Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to release midyear the second version of its Java Desktop System, featuring new tools for centralized management of client systems -- and a higher price tag. Sun released last year the debut version of the Java Desktop System (JDS), its attempt to win a share in the desktop operating system (OS) and applications market away from Microsoft Corp. The software is currently selling at a promotional price of $50 per user, per year, but the cost will rise to the product's planned selling price of $100 per user with JDS' second release, according to Peder Ulander, Sun's desktop products marketing director. MadPenguin posted a review with screenshots of JDS.

A new product arises from Genesi: The Open Desktop Workstation is based upon the Genesi Pegasos, a CHRP based motherboard. Integrating selected Open Firmware and running multiple (15+) operating systems, the Workstation is an extremely efficient, very expandable hardware solution for personal and business computer requirements. Both IBM and Motorola feature the new product in their pages.

ZetaJournal posted parts 1 and 2 of their YellowTAB Zeta 1.0-RC2 review. Part 3 of the review will be published freely later today (already available in their forum -- to view, requires free login).

CodeTek Studios is now shipping version 3.0 of VirtualDesktop, software that lets Mac OS X users work on multiple projects on separate—as the name implies—"virtual desktops." The latest version, which runs on both Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3, adds support for Apple's X11, Panther's Expose feature, an auto-hide pager, enhanced hotkey support, improved AppleScript support and more. Check the differences between Lite and Pro versions here and read the rest of the report at MacMinute.

"For those of you expecting a rundown of all the features in Mandrake 9.2 or a large number of screenshots, this is probably not the right article for you.

Linux has a unique opportunity to take advantage of its open source nature by offerings its users greater integration than even proprietary software can due to the fact that developers have access to both the code from the operating system as well as a large assortment of bundled applications. The following osViews editorial contribution is the fifth piece to a multipart series, ( | | | ) which outlines the framework for a consistent, full-featured Linux desktop platform that would help grow the operating system's desktop install-base among new users and Windows converts.

The European Commission has reportedly reached a decision that Microsoft broke anticompetitive law and will face stiff fines, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Microsoft would not comment on the report but maintained that negotiations with the European Commission are still ongoing.

As Microsoft prepares developers and independent software vendors for Longhorn, the next version of its Windows operating system, the company wants to wean them off older Windows programming models. Elsewhere, Microsoft's Bill Gates took centre stage at yesterday's software developer day in London to convince UK software developers to stick with Microsoft, even though Longhorn, its next-generation operating system platform, is two to three years away.

Red Hat Inc. joined the growing number of server makers and Linux distributors that are offering some sort of financial protection for its customers against legal action by the SCO Group last week prior to LinuxWorld. In this interview, Red Hat vice president of engineering Brian M. Stevens talked to SearchEnterpriseLinux.com about the distributor's new Open Source Assurance program, the addition of a server provisioning module to its Red Hat Network, the 2.6 kernel and the SCO lawsuit.

Anders Hejlsberg, the lead C# architect, talks with Bruce Eckel and Bill Venners about C# and Java generics, C++ templates, contraints, and the weak-strong typing dial.

IBM Corp., Novell Inc., and Sun Microsystems Inc. bolstered Linux's enterprise appeal last week by detailing present and future products at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in New York. Hoping to accelerate acceptance for grid computing among commercial users, IBM is developing a grid-enabled version of WebSphere, code-named Cayuga. According to sources familiar with the company's plans, Cayuga is designed to make it easier to implement and manage grids. Elsewhere, movement leader Bruce Perens looks at court and market battles, plus Linux community projects.

The aim of Desktop Sidebar is provide you with instant access to some of your most important daily information, however some may run it just to fake the Longhorn's sidebar. Whichever your intent is, this seems to be like a nifty utility with enhancements for Windows users.

Agfa Monotype, a global provider of fonts and font technologies, has licensed fonts to Red Hat. Red Hat has licensed Agfa Monotype's Albany, Cumberland and Thorndale typeface families, and a font that conforms to the Unicode 3.2 specification, Unicode's latest international character encoding standard for multilingual digital information exchange. Red Hat is licensing these high quality fonts through the Red Hat Network, mostly targeting Red Hat Enterprise Linux customers.

Dell now sells its N-Series computers (they start at $319) shipping with a FreeDOS CD in the box.