Lycoris boasts that it is going to make you "Throw away Windows for good and get hooked on the best ever release of Desktop/LX". The flashy website and bold statements make it seem like a dream come true. Is it? TuxMe takes a look at whether it's all true or just marketing mumbo-jumbo.

Aqua Data Studio 4.0, the popular multi-platform DB front-end, is released and it's adding many new features. Aqua Data Studio is free for personal usage. In other interesting multi-platform commercial releases, Lost Marble recently released Moho 5.0.7 (screenshot, running under my Novell Linux).

More recent builds of Apple's Tiger operating system have recently surfaced along with a coinciding Java software seed.

Microsoft is on track to release the first full test version of the next major Windows release by the end of June, a Microsoft executive told CNET News.com on Monday. Also, Microsoft this week will reaffirm its promise to have Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 finished by the end of the quarter and its intent to have "Avalon" and "Indigo" subsystems available for Windows XP and Server 2003 in the near future.

Microsoft says developers that stick with its tools can have their cake and eat it too. Elsewhere, Microsoft is considering the release of source code for a popular tool used to build Windows programs.

Samba 3.0.10 has been ported to SkyOS today. All configuration is done through a plugin in the System Manager, making configuration very simple, with just a few mouse clicks.

Computers are getting faster all the time, or so they tell us. But, in fact, the user experience of performance hasn't improved much over the past 15 years. This article takes a look at where all the precious processor time and memory are going.

The famous Java IDE, Intellij IDEA, will provide free licenses for active open source projects.

Pat just released Slackware 10.1. This is the last version of Slackware to include the 2.4.x line of Linux kernels. Slackware 11 will have major changes/additions to its sub-system, according to Pat.

BargainPDA has published an informative review of the Asus A730W Pocket PC PDA. The Asus device seems to add points with its integrated camera and USB host capabilities compared to the Dell x50v competition (arguably the most advanced PDA today), but lose many points with its bad battery life, limited graphics capabilities, price ($600 over $425) and questionable built quality (and also not enough built-in storage, older Bluetooth protocol support, slower CPU than Dell's). No matter what though, these two PDAs along the HP iPaq hx4700 are the best of breed today in the PDA world.

Understanding just what user profiles are, and how they interact with the Windows registry system is key to keeping a secure system. Making sure that your programs store settings in the user-specific settings trees, rather than the program directory, will help keep passwords and other vital information secure.

One of the easiest ways to spin your wheels and waste your time on a project is to lose sight of just what it is that the project is supposed to address. This chapter will help you see what situations can lead to this, how you can prevent it, and what to do if you're already off track.

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.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 49, talks about the thorny issues of computer security, competition, software bundling and how he lives with the downsides of his wealth and fame. In addition to being the world's richest man, Gates is the founder of the world's most powerful software company.