AppleLinks offers an overview of the Pegason PPC platform. OSNews' is here.

In a recent Slashdot article (and an OSNews one), someone asked if it were possible to create a fully-featured bootable Linux LiveCD for the Macintosh. Gentoo thought this was a great idea. So today, they are releasing two full-featured LiveCDs for the PowerPC: one with KDE 3, and another with GNOME 2. Screenshots here and here. To use the LiveCDs, simply boot one on your "new world" PowerPC (by pressing "C" during the machine bootup).

Subscribers to Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, ES and WS receive regular quarterly updates via Red Hat Enterprise Network.

IT decision-makers should avoid 'platform religion' and rule out Linux on the desktop until at least 2005, says analyst Giga Information Group. Research fellow Rob Enderle told delegates to the GigaWorld IT Forum at Disneyland Paris this week that experimenting with alternatives to Windows could prove a costly mistake.

Secret software interfaces hidden in Windows and previously only available to Microsoft's own developers have been exposed to the wider developer community. Using NSELib Namespace Extension Library, created by software engineering firm Whirling Dervishes, developers can create applications that reside in Windows Explorer.

Amiga has released an extensive CAM article regarding the history of the Amiga file system. The article is written by Olaf Barthel, a leading figure within the AmigaOS4 development team. Upcoming Saturday the 'AmigaOS4 on Tour' events will start in Europe, but the highlight Amiga event this summmer is planned for 26th and 27th of July at the AmiWest show in California.

Visopsys is a new operating system for PCs. It has been in development since late 1997. The kernel is small and fast, operates exclusively in 32-bit mode, and features real preemptive multi-tasking and virtual memory. The package includes a small suite of UNIX- and DOS-like commands, with which most users will be familiar, although Visopsys is not - and does not try to be - a clone of any existing OS. The binary distribution features an easy-to-use Java installation program, which works on Linux, Windows, and Solaris. You can install and demo the distribution on a floppy disk. Screenshot.

AmigaWorld interviewed Darius Brewka, the author of a StartMenu utility named AmiStart for classic AmigaOS. A screenshot shows that this is one of the better looking application launchers available for the classic OS, features include background-patterns, transparency and antialiased TrueType fonts support. Also Pixload4, a docking utility for classic AmigaOS and MorphOS has been released.

Good news for Mac OS X users or users-to-be today. Apple dropped the price of the 15" Powerbooks $300 and the price of the 12" Powerbook $200. Additionally, Silk 2.0 enables the Quartz text rendering and smoothing introduced in Mac OS X 10.1.5 in all Carbon applications. This means antialiased text in Internet Explorer, Eudora, and many others.

No, BeOS is not dead as many will speed to the forums and proclaim. YellowTAB's Zeta is the true inheritor of BeOS 5's fortune, as it is based directly on Dano/EXP's codeline (which was supposed to be BeOS 6 but was never finished as Be sold its IP to Palm). At last, I got my hands on Zeta Beta-5a, and here is what I found and think of it so far. You might need to have some experience with BeOS in order to follow this article, but screenshots are included to make it easier for everyone.

Learn how C++ program structure works, from the perspective of functions and data. This sample chapter covers function definitions, inline functions, recursion, pointers to functions, and functions with default arguments. It also describes structures and unions, member functions, and passing structures and unions as arguments. Additionally, you'll learn about C++ storage classes, exceptions, namespaces, and free store memory. Another dev article, named "Using Java Development Tools in Eclipse" is also available.

According to a source in the handheld industry, Pocket PC 2003, the upcoming version of Microsoft's operating system for handheld devices, will be launched on June 23. According to information leaked on several websites and newsgroups, many of the changes in Pocket PC 2003, codenamed Ozone, will be related to improving its wireless capabilities.

Python 2.2.3-final is a bug-fix release of Python. More information can be found here.

ROX-Filer 2.0.0 has been released. This is a major upgrade to the core component of the ROX Desktop. Use of ROX is centred around the file system, using the same program and interface to manage both applications and data. Originally based on concepts in RISC OS, ROX takes and extends these GUI ideas and merges them with an underlying Unix or Linux system. The release notes have the full story, and the guided tour and screenshots may be useful for new users.