"The amazing thing about the free vs. proprietary software race is that free software is in it at all. With all the resources larger proprietary software companies have at their command, you'd think their products would be unfailingly easy to use, virtually bug-free, and priced so low that no one would mind paying for them. But this is not the case. Why isn't it?" Read the article at NewsForge.

Get details on the over 140 sessions presented at PDC 2003, including slides and source code downloads for many of the sessions.

The first release of Fedora Core is now available. Download from here or use BitTorrent. Changelog.

Here is your almost daily dose of different views on the subject of Linux desktop readiness: "Linux is Desktop Ready", "Why desktop Linux can't succeed in its present state" and "Is the Age of Desktop Linux Approaching?" Enjoy the diversity!

The new presentation subsystem in the next version of Windows, code-named "Longhorn," offers powerful new capabilities to developers. This new subsystem, code-named "Avalon," allows developers to take advantage of its capabilities through a language—Extensible Application Markup Language (code-named "XAML"), as well as through modern object-oriented programming languages such as C#. Because most applications written to Avalon will probably be a mix of XAML and programming code, this article discusses XAML tags used to control page layout along with the procedural code written to respond to events.

"Linux: A new balance of power" an analysis at ZDNet is titled, while eWEEK has a report on Novell, SuSE execs detailing their plans.

Longhorn WMV videos at WinSuperSite: Longhorn user experience scenarios: "Longhorn addresses the needs of all users, whether beginner or advanced." Latest Aero prototype: Cool Start Menu animation and media player Sidebar tile."

Microsoft's new version of the Windows operating system, code named Longhorn, is scheduled for release in 2005/2006. I believe that this new version of Windows is Microsoft's trump card in its, yet early, battle against Linux on the desktop and the Open Source Software (OSS) movement in general.

"Out of Vancouver comes very neat little distro called Libranet. Based on Debian but with an emphasis on ease-of-use, this is a powerful yet stable distribution that although isn't a major name, has loyal followers.The version I'm currently reviewing is 2.7 Classic Edition, the freely downloadable version, as opposed to the newer Flagship Edition, 2.81." Read the review at LinMagAU.

From MacMinute: "Apple has released the first update to Xcode, its set of powerful developer tools for Mac OS X. Version 1.0.1 addresses an issue in the Xcode IDE that could potentially lead to data corruption or the loss of files particularly when source files contain illegal characters." Additionally, Apple also released a new Panther security update in regards to a vulnerability with the Terminal.

Red Hat's chief executive has said that Linux needs to mature further before home users will get a positive experience from the operating system, saying they should choose Windows instead.

"The freedesktop.org X hacking is low-profile unstableware at the moment, but one particular proposal interests me the most", Havoc Pennington (of Red Hat, Gnome and freedesktop.org fame) is writing on his dev blog. Havoc discusses the new features and explains the new levels of the 'modernization' of this XFree86 fork.

Novell today announced it will acquire SuSE, one of the leading enterprise Linux companies, expanding Novell's ability to provide enterprise-class services and support on the Linux platform. With the open source expertise of SuSE Linux and Novell's world-class networking and identity solutions and support, training and consulting services, Novell will be able to deliver Linux and all its components –- from the server to the desktop. Press release can be found here. This isn't the first news of these companies interoperating. Update: C|Net News has a nice round-up article on it too.

"The given deployment details are for my previous employer, who still consults me on a regular basis. I have advocated and deployed Linux there, first as adjunct file SAMBA servers in 1998, for a time on FreeBSD then Red Hat, to entirely displacing NT/Win2k in the server room in 2001, to porting HPUX hosted custom software to Linux as part of my Y2K work, to trialling Linux as desktop, first with Ximian on Red Hat Linux 6.2 to a successful trial with stock Red Hat 8.0 upgraded with the latest Mozilla and OpenOffice.org. Only by providing a proven better solution at the time was anything new adopted." Read the open letter at NewsForge.