Robert Love, kernel hacker well known for his preemptive patch, has now joined the ranks of Ximian. In a nutshell, he told us that he is going to be working on kernel and system-level projects to improve the Linux desktop experience. Better hardware management/integration/naming/hotplugging, a kernel event system, and desktop/laptop performance tuning are immediate goals. Robert recently released a book, "Linux Kernel Development" which we reviewed.

SkyOS announced that they are taking pre-orders for people interested in joining their new beta program for SkyOS 5. This program will allow you to receive a copy of SkyOS 5.0 beta before it is released to the public. The cost to join the beta program is $30, and by joining you will receive these benefits.

The Independent Qt Tutorial is an on-line book aiming to cover most topics involved in the process of developing professional quality Qt applications.

This guy managed to squeeze 55 OSes running on his Powerbook.

The Model for Self-Managing Java Servers free download is intended to be a working model of a non-stopping, Java-based server. The server has the self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimization, and self-protection of an autonomic computing, self-managed server. This paper provides further information about Autonomic computing systems capable of managing themselves in today's environment.

This article is a quick example of how to add a system call to OpenBSD. The following description is based on OpenBSD 3.4-beta on i386 machine architecture. Also, it is assumed that readers are familiar with building the OpenBSD kernel.

This article on Microsoft .NET and J2EE presents interoperability best practices, and illustrates these approaches with a functional sample application. It shows how to link Microsoft .NET and J2EE, using Web services, runtime bridges, and asynchronous techniques.

Microsoft Corp. executives have kicked off the campaign for the company's next big Windows push: Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). In a Webcast Tuesday morning, Microsoft Security Business Unit Vice President Mike Nash said to expect the service pack —a major release—to enhance security in four ways. It will remedy open ports, malicious e-mail attachments, malicious Web content and buffer overrun attacks, Nash said.

This is the second installment of the "Linux on the Opteron, are we ready?" article. Basically, it is a "where are we now?" article, noting that what once did work now does not, and others that did not work now do. The first article was published on OSNews almost three months ago. Since that time not too much has happened publicly in regards to the amd64 Linux situation, but a lot of people mailed to tell me that I should have checked out SuSE or the new Mandrake which was "about to be released" at that time. Also since that time I have upgraded the RAM and acquired a larger hard disk for the machine. I will give a brief rundown of the system as it stands now, what I tried to install on it, and what works.

Lindows.com Inc. announced today the immediate availability of LindowsOS 4.5. LindowsOS 4.5 delivers remote desktop sharing, integrated search features, and translation tools that place six different languages. LindowsOS 4.5 now comes SIP-ready with easy-to-use software, any computer with a microphone and speakers running LindowsOS 4.5 (free upgrade from 4.0) can make free worldwide calls.

The International Telecommunications Union's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was last week. Of particular interest was a moderated debate on the issue of preferential treatment for open-source products in government procurement. John Carroll editorializes for proprietary software and RMS on the other side, against it.

Network software maker Novell continued its move into the Linux market with the release on Tuesday of its first Linux-based desktop services package.

According to their website, Xandros 2.0 is now shipping. The site also states that "Users with high-speed connections can purchase and download both the Deluxe and Standard editions of Xandros Desktop 2 at www.xandros.com", but their download section still states "Xandros Desktop OS is not currently available for download." Supposedly they will also have a free, 30-day evaluation version available for download.

Data-storage giant EMC Corp. will buy VMware for $635 million. VMWare is the leading vendor of "virtual hardware infrastructure," which allows data center managers to partition servers (and desktops) into seperately-managed parts. VMWare is also important for the OS community because it helps a user run several OSes simultaneously on one machine. EMC's acquisition will certainly steer the product even more toward the enterprise space. Wonder what will happen to the workstation product?