PCLinuxOnline reviews how to employ Mandrake Linux as a terminal server. This is a free alternative to Windows-based Citrix software. It allows you to extend the life of older computers by turning them into terminals running from a centralised server.

Apple announced the availability of the Darwin 6.6 source code, corresponding to Mac OS X 10.2.6.

SCO is now turning (again) the tables regarding their Linux policy: SCO suspends sales of its Linux distro, alerts customers that Linux is an unauthorized derivative of UNIX and that legal liability may extend to commercial users. SCO reaffirms commitment to SCOx, SCO's growth strategy through Web services. Additionally, eCommerceTimes feature an editorial: 'SCO: Put Up or Shut Up'. Update: Read on for two more updates on the subject.

In this Microprocessor Report PDF excerpt, the PowerPC 970 is reviewed by outside industry experts who conclude that "IBM has created an impressive and affordable PowerPC chip for smaller servers, graphics workstations and desktop computers". Also, ArsTechnica posted the second part of their PPC 970 series of articles, "Inside the PowerPC 970, Part II: The Execution Core".

There is a possibility that Apple could reshape itself as a consumer entertainment company, according to Gordon Haff, an analyst with Illuminata. In fact, he said doing so would be a smart move. Also, Apple announced that it has sold over 2 million songs in the first 16 days of the iTunes Music Store.

The most powerful synergy in Microsoft Corp.'s technology portfolio is between its powerful platform services and its reasonably priced, highly capable tools. Wooing developers with seductive ease of use, Microsoft's tools then pave a path of least resistance toward the adoption of each new wave of Windows features. Read the review of Visual Studio.NET at eWeek.

E-Commerce Times builds upon the 'Web browser as an operating system' notion, recommending that Web browsers focus on reliability rather than features.

Mark Stephens reports on the Wakefield show theatre presentations given by the RISC OS' leading developers. Four companies demonstrated what they've been up to and suggest what's to come, providing an insight into perhaps where RISC OS is now heading.

Borland Software last week unveiled the latest update of its flagship Java IDE, JBuilder 9, and disclosed plans for an upcoming line of development tools for the .NET Framework. Version 9 of Borland's venerable JBuilder development environment adds Web services support enhancements and a new integrated solution for developing mobile and wireless applications to run on many devices.

Andrew Bloo from SciTech Software sent us in a clarification to our yesterday's story: "The SciTech SNAP drivers are not actually XFree86 specific at all, but rather the XFree86 driver is just a small module that interfaces to SciTech SNAP. Once SciTech SNAP is installed on the system, developers can actually code directly to the SciTech SNAP API's via the SDK, and bypass X entirely.

A fundamental constituent of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative is "Reliability. The customer can depend on the product to fulfil its functions." No-one wants to be a guinea pig and, after all, Microsoft hardly have a track record of designing secure platforms. Not entirely true. Recent accreditation to CM-EAL4 puts Windows 2000 on a security par with most hardened versions of Unix.

Microsoft's plans for "Longhorn," the next version of Windows, include a new graphics subsystem, a new file system and a new security system. But, so far, users aren't nearly as excited about the features as Microsoft is, eWeek says. In the meantime, The Register reports that Microsoft sidelines Longhorn database caper: Microsoft has scaled back its 'Big Bang', and its Future Storage initiative will build on, rather than supersede the NTFS file system, when the next version of Windows appears in 2005.

SCO executive pleads case against Linux distributors using pieces of Unix. Read the interview.

AMD released the Athlon XP 3200+ for desktops, the last scheduled member of a chip family that helped turn the company's fortunes around. Benchmarks here ("it should have been called a 2800+").