Let me start by saying that I'm desperate for a real alternative to Windows on the PC platform. I like Windows XP for a lot of reasons, and hate it in equal amounts for just as many other reasons. I want to like Linux, I really truly do. I really want to be be in a situation where I can migrate happily, easily and with the minimum of fuss onto another better system in part or fully over time, but at the moment that day just seems too far away.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003. Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003 is optimized to enable customers to take advantage of the performance enhancements in the Intel Itanium 2 processor.

Sun is doing quite some work on GNOME and X these days. Their latest project is to create a font library for XFree86, named Stsf, that would replace Fontconfig and Xft2. But the big question is: Does the world need yet another X font library that would create more incompatibility and fragmentation? Update: Sun proposes a new direction for both X.org and XFree86, keep reading for more.

Changes to core packages in Red Hat Linux 9 can potentially impact thousands of applications, says eWeek in their review of Red Hat Linux 9. OSNews also featured a Red Hat Linux 9 review recently, and we have one more coming up soon.

DesktopLinux.com talks with CEO Kevin Peer of top Linux antivirus vendor Central Command to discover where vulnerabilities exist, the cost to companies, and the growing interest in Linux from virus writers.

MacCritic are writing down their opinion on the rumors that say that Mac OS X 10.3 Panther will use the "Metal" interface system-wide.

OSNews features today a mini-interview with Gaël Duval, co-founder of MandrakeSoft. These days, Gaël serves in the Communications department of MandrakeSoft and he shares his insight with us about the recent release of Mandrake Linux 9.1 (review).

Ville Turjanmaa put up two new screenshots from his recently released 0.73 MenuetOS. The taskbar seems more refined now. In other OS news, the Syllable guys are reporting on the new drivers that their OS will feature in the next release, while YellowTAB posted an update about their status and what they are working on. Also, hobby OS TriangleOS has some news too.

The Trusted Debian project aims to create a highly secure but usable Linux platform. To accomplish this, the project will use currently available security solutions for Linux (like kernel patches, compiler patches, security related programs and techniques) and knit these together to a highly secure Linux platform. The first official Trusted Debian beta release, v0.9 is now available.

With the release of version 9.1, MandrakeSoft once again attempts to raise the bar for desktop Linux distributions. Ease of use for newbies and configurability and stability for power users have always been the focus of Mandrake Linux. TinyMinds.org investigates if that trend continues with this latest (Download Edition) release. OSNews posted the first review of Mandrake 9.1-Standard a few days ago.

When Microsoft launches Windows Server 2003 next month, many additional pieces to the operating system will be works in progress. In the meantime an article asks: when porting applications to .Net, do you have to forsake style to enable speed? It's a tough choice, TechUpdate says.

SuSE Linux today announced the general availability of the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for the Intel Itanium Processor Family, and that it has been chosen to drive parts of the "TeraGrid," a scientific computing system accessible to researchers across the United States. eWeek also covers this release as part of a Linux-special article regarding the SuSE, Red Hat and Mandrake upcoming releases.

This release of GNUstep-gui features a brand new text system with better font and layout support. In addition, printing has been fixed so that images are printed correctly. The rest of the GNUstep libs had updates recently too. On other toolkit news, this article over at DevChannel.org will introduce the C++ wrapper libraries for the GNOME foundation's GNOME C framework, Gtkmm.

Late last month, Sun held a press conference detailing its microprocessor roadmap, featuring a range of chips including the current UltraSPARC III, the dual-core UltraSPARC IV, the SMT-based UltraSPARC V, and the highly multithreaded Niagara processor. Last week Ace's Hardware had the chance to sit down with Dr. Marc Tremblay and discuss some of the new processors and technologies on Sun's roadmap for the future.