Athene 3.4 is now available for download. The major new feature is backwards compatibility with X11 programs. This is achieved by running a rootless X11 server, the same technique employed by Mac OS X & QNX. The need for a separate window manager has also been eliminated by merging the window management functionality into the server itself. Screenshots demonstrating all this are here and here.

OrangeCrate presented an email interview with James Gosling of Sun Microsystems. Mr. Gosling answered some tough questions and refute some of the analysts’ propositions as to what exactly the Sun Microsystems and Microsoft settlement means for the future of Linux.

Microsoft gives its Java virtual machine technology a three-year reprieve in the wake of its antitrust settlement with Sun Microsystems. But don't expect any new MSJVM enhancements. On other Java news, NetBeans IDE 3.6, which includes two-tier J2EE 1.4 support, became generally available today. NetBeans is a pure Java, open source development environment for Windows, *nix and MacOSX.

A Swedish upstart is challenging Microsoft in the database arena by making use of the same low-end assault tactics that the software giant employed to gain a foothold. MySQL also released clustering software today.

Mandrake Linux 10.0 is now available to club members and in packaged sets. According to the press release, "Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official offers the most advanced Linux features currently available. 10.0 Official provides increased performance with Linux kernel 2.6, an enhanced desktop experience with KDE 3.2, GNOME 2.4 and Mandrakegalaxy II, unbeatable hardware recognition, and support for Serial ATA, USB2 and IEEE 1394." The Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official FTP tree will be released this week, and public ISO images will be released later.

Linux kernel 2.4.26 was released today. You download it from kernel.org or from one of the mirrors.

I wanted to write something about the great progress being carried on linux as OS of choice for a professional Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) since a long time. With the inclusion of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) into the 2.6 kernels, time has come to extend my experiences to all of you.

James Gosling of Java fame answers recent charges against Sun. Even more interesting, he has directly addressed Miguel de Icaza's assertion that Java is just as encumbered as .Net by pointing out that Sun has offered a patent grant to anyone who wishes to implement the Java specification. Update: Havoc Pennington of freedesktop.org/Red Hat/Gnome fame replies to Gosling.

Just when you think you've got your developer tools all sorted out, a fresh crop is sure to emerge. This article uses a real-world example to introduce you to two of the most exciting new technologies for the enterprise. Hibernate is an object-relation mapping tool and Spring is an AOP framework and IOC container. Follow along as it shows you how to combine the two to build a transactional persistence tier for your enterprise applications and write code that is database-vendor agnostic, and that can run inside of a J2EE container or run standalone.

The antitrust investigation into Microsoft's activities lasted nearly half a decade, but by the time regulators finally came to a landmark conclusion, Microsoft had already established its position and the rival product was all but defunct. Microsoft released on Tuesday fixes that cover at least 20 Windows flaws, several of which could make versions of the operating system vulnerable to new worms or viruses.

Ximian's Nat Friedman will deliver the keynote at this week's Real World Linux Conference, and in this interview, he discusses Novell's commitment to the Linux desktop, barriers, misconceptions and the importance of success stories.

"The result of several months of testing, installing and uninstalling, read and re-read, edit and re-edit, is the result of one of the most thorough reviews by a Lycoris Desktop/LX user. It covers the things the average user is interested in knowing and delivers it in a manner even the seasoned GNU/Linux user can appreaciate and find pleasure in. It is a very informative and pleasant read, so sit back and enjoy this user's contribution." Read the review at DesktopOS.

Research and development, or R&D, is a big deal with the Gates Gang. After all, in 2003, they spent over (all figures US) $4.6 billion on it. For a company that had revenues of $32.1 billion in the corresponding period, this is an impressive figure and to put in perspective, they spent $6.5 billion on sales and marketing during the same period. Clearly, R&D is important to the company. Read the article at Canoe.ca.

Today I'm going to talk about why software - any software, all software - actually matters, what the different types of software are, and why you should care about its properties (no matter who you are, or what you do).