Preview sports new file system, gee-whiz graphics, and some security fixes. The next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, is still in the early stages of its journey to the retail corral, but PCWorld's hands-on look at a preview reveals features we'd love to have now--while raising some intriguing questions.

In the course of putting the January 2004 issue together, the LinuxWorld editors circulated forward-looking questions to a wide selection members of the Linux community whose opinions we respect. Here's what they had to say. Elsewhere, "Linux will continue to make headway in 2004, but the path to success is rarely a straight line. The number of installed instances of Linux will continue to shoot straight up, but revenues for service providers will not" says David Johnson.

MandrakeSoft released a test version of its Cooker tree in the form of 2 ISOs available now for testing. Includes XFree86 4.4.0-RC2, KDE 3.1.94, kernel 2.6.0.

The DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project has finished work on version 7.01.06 of the patches to the original Caldera OpenDOS/DR-DOS 7.01 source code, adding support for the FAT32 file system.

Ben Mazer write a not-so-positive review of the KDE 3.2 beta. It can be found here. Our recent KDE review is here. Elsewhere, RangerRick now has a preliminary KOffice port (with some Qt font/drawing issues still to fix) to Mac OS X in addition to the recent Konqueror port.

eWEEK.com's Linux & Open-Source Center Editor Steven Vaughan-Nichols loves the Linux desktop... for himself and other Linux mavens, but thinks that it's still a ways off from being the right choice for most companies. Our Take: There isn't a specific date where you can decide that a desktop experience is good for everybody everywhere (it is already good enough for many people), however I get the feeling that especially around middle 2005 we will be witnessing some truly satisfying results from Gnome 3, KDE 4, OpenCarpet, a matured 2.6 kernel and the evolved distros of the time, so hang on.

Here is a short list of the things I totally loved this year. Use the comment section to tell us about your favorites too!

Security Pipeline obtained access to the first widespread beta of Microsoft's forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) during the holidays. Microsoft has said that this beta represents a subset of what will be released when this software is finalized sometime during the first half of 2004. CRN tested the new software on a couple of test machines, and found it to be very reliable during a couple of days use.

As a dedicated reader of OSNews.com and a VP of Technology for an IT firm that specializes in utilizing Open Source solution for small business, I have been amazed at the rash of some reviews on the various distros of Linux and their failure to really help readers make a choice on what they should use or try. Linux has really matured in the desktop arena and in alot less time than Windows took to do so.

The XFree86 core team has announced that it is disbanding. What does this mean for the pending XFree86 4.4.0 release which was going to be out in January? (currently the latest version is 4.4-RC2). We hope that someone puts a release together to give something new to users before freedesktop.org's XWin server comes out at the end of 2004 or early 2005.

"Any systems around the world have been possessed by penguins and dead rats. It would be nice to exorcize these evil spirits, but this can be difficult without physical access to the machines in question. Thanks to a new depenguinator, it is now possible to upgrade Linux systems to run FreeBSD 5.x without requiring anything more than an SSH connection." Read it here.

GWN is featuring an interview with Daniel Robbins, Gentoo founder, as part of their weekly newsletter.

I have been using Windows in its various guises for the past 10 years. I am comfortable with Windows. It has served me well. I am a happy Windows user. However, unlike a majority of Windows users, for the past 5 years I have harboured a secret passion - an unfulfilled desire. Since 1998 I have wanted to own an Apple computer.

Japan, China and South Korea are reportedly planning to jointly develop Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the next-generation Internet standard, a move that will challenge the U.S.-dominated market for current IPv4-based Internet technology.