The next version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, code-named "Longhorn," marks a significant change not only in terms of how the operating system works, but also in the way in which applications are built.

There's been a bunch of news recently about Microsoft's continuing anti-trust problems. There were arguments in Massachusetts' appeal of the consent decree between MS and the Department of Justice. Also, three days of hearings occurred this week in the European Union's investigation of MS conduct in Europe. Nothing definitive happened, but there are some intriguing bits and pieces that surfaced.

Timesofoman site has an Apple article exploring its abilities as an alternative to Windows, while the MacNightOwl site has a report about how well Panther performs on G3s.

To persuade the Middle Kingdom to pick its software over Linux, Microsoft plays nice. Can there be such a thing as a kinder, gentler Microsoft? The answer may well soon emerge in China, where the software Ninja and Red Dragon are locked in a strategic duel over Windows and its free competitor, Linux. Elsewhere, Brazil moves to shun Microsoft software.

DesktopLinux.com, in coordination with the Desktop Linux Consortium, is making select presentations from Monday's conference at Boston University's Corporate Education Center available. The first presentation in the series is from IBM's Sam Docknevich, Linux and Grid Services Executive for IBM Global Services. His presentation discusses IBM's push into the Linux desktop market, an initiative from inside "Big Blue." Elsewhere, LinuxJournal has a review of some of the presentations in the conference.

To encourage users to switch from Microsoft Windows products to the new Desktop/LX Operating System, Lycoris is now offering the "Moving On" competitive upgrade for all users of Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2k/XP. Users simply send in their original CD or restore disk along with their Certificate of Authenticity, sticker, or original product key papers from Microsoft , and Lycoris will give them 50% OFF the retail price of Desktop/LX Update 3. This offer will only last two weeks, until November 30th.

"The Debian installer has been considered its Achilles heel for a long time, but in the last couple of months things have really been heating up in installer-land."

Miguel thinks of the future of OS-development under Windows and GNOME/Mono. Have a look here.

The held back Mandrake 9.2 ISO's because of the LG CD-ROM issues, are now available for download. Anyone knows if the 250 MB of additional updates MandrakeSoft issued a few days after the release of the ISOs in the MandrakeClub last month also included in these download-edition ISOs?

Competitors say the software giant need not cripple its popular Windows operating system to comply with European regulators' demands.

Valgrind is a tool that helps you find memory management problems in programs. This release adds improved SSE/SSE2 support, fixes for some minor bugs, and improved support for SuSE 9 and the Red Hat "Severn" beta. There are front-ends for it, available for both KDE and Gnome.

Remember Turbolinux? Less than 5 years ago, it was a fixture in the forefront of the Linux landscape along with Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, and the now defunct Storm Linux. Later this week, Turbolinux will release their new desktop distribution, dubbed "10D." The following is a first look at Turbolinux's return to the fray.

Some say Sun Microsystems should give up on its Linux desktop ambitions, but there are serious signs of life that indicate the company may be on to a good thing, The Register has learned.

Apple on Wednesday seeded developers with a pre-release version of Xcode 1.1, an update to the developer tools that shipped with Panther. The update includes several features enhancements and bug fixes. Apple has also posted a new Panther-specific Java 1.4.1 update after pulling the previous version due to compatibility issues with other software.