I had to reread Bulia's email three times. It was one of those nigh-mythical events that you read happens in Open Source projects, but never see in person. Yet, amazingly, here it was, and I knew Fred's patch would instantly double Inkscape's utility.

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:

So said Sun Microsystems' COO Jonathan Schwartz at an Asia Pacific press conference in Shanghai today. "I don't want to say when that will happen. But make no mistake, we will open source Solaris," he declared. The move is a widely anticipated one. Still, what will keep users and the press guessing for now is what form the licensing model of its longstanding server operating system will take as Schwartz refused to elaborate.

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.

In November 2003, Red Hat announced that "Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and errata support for Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 8.0 as of December 31, 2003." In other words, "No more free Red Hat software." Red Hat's missive confirmed that it was going to focus its efforts on large, enterprise-wide Linux installations and suggested that Red Hat Linux users migrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, albeit at a significantly increased annual cost. But then again, Fedora was unveiled.

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.

The Syllable team has a few interesting news to announce, new dev tools, a new dock and a registrar, printed magazing exposure and more.

A comprehensive UBoot AmigaOne guide has been released on IntuitionBase.com. You'll find everything required to use Uboot and start/configure your next boot, be it with AmigaOS 4.0 or Linux.

A day after its No. 2 client, Sony, delivered bad news, PalmSource says two Chinese companies may license the Palm OS. PalmSource said on Wednesday it is talking with mobile phone maker Ningbo Bird and an arm of TCL about licensing its Palm operating system for handheld devices.

Sun introduced recently the second version of Java Desktop System (JDS) for a flat fee per employee/per year. We tried it and here is what we found out about:

Does a solution written for Microsoft .NET have to be 100% .NET? Scott Hanselman looks at how hybrid managed-unmanaged solutions are really the norm.

The scope of Network Distributed Computing (NDC) is quite impressive. This chapter presents an overview of some of the many relevant areas of NDC research and development today. If you're looking for a solid overview of all things NDC — from the Semantic Web, P2P, and Pervasive Computing to Distributed Databases, Filesystems, Media, and Storage — you've come to the right place.

With the publication of 'Advanced UNIX Programming', Second Edition, Marc Rochkind takes a look at what has changed in the 20 years since he wrote the first edition.

MUSCLE is a robust, somewhat scalable, cross-platform client-server messaging system for dynamic distributed applications that runs under any POSIX-compliant operating system and Windows. Version 2.50 was released today including additions and fixes. The author of MUSCLE, Jeremy Friesner, wrote a very enjoyable article for OSNews back in the day to better introduce the system: "Using MUSCLE to Implement a Multiplayer Networked Game".