The Patent Office's recent review of Microsoft's file system could put Linux and other GPL-licensed products at risk warn industry figures.

Andy Tucker (who OSNews interviewed almost a year ago to the day) has posted some thoughts on his reasons for wanting to open-source Solaris. Speaking for myself, I share many of Andy's reasons and I suspect many of our other engineers do as well. As Andy requests in his blog entry, we want to hear from the community specific requirements and ideas (and not just about the license).

According to reliable sources DotGNU is using Qt for their Windows.Forms backend. The project is not using Qt's widgets - they are simply using Qt styles (or was it themes) on an offline XPixmap , and blitting it over onto the screen. Here's the obligatory screenshot.

Pat Volkerding has announced RC2 for Slackware 10 in the Slackware -current changelog. Updates include all the new Gnome releases (e.g. Nautilus 2.6.3) and a new testing kernel, 2.6.7.

Six months ago, I decided that the GNOME desktop was ready for exclusive use on my desktop computer. Having used GNOME daily since that time, I have come to appreciate the thought and attention to detail that makes GNOME so friendly and usable. I have written a brief article that describes my experience with GNOME and that provides a brief introduction to GNOME for those who have yet to try it out for themselves.

Departing from its past practice of not providing ISO images for free download, SUSE has released a complete, bootable, and installable ISO image of SUSE LINUX 9.1 Personal.

According to BeGroovy, "With the start of WalterCon 2004 comes the new name for OBOS, Haiku. Too late for complaining, the t-shirts have been made." In related news, the BeUnited JAVA port was demonstrated and will be released soon. Also see coverage on IsComputerOn.

Is there a business model for a GNOME-based Linux desktop software ecosystem? Such a project could transform the entire desktop operating system scene before Microsoft's Longhorn version of Windows comes out. But can Linux developers be nimble enough when it comes to money? Read the editorial at NewsForge. On a related Gnome note, our new site Gnomefiles.org, has seen a visual update based on feedback, so make sure you check it out. Gnome developers, don't forget that by posting an app you are becoming elligible for prizes (to be given out next week).

Corey Touchet just finished up my review of the state of 64bit Linux on the desktop. He is focused on the problems he experienced and the total user experience while usable, does leave a bit to be desired.

Microsoft's latest episode of The .NET Show is largely about the new command shell, MSH (alias Monad), that will debut on Longhorn. It includes powerful scripting facilities and unix-like piping with a twist -- instead of text being piped, rich .NET based objects can be piped between commands. The transcript for the show includes instructions on how to get access to download a preview of the shell and the SDK to run on Windows XP.

Opinion at eWEEK: "It sounds like a small milestone, but the second release candidate of Service Pack 2 is a big deal—it's the last rehearsal for the pack's significant turns in security."

This paper thoroughly covers Mac OS X application management. Topics include: licensing models, security considerations, reviewing installations, missing Mac OS X applications, missing Mac OS X features, distribution tools, and deployment and distribution solutions

Mozilla 1.7 was released along with the mail client Thunderbird 0.7 and Mozilla 1.8a1.

Wondering what embedded processor or system-on-chip to use in your next Linux device? This exhaustive reference of Linux friendly CPUs lists more than 150 options across five major architectures, complete with brief descriptions and links for further information.