According to Mozillazine, IE for UNIX has been discontinued by Microsoft. There's no details other than the removal of links from Microsoft's UNIX page, but the direct link to the download page still works.

A few months ago we wrote a full review of the Lycoris Desktop/LX operating system, but many releases happened since then and some things have changed. The Lycoris folks sent us the latest official version (+ online patches), we tested it, and here is what we think about it.

KernelTrap reports: "Bruce A. Mah announced today the availability of FreeBSD 4.7 Release Candidate 1. The final release is scheduled for just a week and a half away, on October 1'st. The release notes for FreeBSD 4.7 include quite a few improvements to PPP, updates to the 'ahc' and 'ahd' Adaptec SCSI device drivers, and several ATA fixes. Packages that have been updated included IPFilter (v3.4.29), Sendmail (v8.12.6) and XFree86 (4.2.1). Read on for Bruce's full announcement."

"Apple Computer is looking toward a 64-bit future for the Mac -- courtesy of PowerPC partner IBM. According to sources, IBM Microelectronics, a division of IBM, is working with Apple on a 64-bit PowerPC processor for use in the latter's high-end desktops and servers. Sources said Apple is testing the CPU, dubbed the GigaProcessor Ultralite (GPUL) on Mac OS X-based hardware at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, and making sure that the processor complies with a new bus architecture on tap for future Macs. In addition, IBM plans to offer the processor as the centerpiece of future Linux-based systems, the sources said." Read the interesting article at eWeek. Also from eWeek recently, they reported that Apple is backporting to the x86 as a fallback plan.

On September 18th, UnitedLinux, the consortium of Conectiva, The SCO Group (formerly Caldera), SuSE, and Turbolinux, announced that Paula Hunter, an "experienced technology executive and consortium leader," would be its worldwide general manager. The beta will be available on September 23rd, but not from the UnitedLinux site. Users, who want to give it a test drive, should go to one of the partners' sites to download copies of the binaries, ISO images or source code. Gregory said that the open beta would satisfy the needs of both the UnitedLinux industry partners and the open source community." In the meantime, the FSF sent an open letter to UnitedLinux, regarding the GPL violations that might be already in place or to be introduced by its license scheme.

There's so much going through my head right now, my first article since a fairly controversial article I wrote that got emotional for many on this website as well as many others. One thing is for sure: many have gotten a crash course on some things perceived as "wrong with Linux" and what is collectively agreed is right.

Get Mandrake 9.0 RC-3, the last beta before the final version, and report bugs back to Mandrake. For screenshots of the new RC-3 Mandrake, check here and here (thanks goes to Gaël Duval from MandrakeSoft for sending us the screenshots). Update: Here is a third shot too.

Lindows.com, Inc., maker of the low-cost, Linux-based operating system LindowsOS , announced today the release of LindowsOS 2.0 available now to Lindows.com Insiders. Michael Robertson also writes about it in his column. LindowOS 2.0 uses the Keramik KDE theme (and possibly KDE 3.x), and it includes many new tools like wireless configuration, laptop support, printer network scanning and more.

Sun on Wednesday will announce plans for inexpensive desktop computers based on the free Linux operating system in a bid to undermine archrival Microsoft (related article at NYTimes). The OS is based on Red Hat Linux, but with many touches by Sun. Red Hat's version 8 adds a "personal desktop" option that will "create a system ideal for home or desktop use," according to the software maker.

As Microsoft Corp. prepares to unleash new software over the next year, including the Windows .Net Server 2003 family, the next version of its Office productivity suite and three server infrastructure applications, Jim Allchin, group vice president for platforms at the Redmond, Wash., company, sat down with eWeek Senior Editor Peter Galli in San Jose, Calif., to discuss this next round of software releases.

First, a little background. I am a Windows user who has been using Windows since 3.1. I am not a programmer or a developer, I am a user. I process photos, use the internet, e-mail, write letters, play the ever important games and even use it to develop my comic strips. I am not computer illiterate and I use my computer with confidence and skill. Now with that said. I hate Windows.

From LWN: "Linus has just merged the XFS filesystem into his BitKeeper tree; it will thus show up in the 2.5.36 kernel. XFS is a high-performance, journaling filesystem from SGI; it now becomes the fourth journaling filesystem (alongside ext3, ReiserFS, and JFS) supported by the Linux kernel. (Other stuff which has been merged, so far, for 2.5.36 includes an IEEE-1394 ("Firewire") update, the next big set of IDE patches, the "huge page" patch for i386 systems, and a number of other tweaks)."

PortingManager is a free tool that provides assistance when porting C and C++ Solaris applications to zSeries Linux. PortingManager scans a source code tree, looks for Solaris APIs, flags them, and provides documentation that is useful when porting the API from a Solaris-specific function call to an equivalent Linux function call.

In a new Amiga editorial for Suite101, John Chandler focusses on the Amiga solutions already available and what we can soon expect from Amiga Inc. Among this are AmigaDE enabled Zaurus PDAs and smartphones, AA availability in mainstream European shops and AmigaOS 4.0 scheduled for a pre-Christmas launch.