Here is Christopher Blizzard's report from the DesktopCon.

The Firebird Project announces the release of Firebird V1.5.1. this relese represents a committment by the project to develop and deliver ongoing improvements to this popular open source database engine.

Say you want to use Linux in a dual-boot arrangement, but you don't have any free space on your computer's hard drive. One solution would be to use a "live" Linux distribution such as Knoppix, which can be run directly from CD. This is certainly viable for occasional use, but it has a number of serious drawbacks.

The changes in the way Windows polices itself - particularly the newly strengthened firewall - could cause troubles for applications that are used to working with Windows' old ways. Security experts say it's tough to know how many companies may have to change their products to be compatible. However, to bring good overall security to Windows, these sacrifices needed to be made.

The way I normally use my Gnome(s) on PCs with lower resolution monitors is by having a single panel at the bottom of the screen, 32pix height. It seems like a good compromise for old PCs with monitors that can't do more than 800x600 or 1024x768. Stacking applets together though can be an exercise to the eye to try to quickly seperate them visually.

Building Subversion on Mac OS X is not hard. Building the Java bindings for Subversion is challenging until you know what to do. Hopefully you find this information helpful.

Loosely based on Red Hat Linux 9, ELX BizDesk 4.0 is designed primarily for corporate users who are looking for a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Windows and Office. DesktopOS.com has just published a comprehensive review that examines this Indian-designed distribution.

This technical overview by veteran real-time lecturer David Kalinsky examines a number of directions in which RTOSs continue to change and mature. Two main directions are alternative task scheduling algorithms, and intertask communication via asynchronous direct message passing. In order to keep at a practical level, the focus is on trends and features that can be expected to appear in RTOSs soon.

This column explores the type system used when programming the WinFS platform. The sample download shows you how to work with the WinFS type system using the WinFS API. The WinHEC 2004 build of Avalon contains new features that enable you to easily add three-dimensional (3-D) content to your Avalon applications. This article introduces you to the 3-D functionality currently available and how it may evolve in the future and addresses the differences between Avalon and DirectX and discusses which technology may be best for your application.

IBM unveiled technology intended to reduce complexity in software installation and packaging and has submitted it to the W3C for consideration as an industry standard. Dubbed Solution Installation for Autonomic Computing, the technology enables software developers and software vendors to improve the installation and support experience and simplify the software packaging process, according to IBM. Developers would be able to build packaged software for installation on a variety of platforms.

ekkoBSD's site seems to be closing doors, but there is not enough information about it.

OrangeCrate.com posted an interview with Jeff Licquia and Jolene Watkins of Progeny.

OpenDarwin 7.2.1 (which corresponds to Mac OS X 10.3.2) has been released for both PowerPC and Intel x86 architectures: complete release notes are available here.

As part of Microsoft's settlement with Sun Microsystems, Sun agreed to take part in a licensing program under which Microsoft gives rivals access to various Windows communications protocols. However, Sun's check is apparently still in the mail.