Apple Computer said Friday that it plans to issue an update to older versions of Mac OS X to fix security flaws that were patched as part of the new Panther. Read on for more Apple news.

How did we get from there to here? The history of computing is marked by ages. In each age, the basic design of how we work with computers changes. Many people probably think we're in the brave new Internet age at this time, but considering the nature of computing, we're likely just at an intermediary stage. We're just now peeking into the next age -- the age of the truly distributed computing system --the coming of the grid.

Microsoft introduced the next version of Windows, code-named “Longhorn,” at its Professional Developers Conference this week in Los Angeles. Although Microsoft has leaked details of Longhorn before, the conference offered the first official look at many of the technologies coming when the operating system ships sometime in 2005 or 2006. Elsewhere: "Today was the 4th and final day of the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference in LA. If you were there, things were a lot quieter than previously. Most sessions had to do with creating software with all the new goodies." Read it here.

Technically, the BSD operating systems are every bit as good as Linux, so why aren't they commercially successful? eWEEK.com Linux & Open Source Center Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols and software consultant Brian Masinick explain why.

With Mac OS X Version 10.3, Apple delivers what's probably the most polished desktop operating system available today, says eWEEK Labs.

With Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft is introducing a set of security technologies that will improve Windows XP-based computers' ability to withstand malicious attacks from viruses and worms. The technologies include: Network protection, Memory protection, Safer email, Safer browsing. This paper discusses the first two elements on this list.

Lycoris makes three tablet-specific tweaks to the OS, but it's not enough. The first Linux-based tablet, Desktop Evolution's $1900 De-Tablet, is a good effort, but its software needs additional refinements before it will please the tablet-toting masses, says PCWorld.

SuSE Linux, until now known mainly as 'that European flavor of Linux' with many Americans, is getting ready for a big push with businesses and government organizations, with the introduction of SuSE Linux 9 with 64-bit processing and 2.6 kernel enhancements to the Americas Thursday.

The OpenBSD folks are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 3.4. This is their 14th release on CD-ROM (and 15th via FTP). They remain proud of OpenBSD's record of seven years with only a single remote hole in the default install. As with previous releases, 3.4 provides significant improvements, including new features, in nearly all areas of the system:

Free UNIX-derived operating systems have traditionally have a simplistic approach to process synchronization which is unsuited to multiprocessor application. Initial FreeBSD SMP support kept this approach by allowing only one process to run in kernel mode at any time, and also blocked interrupts across multiple processors, causing seriously suboptimal performance of I/O bound systems. This paper describes the work done to remove this bottleneck, paying particular attention to the project management aspects and the particular challenges of a large open source development project.

More commentary on the GNOME front: Jared White of 'The Idea Basket' compares the GNOME Storage project with the new WinFS technology in Microsoft Longhorn. Can Storage gain enough momentum and developer involvement within the open source community? Will it be ready to compete with WinFS in 2006? Havoc Pennington has a similar question on his blog.

"Apple's BSD-based MacOS X 10.3 Panther offers 64-bit processor support and new features wrapped in the latest version of a GUI that has its roots in the NeXT desktop. While Panther sets a new standard for ease of use and interface look and feel, it still lacks features that Linux users have long enjoyed." Read the article at NewsForge by C. Gulker. Update: SunSpot has a review too: "One more cool cat".

On MorphOS-news.de, Genesi announced today that four patents owned by Raquel Velasco will be included in Genesi intellectual property portfolio. Read more here.

Two weeks ago we featured an early pick on iTunes for Windows, but today iTunes' main competitor Napster 2.0 was released for a free download. We had a play with it and here is what we think about it and how it compares to iTunes.