An internal Apple memo has been posted that states that Apple has just paid off its remaining $300 million in debt and is now debt-free. This concludes an amazing journey that has taken the company from a debt of $1 billion in Apple's darkest days to the current cash reserves of $4.8 billion.

Recently GCC 3.3.3 was released. Slackware is one of the first distros offering it in its unstable branch. Also check the short article "Debugging Tools for C on Linux Platform" at LinuxGazette.com.

Microsoft Corp. today announced at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco that its Windows OS for 64-bit extended systems will be fully compatible with Intel Corp.'s newly announced processors with 64-bit extension technology. The 64-bit extended systems versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP provide customers with the versatility to run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications, enabling them to move to 64-bit computing at their own pace while preserving their current investment in 32-bit apps.

Couldn't stop myself from trying the new Fedora 2-test1 release, even if it is an alpha! The 2.6 kernel, KDE 3.2 and Gnome 2.5 all in the same release was just to much candy to turn away from; too bad it's more sour rather than sweet at this (beta) point than I would have expected.

The XFree86 Project recently announced their final RC before the release of XFree86 4.4.

"The 33-year-old creator of this 3-D effect, dubbed Looking Glass, is a programmer at Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara. He's part of a crew creating desktop software for the freely available Linux operating system. So far, many desktop versions of Linux emphasize how it can mimic the functions of Microsoft's Windows and Office software." Read the article about Sun's Project Looking Glass here. Looking Glass is a 3D Java application running atop X11, simulating a desktop environment with nice 3D effects, but it is not incorporated to Gnome or X11.

The French government will install open source software on the desktop as part of Project ADELE, a plan to computerize much of the country's administration by 2007, a government official says. The administration will migrate a significant number of its desktops to open source operating systems and application software, Jacques Sauret, director of the French Agency for the Development of the Electronic Administration, said at a recent meeting of the French IT and Telecoms Press Club.

Apple Computer is possibly in a better shape than it has been in for a long while. With the second coming of Steve Jobs and the renewed focus on innovation, Apple scrambled back from the brink to a relatively healthy company. The question is how will Apple ensure its position, if not strengthen it going forward?

Intel will come out with a server chip next quarter that adds 64-bit processing power to its current x86 line of processors, the company's chief executive said Tuesday. In the meantime, Advanced Micro Devices is adhering to the less-is-more theory as it begins shipments of low-power versions of its Opteron processor for servers.

eCosCentric Limited announced their partnership with SSV Embedded Systems to deliver an eCosPro(tm) Starter Kit for the DIL/NetPC DNP/5280 embedded controller board.

"According to a recent update on their website (February 14th), the reason why the source code of BlueEyedOS (which is under the LGPL licence) hasn't been made available yet is because they can't find a public host." More is available here. Also interesting to check out the sourceforge status.

Many readers have submitted the latest news about Lindows.com. "Lindows is now also known as Lin---s (pronounced Lin-dash)" wrote Nick Stuart. The name swap, which effects only Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg, is a response to the court ruling that specified that Lindows was infriging upon the Windows trademark. The Reg is one of myriad sites reporting.

The Torrent files are out now for Mandrake Linux 10 RC1, while MandrakeSoft announced that they are reverting back to XFree86 4.3 because of the recent licensing change for XFree86 4.4.

Red Hat & Gnome hacker Seth Nickell wrote an interesting article about the Macintosh revolution ini the human-centered UI design and the source of this revolution, the Xerox PARC innovations in the mid-70s.