Microsoft plans to retool its Windows XP operating system so that two people can run applications on the same machine concurrently (one via a Smart Display), an important step toward the company's goal of transforming the PC into a home entertainment center.

"It?s been a while since we had a discussion about Windows & Mac users hasn?t it? Ok well I guess it hasn?t as every Mac or Windows news site under the sun seems to be running some sort of ?Mine is better than yours? argument each day. I guess the question still remains, which one is best? Or is there even a ?best OS? out there?" Read Byron Hinson's editorial. Update: Second part, here.

Complete the sign-up form to experience Visual Studio .NET 2003 running on Windows Server 2003 in a completely hosted environment. No complex setup or installation needed. You will receive a three-hour trial to: Test drive and take a guided tour of Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect. Take a look at the new Windows Server 2003. Access 100+ code samples and other resources to quickly evaluate Visual Studio .NET.

One old Sawfish theme I always admired is "Friday". I liked its concept of having its window manager buttons shaped after the purpose they served (the Min button was a triangle looking down, and the max button a triangle looking up). I modified the theme to my liking (undoubtly it could still be done better by a pro graphics person) and here is its mockup. Update: An alternative design, possibly much better.

Windows Server 2003 makes strides toward putting storage control back inside the OS, InfoWorld says. Microsoft plans several enhancements to Windows Server 2003: an iSCSI release in June, a NAS 3.0 release in the second quarter; an ADS release in the third quarter; a Small Business Server release "in a few months", and a virtual server release in the fourth quarter. Read the article at ExtremeTech.

Longhorn will not ship in beta form until early 2004, and will not be released to manufacturing until 2005. Also, Microsoft revealed that the company's Blackcomb project will not be delivered as a major server upgrade as previously expected, but will instead be phased in over several years, beginning with technology that Microsoft will release this year as "out of band" upgrades to Windows Server 2003.

Mono 0.24 is released, while .NET advocate John Carroll says that .Net develops advantages over Java.

Welcome back to Part 2 of Cocoa 101: Object-Oriented Programming for the Masses! I received a lot of great feedback on my previous article, and I'm looking forward to sharing with you once again what I've learned about Cocoa and the Objective-C language. If you missed Part 1 of this tutorial, read it here.

The next version of the Palm operating system for handhelds will be available to licensees at the end of the year, according to a PalmSource executive. The company expects to make the debut of major OS releases every 12 months to 18 months after the first hardware ships. In other news, a company named TopWave is making a handheld-game-console, based on PalmOS.

The new Mac OS X 10.2.6 update addresses an issue for Mac OS X 10.2.5 in which a kernel panic message may appear if certain USB hubs or devices are connected. Improves printing compatibility for PostScript OpenType fonts. Improves compatibility for Maya Auto Paint and Paint Effects features.

Microsoft will disclose more details about the next "big" version of Windows and show off prototypes of smart. Also, Gates cites Microsoft breakthroughs at eWeek. Check out pictures of the Athens PC.

In a pre-show demonstration of the Longhorn graphics subsystem at the WinHEC trade show in New Orleans Monday night, I saw for the first time some of the advanced video effects that Microsoft will enable in the next Windows version. Longhorn, due in late 2004 or early 2005, includes a completely new desktop composition system that replaces the model used in previous Windows versions with one that is more technically advanced, visually appealing, and scalable. The early test versions Microsoft is showing at WinHEC include amazing animation effects, smooth window scaling, and advanced window translucency". Read the article at WinInformant.

Canada's leading distro, Libranet is not yet one of the "big guns" in the Linux world, but it has all the potential to compete with the best.

Microsoft plans a major cleanup of the Win32 API set and XML application markup language (XAML) to make its next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, as friendly for developers as it is for users.