The first point release for the stable 2.10.x series of the GNOME Desktop & Dev Platform is out. This is the first in a series of stable releases containing bugfixes, translation updates & other improvements.

The third release candidate of FreeBSD 5.4 is now available for testing. Also, due to one major issue that crops up on large (4-processor) systems under heavy load that is still being debugged there will be at least one more RC added to the schedule. Timing for the extra RC and the new Release date have not been set yet.

A developer's blog about it here says that MSDN subscribers can download now and you can order free copies of it here with free shipping for US/Canadian residents.

Opera 8 Final is now released, check the forum post here.

A new feature of the Sun Solaris 10 Operating System lets you run Linux applications, unchanged, on their own or side by side with Solaris applications.

PC makers rolled out their first dual-core processor desktop PCs on Monday as expected--and they aren't cheap.

Libranet, one of the first "easy Debian" distros has released its long-awaited 3.0 edition featuring a 2.6 kernel, graphical install, and revamped Adminmenu. ISOs can be downloaded here from the Libranet site for $89.95 for new users and $64.95 for students and existing users.

The software giant is working furiously to put the finishing touches on its integrated SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005.

Featuring a 2.6.11.6 kernel, Firefox 1.0.2, The Gimp 2.2, GNOME 2.8.3, KDE 3.3, gcc 3.4.3, openoffice.org 1.1.4, Mandriva is striving to be the operating system of choice not only amongst Linux users, but computer users worldwide - both consumer and enterprise.

Linux brings open standards, along with maximum availability and flexibility. Add the performance and reliability of the POWER processor and applications will reap the combined advantages of Linux on POWER. This paper introduces Linux on POWER hardware and software environments and will provide you with information to get started.

Marek Szyprowski has released a very early alpha version of a NTFS filesystem driver for MorphOS.

I've always found Global menu bars (ala Mac) to be bad usability-wise. They have numerous problems. I've always found that having a single menu bar at the top of the screen as Macs are both confusing and inefficient. Menu bars like that are leftovers from when Mac OS was primarily a single process operating system, and it should have been ditched long ago.

In this chapter, you will learn the basics of the MMAPI and its implementation on Nokia devices. After studying the two example applications provided, you should be able to add multimedia playback and audio/video capturing features to your own application. Also, mobile gaming and mobile applications are hot! Games need to have flashy and stylish graphics, and the standards are now higher than ever. Mikko Kontio tells you how to develop 3D graphics for your J2ME devices with the Mobile 3D Graphics API.

This chapter looks at the famed operating system abstraction of the process. Topics covered include the generalities of the process, why it is important, and the relationship between processes and threads. Specifically, this chapter covers how Linux stores and represents processes.