Ubuntu Linux is a new Debian-based distro sponsored by Canonical Ltd. NewsForge spent a week using Ubuntu and came away impressed, despite some of its obvious teething pains. Update: A release candidate of Ubuntu Linux 4.10 is now available.

Virtual PC is a powerful software virtualization solution that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating systems simultaneously on one workstation, providing a safety net to maintain compatibility with legacy applications while you migrate to a new operating system. It also saves reconfiguration time, so your support, development, and training staff can work more efficiently. This is a 45-day time-out, full version of the Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 product. No serial number is required.

Apple and PC users alike criticised Motorola when the G4 CPUs failed to keep pace with the aggressive clock speed ramping of processors from AMD and Intel. The newly announced 8641D with dual cores, dual DDR-II memory controllers and more is set to change all that.

Sun Microsystems president and COO Jonathan Schwartz is in Sydney to meet with government and corporate clients. His outspoken, maverick views frequently put him at odds with his competitors as Computerworld's Rodney Gedda discovered in an interview yesterday.

MontaVista, a Californian start-up has proposed a hard real-time response system for Linux, but the proposal has already been rubbished by Linus Torvalds.

Sun Microsystems has taken the wraps off a new version of its Java Desktop System (JDS) running on its Solaris OS. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based network computer maker, which made its JDS Release 2 software available this past weekend, said it has now ported the desktop environment to Solaris running Intel and AMD x86-based servers and workstations.

KDE 3.3.1 is a maintenance release which provides corrections of problems reported using the KDE bug tracking system and greatly enhanced support for existing translations and new translations.

Maui, Hawaii-based MXS announced Tuesday the release of Cherry OS, an emulator that lets PCs run Mac OS X. The virtual machine emulated by Cherry OS sports full network capabilities and has complete access to the host computer's hardware resources -- hard drive, CPU, RAM, FireWire, USB, PCI, PCMCIA bus, Ethernet networking and modem. It purportedly runs at about 80 percent of the performance of the host CPU, according to the developer.

Bill Gates unveils plans to make Media Center software the centerpiece of the digital home. Brand-name PC makers debut a host of new PCs that feature Microsoft's Media Center 2005 software.

On Tuesday, Novell Inc. announced that it will use its patent portfolio to protect its open-source software offerings. In a policy statement, Novell said it will utilize its patent portfolio to defend against potential intellectual property attacks on its open-source products.

Mandrake Community Edition is the bleeding edge of the Mandrake development cycle. This is the release where the good folks over at Mandrake put the final test on new features and squash all the bugs they can before the final release. The ISOs are available through MandrakeClub for download before anyone else gets to see it. So is it worth your hard-earned cash to join the club? Is 10.1 going to be worth the upgrade? Find out in this review, fresh off the presses at LinuxForumsDOTorg. OSDir is also featuring a slideshow of Mandrake 10.1 screenshots.

With Microsoft Corp.'s recent announcements that it will separate WinFS from the next major release of Windows and the release of Visual Studio 2005, not due for another six months, developers are looking to third-party vendors for certain functionality support now.

Urban legends are kind of like mind viruses; even though we know they are probably not true, we often can't resist the urge to retell them (and thus infect other gullible "hosts") because they make for such good storytelling. Most urban legends have some basis in fact, which only makes them harder to stamp out. Unfortunately, many pointers and tips about Java performance tuning are a lot like urban legends -- someone, somewhere, passes on a "tip" that has (or had) some basis in fact, but through its continued retelling, has lost what truth it once contained.

The Open Croquet project released its public developer's release today. OpenCroquet is a promising framework based on Squeak.