"The new operating system is expected to be a key weapon in Microsoft's battle against low-cost software based on freely shared code. Although various versions of Windows run more than 90 percent of the world's computers, software developers are increasingly drawn to open-source software such as the Linux operating system". Read the article at SeattleTimes by Brier Dudley.

Time to heat up those CPUs, Gentoo Linux 1.4_rc3 has been released. You can find LiveCDs, and stage tarballs at the Gentoo master mirror. At this time, the release includes basic x86 builds, PowerPC support for generic PowerPC, G3 and G4 systems, and Sparc and UltraSparc support.

Andrew Morton recently posted some interesting benchmarks comparing the current 2.4 IO scheduler, a "hacked" version of the deadline IO scheduler in 2.5.61, the CFQ scheduler, and the anticipatory scheduler. Offering a succinct "executive summary" of his results, Andrew said, "the anticipatory scheduler is wiping the others off the map, and 2.4 is a disaster." Indeed, in many of the tests the other IO schedulers were measured in minutes, whereas the anticipatory IO scheduler was measured in mere seconds. Read the report at KernelTrap by Jeremy Andrews.

Murphy's October 2001 TCO analysis generated much reader comment. In this article, the first installment in a two-part series, he revisits the Linux-versus-Windows decision for the faculty of a small college or university.

It's more likely to keep making greater strides in single-use areas, such as cash registers, than in consumers' PCs says BusinessWeek. However, the future of Linux probably rests with corporate IT departments says Will Harvie in his talks to Kiwi organisations about using open-source operating systems and software.

Columnist Tim Mullen from SecurityFocus wrote an interesting editorial about how the media are overeacting on some thought exploits/holes found on Windows 2k/XP, while in his opinion, other platforms/apps are also as vulnerable but they don't get as agressive reporting: "This kind of thing damages overall security. It clouds the issue, and rains on the wrong parade. The media should give its readers all the information-- not slant it in an effort to make Microsoft look like the bad guy every time."

"Linux, the cash-saving open source option to costly proprietary operating system (OS) such as Microsoft’s Windows operating system, is now seen to be gaining ground in the desktop market in India. Thus far, Linux has been a dominant force only in the worldwide server market and has grabbed impressive market share from Microsoft and Sun Microsystems." Read more at Business Standard.

"Microsoft introduced additions to Windows XP designed to make the operating system better tuned for peer-to-peer applications. The software giant on Wednesday unveiled a beta, or testing version, of the Windows XP Peer-to-Peer Software Development Kit. The programming tools are designed to let software providers or corporate developers more easily build peer-to-peer applications on top of Windows XP." Read more at ZDNet.

"Our CEO has said that the path to Redmond is through Mountain View," Red Hat's Mark de Visser said. "We focus on Unix now, and once we gain the upper hand... we believe we can ultimately displace Microsoft, even on the desktop." Can Linux replace Unix? This question would have seemed ridiculous just a few years ago, even as Linux vendor Red Hat's stock shot toward the stratosphere. Read the article at NewsFactor by Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier.

With Microsoft buying Virtual PC, which lets Macs run Windows wares, Apple's independence may well rest with programs such as Bochs. Read the article at BusinessWeek. OSCast has a similar editorial as well, in Mpeg4 audio format.

Sun Microsystems' software chief on Tuesday unveiled details of Project Orion, the company's utility-based pricing model for its Solaris operating system. Slated for rollout in June, Orion will build all of Sun's software into the Solaris OS and offer a yearly subscription for Solaris, Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's executive vice president of software, said at the vendor's Worldwide Analyst Conference.

The popular X11 desktop environment XFCE, which originally created to offer a free CDE-like DE for Unix/Linux, is closer on releasing the next big version, 4.0. XFce 4 has a radically different architecture from XFce 3. It embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. All of XFce 4's core components have been written from scratch in order to fit into the new architecture. Another priority of XFce 4 is adhereance to standards, specifically those defined at freedesktop.org (new screenshots, the first one in that list is the newest and most relevant one, showing the components of the DE). You can visit the CVS, or you can download a daily CVS snapshot and compile it. XFce 4 is under active development and should be considered alpha quality.

"A long time ago, in an economy far, far away, computer manufacturer Silicon Graphics Inc. was a powerful force. Hollywood studios courted its executives. They spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the company's colorful and whimsically named machines - "Indigo," "Crimson" and "Onyx," among others. Not anymore. Consumed by its own ambition and wounded by the surging popularity of the free Linux operating system, SGI has lost its star power in Hollywood." Read the article at NewsObserver by P.J. Huffstutter.

Apple's Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson said the company's aim is to expand its share of the computer market. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Symposium, Anderson said a "good intermediate" goal would be to reach 5% marketshare from 3% today (some statistic companies actually put Apple between 2,2% and 2,6%).