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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

tcb was the first of many readers to submit the news that KDE 3.2 is out. KDE 3.2 included a number of new features and bug fixes as well as speed improvements. Please use mirrors to download. Update: Here is also the KDevelop 3.0 release anouncement.