Xandros today announced its beta test program for the forthcoming version 3.0 of the award-winning Xandros Desktop Operating System (OS). Novice to expert users interested in beta testing the latest enhancements to Xandros desktop technology are invited to apply at the Xandros web site.

Closely following the update for the AmigaOS4 Pre-release, the updated Software Dev Kit (SDK) is now also available. Meanwhile some first people have been able to buy Mini-ITX MicroA1-C boards and last weekend at a British Amiga Party one was even raffled amongst its visitors. Also some first photographs of the Micro AmigaOne Industrial motherboard (aka u-A1-I) have been revealed at the party.

The warm-hearted Warthogs of the Warty Team are proud to present the very first release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a new Linux distribution that brings together the extraordinary breadth of Debian with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support. Update: A selection of screenshots from the final version.

The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is proud to announce the availability of FreeBSD 5.3-RC1. This will likely be the only Release Candidate before the final release of 5.3.

GNUstep LiveCD is an implementation of NeXT Computer's OpenStep programming environment on a Morphix bootable CD base. The CD is currently at version 0.5, and its pre-release status shows. GNUstep LiveCD is buggy and ineffective as a development environment, and isn't yet ready for use in the real world, says NewsForge.

What's one of Steve Ballmer's biggest headaches? It's not Linux or security breaches. It's piracy, the Microsoft CEO said Wednesday.

The OpenPKG project released version 2.2 of their unique RPM-based cross-platform Unix software packaging facility. OpenPKG 2.2 consists of 528 selected (from a pool of 800) packages, all carefully packaged for easy deployment on 18 different Unix platforms. Focusing on portability and isolation, OpenPKG 2.2 places greater emphasis on reducing underlying Unix system requirements.

Keep your Web applications running when tasks lock up. High volume Web sites often require asynchronous or threaded operations to achieve target performance criteria. While threads in Web containers are considered bad practice, the alternative is for developers to make blocking calls to code they cannot control. It becomes important that dependencies of this nature fail-fast. This developerWorks article covers a homegrown short-circuit pattern that ensures threaded execution and completion of a process in a fixed window of time.

VP Michael Tiemann discusses the open source movement, Red Hat’s strategies, and his recent blog debate with Sun's Jonathan Schwartz.

D-BUS is an up-and-coming message bus and activation system that is set to achieve deep penetration in the Linux desktop. Learn why it was created, what it can be used for, and where it is going.

Part 1 in a series on embedded development explains the purpose of the project and outlines hardware options.

Rivals still fear Redmond and its deep pockets, but its clout is diminishing. The decision to unveil Office's source code is the proof.

Here's a quick introduction to protected mode memory management for IA32.

Software vendors have been moving toward the subscription-type license over the past few years, and away from the perpetual license that had been the norm. Software firms note that companies generally upgrade regularly anyway, so subscription pricing spreads out the payment more easily. A win-win right? But companies don't like the feeling of bing on the hook for payments forever when they once felt like their fee was capped at a certain amount. Read more at PCWorld