latest Linux distributions." Read through this article at Security Focus for more.

Version 1.0b6 of TextOS, the floppy-based operating system/programming language built on top of FreeDOS, was released. Released a month after the previous release, it features various bug fixes.

'Obfuscation' is to make something difficult or unusually obscure. One of the ironies of Ruby programming is the general desire of Rubyists to believe that a goal to accomplish readability in code overshadows even at times its functionality. At times to the point of obsurdity. Enter the International Obfuscated Ruby Code Contest with prizes up to $750.

Microsoft is guilty of breaking EU competition law, and has come up with a way to make amends. ZDNet dissects the resulting licence and find a very peculiar world indeed.

Nikolaos S. Karastathis of Wikinerds has interviewed Marcus Brinkmann, one of the main Hurd developers. It's an insightful interview into Marcus offering a look at how he got started hacking in general and on the Hurd in particular, his version of the recent history of Hurd development, and where he thinks the Hurd is going (hint: away from Mach and towards L4). The presentations from the Hurd developers' mini-Symposium at FOSDEM 2005 makes for good supplemental reading.

"Why do I like Gentoo? Simple: Portage package management, the hands-off approach to configuration, the excellent documentation, and the unsurpassed community support forum." Read the article at NewsForge.

KMOS, Inc. announced that it has completed all registrations to change its corporate identity to Amiga, Inc. Amiga also announced the launch of AmigaAnywhere version 1.5 and mentions a new Amiga SDK under development. For some background information with regard to this technology and a summary of past developments have a look here. Coming Sunday AmigaWorld.net will arrange a Q&A IRC session with Amiga's CEO.

Microsoft's latest offer to comply with sanctions imposed by the European Commission is insufficient to meet the concerns of customers and consumers, a European Commission spokesman said Friday.

The lack of a new stable release of Debian GNU/Linux since July 2002 is fuelling the campaigns of many candidates for the project's leadership position, with many pushing for a shorter and more regular release cycle to arrest user departures.

The Kubuntu project has released their latest test images of Hoary Hedgehog, featuring the hot-off-the-press KDE 3.4. OSDir has your sweet screenshot goodness.

Tony Iams is no stranger to operating systems. A senior analyst with Ideas International in Port Chester, New York, Iams spends much of his time working with users - and vendors - of the latest operating systems. SearchEnterpriseLinux.com sat down with Iams to discuss the recently released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL 4). In this interview, Iams talks about some of the new features of RHEL 4 and explains the direction the operating system will take in the future.

Do you use a 64bit CPU in your main computer? Come in and vote, let's see what the OSNews readers are running. If yes, leave a comment if you are using a clean 64bit OS with it too.