The GNOME Desktop and Developer platform 2.8.2 is now released. Announcement, changelog.

This guest editorial by Linux consultant Binh Nguyen is an exercise in "tough love." Nguyen points out key design attributes of Debian that make it one of the strongest and most versatile Linux offerings available. At the same time, he notes several important areas where Debian falls flat. Yet, with a few simple improvements and a more welcoming attitude to new users, Nguyen argues, Debian could turn into the most popular Linux distro around. Elsewhere, Debian Women: Geek feminists in action.

I just spent the last several days reading the lengthy essay "Ying and Yang of Security" which explores the origins of security on the personal computer and explains why the current models are outdated. It seems to argue that security systems designed to keep the system safe are relics of the days of mainframes when the system was more important than the user, but for a personal computer the user is more important than the system.

Lee Nackman, IBM VP of Design, Construction, and Test Tools Development and CTO of Rational Software, and Jim Russell, IBM Lotus Software Director of Application Development Tools, explain how IBM is leveraging Eclipse with the Cloudscape Java database and with IBM Workplace Client Technology, Rich Client Edition to become a strong tool for cross-platform deployments.

"The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.3.2, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes." Read the full announcement here, or download it here."

Market share numbers in free software is a rather dubious thing and tend to reflect more often the wishes of the quoter than any true objective measurement. I still dare to claim thought that XMMS has historically been the most used GUI media player on Linux and FreeBSD systems and maybe still is. Still there have been a lot of alternatives popping up all hoping to dethrone XMMS over the years and maybe the time has now come when either there will be no clear leader or someone else will ascend. One of the alternatives I really like is amaroK.

Service Pack 1 builds upon the impressive track record of the award winning Windows Server 2003 operating system by introducing numerous refinements in addition to supplying cumulative system updates. Deploying Service Pack 1 will help enterprises across all industries and segments enhance security, increase reliability and simplify administration through guided attack surface reduction.

Xandros Desktop Version 3 features the latest in Linux Wireless & VPN Support, Security, and Drag-and-Drop DVD Burning. Read for more.

IBM has sold it's PC unit to Chinese computer maker Levono on Tuesday. The deal is valued at $1.75 billion. Here's the word from IBM itself. In a press release, IBM says this deal will create the world's third-largest PC business.

Top Dell executives disparaged the "big iron" approach of building large, powerful servers on Tuesday--a dig at rivals IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. Red Hat needs to lower its prices, or risk losing customers to free versions of the open-source operating system, the Dell executive who oversees the partnership with the Linux seller said Tuesday.

The ISO of NetBSD 2.0 is currently available here.

Microsoft said Tuesday that it has released a near-final test version of updates to its Windows and Windows Server operating systems. Also, Windows Server 2003 SP1 RC1 has RDP over SSL already included.

Dru Lavigne finally had a chance to upgrade her home systems to FreeBSD 5.3. Here are her working notes for both a fresh install and an upgrade from 5.2.1 to 5.3.

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate has been released in both 32bit and 64bit systems. Some release notes here.