This month's column at LinuxMagazine provides an overview of some updates and new features in 2.6, including filesystem support, threading library changes, and the new kernel-level profiler. This article assumes you already have access to a machine running 2.6.

Athene is a desktop system for Linux that uses its own graphics drivers for high speed access to your graphics card. On version 4.1, resolution and display management functionality were improved. File and folder security information were added to the file manager. New hot-keys such as alt-tab window focusing were added. Dead-key support for international keyboards was added. Some bugs have also been fixed.

Continuing with the fast development cycle, Mandrakesoft has released the first release candidate of Mandrakelinux 10.1. More info here. Update: LinuxBeta.com has prepared a 142 page slideshow of Mandrakelinux 10.1 RC1.

This Fall the widget wars will move into high gear. The battle for the desktop is about to begin. And with Longhorn's XAML technology lurking in the distance (and Apple's Dashboard), widgets are likely to deliver a whole new era of desktop customization. Read the article here, by the CEO of Stardock, Brad Wardell.

OnTap WAFL's .snapshot feature is such easy to use since years while on FreeBSD UFS2 the unprivileged users were not able to as easily use snapshots for retrieving old stages of their files. To solve this I've implemented a little snapshot management environment for FreeBSD around mount(8), mdconfig(8), amd(8) and cron(8) which provides a similar environment than what people are used to from WAFL. A summary article and proof of concept implementation is available.

Forget the new iMacs and iPods. Apple is leaving a lot of dough on the table by not pushing its Mac OSX software aggressively into corporations running Windows. So says Technology Execution Network Corp., a Microsoft solution provider and Apple Authorized Dealer based in Needham, Mass., which says the latest versions of the Unix-based Macintosh OSX operating system code-named "Panther" significantly enhances the ability for the Mac client and server to integrate with Microsoft's Active Directory and Windows server environment.

Microsoft has filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warning that 2005 could be challenging, as Linux continues to steal business and PC sales remain sluggish. Elsewhere, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer touted his company's vision for a bright future, while casting doubt on alternatives to his company's Windows operating system, in particular Linux when addressing a gathering of software industry leaders.

Mozilla Sunbird is the latest stand-alone application from the Mozilla foundation that follows in the footsteps of now revered browser Firefox and email client Thunderbird. OSDir reviews their first public release, version 0.2.

This is a report of a very simple and unscientific effort to determine which browsers are used by tech-savvy power users. Why would anyone care? Idle curiosity, mostly. And because it might be interesting to see if the recent spate of well-publicized security problems with Windows and Internet Explorer have had any effect on browser choice among alpha geeks.

Instead of reducing the number of plug-in formats, Mac OS X has added one more to the mix. Furthermore, many Windows-based developers have not found the AU format easy to develop for, and the rollout of AU plug-ins has been slow. Finally, as with other plug-in formats, not all AU plug-ins function equally well in all host applications. Read the article here. Also, make sure you read MacDevCenter, as it contains a number of interesting Mac development articles lately.

Rocklyte Systems' Athene operating environment is at once fascinating and frustrating. It's a custom GNU/Linux distribution optimized for i686 machines that employs a proprietary graphics toolkit and video drivers, which means it's visually impressive and extremely speedy. Athene is by far the most unique and technologically advanced GNU/Linux derivative to date, but it needs some better administrative features and it doesn't come with much software. Linux.com has the full review.

"SkyOS is aimed at the desktop user, the SkyOS team has always stated that SkyOS 5.0 is aimed at the desktop user, but what is a desktop user? In my opinion a desktop user is someone who doesn’t know how the kernel interacts with the graphical interface or how the kernel loads modules. The average desktop user is just that... Average." Read the rest of this editoral here.

As a programmer and manager of embedded software products for a living, I think that operating system programming is so much fun that it will eventually be outlawed. I've previously published two articles on OSNews, So, you want to write an operating system and Climbing the kernel mountain, and tried to summarize my experience in designing operating system kernels as well as technical traps that can be easily avoided.

Sun released Java J2SE 5.0 Release Candidate 1, while NetBeans was releasing v4.0b today.