For the past year, there has been a slow and steady stream of news events regarding XFree86, X11, or new X server implementations. To those not paying close attention (and even those who are), the meaning of some of these events may not be clear. In this brief article, I attempt to share my impression on what the changes mean for users of free software on the desktop. It appears that XFree86 is in some turmoil, and it may leave some to infer that free desktop systems will suffer.

Sun Microsystems Inc. will continue to offer the Trusted Solaris version of its operating system as a separate product, a company official said Tuesday, trying to clear up any confusion that Sun may have caused in the marketplace. Sun executives have said several times recently that security features from Trusted Solaris, a hardened version of Sun's OS used by the military, governments and some enterprises, will be added to its standard Solaris distribution. But the two product lines will continue to exist separately, said Ravi Iyer, Sun's group manager of systems security marketing.

The next release of Debian will not be accompanied by a non-free section; there will be no more stable releases of the non-free section. The Debian project will cease active support of the non-free section. Clause 5 of the social contract is repealed. Since this modifies the Social Contract, this requires a 3:1 vote majority to pass.

These videos show how Longhorn can be used in different industries while more Concept Videos will be coming soon. The videos require Windows Media Player.

The voice, the man, the... machine. That's George Hoffman for you. According to people who have worked with him (including my husband) he is one of the brightest Be, Inc. engineers ever. These days, George works at PalmSource, Inc. as the Director of Applications and Services. In his free time he sings with an (a cappella) vocal band of 4, Hookslide (check out their .wmv promo video clip)! In this interview we talk about PalmOS 6, aka Cobalt. We discuss the architecture of the OS, its capabilities, its market targets and more. Screenshots of Cobalt are included.

An application model is analogous to a construction project blueprint, and is an important ingredient in application development. This article shows the steps for developing a Java application based on a Rational Rose class diagram using the Eclipse Modeling Framework, and also shows how to develop the same Java application using the Universal Modeling Language visualization tool.

Microsoft on Tuesday showed off a forthcoming update to Windows designed to make the OS more secure and proposed a caller ID-like system for e-mail that could help curtail the growing spam problem.

Lycoris Desktop/LX Update 3, released last September, is a Linux distro aimed primarily at home user desktops. Lycoris has been widely heralded for its user-friendliness. If newbies can handle some manual configuration, they may be happy with it, but it won't satisfy more experienced users, says Linux.com.

One of the features geeks really miss on OSX's Unix environment are the virtual screens. Apple tried to address this need with the introduction of the excellent Expose, but all things fair, Expose doesn't do the same thing. CodeTek is the main company which has addressed this need on Mac OS X for two years now. Recently, they released their third major version of VirtualDesktop in two flavors, Pro & Lite.

Version 8.0 of the Symbian OS now has real-time capabilities, allowing phone vendors to build one-chip phones. At present, the most popular smart phone platforms, such as Texas Instruments' OMAP, typically feature two processors: one to handle the radio communications and one to handle the data operating system that the user sees.

"Anyone who's ever set out to perform Linux benchmarks quickly realizes the difficulties involved in such an undertaking, not only with the availability of quality benchmarks (or lack thereof), but also in the way the test system(s) are configured. Most of the Linux benchmarks that I see on hardware review sites are simple things like kernel compiles or povray... maybe a game benchmark or two." 2CPU.com gets serious over Linux benchmarking on the web.

This is the third installment of LinuxBeginner's "A week with" series, this time testing Slackware. The author liked the stability and "just works as promised with no extra promises" Slackware mentality.

Xandros teams with LinuxCertified to provide pre-installed Linux laptops with full-spectrum connectivity and universal file sharing. The LC2210 Mobile Laptop with 14" XGA TFT LCD and LC2410 Linux Laptop with a 15" XGA TFT LCD are both being offered at the introductory price of $1399 in North America.

A small but growing software company is rolling out a major upgrade that lets developers build standards-based Java and .Net applications with no coding. Kinzan Inc. this week will release Kinzan Studio & Server 4.0, a development and deployment environment that lets developers build enterprise applications through an assembly model by simply linking components in a drag-and-drop format.