When the topic of Linux distros comes up, most people think of Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse or some other popular and well-known product. Each of these distros has a flashy GUI installer, a well known brand name in the Linux world and large distribution in stores like Best Buy, Circuit City and others. Earlier this week, we've looked at each of these, focusing on the new features and capabilities in the latest release. Read the rest of the review at ExtremeTech.

You can now vote for what new name you want OpenBeos to be called.

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced the release of its Windows XP embedded operating system with Service Pack 1, meeting its promise to deliver new Windows XP Embedded technologies within 90 days of the client release.

From QNXZone: QNX Software Systems has released the Patch A for all versions of QNX Momentics. There is no readme or changelog available, so the only information available on what is included in the patch is from the short summary on QDN that reads as follows: "It provides enhancements and addresses some of the general issues pertaining to Voyager, Phplay, and Photon microGUI".

"SuSE is one of the oldest and most recognized GNU/Linux distributions in Europe, provided by SuSE Linux AG. Even though it is not quite as well known in the United States as Red Hat, the leading Linux distribution (commonly called distro) it is one of three distros that you are most likely to find in stores that carry Linux software (the others are Mandrake and Red Hat). There's ongoing debate about which of these distros has the easiest installation style, which of the vendors has the most interesting and useful packaging, and which of them is the "best"." Read the review at ExtremeTech.

"I recently got a copy of my new book, 'Mac OS X for Unix Geeks', and as I anxiously await its arrival in bookstores, I have a little time to reflect. So, I'm offering the top ten tips that I gathered while working on the book. These tips will show you the differences between Mac OS X and other flavors of Unix; help you find the bits that resemble the Unix you are used to; and even feather your nest with XFree86 and ports of popular open source applications." Read the article over at O'Reilly.

Lindows.com has announced plans to release the LindowsOS 3.0 Membership Edition in the middle of November. This release is intended for consumers.

"I suppose it's a losing battle, but it's one worth fighting, anyway. What makes me think of it is a thread I noticed on the freedesktop.org mailing list. In that thread, Andreas Pour, with whom I do not agree about much, defends obvious common sense against what over the last couple of years has been a growing onslaught. He's absolutely right, but that isn't always enough." Read it at LinuxAndMain.

"The "premier release" of Xandros, formerly known as Corel Linux, is being released today at the Xandros.com Web site. Individual users can pick up a copy for $99, and corporate/enterprise users will see a discount price for multiple licenses. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Xandros to play around with. This distribution is Linux through and through, but it could just be the Linux that will truly snag a market that is looking to escape from the confines of Windows." Here you can also find an interview with Ming Poon of Xandros. OSNews published the world exclusive preview of Xandros Desktop (Beta 3), just a month ago.

When you first heard about Linux, it was probably Red Hat Linux, and for good reason. Red Hat entered the market in 1994 and has become the largest and most recognized company dedicated to open source software. Red Hat now has more than 500 employees and 15 locations worldwide, with headquarters in Durham, North Carolina. The review is at ExtremeTech.

The Linux kernel mailing list continues to be the locus of sometimes contentious discussion between Richard M. Stallman and advocates of the limited-license BitKeeper code management program that is currently used to store the pieces of the Linux kernel as it is developed. It actually reached the point Monday where there was a discussion as to whether Stallman should be banned from the kernel list.

"The official GNOME filemanager Nautilus was originally developed by Eazel as part of their plan to bring usability and beauty to the Unix desktop. Today Nautilus is maintained by veteran GNOME hackers Alexander Larsson and Dave Camp. Being such a core application in the GNOME desktop it is the topic of many discussions in and around GNOME. In a recent survey on gnomedesktop.org an interview about Nautilus was at the top of the wishlist. So to let everyone get the inside scope on what is happening with Nautilus currently I got hold of Alexander and Dave for a small interview."

Samsung has licensed Symbian OS for a new line of PDA-enabled mobile phones. Now all five of the major mobile phone manufacturers have licensed the OS, though only Nokia has released a major handset running Symbian. Samsung will release a phone that uses Nokia's Series 60 user interface. Some handset manufacturers have licensed more than one OS. Samsung has licensed OSes from all three major makers: Symbian, Palm, and Microsoft. A ZDNet article and and PC World article have more. Update: A PC World article reports that the first Microsoft powered smart phone has been launched by European carrier Orange SA. AT&T will be the first US-based company offering a Microsoft-powered phone, in mid 2003.

A ZDNet article discusses Microsoft's upcoming version 11 of Office, that will use XML to make Office files more interoperable with "Web Services." Analysts quoted in the article note that this is a risky strategy for Microsoft since it will chip away at the file format stranglehold that Microsoft has had for many years. The more open and interoperable Microsoft makes Office, they say, the more likely that alternatives to Office will be able to co-exist, or even replace it in the corporate sphere.