They call him Microsoft's sock puppet, the most hated man in high tech. SCO's Darl McBride is fighting a war for the future of free software. And he wants to make you pay.

Xandros announced the release of version 2.5 of the Xandros Desktop OS with an updated CrossOver Office suite. Xandros Desktop 2.5 now offers an upgraded CrossOver Office 3.0.1., supporting Lotus Notes 6.5.1, Microsoft Project 2000/2002, and Microsoft Outlook XP. Current Xandros Desktop OS users can upgrade the software with a single click. All versions of the Xandros Desktop OS now include Linux kernel 2.4.24 and version 1.6 of the Mozilla communications suite.

James Chacon of the NetBSD release engineering team has sent a report covering the status of the NetBSD 2.0 branch to the netbsd-announce mailinglist. The report contains a schedule for the release cycle, and a list of 2.0-specific bugs that need to be closed. This is still a good time to help us making this the best NetBSD release ever, by trying out the latest snapshots, and reporting bugs.

In which Lindows, which already was in the process of changing its name to Linspire, receives $20M USD from Microsoft for a baker's dozen of domain names and a corporate and product name change which was a fait accompli. The net result? Bill Gates is subsidizing a rival who has its eyes on the desktop OS prize, says the author.

The new version of IntelliJ IDEA supports J2SE 5, the new refactoring system and other enhancements.

This paper by Ulf T. Mattsson, Chief Technology Officer, Protegrity Corporation, presents a practical implementation of field level encryption in enterprise database systems, based on research & practical experience from years of commercial use of cryptography in db security.

Interoperability Tool for Eclipse and .NET WinForms is a Java tool that allows hosting of third-party WinForm controls in Eclipse, handling of .NET events, accessing of .NET properties, invoking of .NET methods, and instantiating of .NET objects. This tool can aid in moving to the Eclipse platform while making use of investments in .NET WinForms controls.

I know that a lot of people have posted reviews on Mandrake, SuSE, Fedora, etc. but here is mine. I downloaded the first 3 Mandrake CDs from LinuxISO and then burned them to a CD while in Windows to get to work. I had a Windows XP installation on my 100GB hard drive, but I only have it on 30GB because Windows acts up so much.

Linux boasts the widest array of filesystem support among mainstream operating systems. However, Microsoft (with Longhorn) and Apple (with Tiger) have made it clear that they consider the filesystem of the future to be a database of information to be mined, and that client PCs will be a major part of the next chapter in the "search wars."

This material explains the different requirements to secure three distinct environments, as well as what each prescribed server setting addresses in terms of client dependencies. The three environments considered are called Legacy Client, Enterprise Client, and High Security.

The package installation problem is one of the primary barriers to desktop Linux adoption. Most if not all solutions so far have addressed the wrong problem (at least for desktop users) -- resolving dependencies at package installation time. A much better approach is to ensure that as few dependencies exist as possible. While this might seem a lofty goal, given the open source development emphasis on reusing as much code as possible, this goal is indeed achievable through a process of desktop component standardization.

Sun Microsystems has finalized a plan to put more pressure on rivals by porting its entire JES (Java Enterprise System) software line to the HP-UX and Windows operating systems. Bits and pieces of JES - a package that includes an app server, directory server, clustering software and 11 other items - already run on Windows. Sun, however, has now vowed to have the whole enchilada running on Windows and HP-UX by January.

First of all, we should agree on what the definition of "ready for the desktop" stands for. For some of us it refers to a graphical user interface in which applications have icons and can be launched in an intuitive manner without the need of complex commands. Even a Commodore 64 running Geos could be "ready for the desktop" by this definition, but the fact is that when we read "ready for the desktop" we understand "ready to replace Microsoft Windows".

For many developers, there's usually more than one dynamic language that they use to do their jobs. It's also ActiveState's job with its latest IDE release for professional developers using open source dynamic languages, Komodo 3.0. Dynamic languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl and XLST are all part of the Komodo IDE, which strives to make developers lives easier by offering a common interface and toolset to develop in multiple languages.