From Slashdot: "Keith Packard wants to fork the XFree86 effort. The XFree86 team is trying to become more open, to combat the fork. Keith is a capable developer, having worked on FontConfig, Xft, the X render extension etc. Meanwhile, All is not good in how XFree86 drivers are being developed."

Qt is a a cross platform graphical user interface toolkit. Kuro5hin features an introductory article to Qt. On other toolkit news, GNUstep-base 1.6 was recently released.

This week marks the tenth anniversary of the beginning of development of the NetBSD Operating System. Erik Reid has been working on getting DRI support for NetBSD to work. Under NetBSD/i386 1.6P, a Matrox G450 has been reported to work, Radeon and Riva128 should be functional as well.

Macminute reports: Terra Soft Solutions today announced Yellow Dog Linux 3.0, a new version of its Red Hat and RPM-based operating system for PowerPC computers. Version 3.0 offers a completely rebuilt Installer, 1300 packages on 6 CDs (3 Install, 3 Source), a unified KDE and GNOME desktop environment featuring shared menus, applications, and user interface.

Five years after its debut, the original iMac, which many credit for restoring Apple Computer to fiscal health and profitability, is being pulled from the shelves. Also, following in the footsteps of larger competitors that sell Intel-based products, Apple Computer has begun offering a version of its server that can be linked in groups, or clusters, capable of tackling mammoth computing tasks.

"Webcams, tracking devices, and interlinked databases are leading to the elimination of unmonitored public space. Are we prepared for the consequences of the intelligence-gathering network we’re unintentionally building?" Read the interesting article at MIT Technology Review.

"Enterprises will see major changes in Microsoft’s competitive strategy as Linux and other open-source software continue to erode Microsoft's traditional sources of income. Don't expect Microsoft's bundling strategies to continue as before, and don't expect it to support Linux before 2006 at least -- if ever." Read the analysis on TechUpdate.

The first stable version of mySQL in the 4.x branch is now available, version 4.0.12.

FreeBSD Release Eng. Team's Murray Stokely announced the availability of FreeBSD 4.8 RC2 for i386 and he says that the alpha build is in progress.

"It has been several months since we began our quest to find the best desktop GNU/Linux distribution of the Fall/Winter 2002 batch. We have considered lots of distributions that attempt to innovated and streamline the Linux experience and now we consider who succeeded to push beyond the rest and win our award." Find out the results here.

The new version of X11 for Mac OS X has been just released, with many fixes for annoying bugs. Update: MacDevCenter has a relevant article: "From Exile to X11: A Journey Through Time".

For the serious techno-geek, Linux Orbit takes a look at installing Debian GNU/Linux on a Netwinder 3100 mini server. Lots of screen shots and configuration files included.

I just came back from the CeBIT, the anual fair in the Messehalle in Hannover Germany. It is one of the biggest computer and communications technology fairs in the world and certainly the biggest in Europe. Here's my mini report (which also includes information about YellowTAB's Zeta).

There's lots of cool stuff over at NewMobileComputing today, as the CeBIT and CITA conferences are resulting in a lot of product and prototype rollouts. Some highlights: Mercedes and BMWs decked out with computers, a new Samsung watch phone close to production, Nextel handsets that speak 802.11, and RIM's licensing deals. We need your help! NMC readers are so far not quite as opinionated as OSNews readers are, so we need some of you to visit and make comments on the articles and forums.