Gentoo, Lindows and Lycoris arguably were the big surprises of the year in the Linux land, but everyone is waiting the release of Red Hat 8.0 with, possibly, the biggest anticipation ever for a Linux distribution. Since Red Hat posted the Limbo and Null betas, fans of the most popular distribution on earth were making waves and even called this new version a Windows killer. Does this really hold up though? Will Red Hat be successful on their quest to infiltrate the business workstation/destkop market? Read more to find out and view some of the high resolution screenshots we have for you! UPDATE: Red Hat 8 is out! ZDNews has an article about the new release of Red Hat 8.0.

"First, usability is often thought of as how easily a process can be completed on the first try. A process does not have to be 100% brain free in order for it to be highly usable. The best interface is also efficient. A GUI should be accessible both with the keyboard and with the mouse." Read Matt Grab's article on usability, found on his home page.

"What is configuration in Linux? What do experienced system administrators do when they need to, for example, modify the access rights to a Web site or change the network settings for their server? Invariably, they're going to login into the machine and edit a text file using a Unix editor such as vi or Emacs. That by itself isn't that bad, but depending on which application you want to configure and which Linux distribution you happen to be using, the location of the file you need to edit (and maybe even the format of the file) could be completely unknown." Read the article at FreshMeat.

The wait for Xandros Desktop is almost over. The product will first be available in box with a manual from the Xandros web site. The company says that the manufacturer indicates the product should be available for shipping in the week of October 21. OSNews recently hosted a preview of their distro. Update: PCLinuxOnline reviews Xandros Desktop beta 3.

A few months back we reported on XPwm, a window manager and a desktop that emulates the behaviour of Windows XP. Today, the project is renamed to XPde, it has a new release, and it now looks more polished. Read more for the message the developer sent us.

"A deluge of reader mail has opened my eyes to some very sound reasons why the Motorola PowerPC chip's days may be numbered I love nothing better than stirring up a hornet's nest. And that's just what I did with my recent column about whether Apple should abandon its current PowerPC microprocessor for a Pentium-family chip, like those that power most Windows PCs (see BW Online, 9/11/02, "Mac and PC: Ne'er the Twain Will Meet")." Read the new editorial at BusinessWeek. Update: iSync beta!

As executive vice VICE president of Sun's software group, Jonathan Schwartz heads the company's new unified software business and is leading the charge to promote the Linux open-source technology. Schwartz met with InfoWorld Test Center Director Steve Gillmor and Technical Director Tom Yager to discuss Sun's recently announced Linux desktop strategy and to explain how it's in the industry's best interests to develop an alternative to arch-rival Microsoft.

The delivery of Microsoft's Visual Studio .Net IDE (integrated development environment) marked the beginning of the next battle phase for platform supremacy. Organizations must determine a directed approach toward platform selection and not get caught in a mire of ad hoc use. Business impact: Organizations' technology choices must reflect availability of skills, or they will risk enormous cost overruns. Read the article at TechUpdate.

"For some reason, UnitedLinux attracts FUD the way a dog does fleas. But, now that the public beta is out, we can see that, well, its basically a GPL-compliant, high-end Linux server operating system. In short, this isn't a Linux for playing with at home or running a small business. It, as the developers promised, is a Linux for business customers high-end needs. Now, the question is can UnitedLinux deliver on that promise. And, that is what well see in the coming weeks as potential business customers put this beta through its paces." Read the article at LinuxPlanet.

It can be argued that Microsoft has changed the way everyone does business in the last 20 years. What you may be surprised to learn is that the company’s success is as much about perseverance and endurance as it is vision and talent. Yes, Microsoft has been blessed with the brilliant minds of leaders like Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer.

PalmSource, Inc. today featured their OpenHouce day (with the Sunnyvale mayor cutting a ribbon and all), a number of press releases and a few insights. OSNews was there, so here is our mini-report and a few pictures of the event.

"Red Hat 8.0 is scheduled to be formally released on Sept. 30 and many in the Linux user community are watching the development of the new "Bluecurve" desktop design very closely. In the retail edition of Red Hat that's coming out this Monday, the Linux vendor is replacing the traditional GNOME interface with Bluecurve, a Red Hat-created GUI theme combining elements of both GNOME and KDE, the major rival to GNOME." Read the article at LinuxPlanet.

A few days ago Apple announced the release of Darwin 6.0.1. This release of Darwin is in sync with Mac OS X 10.2 aka Jaguar and includes "enhancements from FreeBSD 4.4" and is built with GCC3.1. Seperately, the OpenDarwin project today announced an initial beta of the new DarwinPorts system, designed by Jordan Hubbard formerly of the FreeBSD project.

"This computer could turn out to be a very big deal. Not so much because it’s the first under-$200 new PC to hit the marketplace or because it runs a version of Linux which can run some Windows programs; but because the idea had been embraced by the No 1 online service." Read the article at MSNBC. OSNews recently carried out an in-depth review of the LindowsOS system.