The Samba Team announced the availability of the first official, stable release of the Samba 3.0.0 code base. In other interesting Unix/Linux software releases this week, we had OpenOffice.org 1.1-RC5, Ximian Evolution 1.4.5, QCad 2.0.0 and Main Actor 5.0. UPDATE: KOffice 1.3 Beta 4 was released too.

Cliff White recently posted some re-AIM multiuser benchmark results comparing the stable 2.4.23-pre5 kernel against the 2.6.0-test5 and 2.6.0-test5-mm4 development kernels. In his conclusion he makes reference to earlier scheduler tests posted by Mark Wong saying, "Short summary: we mostly rock."

While Mandrake Linux 9.2 will be released soon to the Club Members and Contributors, MandrakeSoft also released the first beta of Mandrake 9.2 for AMD64 (Athlon64 and Opteron).

IBM and open-source Java software company JBoss Group are in discussions to spearhead a Java standardization effort aimed at cooling off the growing popularity of Microsoft's C# language. On other Java-related news, BeOS might see a full implementation of Java soon.

Sun Microsystems' flirtation with AMD continues with the 'Java Desktop System' set to make its way onto the Athlon 64 processor. When Sun releases the Linux-based Java Desktop software later this year, it will run on AMD's Ahtlon 64 processor but only in 32bit mode. Sun plans to rectify this situation "over time" and create a 64bit version of the Java Desktop for AMD's x86-64bit desktop chip.

FreeBSD Release Engg. Team's Murray Stokely has put together a 4.9-BETA ISO image for i386 with the latest package build.

Amiga.org editor and Amiga supporter James Russell has written a synopsis of the current questionable situation with Amiga Incorporated.

The popular alternative web browser from Opera Software today reached version 7.20.

Hewlett Packard is the first major company to offer indemnification for its Linux-using customers from any legal action that SCO might take. Other companies, such as Lindows.com and Sun have offered protection, but based on agreements that they have with SCO. HP has not paid any Linux licensing fees to SCO.

For almost a week now, I've been using Slackware 9.1 (RC-1 released today), and I am having a blast. Slackware doesn't have more than 6-8% of the Linux market these days, but it used to be one of the most-used distros back in the day. Today, many think of Slackware as a true classic, a thought that is often accompanied by a feeling that Slackware is not a user-friendly or an uber-modern Linux distribution. There is some truth in that statement, but there is always the big "But". Read on for our very positive experience with Slackware 9.1-pre. Update: In less than 24 hours since the RC-1, Slackware 9.1 RC-2 is out.

Mac OS X 10.2.8 apparently pulled Mac OS X 10.2.8 has disappeared from Apple's Web Servers, and is no longer available via the automatic Software Update function. The update created a number of problems to some users.

The KDE Project's KDE 3.2, which eWEEK Labs previewed in its initial alpha release, should impress companies countenancing desktop Linux deployments, they say. On other KDE news, KDE 3.1.3 built with Sun Forte on Solaris.

PalmSource said the next version of the Palm operating system for handhelds will offer improved multitasking and graphics capabilities.

OneStat.com today reported that Microsoft's Windows dominates the operating system market with a global usage share of more than 97 percent. The leading operating system on the web is Microsoft's Windows XP with a global usage share of 38.48 percent. Microsoft's Windows 98 has a global usage share of 22.56 percent and is the second most popular OS on the web. The global usage share of Apple's Macintosh operating system is 1.49 percent and the global usage share of Linux is 0.51% (that's double since last year's 0.26%) on the web. Google also has some stats on the same subject.