The Issue 34 of OpenBeOS' newsletter is out. Topics discussed is VM2, is a newly designed virtual memory system designed specifically for OpenBeOS. It is completely object oriented and designed for easier maintenance. Another topic is "Beatrice: Coordinates, Views and Messages" and the commentary "The Fate of Microsoft".

Olin Wread writes for ExtremeTech the story of Amiga, from the very beginning.

Speaking at the Oracle Appsworld here, the 58-year old Ellison, said he hoped that Oracle would soon be able to run its desktop applications on Lindows. The shrewd Ellison was however quick to sense the skepticism among the audience about the concept to make a cheap open software that runs both Linux and Windows code, but that looks and runs like Windows. "Lindows may not succeed, but it's at least possible. Even if Lindows comes close to success, the product could beget the massive transition that Microsoft perpetually fears," Ellison said.

Paul Manias of the Athene project sent word to us that Rocklyte Systems is seeking beta testers. Candidates must be running a Linux system with at least a 2.4 series kernel and have 5 or more years of technical computing experience. Testing is to be focused on the new graphics system that replaces X11. Please introduce yourself to [email protected] to apply.

Now that the Justice Department and Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly are content with the wrist-slapping meted out to Microsoft, few expect any abatement in the company's abuse of its monopoly power. Although many argue that, eventually, the markets themselves will bring about more balanced competition, the markets that Microsoft dominates operate on different economic principles than most others. The last twenty years brought such dramatic technological change that it'll be much harder for competitors to dislodge Microsoft from its perch atop the industry than it was for Microsoft to dethrone IBM a generation ago.

Jef Raskin, who helped design Apple's classic user interface, is working on a new system, THE, that could be a big improvement. BusinessWeek features an article introducing the technology. Jef also replied to our forums here and here a month ago, explaining his system.

IBM and Hewlett-Packard garnered billions of dollars in revenue from Linux-related products in 2002, the companies said this week. Update: IBM: 'Linux is here to stay'.

A judge has ordered Microsoft to make it easy for Sun's popular programming language to work with Windows. But the remedy may be too little, too late, Salon says. Update: Microsoft appeals Java must-carry ruling.

SciTech Software, Inc. today announced that it has completed the initial release of SciTech SNAP Graphics for QT/Embedded. This release is based on SciTech latest System Neutral Access Protocol (SNAP) architecture and shows SciTech's resolve to further enable the emerging embedded market with a level of graphics performance usually reserved for mainstream desktop machines. Additionally, SciTech began alpha testing on a new Linux version of SciTech SNAP Graphics.

"Many companies standardized on Windows NT and Office 97 as their corporate personal computing environment for good reasons. Windows NT 4.0 was touted (by Microsoft) as the most stable, secure OS available. And Office 97 was described as a quantum leap ahead of its predecessors (and competitors). But it's been six years, and many environments are in dire need of a face-lift." Read the article at ZDNet.

"The Linux computer operating system is coming of age. Nurtured since the early 1990s by software hobbyists and adopted more recently by giant computer companies led by International Business Machines, it is on the verge of becoming a mainstream technology in the corporate world. Its maturation has potentially far-reaching implications for the software industry." Read the article at FT.com. AustralianIT has a similar article too.

The newest version of QNX Photon microGUI will enable multi-layered graphical interfaces which allows embedded developers to create sophisticated GUIs that display a mix of static and dynamic content. The multi-layer support will be available in the latest rollout of QNX Neutrino RTOS.

MandrakeSoft CEO Bancilhon is trying to line up venture capital. "We have enough cash to go to the end of the month, but we're struggling," he says.

The GNOME Foundation has entered into an agreement with Bitstream who will donate ten high quality fonts to be used with free software (KDE, XFree86, Gnome as well as others). This means distributions can finally ship free desktops/applications with a set of high quality fonts. On other X11 news, XFree86 4.2.99.4 snapshot (4.3 beta) is available for testing.