A Windows computer without the latest security patches is in big trouble. That's the conclusion from a "honey pot" experiment conducted by StillSecure, a Louisville network security firm. StillSecure attached six computers - loaded with different versions of the Windows, Linux and Apple's Macintosh operating systems - earlier this month to the Internet without anti-virus software. The results show the Internet is a very rough place.

Red Hat engineers announced today that the very popular ClearLooks theme engine will probably be the default theme for the Gnome 2.12. The theme was developed by Richard Stellingwerff helped out by Daniel "Spark" Borgmann, others, and with some help from myself on the usability side. This was a much needed refresh of the Gnome default desktop (old theme, new theme screenshots). Hopefully, a more usable variant of the Winter-Bold window manager theme (get matching colors, on-mouse-overs, don't get so greyed out when unfocused, buttons better vertically centered etc) will make it in as the companion of ClearLooks on Gnome instead of the currently bundled (and not as sexy) Industrial. Update: Elsewhere, GTK+ 2.6.3 was released, with bug fixes mainly for the Win32 platform.

To begin this review, I visited Xandros download page, snagged the public torrent, downloaded the ISO, and burned myself a copy of Xandros 3.0.1 OCE. Credit goes to Xandros for having a professional website that's easy to negotiate and for offering instructions to help new users of all platforms perform this task.

"So what should the OS vendors be doing? I can think of five things that operating system developers should look at having part of the OS." Read Brad Wardell's editorial here.

Writers and analysts love to sensationalize OS Wars. But Linux keeps building momentum.

I’m sure that everyone has heard the old saying, "Mac for Productivity, Unix for Development, and Windows for Solitaire". My experience has shown me that at least for my needs, the Mac is not only for productivity, but for development as well. Windows? Well, some things never change.

This sample book chapter shows how Java technology can help you accomplish the traditional data structuring needed for serious programming, and introduces you to the fundamental data structures that the standard Java library supplies.

The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) provides a flexible and efficient way to store, transmit, and express data. The open source community has produced an impressive lineup of XML editing utilities. In this article Ryan Paul takes a look at some of the most useful.

The Syllable team recently held a confrence discussing future of Syllable and previewing some stuff they'd been working on.

Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh, died yesterday at 61. He headed the project from 1978 up to 1982, when he was forced out of Apple. Since then, he worked on several different products to introduce 'humane computing', but is still best known for his contributions to the Macintosh. Read his story here.

Following my earlier article about creating a Bluetooth access point with your OS, here is my quick guide how to do just that with Arch Linux. You will need two Bluetooth-enabled devices to start with, and some patience as setting up Bluetooth is problematic on all OSes (each one with its own quirks).

I came across this while browsing the Linspire Forums. It's a link to MP3beamer, but you get a peek at the underlying OS, Linspire 5.0.

Thinking of changing an old laptop's OS from Windows to Linux? Don't do it until you read this. The benefits, the pains, the arguments, and the results. It's possible, but will everybody like it? Read on to find out. My take: For such an old laptop the article describes, either DamnSmallLinux or Windows98SE/ME or FreeBSD with IceWM or BeOS 5.03 are the best bets. Anything with modern UIs would crawl. I am using Gnome/XFce with ArchLinux on my Sony Vaio 333 Mhz PII-mobile with 128 MBs of RAM (almost twice as fast as the laptop in question) and it's already not as spiffy as Win98SE is on the same laptop. I also have to live with compromises (not loading most services etc).

The KDE Project released the first release candidate of KDE 3.4. Only sources, Live-CD and build script are available at time of release.