The fifth beta of FreeBSD 5.3 is now available for testing: "updated floppy device driver; fix for panics on certain hardware during boot if no media in the CD-ROM drive; change to pf logging format to handle 64-bit time; many more scheduler fixes, we encourage testers to turn PREEMPTION on..." and more.

The software maker plans to announce in Paris on Monday that Office 2003 will be added to its Government Security Program (GSP), launched in early 2003 to address growing security concerns. The program gives government agencies secure access to source code for key Microsoft programs--initially, the current versions of the Windows operating system.

Along with the stable bug fix release of GTK+ 2.4.10, the unstable feature releases of GLib-2.5.3 and GTK+ 2.5.3 were also made available.

The KOffice team released the third bugfix package that builds upon the previous 1.3.x versions, with many fixes, mainly in the core libraries and in some filters.

The Vector Linux team is proud to announce the release of VectorLinux 4.3. This small 326 MB download provides you a complete and fast desktop solution, even suitable for older hardware.

A few days ago we read about the Deli Linux, which aims to fill-in the gap of Linux distros in the 486/586 machine range by running lightweight/older applications. The disto comes with Dillo and Links as its browsers, but I bet there aren't many people who know that there is yet another very lightweight browser for GTK+ 1.2.x and it is more powerful and more memory-optimized than Dillo: Access' NetFront. Check for info and screenshots inside.

An ongoing series of articles that track the quality of programming tools for Linux, including Opteron and Pentium 4 tests for the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and Intel C++.

CentOS 3.3, based on Redhat Enterprise Linux Update 3, has been released for i386 and AMD64.

A contributed live CD created from the current UserLinux desktop package set is available for download.

Subversion is a version control system that is a compelling replacement for CVS in the open source community. This is a minor bugfix release.

BlueJ is an interactive Java development environment. It provides a unique user interface that presents a graphical display of the application classes and their relationships, and it lets users interactively create objects of any class. This 2.0 release adds support for J2SE 5.0, full diagram keyboard navigation, editor improvements, interface improvements, a new text evaluation pane, improved jar file creation, and many other improvements and bugfixes.

SCO has been seeking more time for its Unix intellectual property case against IBM, while IBM strives to end the case quickly. The SCO Group Inc. and IBM are locked in a blizzard of claim and counterclaim paperwork in the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. Matters reached a climax Wednesday as the court heard arguments on four motions.

In this lesson in the Clueless Computer User series, Ed Hurst will discuss more about stability and interface issues. A popular buzzword these days is "interface". That's just a fancy word implying that two or more people are face to face. In actual practice, it usually means anything but face to face. It's a means of interacting with another. You are said to "interface" by some means. So it is with computers.

The software maker has launched a pilot program in which some visitors to the main Windows download page are being asked to let the software maker check to see whether their copy of the operating system is licensed.