"Xandros Desktop is a Linux distribution aimed squarely at the desktop user. It is based on Corel Linux which itself was based on Debian. Corel sold its Linux distribution to Xandros when it decided to stop marketing it. Xandros has delivered a pleasing experience for the newcomer, both in terms of performance and visual appeal." Sam Varghese reviews Xandros Desktop.

The first version of the Contiki operating system and desktop environment for the Commodore 64 has just been released. Ports for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari Jaguar, 8-bit Atari, Apple ][, NEC PCEngine, and the VIC-20 are under development.

InformIT published a number of interesting tech articles (free reg. required). "PostgreSQL SQL Syntax and Use", "Why Itanium Processors? Benefits of the New Processor Family", "Java Test Environment Construction and Tuning", "Daily Java Tips from Steve Potts and Alex Pestrikov", "Branching, Looping, and Creating Methods in JSP", ".NET Programming: What Is .NET?", "Working with .NET Windows Forms", "Programming in PerlNET: First Steps".

This article is based on a masters thesis project which investigated the possibility of turning Linux into a real-time operating system. The authors primarily focus on available "hard real-time" solutions for Linux, but also look.

"Various analysts report and company insiders reckon that HP earns an estimated $400M USD per year in profit on the OpenVMS operating system, which is one of the most robust and disaster-tolerant OSes on the market. For example, it's used to build the Intel chips it hopefully will run on, some day. So why is it being given short shrift in favor of Windows, Linux and HP-UX and the mythical--and nearly impossible to actually implement--Consolidated Enterprise Unix?" Read the mini-article at TheInquirer.

In an effort to enhance the communication between the Amiga community and Amiga companies Amiga's Chief Technology Officer, Fleecy Moss, has agreed on offering weekly Questions and Answers sessions at the AmigaWorld.net community portal.

UK Gamer features an extensive interview with Ben Bar Haim, ATi Technologies' Vice President of Software. The interview covers ATi's CATALYST software suites in particular. Regarding their new Radeon 9800 Pro product there have recently been many praising reviews.

"Do you remember how it used to be? The Macintosh was the computer for the "rest of us," which meant everyone but a computer expert, I suppose. As such things go, it was designed to be simple to set up, and simple to maintain. That, of course, depended on your definition of simple, which can change with the wind." Read the editorial at MacNightOwl.

OSNews reader Andreas writes: "Recent additions to 2.5 dev kernel (2.5.65 will contain the changes) that heavily improves desktop interactivity smoothness. It's easy to overhype so I won't but I'm running patched 2.5.64 and the difference are without a doubt more then just "noticable". Here's the story at KernelTrap."

Safari Beta 0.64 was given to beta testers and it has some nice additions as ThinkSecret reports. Builder.com invited some current and former CNET developers to weigh in on the C# vs. Java debate. Big Blue is hitting back against SCO's charges that it misappropriated Unix trade secrets and used them in Linux. SuSE says it's "greatly disappointed" by SCO's actions. 'Browser Innovation, Gecko and the Mozilla Project' is the article Mitchell Baker of the Mozilla project posted. Blogger installs Lycoris on Dell Latitude CPi D266XT and writes down his experiences. Two new commercial releases for Linux: Moho 4.1 and the TextMaker word processor (works with FreeBSD 4.x when Linux ABI is installed). Update: A SCO editorial, this time from OfB: "Why SCO Needs to Go". Update 2: Mono 0.23 is out.

"We are very pleased how with how the Phoenix/Genesi relationship is developing. Genesi is in the process of formally organizing itself into two distinct activities: One to support the task oriented objectives focused on the delivery of the DTV STB by the end of 2003. The Future of the Pegasos and MorphOS, including the release of the Pegasos II using the Marvell northbridge." Read the announcement at Morphos-News.de.

"Things are looking up thanks to bridge software that lets it run Microsoft Office programs, but the Windows alternative has a long way to go." Read the article at SunSpot.net.

Opera Software recently released version 6.11TP of its Opera browser for the Solaris operating system. Additionally, Chimera for MacOSX changed its name to Camino and released version 0.7 of the popular Mac Gecko-based browser. Rick Caudill from Syllable uploaded a screenshot showing changes he made for the desktop of 0.4.4 version of Syllable OS. Also, the Mono project just released version 0.22 which incorporates a number of bug fixes, while SkyOS had its share on new features, drivers and fixes. Finally, Microsoft unveils new DirectX 9 enhancements: high-Level Shader Language integrated into DX.

SCO Group, inheritor of the intellectual property for the Unix operating system, has sued IBM for more than $1 billion, alleging Big Blue misappropriated SCO's Unix technology and built it into Linux. Update: ESR is editorializing on the issue. Update 2: Bruce Perens' responce. Update 3: Sun's response. Update 4: "Suit Not About Linux" says SCO's CEO.