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.

The SkyOS Team has added window grouping to SkyOS. This decision came as a response to applications cluttering the taskbar. Similar applications will now only appear once on the taskbar, and a drop-down menu is used to access the individual instances of the applications. A screenshot of window grouping can be found at the SkyOS Website. Additionally, 10 languages are now available for most parts of SkyOS. If you are interested in translating SkyOS to a language, visit the SkyOS forums.

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.

Microsoft has released another build to Windows XP SP2 labeled 2082. Many new features are included, most notable are the new security enhancements. Read more here.

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.

ActiveWin reports that on page 19 of Microsoft's PDF response to Real's allegations: "Microsoft has developed standalone applications called "Windows Media Player" for use with the Apple Macintosh and Linux operating systems". Update: More info.

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.

Microsoft this year will seek to distance itself from Java rivals with tools designed to streamline how Windows-based business software is built and used.

"The other day something happened that left me a little speechless. A friend of mine brought over a copy of Yellowtab's Zeta OS RC1." Read the review at Beta10, but please note that they are reviewing an older version of Zeta, RC1, while RC2+more_patches are already available. Yesterday OSNews featured shots of ZintrO, YellowTAB's newest work, and ZetaNews has some info as well on this.

"Apple is about to show off just how innovative it can really be. Without giving it all away, we’ve decided it would be great to goose the Mac faithful a bit with a peek into what will most assuredly be the biggest advance in OS X’s short history." Read the (unconfirmed) report at MacNet2. In the meantime, Apple released a new Panther security update.

AMD's Athlon-64 (for PCs) and Opteron (for servers) will protect against buffer overflows when used with a new version of Windows XP. Intel plans similar features on next generation Pentium chips.

"Linux Kernel 2.6 has been in stable release for months now, which is like dog's years in kernel time. Kernel releases are exciting times for Linux geeks, because it's just plain fun to be able to replace the kernel on a system, or have several different kernels installed, and choose among them as the whim strikes. Oh yes, you want to gain improved performance and functionality, too." Read the article at ITManagement.

"Our main goal is to complete the Rhapsody OS and make it an OS that people would like to use. We aim for end users and hope to bring them what Apple has brought their customers for the past 20 years - the simplicity and style which Mac OS has." Check out the project here.

This technical whitepaper by Rafael Kolic, a technology marketing manager in Intel's Corporate Technology Group, introduces Wireless USB (WUSB) and explains how it will impact device performance and mobility. The latest iteration of USB technology, WUSB will offer the same functionality as standard wired USB devices -- but without the cabling.