Microsoft is putting the finishing touches on the second release candidate, or near-final testing version, of Windows .Net Server 2003, sources said. The clock is ticking for Windows .Net Server 2003, an operating system that is used to run high-end computers that manage everything from checking passwords to keeping track of a corporate payroll. The new system is also the foundation of Microsoft's .Net Web services initiative, geared to power advanced Internet operations. Also, Microsoft is considering charging for additional security options, and admits it didn't move on security until customers were ready to pay for it.

"In recent years, Linux has proven itself a credible alternative server operating system, and application support has also improved greatly. These days, the question is not whether you can use Linux, but where you can best use it. Is there more to Linux than Apache and file and print serving? If you've spent any time hanging around Linux-friendly discussion sites such as Slashdot in the past few years, you could be forgiven for thinking that Linux is still poised to take over the world. Reality is not quite as kind." Read the article at TechUpdate.

A snapshot release of GNOME 2.1, the development release series leading up to GNOME 2.2 is out. Lots of nice little features like improved font control (control AA on the fly via the new, great, FontConfig as found on Red Hat 8.0), window manager selector in the control panel, panel multiscreen support, return of gdialog and lots of other goodies.

"Novell is breaking from tradition and quietly working to add Linux throughout its product and service lines. The move is part of a new multiplatform strategy that de-emphasizes its NetWare-centric vision." Read the report at eWeek. Update: Novell Inc. is currently evaluating its product suite to determine which of those it wants to open source and will be making a decision on this in the near future.

The BeOSJournal.org spent a solid 2 hours with Simon Gauvin, and finished up the second part of the interview. The first part can be found here.

Old-ish articles over at TheHaus, but a good read for the weekend. The VAX Files, Part 1: The Beginning, The VAX Files, Part 2: Getting the Hardware and Software, The VAX Files, Part 3: Installing OpenVMS. OSNews hosted an article about VMS as well, a few years ago.

I'm a long-time, frustrated Windows user. I have tried various Linux distributions in the past, but I haven't been satisfied with any of them. Today, I went out and bought Red Hat Linux 8.0 from Office Depot for $40. I am a dial-up internet user and I consider myself computer literate, although I don't have much experience using Linux on the desktop. I do however, have some experience using Linux and FreeBSD as a server (no GUI).

With the upcoming release of IRIX 6.5.18, SGI will stop offering the maintenance stream updates for free. SGI will require special contracts for downloading new patches. OSNews recently featured an introduction to IRIX.

The SCO Group, which recently changed its name from Caldera in a move which many saw as a desertion of the Linux operating system, is continuing development of Linux--but for the countertop rather than the desktop.

Glibc 2.3 is out and prelinking support was added for ELF targets, startup times are significantly reduced (C++ and Qt/KDE applications will be most benefited from this - with this support on glibc there is no reason to revert to manual prelinking KDE which reportedly created stability issues). Read-only stdio streams now use mmap to speed up operation. The malloc functions were completely rewritten. The runtime now can handle the ELF thread-local storage (TLS) ABI on some platforms. This release has been ported to PowerPC64/Linux. Download it in a bz2 (13 MB) or gunzip (17.5 MB) tarball formats.

Despite his earlier doubts about Lindows, Jim Lynch waxes rhapsodic in a review of Version 2.0: "... We finally had a chance to sit down with it and surprise, surprise; here at ExtremeTech we were impressed," Jim Lynch writes. "Lindows is a very slick, highly useable OS. In fact, I liked it so much I'm actually writing this review in it - using Abiword on Lindows OS." Also, the retail giant Wal-Mart and its partners hit a new price point while introducing customers to Lindows with a new sup-$200 PC.

Jordan Hubbard, formerly head of FreeBSD development, and now of Apple MacOS X/Darwin fame, talks frankly about UNIX, Apple's MacOS X, BSD, and the business of competing in the consumer computer world in this MacCentral article. In it, we see some of his impressions on the present and future of MacOS X, opinions on Motorola's CPU's in Apple products, and what it takes to get ISV support.

When it comes to using computers, it used to be (and still rings true today) that most people find the Mac platform to be either loathsome or lovable with few spectators taking middle ground on the issue.

IBM Corp is getting ready to take the wraps off the next release of its AIX 5L operating system for its pSeries servers. Sources familiar with IBM's plans say that the company is expected to make the announcement on October 8, Timothy Prickett Morgan writes. Read the article at TheRegister.