Apple CFO Fred Anderson yesterday led a corporate update at the Smith Barney Citigroup Tech Conference. Anderson said that Apple was in an incredibly strong financial position with over $4.5 billion in cash and only $300 million in long-term debt, which is due in February of next year. Apple has managed to survive the downturn by using innovation, he said.

GTK+ 2.2.4 is now available for download here. This is a bug fix release and is source and binary compatible with previous releases in the 2.0 and 2.2 series. This is an emergency release to fix a critical GtkTreeView problem which broke context menus in several applications.

"With each new release of Microsoft’s server operating system, pundits are moved to declare that this one is the first Windows truly suited to the enterprise. And it is especially tempting to hang that tag on Windows Server 2003. Of course the cost, bizarre licensing terms, forced migration, and confusing packaging will turn many companies away. But if a decision could be made on purely technical grounds, Windows Server 2003 would be an unquestionably worthwhile investment." Read the overview at ARNnet.

A Singapore-based company claims to have created in operating system for mobile devices that can run software created for Windows, Linux, and Palm platforms. Called MXI, the OS "performs a sophisticated form of emulation that enables the non-native program to perform as smoothly and quickly as it would on its native OS." It also includes a server-based component for connected devices that allows the heavy lifting to be performed on the server side. I'll file this in the "I'll belive it when I see it" folder.

The Power Mac G5 computer is not supported for use with any version of Mac OS X Server 10.2, or any earlier version of Mac OS X Server. Mac OS X Server 10.3 will be supported on Power Mac G5 computers, Apple reported. Elsewhere, Unix users will be major beneficiaries of the upcoming 'Panther' version of OS X, Apple Computer told the AUUG conference.

An identified security issue in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications could allow an attacker to compromise a Microsoft Windows-based system and then take a variety of actions. Windows and Office users should update their system.

The Desktop Linux Consortium (DLC) announced their first conference today, hosted at Boston University's Corporate Training Center (BUTrain) located just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in Tyngsboro on November 10, 2003. The conference marks the group's first event that brings together industry leaders to share their insights and discuss the trends, technologies, and solutions that are driving the next generation of desktops based on Linux.

Tinyminds.org sits down with Linux International Director, Jon "Maddog" Hall. Jon has been in the computer industry since 1969, using Unix since 1977, and Linux since 1994. He has been a software engineer, systems administrator, product manager, marketing manager and professional educator. Jon has been the Executive Director of Linux International since 1995, the first four years as a volunteer. Jon has been employed by VA Linux systems, Compaq Computer Corporation in the Digital UNIX Marketing group and Bell Laboratories among other companies. Read the full interview at Tinyminds.org.

The Java platform has traditionally prided itself on its platform independence. While that independence has many benefits, it makes the process of writing Java applications that interact with hardware quite tricky. In this article, a research scientist examines two projects that are making the process easier by providing APIs through which Java applications can make use of USB devices. While both projects are still in embryo form, both show promise and are already serving as the foundations of some real-world applications.

SkyEye is a simulator for typical embedded computer systems. It can simulate Atmel AT91 based on the ARM7TDMI, EP7312 based on ARM720T, StrongARM SA1100/SA1110, and 8019as NIC, etc. Some operating systems, such as ARM Linux, uClinux, and uc/OS-II(ucos-ii), can run and be debugged and analyzed at the source level. This Skyeye snapshot version it can simulate the Xscale PXA 250 Lubbock developboard.

BIOS maker Phoenix Technologies said it is currently shopping a digital-rights-enabled BIOS system to top PC OEMs, the most aggressive use of DRM technology to date. On other DRM news, Microsoft has made available for download the first of several components of its forthcoming stable of rights-management software.

I wrote an article a while ago on Linux packaging and Autopackage. There seemed to be quite a lot of interest in it so we got version 0.3 released today.

Momentum Computer, a developer specializing in quick turnaround of high-performance board-level solutions, has announced that all of their PowerPC-based single-board computers will now be available with the complete Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) operating system package from Terra Soft Solutions, Inc. Additionally, HackInTheBox recently posted a review of YDL for Macs.

"We all know dependencies are one thing we hated about installing application on the Linux boxes. If you worry about wiggling with those dependencies, Libranet is coming to rescue you from the apps installation nightmare." Read the short review at OSForge.