"There are many toolkits to choose from for building Linux desktop applications. Some say this is Linux's downfall; others say it is its greatest feature. I'll stand somewhere in the middle and say choice is good if you choose what meets your needs. Most graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on Linux are based on X, a client/server architecture that allows for networked computers to share GUI applications." LinuxJournal has the tutorial.

Friends of Sci-fi and CGI should be pleased this month, first with the release of the (pretty good, I might add) Spider-Man movie, the Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions teaser last night and of course, today, the opening of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Have fun everyone!

"Apple's CEO says it's tough times for corporate and education sales--but consumers are still buying. His biggest challenge? Convince the majority of Apple users to switch to OS X. At the start of the year, Apple had only 1 million of its 25 million Mac owners actively using OS X. That number is now in the range of 1.5 million to 2 million, although about 3 million Macs have been sold with the new OS on the hard drive. However, Jobs remains confident the company can end the year with 5 million OS X users." Read the report at News.com. Update: TheRegister features an article where they chat with Apple's Tevanian on Windows CIFS, networked Quartz.

"Microsoft's operating-system monopoly has gotten plenty of ink in this paper, but Microsoft Office exerts an even tighter stranglehold on the market. The productivity suite dominates not just on Windows PCs but on Macs as well, and its file formats have become a default language in offices, homes and schools around the world." Rob Pegoraro reviews OpenOffice for WatshingtonPost. In the meantime, Sun puts a price at Star Office, while Microsoft is finalizing its next-gen Office.

"The long-awaited second major version of the GNOME desktop is days away from a fifth beta and on schedule for a full release on the first day of summer, according to its release manager. 'I'm quite sure we're going to make it, given that our UI and string freeze has just kicked in, and the number of 2.0.0 bugs we have left to go,' says Jeff Waugh, who is ramrodding the release. According to the release schedule, Beta 5 will be issued at the end of this week. It is to be followed by a release candidate, which developers hope to make public June 7. If all goes well, GNOME-2.0 will be released two weeks later." Read the rest of the news at LinuxAndMain.

Qt Script for Applications (QSA) is a multiplatform toolkit that allows developers to make their C++ applications scriptable using an interpreted scripting language, Qt Script (based on JavaScript). QSA allows developers to make their applications more attractive to end-users, VARs and their own support staff. All three groups are empowered by scripting to compose their own functionality from the functions that the application developer provides, and from the Qt library itself.

"An upgrade to Sun's enterprise server clustering technology is set to arrive next week alongside the company's much-anticipated new Solaris 9 operating environment. Backwards-compatible to Solaris 8, Sun Cluster 3.0 will offer features such as improved ease of management, enhanced dynamic configuration, and support for Oracle9i RAC (Real Application Clusters), according to Jim Sangster, the group manager for Sun's cluster product line, in Palo Alto, Calif." Read the story at InfoWorld.

Wind River Systems, a maker of software that powers many of the lesser-known types of computing devices hidden in the fabric of the high-tech world, has won approval to have its operating system used in Formula One race cars. Read the report at ZDNews.

A lot of interesting hardware-related news lately. First of all, Matrox makes a dynamic come back with its Parhelia512 graphics card and a lot of sites (1, 2, 3, 4) carry the white papers and spec sheets. In the console world, SONY has slashed the prices of PSone ($49) and PS2 ($199), following price cuts by Microsoft on XBOX. However, PS2 remains the No1 console in sales, by far. In the meantime, Intel introduced faster Celerons, based on the Pentium4 core. In fact, these new Celerons are nothing but the older Pentium4 that were selling last year. The newer Pentium 4s have reached a speed of 2.53 Ghz. On the other side of the river, Apple announces a new rack-mount server:

Gentoo is so far, the big Linux surprise this year. With its 1.0 release took the Linux world by storm and converted a huge number of power users and developers from the well-known Linux distros they were using, to the lightweight Gentoo Linux. While its installation process is not for the faint of heart, it pays back the user with a highly optimized system. As a result, Gentoo is dubbed the "fastest Linux distro" to date. Read on for an exclusive interview with Gentoo's project leader, Daniel Robbins where he reveals that Gentoo will be further optimized with the fastest x86 C/C++ compiler (Intel's ICC) in addition to GCC 3.1. Daniel also speaks about the future plans for Portage and the overall system in general.

This is the first installment in ThinkSecret's series of news coverage for the next major update to Mac OS X, code-named Jaguar. They take a look at tweaks to OS X's Finder and System Preferences, as seen in the first developer preview of Jaguar, build 6C35, and include lots of screenshots.

Robert Szeleney emailed in to tell us about the new version of his PDF documentation for SkyOS: "This PDF File has a lot of information about SkyOS, it's design, applications and much more".

One and a half months ago, we were among the first to report about an operating system which would combine the strengths of Linux & AtheOS and that would breath a new kind of life back to BeOS. Today, we are happy to host an exclusive interview with the architect of the combined OS, Bill Hayden. Dubbed "Cosmoe", the OS not only will feature support for the AtheOS, Linux and BeOS APIs, but also for... Macintosh's Carbon! Read on for more surprises!

"Palm subsidiary PalmSource introduced a new program to help software developers create applications for its upcoming operating system. PalmSource is offering a kit that includes a Palm OS 5 simulator so developers can test their applications on the operating system. PalmSource is also introducing the Palm Powered Compatible Solution logo, which can be applied to applications that pass compliancy tests with Palm OS 4 and 5. The test will be administered by a third party and requires a fee. The fee and availability of the test will be announced early this summer with the launch of PalmOS 5. The logo is meant to help consumers identify software that meets compatibility standards." Story at ZDNews.