LinuxWorld Conference and Expo began this morning at the Javits Center in New York City with a keynote address by Jack Messman, chairman of the board and CEO of Novell. Novell, Messman noted, is a billion-dollar company that's wagering its future on open source, with the acquisitions in the past year of Ximian and SuSE. Linux convert Novell proclaimed its strong support for open-source programming Wednesday, but made the case for a pragmatic approach that blends in its own proprietary applications.

Even though most Linux users have treated Linux as an operating system for their x86 white boxes, Linux runs equally well on PowerPC machines. David Mertz, Ph.D. looks at Linux on the PowerPC and the appealing range of PPC machines produced by Apple, where the option of using Linux is of great value to many users. Update: IBM pushes Linux on Power processors.

Linux's diversity is often regarded as one of its greatest strengths. That diversity -- as great as it is -- also translates to inconsistency, which many regard as one of the operating system's greatest weaknesses. The following osViews editorial contribution is the fourth piece in a multipart series, ( | | ) which outlines the framework for a consistent Linux desktop platform that would help grow the operating system's desktop install-base among new users and Windows converts.

GTK programming has almost never been this easy: IBM developer shares his skills, his enthusiasm, and his modified code for the SimpLIstic sKin interface (or SLIK). SLIK provides a great tool for building advanced user interfaces in Linux or Unix systems. A part of the GQmpeg toolset, it is written using the GTK toolkit, a powerful set of widgets for graphics used by such applications as the GIMP and other GNOME-based apps.

Red Hat is doing its part to truly make 2004 the year of the Linux desktop with plans to bring an enterprise Linux desktop to market before the year ends.

Linux adversary the SCO Group sued rival software maker Novell on Tuesday, alleging that Novell has falsely claimed that it controls the Unix operating system.

I've been using laptops for a long time now. Not exclusively, but I've got plenty of experience with them. When it comes to hardware, laptops are nothing like any other systems. They use different motherboards, different graphics cards. Sometimes they use desktop components for things like memory, processors and network cards, but often those are specialized too. Laptops can be broken down into two major catagories: ultra-portable systems, designed for minimal weight and maximum battery life, and "desknotes", often using desktop components, large screens, and powerful graphics systems. I personally prefer desknotes because I like having a lot of power under the hood.

LynuxWorks is shipping BlueCat Linux 5.0, its first production release based on Linux kernel 2.6. LynuxWorks calls the release "the industry's first commercially available embedded Linux distribution based on Linux 2.6," although SnapGear earlier released a free embedded Linux distribution based on 2.6 which it claimed represented the "world's first production Linux system powered by the 2.6 kernel."

"For us, all of a sudden, music is the No. 1 priority of the company," Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of applications marketing, told Reuters. "We're trying to be a part of the music evolution overall" he said. Our Take: I wonder where that leaves Apple's Mac OS X. While Apple always was and remains a hardware company, MacOS was always at the core of the whole deal. Is the Mac OS X and Macs of the future going to serve merely as the platform to do the "music stuff that sell" instead of being the main focus of the product line? This reminds me a whole lot of Be, Inc.'s focus shift to Internet Appliances and the grandual demise of BeOS.

Virtual machine twoOStwo is a virtualization technology for Intel x86 platform, developed by Russian company Parallels Ltd for German company NetSys GmbH. twoOStwo allows to launch several operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2 etc., simultaneously on a single computer. Read more for screenshot and download links.

One of the three main German languaged Amiga print magazines has made available an AmigaOS4 preview article which includes many AmigaOS4 screenshots. Also Q&A session 26 with Amiga's CTO is now available and it was announced that IBM will hold a seminar at the upcoming AmiGBG Amiga fair in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Microsoft's reputation is one of a moneymaker, but the fact is that four of its seven business units are in the red. To the tune of US$1.6 billion in fiscal year 2003, Microsoft bled money from its Business Solutions, Mobile and Embedded Devices, MSN, and Home and Entertainment divisions.

A Melbourne-based software outfit has come up with a tool for getting rid of the bloat on Windows systems and literally cutting one's system down to size. LitePC has developed software which it markets as XPLite and 2000lite, which users can use to remove practically any component of Windows.

Red Hat's program features warranty to guarantee customers the right to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux without interruption. A key feature of the Open Source Assurance Program is an Intellectual Property Warranty. The warranty ensures, that in the event that an infringement issue is identified in Red Hat Enterprise Linux software code, Red Hat will replace the infringing code. Read more for the PR.