IBM's PowerPC 750VX microprocessor has been finalized, sources told AppleInsider last week, though a few errata still need to be addressed. The chip is widely rumored for adoption by Apple Computer's iBook consumer portable line sometime next year.

The IT advisory firm expects the Longhorn operating system to be released between late 2006 and mid-2008, but that the release could be delayed even more.

This article by Prashant Sridharan provides an introduction and overview of Microsoft's four .NET programming languages: Visual Basic .NET, Visual C++ .NET, Visual C# .NET, and Visual J#. According to the author, programming languages are used to build a variety of solutions, and each language contains unique features and benefits that make it best suited to certain kinds of applications. The article starts by explaining the overall benefits of .NET, and then reviews the unique capabilities and strengths each of these four Microsoft .NET programming languages.

For all of you who plan to use the web for your holiday shopping, I wanted to let you know that we made some updates to the OSNews Price Comparison Shop. As always, you can find it on the left side of the site, under the ad or at osnews.pricegrabber.com. We now have a search field that will take you directly to a comparison of prices for the item that you enter. If you can't find what you're looking for at PG, you may want to try NewMobileComputing's Price Comparison, which is powered by Dealtime.

Almost two years after it went on hiatus, Sun Microsystems' Solaris x86 has come back in full form with free downloads of the operating system becoming available once again, The Register has discovered. Elsewhere, Sun's Java Desktop System (review) is now available for purchase.

IBM e-business architect Chris Walden is your guide through a nine-part developerWorks series on moving your operational skills from a Windows to a Linux environment. He covers everything from logging to networking, and from the command-line to help systems etc.

Microsoft is set to release a test version of the next update to Windows XP, which adds security features as well as improved support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks.

Performance enthusiasts Jack Shirazi & Kirk Pepperdine, Director & CTO of JavaPerformanceTuning, follow performance discussions all over the Internet to see what's troubling Java developers. While surfing the Usenet newsgroup comp.lang.java, they came across some interesting low-level performance tuning questions. In this installment of Eye on performance, they dive into some bytecode analysis to try and answer some of these questions.

When I volunteered to do this review I quickly realized that I was asked to review 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server' and not just 'Red Hat Linux'. Then panic set in. How different was this going to be from regular old Red Hat that I've used and relied on for years? Is this going to be a whole new Red Hat with a whole bunch of advanced features that I wouldn't be able to talk about either because I missed them or because I'm not qualified?

Trolltech today announced the release of Qt, version 3.3.0 beta 1.Trolltech also iIntroduces the Qt Solutions: they provide platform and industry specific tools and components, as well as cutting-edge components that are too new to include directly in the Qt framework releases.

Microsoft on Tuesday said it was looking into reports of a potential bug in its Web browser that could help malicious hackers design convincing Web site spoofs. On other browser news, Opera 7.23 for Linux was released.

The purpose of this paper is to provide analysis on the Linux operating system along with Open Source software in general. Discussion will include benefits of the operating system, some of its downfalls, and the direction where Linux and the Open Source movement is headed. It is targeted specifically for IT managers and CIO's who are considering Linux Distribution rollouts to replace their existing IT systems. Lastly conclusions and recommendations will be made. This paper was created primarily as a research paper however it includes some personal experiences, and experiences derived from other Linux users.

A Real Video stream of Sun's Schwartz demoing Project Looking Glass the Sun 3D desktop implemention in Java running atop of X.

Apple this week continued seeding new pre-release builds of Mac OS X 10.3.2 to developers, sources said. The company also detailed the update’s bug fixes to the High Level Toolbox frameworks. Also, Apple is to launch next-generation ‘New iMac’ desktops with magnesium-alloy cases early next year.