As expected, the FreeBSD 5.2.1-RC update is now available either by CVS'upping your sources or by downloading an ISO image from the FTP mirrors. This comes out 20 days after the 5.2.0 release and brings bug fixes mainly for mksnap_ffs, NFSv4, KUser, GEOM and ATA drivers, and also IPsec. It does not load by default the new high-performance ULE scheduler (manual kernel recompile required).

The new crop of Pentium 4s, which will spawn a number of new desktop PC models, will include three chips based on a fresh processor design, code-named Prescott. Intel will add two new speed versions of its current Pentium 4, dubbed Northwood. A sixth Prescott Pentium 4, running at 3.4GHz will be announced Monday, but it won't be available until later in the quarter. Read the article at C|Net News.com and the pricelist at TheInquirer.

This article demonstrates how to use the Architect edition of Borland Delphi 8 for the Microsoft .NET Framework, and specifically the functionality found in the Borland Enterprise Core Objects section, to design an Object Model that is made persistent inside the DB2 UDB SAMPLE database.

"Will the new Linux really perform in the same league as the big boys? To find out, I put the v2.6.0 kernel through several real-world performance tests, comparing its file server, database server, and Web server performance with a recent v2.4 series kernel, v2.4.23." Read the performance article at InfoWorld.

Cooperative Linux is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively. More generally, Cooperative Linux (short-named coLinux) is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine.

Recently, Ashcrow had the privilege to sit down with SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for the AMD64 and test it in a real working environment to see how it stands in comparison to other Linux offerings.

People sometimes stare when Microsoft executive Tim McDonough opens his laptop in meetings. But that's probably normal when someone uses a Mac PowerBook in the center of the Windows world.

OS2 World.Com reports about Serenity Systems International (SSI)and its new virtual machine product family, Serenity Virtual Station(tm) (SVISTA). The SVISTA(tm) products will provide the broadest support for operating systems in the industry. "Our support for Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and IBM OS/2 as hosting platforms demonstrates that accomplishing this objective is in sight," according to Bob St.John, Director of Business Development for SSI. He continued, "We expect to conclude our Early Support Program and release the retail product in early 2Q04. We are prepared to support the product in service engagements right now."

The next release of the .NET Framework will include both 32- and 64-bit native support. CLR 2 is allready ported to Itanium (and AMD-64). Christopher Brown discusses how developers writing managed code today will be able to easily port and, in many cases, just copy existing applications to this new environment. The video requires Windows and MS Media Player.

Here is a positive review of Slackware 9.1 over at ExtremeTech's forums by R. Burns (our review).

yellowTAB is pleased to announce that RC2 has arrived and is ready to ship. Please read here if you are interested in taking part in their trade-in offer (trade RC1 for RC2). Otherwise they will be releasing a free update to bring all RC1 installs up-to-date to the RC2 status.

CVS, part of the glue that holds open source development together, shows its age. Many competitors have emerged recently, fixing misfeatures and adding new ideas. Shlomi Fish (of the version control comparison fame) explores several current open source version control systems that may be better than CVS for your needs. Email Shlomi on how to add info for your favorite VCS on his comparison page.

Linux Labs announced a key stepping stone towards large-scale deployment of the Linux Operating System. Called Clusgres, this product has the ability to make standalone applications run in parallel across a group of computers and act as one, including the Open Source database system PostgreSQL. To date there has been no capability to either increase speed of free database servers for Linux or to allow them to scale past the limitations of a single server. Despite advances in clustered supercomputing, there has been no capability for a server program running on a single machine, let alone the PostgreSQL database, to transparently operate across linked computers and to operate as if a single large program.

Microsoft’s chief software architect Bill Gates took centre stage at last week’s software developer day in London in a bid to convince UK software developers to stick with Microsoft’s roadmap, even though Longhorn, its next generation operating system, is two to three years away.