Novell Inc. and adopted prodigy SUSE Linux struck a one-two punch at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here in late January with declarations by top executives that Novell will be a major player in the Linux world and is committed to responsibly shepherding the operating system and Novell’s other open-source projects.

OperaJournal reviews the newly released Zeta RC2 Deluxe Edition. Screenshots included.

When some people hear the words "home automation," they think about the Jetsons or multi-million-dollar concept homes of the future. Others think home automation is just a geek fantasy that wouldn't add any real value to their lives. Read the article at MacDevCenter.

David LeBlanc introduces a C++ template class that helps reduce the chances of incurring integer arithmetic errors in your code. The code is fast, flexible, and easy to use. Get a handle on optimizing floating-point code using the Microsoft Visual C++ (v8.0) method of managing floating-point semantics. Create fast programs while ensuring that only safe optimizations are performed on floating-point code.

Market researcher IDC expects to announce within weeks that Linux' PC market share in 2003 hit 3.2%, overtaking Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh software (as reported a few weeks ago it has fallen at 1.8%, for the first time). And the researcher expects Linux to capture 6% of this market by 2007. That's still tiny compared with Microsoft's 94% share. Desktop Linux hasn't had any appreciable effect on Microsoft's finances yet, but it could do damage if Linux manages to grab a 10% share of the market, say analysts. IDC estimates that desktop Windows' share will shrink slightly, to 92% in 2007 as Linux' share doubles. The first big question though is how all this will have an effect to Apple's business.

The latest GNOME Development release, 2.5.4, is ready for testing. It is available for immediate download on ftp.gnome.org and mirrors.

The second release candidate of the 5.2.1 is now available (mirrors). It includes fixes to mksnap_ffs, SysV Shared Memory, devfs, IPSec, GEOM, the ata driver and many others. This is probably users' last chance for bugfinding as the final release is expected to be less than a week away.

With BitRock Installbuilder, BitRock aims to make easier to install and distribute Linux applications. It allows you to create easy-to-use installers that can be run in GUI, text, and unattended modes.

Sun may have been the last major server maker to embrace Linux, but Chief Executive Scott McNealy argues that the company will benefit more than its competitors from the open-source software. Update: A day after Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy said open-source software is his company's friend, a prominent advocate of the collaborative programming philosophy, Eric S. Raymond, has called upon the server maker to open the code of Java.

Intel plans to unveil next week a prototype consumer portable computer that blurs the line between desktops and notebooks by shedding the traditional clamshell laptop design.

With the third major release of the Qt 3 series last Wednesday, Trolltech CEO Haavard Nord graciously took some time to talk with OfB about Qt, the Linux desktop, Mac OS X 64-bit computing and more. Read the interview at OfB.biz. Ours is here.

Is there something fundamentally misguided about the way we write programs today? Why is it so difficult, if not impossible, to write bug-free programs that contain more than 20 to 30 million lines of code? Do we need a radical new paradigm shift in programming? If so, what might it look like? One response came from Sun's Victoria Livschitz, a senior IT architect and Java Evangelist who has an interesting history.

Slashdot reports in the release of the GEOS to the public. Check also our search page for links to the AppleII version and a past interview with an ex-GeoWorks employee.

According to Neowin, the source code for Microsoft Windows NT 4 and 2000 has been leaked. A number of universities and institutes already have legal access to the source code, distributed by Microsoft. It is still not confirmed by the software giant of Redmond - but in the wrong hands, this could result in a major security catastrophe and a huge threat against Microsoft's 32-bit operating system. Update 11:37 PM EST by AS: danjr lets us know, it's official.