"KDE 3.2 provides an integrated desktop along with various applications to carry out common desktop tasks such as web browsing, email, instant messaging, multimedia, graphics, etc. Some of the impressive features which you will notice include..." Read the article at FedoraNews.org. Update: Two more KDE articles, one at Enterprise-Linux-IT and one at ITNews.

Java 2 SDK v1.5 Beta 1 has been released. Release notes here.

UnixReview reviews Red Hat's Enterprise Linux 3.0. Joe Casad concludes that "Enterprise Linux 3 looks and feels more like a steady, sober corporate computer system than previous Red Hat offerings, although the changes to the user experience are subtle and may not attract a lot of attention."

Take a look at Sun Microsystems' recently relaunched Java developer Web site, and you'll see something new: a picture of James Gosling.

Foul language, abuse, and threats brought by angry Linux advocates could be giving a good operating system technology a bad name, says CMP's LinuxPipeline. Perens advises against abuse as well.

OpenQNX reports that the next release of QNX, commonly referred as QNX 6.3, is expected in the second quarter of 2004. The new features in QNX 6.3 haven't been talked in the news announcement, but based on earlier news postings on qnx.com, it is believed that we will be seeing the new Netfront back-end web browser for the Voyager UI-shell. The Linux-hosted development option for QNX Momentics will also be available.

Linus Torvalds announced the release of the 2.6.2 Linux kernel, calling it the "Fiesty Dunnart". Read his announcement and view the changelog at KernelTrap. Alternatively, check out the changelog or download from an official mirror.

KernelTrap has interviewed David Weinehall, the maintainer of the 2.0 Linux kernel. David became the 2.0 maintainer in December of 1999, after Alan Cox moved on to work full time on the 2.2 kernel. In this interview David talks about what's involved in maintaining the 2.0 kernel, who uses it, when we can expect the impending release of 2.0.40, and more.

PalmSource plans to announce next week a revamped operating system strategy in which it simultaneously develops multiple versions of its software aimed at different parts of the market for smart phones and other devices. The new PalmOS incorporates some "ideas" from BeOS, according to Nagel.

This article by a staff engineer in Intel's Enterprise Platforms Group (EPG) introduces the Intel Platform Innovation Framework for the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), which is intended to provide an alternative to BIOS that will allow for faster booting, manageability, and additional features.

Microsoft is moving to a new phase in its competitive attack, arguing that the company is better than IBM and Linux when it comes to connecting different applications.

For those that don't already know, smoothwall is a very slick and easy way to setup a firewall/nat/dhcp server (and more) at home or in a small office very quickly even on old computer equipment. I have used Smoothwall 1.0 in the past and liked its features (although at the time, I did have a problem with Snort failing to start after I updated the software with some fixes...). It served on an old Pentium II 400mhz machine with two NICs inside (network cards). One was the 'green' interface (more about that later) and the other was the 'red' interface. I used that setup for quite a few months, mainly because I wanted to see what alternatives there were to hardware based firewalls (such as DLink gateways/firewalls) that I had been using.

These are the latest OS4 screenshots showing a general workbench shot showing IBrowse, SoundPlayer, and the new layers library in action that allows shaped and masked windows, a few 68k programs and two shots from Descent 2.

"When you think about enterprise systems management, companies like Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard and IBM come to mind. They offer comprehensive suites for monitoring and managing the behavior of the broad array of IT components that keep an enterprise afloat. You don't necessarily consider Microsoft in the same vein, but with its characteristic resolve, the company is attempting to make comprehensive systems management part of the genetic material of Windows." Read the article at ZDNet.