Linux will emerge as the dominant operating system in corporate data centers, according to a new study by Goldman Sachs. According to the study, IT buyers will use Linux to take advantage of lower-cost, higher-performance Intel-based servers -- and to avoid "premium-priced proprietary systems." Eventually, systems running Linux will displace systems based on Unix and RISC processors.

"I love my Mac and I love my PC, but what I don't love is having two monitors, two keyboards, and two mouses. Switching back and forth has become a royal pain. And since Jobs and Gates probably won't be releasing a Mac/PC combo box any time soon, I decided to take matters into my own hands." Read the story at TechTV.

Sun Microsystems officials on Wednesday presented a laundry list of technology and promotional efforts planned for the Java language, including the February release of Version 1.4 of J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition), featuring integrated Web services support.

The liabilities accumulated by MandrakeSoft through a series of quarterly losses have prompted the company to file for "declaration de cessation des paiements". The filing, similar to the U.S. Chapter 11-Reorganization, took place on January 13, 2003. The company is now focused on Version 9.1 which will be announced as scheduled in April.

"Intel Corp. on Wednesday is releasing a Linux version of its technology designed to enable software developers to better analyze and optimize their applications. Using the Intel VTune Performance Analyzer 1.0 for Linux, developers should be able to determine how to get the most out of their Linux applications using Intel's Pentium 4 and Xeon chips, according to the Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker." Read the short story at eWeek.

"Terry Hatfield introduced Linux to a Senior Citizen in response to her ongoing Windows system woes. Hatfield proves that Linux can be used successfully by anyone wanting to perform simple tasks -- in this case browsing the Internet, using email, and playing solitaire. After a one month trial, Hatfield asked the elderly woman if she wanted Linux removed from her system, and she affirmed that her new OS of choice was Linux" Read more at DesktopLinux.com

Microsoft Corp. has stated that the company will open its source code to governments and international organizations worldwide. This move follows various government requests and government announcements of adopting open source strategies, mainly for security and integration reasons. Update: The Register also posted an interesting article regarding this announcement.

"Intel introduced six new chips for notebooks on Tuesday, not long after cutting prices on its mobile processors. The chipmaker, which slashed prices on its mobile Pentium 4 and Celeron chips on Sunday, launched a new flagship 2.4GHz Pentium 4-M chip for notebooks. The chipmaker also boosted the clock speed of its mobile Celeron processor, issuing a new 2GHz mobile Celeron." Read more at ZDNet. On other CPU news, Transmeta is embedding security in its new chips.

MandrakeSoft is looking at a Chapter 11-style bankruptcy, to solve its financial difficulties, according to a leaked email from one of its executives. New MandrakeSoft CEO Francois Bancilhon says the liabilities total about €2 million, but that he's weighing all possible choices for resolving the problems. The leaked email, however, paints a different picture. It describes specific plans to go with either Chapter 11 or its French equivalent. TheRegister has the story and NewsForge as well.

One of the coolest 3D OpenGL games written for the Mac 8.x/9.x, WaterRace, is now GPL and it would be great if developers would port it to other platforms that support GL.

SCO Group, the struggling company that holds the copyright to the Unix operating system, plans to boost its revenue by charging fees to some customers that have moved from its products to Linux.

My husband and I made it back from Europe just last night (after an adventurous trip back) so today I was finally having access to my G4 Cube in order to test Safari, the new Apple browser based on KHTML. I like what I saw on Safari. The browser is simple (I like simplicity) and indeed loads the web pages fast (even faster than Gecko browsers on my PC) by using some techniques on rendering the page almost immediately after receiving the data from the web. With Safari, MacOSX has now seven "native" graphical browsers. Read more and vote for your favorite OSX browser! Update: A relevant article is posted on News.com regarding the reasons Apple chose KHTML and not Gecko.

The Intel Xeon processor introduces a new technology called Hyper-Threading (HT) that makes a single processor behave like two logical processors. The technology allows the processor to execute multiple threads simultaneously, which can yield significant performance improvement. But, exactly how much improvement can you expect to see? This article gives the results the investigation into the effects of Hyper-Threading (HT) on the Linux SMP kernel. It compares the performance of a Linux SMP kernel that was aware of Hyper-Threading to one that was not.

Amiga Inc has revealed more details on the new Amiga Operating System: "Amiga is pleased to publish this first version of the feature set of the up and coming AmigaOS4.0. The document will undergo revision in subsequent issues but because of the massive demand for information made by the public, we have decided to release it in its current state." The official launch of the PPC based AmigaOne platform together with AmigaOS4.0 is sheduled for March at the upcoming CeBit tradeshow in Germany.