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.

Deal.com has an analysis of the Apple situation and they suggest a restructuring of the company, even if that might mean break up into smaller companies a'la Palm/PalmSource.

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.

"From my perspective the work being done by OpenBeOS is amazing and the concept was acceptable last year. Zeta has changed the landscape now and their approach, offering backwards compatibility but trying to move BeOS forward as Zeta is a good one and with luck they will succeed. My only question is whether they've gone far enough to warrant the interest they hope to attract." Read the editorial at BeOSJournal, written by David Reid.

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+").

This is the final segment of a 3 part interview series with Jonathan Schwartz, EVP of Sun Software. In part 1, Mr. Schwartz talked about how Sun is expanding its software business. In part 2, he talked about why Sun isn't worried about Linux. Today, Mr. Schwartz talks about the future of the software business.

"What? Are you nuts? Running SuSE 8.2 Linux Professional on a 150 Mhz Pentium? That will never work. That's exactly what I did do and it did work, admirably." Read the article at LinuxPlanet.

The well-known graphics driver development company, SciTech Software, are closing on releasing a beta of their Linux port of their SciTech SNAP Graphics for Linux. These drivers replace the 2D XFree86 modules for a large number of graphics chipsets. SciTech claims that their latest beta drivers have shown up to 12-15% faster 2D performance than their XFree86 counterparts (for some chipsets). In the initial final release, accelerated 3D via DRI won't be supported though.

Sun Microsystems is spitting nails over a biting report from Meta Group, a market research and consulting firm, that suggested, among other things, that Sun's customers should rethink doing business with the company in the long term, and that CEO Scott McNealy should be replaced.

"Earlier this year The Register expressed an interest in Lindows.com's Lindows Media Computer, and despite the accompanying back-handed compliments, Michael Robertson himself got in touch and arranged to have one shipped round. So for the past couple of months I've been able to check out LindowsOS itself, the Lindows.com business model in operation, the hardware, and the whole notion of the 'living room' PC, or the 'one per room' PC." Read the article at TheRegister.

"At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2003 trade show in New Orleans in May 2003, Microsoft finally revealed its roadmap for Longhorn, the next major Windows desktop version, and the successor to Windows XP. Longhorn, as readers of this site know, will be the most dramatic and exciting release of Windows ever, and the most important update to the product since Windows 95." Read the article at WinSuperSite.

"This page isn't here to debate whether OpenSource Software(OSS) is high quality or not. The majority of programmers already know that OSS is responsible for the bulk of today's most superior software. In addition, BSD licensed software is known to be generally even Higher in quality than most other types of OSS. This page is here to explain how BSD and similar licenses hurt the OSS community more than they can ever help it, and why developers should use GNU licenses or similar instead." Read the editorial at FreeWebs. Our Take: Yeah... right... :P

SCO has filed a lawsuit alleging that IBM has misappropriated and misused SCO's Unix code. With two thirds gone of the 100-day period before SCO is due to revoke IBM's Unix licence, vnunet.com interviewed Chris Sontag, senior vice president and general manager of SCO Source. Sontag has overall responsibility for SCO's intellectual property.

eWEEK Labs tested two such well-crafted Linux distributions: SuSE Inc.'s SuSE Linux 8.2 and MandrakeSoft S.A.'s Mandrake Linux 9.1. These distributions would be as good as Mac OS X as alternatives to Windows.