InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH today announced the availability of OS/2 Kit for Java (Beta). The InnoTek OS/2 Platform Enablement Kit for Sun Java 2 Standard Edition Version 1.4.1_01 ("OS/2 Kit for Java") is a software package designed to address the needs of enterprises still running the IBM OS/2 platform while requiring access to the latest Java technology from Sun Microsystems.

"Linux software maker Lycoris is set to announce Wednesday that it will begin selling boxed software through retail giant Wal-Mart, another sign of growing mainstream acceptance of the open-source operating system." Read more at ZDNet. Lycoris also runs a promotional deal for the... one you love.

SciTech Software Inc. and Hyperion Entertainment VOF announced that they have enterered into a strategic partnership which will see SciTech's SNAP technology integrated into AmigaOS 4.x which is currently under development by Hyperion for PPC based systems.

In this DesktopLinux.com interview by Jill Ratkevic, NeTraverse's CEO Jim Curtin explains how Win4Lin 4.0 helps move Windows users to Desktop Linux. Curtin also offers his view on why IT managers should use migration strategies in a move to Linux, examine the value proposition of Linux, and discusses what the future holds for the desktop. OSNews featured a review of Win4Lin 4.0 last year.

Yoper limited announced the fourth public release candidate of Ydesktop. This is the first part of Your Operating System that Yoper Limited ("Yoper") is developing. The distro contains the latest software, which includes Linux-2.4.20, KDE-3.1, Mozilla 1.2.1 and OpenOffice-1.0.2. The CD is optimized for i686 and higher X86 CPU's.

John Droz is a Macintosh-using consultant and software developer who lives in North Carolina. When he and some other members of the community learned that the local school board was planning to scrap its Macs and standardize on Windows PCs, he decided to catalog as much information as he could on why the switch would be a bad idea. It's the kind of treasure trove that could fuel a flamewar of epic proportions. It makes for an interesting read, and is useful for ammunition for any Mac proponents that would be interested in launching their own holy war on this issue. See it all at macvspc.info.

"Wi-Fi's rise through the corporate structure has been meteoric. The technology has quickly progressed from an alternative wireless method to the de facto means to transfer data wirelessly within a LAN. However, before the mass adoption of Wi-Fi in the enterprise occurs, the advantages and disadvantages of 802.11a and the emerging 802.11g must be understood." Read the article at InfoWorld.

"Variety is the spice of life for the Linux desktop of today. For sheer speed and few features you can run a minimalist desktop like BlackBox. At the upper end of the scale is KDE 3.1. This full-blown desktop offers advanced features, extreme customization and tight application integration." At LinuxPlanet.

Network software pioneer Novell Inc. is dusting off its operating system and readying a version that highlights improved management and administration capabilities, as well as features targeted at the developer community. Read the article at eWeek.

Apple Computer, formerly the undisputed leader in sales of personal computers to schools, has steadily lost ground over the years to lower-priced PCs that run Microsoft Windows software. And these days the company faces another threat in the education market: a proposed class-action legal settlement by Microsoft that could result in the donation of hundreds of millions of dollars of Microsoft software to needy schools throughout California.

A handfull of well known --to the BeOS community-- developers have come together to create a new OS, which starts where BeOS left off. Bear in mind that this OS, named Sequel, is not a BeOS clone, but a brand new OS which adds new things in the mix while retains the best features found on BeOS and other OSes. The OS is closed source and it is in early stages: it currently boots off a floppy and has a shell. Editor's note: I am part of the small team, since its first days, a few months ago. I designed part of the UI for this OS, but I am looking forward to get a working GUI system before I dive in and do some "real" work on the UI and usability. Stay tuned for more news about Sequel in the future. UPDATE: Please note that this is NOT "my" project. I merely help out the guys on the UI, and nothing more. UPDATE 2: March 2003: I have resigned of my role on Sequel.

We've received an anonymous report from Trumpet Software that they have a 64 bit (x86-64) version of their operating system PetrOS running in their lab. This kernel (which is fully 64 bit) can run 32 bit and 64 bit userland programs which conform the PetrOS ABI. The development team used the latest version of Bochs 2.0 which has recently been enhanced to emulate x86-64 architecture. The anonymous source hinted that a beta version of 64 bit PetrOS would be released some time in March 2003.

The Journaled File System for FreeBSD (JFS4BSD) Project has the goal of porting the JFS Technology from IBM/Linux to FreeBSD. It uses a log-based, byte-level file system that was developed for transaction-oriented, high performance systems. Scalable and robust, its advantage over non-journaled file systems is its quick restart capability: JFS can restore a file system to a consistent state, fsck times go down, and it is easy to fall-back to the last good state of the filesystem in a matter of seconds or minutes. The jfsutils is under a compilable state on FreeBSD. Read more at BSDForums.
Our Take: Anyone's working on porting SGI's XFS to FreeBSD?

This article at InformIT (free reg. req.) will help the reader understand the architecture of modern microprocessors by introducing and explaining the most common terminology and addressing some of the performance related aspects. Written for programmers and people who have a general interest in microprocessors, this article presents introductory information on caches and is designed to provide understanding on how modern microprocessors work and how a cache design impacts performance.