In this C++ Challenge, Herb Sutter throws down the gauntlet. Can you get around the C++ rule of using constructed objects as members of unions? Find out the answer in this sample chapter.

System.Transactions is a new feature of the .NET Framework that will be included in Visual Studio 2005. Mike Clark shows how it provides a concise set of objects and interfaces for working with transactions as well as some interesting performance optimizations.

I recently wrote an article about why I cant switch to a Mac for my work. If anyone else is looking into putting their Mac in a Windows network, here are my experiences to help save you some time.

Following the NeXT tradition with mixed case, GNUSTEP is a livecd/distribution while GNUstep is an implementation of the OpenStep API. GNUSTEP is based on morphix, and use the GNUstep libraries and GNUstep-based applications to provides a NeXTSTEP-like environment that people can easily test and use. This new release comes 8 month since the precedent 0.5 release, and brings a lot of new GNUstep applications with it, as well as an upgrade of the GNUstep libraries and the development tools.

The latest release is based on the 2.6.x kernel, and not guaranteed to work out-of-the-box with Gentoo root file systems that are based on the 2.4.x kernel. Cooperative Linux is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. It allows one to freely run Linux on Windows without using commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware.

An interesting summary from the 2004 Annual NetBSD Group Meeting was posted to the NetBSD -announce mailing list. The report discusses past achievements as well as future goals.

Microsoft is advancing its 64-bit agenda with the addition of some new AMD Opteron computers.

Linare introduced today its newest product, an AMD-based laptop for $498. A $598 model with more RAM, DVD-ROM and WiFi is also available. My Take: Good & fair prices for the features.

The Free Standards Group has decided to move away from a single, core LSB (Linux Standards Base) specification, and is instead going to break this down into different modules that can be combined to give a server or desktop LSB standard. Elsewhere, Bill Gates has sent an email to all Microsoft's corporate customers warning that those in search of technological interoperability shouldn't look towards open source software.

W. McDonald Buck, retired CTO of World Bank, believes we need to take a more honest and frank look at the Cost Analyses it will take to put Linux on the corporate desktop. In Part I of Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth he says that a business can't buy a computer without Windows and save money in the transaction.

A forthcoming update to the Linux 2.6 kernel will incorporate the Xen open source virtualization technology, said the man who maintains the Linux kernel.

James Gosling has called Microsoft's decision to support C and C++ in the common language runtime in .NET one of the "biggest and most offensive mistakes that they could have made".

Sun Microsystems has raised the possibility that it might offer customers its own database, a move that could trigger displeasure at Oracle but curry favor with open-source advocates.

This article describes changes and new features in IBM Cloudscape Version 10, also known as the Derby release, and the process of how to configure IBM WebSphere App Server to use this new version.