I worked for Microsoft for eight years. I'm a long time Windows loyalist. And, I admit - I mocked Apple's switch ads and Macintosh users in general - even as recently as a few months ago. But gradually, I grew tired of Windows' many problems and began to notice, even envy Apple products..." Read his blog here.

Here's a kind of an application that is sorely missing from a stock Gnome installation and not many Gnome users know about: Gnome-PPP, a front-end to the wvDial, a modem/ISDN dial-up software. Read more for some quick info on the app and a screenshot.

During the majority of my time working with computers, Windows was the operating system of choice. Reason being, it's all I've known. In 2002, I took a college course titled "Linux Administration" which entitled me to a few cd-roms of Redhat 7.x. While this course was nothing more than a few extra credits for me, I fell in love with Linux and went through the entire textbook a week into the class. It was a nice feeling to use something "different" than what I was used to.

A recent thread on the OpenBSD project's misc@ mailing list discussed why OpenBSD has chosen to stick to a purely monolithic kernel, instead of trying to optimize performance by using kernel modules. As described in the OpenBSD FAQ, the OpenBSD team only supports the GENERIC kernel that is provided with the distribution. Numerous reasons were provided, including security, the ability to fully test, and simplicity.

Sony's decision to cut back its PDA business isn't a huge surprise. The popularity of the personal digital assistant has been steadily eroded by smart phones, digital cameras, music players and other devices that can provide many PDA functions. Check out the article portal here.

This article discusses the political differences between Mono & dotGNU, two .NET re-implementations.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger will include tighter integration with Apple's internet services and sport a refreshed Finder interface, according to reports that cannot be positively confirmed, but are believed to reflect accurate information on the latest builds of the OS.

Professor Fulvio Peruggi illustrious member of Amiga community in Naples, Italy, wrote a long review on his Pegasos II G4 machine: what means Amiga philosophy, usage of Pegasos, compatibility of programs, productivity, multimedia, office applications, Mac emulation, MorphOS and more.

Nicholas Petreley takes a spin at the Java-based EIOffice office suite. I also tried this software 2-3 weeks ago but it has ugly dependencies in regards to its installation routine:

The IEEE and The Open Group have granted permission to the FreeBSD Project to incorporate material from the joint IEEE 1003.1 POSIX standard and The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6.

DesktopOS.com has published a comprehensive review of SUSE LINUX 9.1, Personal and Professional editions. At over 11,000 words and with 40 screenshots, this is a most thorough SUSE review.

The latest release of PostgreSQL contains a host of new features for advanced database design. Here's an introduction to some of the best. Also, based on the ubiquitous Berkeley DB, Berkeley DB XML is a new database that stores, retrieves, indexes, and searches XML documents. Better yet, you can embed Berkeley BD XML in almost any application. Roll up your sleeves for this hands-on introduction.

Microsoft has been granted a patent on the double-click by the US Patents and Trademark Office. The patent, number 6,727,830, was granted on April 27. An abstract of the application says: "A method and system are provided for extending the functionality of application buttons on a limited resource computing device. Alternative application functions are launched based on the length of time an application button is pressed. A default function for an application is launched if the button is pressed for a short, i.e., normal, period of time." Our editorial on patents.

BW's technology columnist, Stephen Wildstrom, discusses the impact of Microsoft's upcoming software release, plus other IT trends. Elsewhere, WMP 10-beta is set to be released today.