Onebase is still a very new distribution - the first version appeared only in July 2003, and Onebase 2004 released in early January 2004 is a major rewrite and enhancement of the original concept. It started out as a source-based system, but with this release it embraced binary packages as well, becoming a hybrid. It is not based on any other major distro or package management system, instead it prides itself on doing things its own way. These are still the early days, but this is also what makes it an interesting distro, and the one to watch.

January's MacWorld Expo brought about several exciting hardware and software products from Apple worth getting excited about. Editorial contributor Mike Banks Valentine had the fortunate pleasure to be among those that attended the show and provided osViews with a detailed report about what was announced as well as a handful of other Apple-centric news events that occured around the same time.

Despite the relentless march of Linux, major vendors believe commercial Unix releases aren't ready for the scrapheap yet. As Linux evolves from its single-processor roots into larger-scale applications, many market watchers have predicted that it will eventually replace the remaining commercial Unixes: Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX, Sun Microsystem's Solaris, IBM's AIX and SGI's Irix. "It costs between $150 million and $200 million a year to generate your own Unix system and you then have to say to yourself 'Am I going to see that amount of extra revenue if I put in these features?'" Linux International executive office Jon 'maddog' Hall told iTnews. However, Unix vendors argue that the needs of large-scale enterprise users haven't yet been met by Linux.

New partnerships with server makers Dell and Egenera will be among the displays of Novell's newly bought Linux status at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo beginning Wednesday. Novell on Jan. 21 will ship its exteNd 5 suite for development of service-oriented Web applications, featuring boosts in security, productivity and Linux platform support.

Here is a quick guide for upgrading your FreeBSD 5.1 to the newly released 5.2.

(Note: First published in the Mercury News in January, 1984): "When Apple Computer Inc. rolls out its Macintosh computer on Jan. 24, the company's self-proclaimed ``pirates'' will have delivered their treasure. Since 1981, when Macintosh took form in an internal memo, Apple founder Steve Jobs, now 28, has led a maverick clan of programmers and designers on a mission to prove that the success of the Apple II was not a fluke."