MySQL 5.0.0-Alpha, a new version of the popular Open Source/Free Software Database Management System, has been released. The most prominent new feature of MySQL 5.0 is probably Basic support for stored procedures (SQL-99 style). However, there are several additional enhancements, which are planned to be implemented before MySQL 5.0 reaches beta status.

This article documents the test results and analysis of the Linux kernel and other core OS components, including everything from libraries and device drivers to file systems and networking, all under some fairly adverse conditions, and over lengthy durations. The IBM Linux Technology Center has just finished this comprehensive testing over a period of more than three months and shares the results of their LTP (Linux Test Project) testing with developerWorks readers.

Linux.Ars features a detailed description of one of the most important parts of the newly-released Linux 2.6 kernel: the scheduler. The new scheduler features several improvements over that in 2.4; they will not only explain the improvements, but also describe how the scheduler works and why these improvements are important.

Graham Shaw has released RiscPkg, a RISC OS package manager. The idea behind package management is relatively simple, but it can hide suprisingly complex details in its aim to ensure a system has the latest versions of software, along with making sure dependent programs are installed, and downloading these easily with an automated installation system.

"One of the problems of computer security in practice is providing an easy mechanism for the user of a system to take advantage of the security features present in an operating system. A system may have significant security features, but absent an interface that allows the user to easily make use of those features the effective security of the system may be low." Read the interesting PDF article at Sans.org.

FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Scott Long has outlined future plans for FreeBSD 5.3 now that FreeBSD 5.2-RC2 is getting close to release quality.

A recent posting to the lkml suggested that the udev project has unfairly hijacked the devfs project, leading into yet another lengthy discussion comparing udev to devfs, and questioning why the latter has been deprecated. Linux devfs was written by Richard Gooch and merged into the 2.3.46 kernel in February of 2000.

This has been indeed an interesting year for Linux security. The point of this article is to offer a view on what I believe to be some of the most interesting happenings in 2003. The Linux experts that offer their view on 2003 are Bob Toxen (one of the 162 recognized developers of Berkeley UNIX and author of "Real World Linux Security") and Marcel Gagne (President of Salmar Consulting, Inc. and author of "Linux System Administration - A User's Guide" and "Moving to Linux").

Lorma linux 4.0 is the first distribution to be based on Fedora Core, outside of Redhat, that is. It is one of those new breed of single-CD distros that try to include only the best-of-breed applications.

HAL is a hardware abstraction layer aiming to provide a live list of devices present in the system at any point in time. Version 0.2 was just released. Read more about it in our recent interview with its author.

New eMacs must be about to arrive. In the Special Deals web page, part of the online Apple Store used to liquidate refurbished and older products, the current eMac configuration is listed as "Previous Generation eMacs." These units are the higher end Superdrive equipped models and are not currently discounted. It should be noted that these eMacs are listed as new and unopened.

So far this series has checked out Lindows 4.0, Libranet 2.8.1 and MEPIS 2003.10. Meanwhile both Lindows.com and Xandros have been busy little beavers and spat out new versions of their software, each on the same day. Since I am trying to find the best bang for my buck in a Debian based commercial distro, and since I am already a registered user of LindowsOS, I felt compelled to download a free copy of Lindows 4.5 to have a second look at this thing.

For months, Microsoft watchers have voiced concerns that delays in the company's introduction of its Yukon database software could derail other products, including a new version of Windows, Longhorn.

According to MorphOS-News the Pegasos-II System starts shipping to the end users.