Miguel de Icaza talks about the problems independent software vendors have with Linux distributions' API/ABI backward compatiblity.

Interrupt latency is a key factor in the performance of a system and well known Linux kernel hacker Robert Love writes about it for the LinuxJournal.

YellowTAB is currently preparing a service pack for its RC1 release. Customers who bought Zeta Deluxe 1.0-RC1, will receive their CDs within a few days and the Service Pack that was developed in the meantime will also be available for these customers via a web download (about 5 MB). Read more for the (partial) changelog and screenshots showing the new "quick launch" facility YellowTAB is introducing on their Deskbar and their SVG Tracker and preference panels.

The stage is set for a showdown between 'Longhorn' and Linux systems, as Microsoft, Red Hat and SuSE kick off a war of words.

Apple raised the bar Monday for some 175 independent retailers to stay as Specialist dealers and achieve certain discounts on products and equipment. The announcements will make it more difficult for dealers to stay as certified Apple resellers without sacrificing the sale of high-profit, third-party hardware and software and giving up valuable customer contact information Apple could use to entice consumers to buy direct. In the meantime, Apple discusses G5 Powerbook and why it is not its time yet.

Software maker Borland Software expects later this year to deliver on its plans to bundle tools that work with Java and Microsoft's .Net software.

Longhorn is the .NET version of Windows which finalizes the replacement of the WIN32 API with a managed system, as well as a massive rethink as to the way developers write applications for Windows and consumers interact with their computers. Read the article at ZDNews.

NetBSD Emmanual Dreyfus says that COMPAT_DARWIN is now able to run MacOS X's XDarwin (X11). Darwin is Apple's MacOS X core. A fully functional Darwin binary compatibility on NetBSD/powerpc & NetBSD/i386 will imply getting MacOS X libraries to run any MacOS X program, just like NetBSD is now able to run binaries from Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, and many other OSes. In the meantime, a very interesting slide show was released about DragonFly, showing many aspects of the work Matthew Dillon and cia are working on.

This sample chapter discusses the operations that the system must perform from the time you power on the system until you receive a system logon prompt. In addition, it covers the steps required to properly shut down a system.

"In an email to Red Hat Network customers, the company has announced today that it "...will discontinue maintenance and errata support for Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 8.0 as of December 31, 2003," that "Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and errata support for Red Hat Linux 9 as of April 30, 2004," and that "Red Hat does not plan to release another product in the Red Hat Linux line." This should not come as a surprise to NewsForge regulars who saw this story on October 23, but less-prepared Red Hat users seem shocked by the idea." Read the article at NewsForge.

Software is collapsing under the weight of its own complexity. Charles Simonyi’s solution? Programming tools that are so simple that even laypeople can use them.

In nearly all secure programs, your first line of defense is to check every piece of data you receive. If you can keep malicious data from entering your program, or at least keep it from being processed, your program becomes much harder to attack. This article shows how to validate input -- one of the first lines of defense in any secure program.

The first beta release of KDE 3.2 has just been released. The announcement can be found here and a discussion can be found here. This release features 10,000 closed bugs and 2000 closed wishes. Enjoy.

When Microsoft Corp. launches Virtual PC 2004, a Linux/BSD/Solaris/Netware version of the software won't be along for the ride—at least not officially.