"Sun Microsystems Inc.'s decision to start charging users for its upcoming StarOffice 6.0 desktop office productivity suite is coming at a price: Linux sales and service company Red Hat Inc. has decided not to use StarOffice 6.0 in any of its distributions going forward. Red Hat is a leading distributor of Linux desktop and server software, and its rejection of StarOffice 6.0 cuts out a major Linux distribution channel for Sun and comes just as the company prepares to release the Office product later this month." Read the rest of the report at ExtremeTech.

OSNews reader David S. MacLachlan wrote in to tell us about an editorial at OSOpinion: "Seems that there's a bit more to the End User License Agreement that Microsoft has in force... if you purchase a computer that has Windows pre-installed, you're legally required to not install any other OS on it... even if the computer has been donated to you or sold to you as used." Update: As many readers have already stated, the claims do not seem to hold. There is a clause in the XP OEM license saying that the software is "attached" to the specific hardware, can only be used with that specific hardware, and must be transfered with that specific hardware, but that's a normal OEM clause.

OSNews reader Paul Cardwell writes: "Jarno van der Linden, one of the brilliant minds behind Amiga DE, has taken time to be interviewed by the GetBoinged! crew." Update: You can also read a new interview (includes AmigaDE/SDK screenshots) of the CTO of Amiga, Fleecy Moss, at TempleOfTech.

Got the link at the original article from BSDForums.org: "With Sun getting ready to launch Solaris 9, the next generation of its Unix operating system, sometime between now and the end of June, everyone is scrambling to try to figure out what will make Solaris 9 different from the existing Solaris 8, Timothy Prickett Morgan writes. One of the big differences, it turns out, will be substantially enhanced security mechanisms for both the operating system and its applications."

"XP Embedded is designed to identify dependencies, not remove them. What if a binary you remove is depended upon by other parts of the system? During Bill Gates' recent testimony in the antitrust lawsuit being pursued by nine U.S. states, he insisted that Windows could not be easily split into modular pieces. On the other hand, during cross-examination government lawyers pointed out that Windows XP Embedded seems to consist precisely of Windows split into modular pieces. So, who is right?" Read the editorial at OSOpinion. Update: ZDNews also features an editorial on the subject.

In this paper, the IBM authors discuss various migration scenarios and focus on the instances that require changes to the application source or to the way the application is built for an easy move from Sun Solaris to IBM's AIX.

The OpenOffice.org community today announced the availability of OpenOffice.org 1.0, the open source, multi-platform, multi-lingual office productivity suite available as a free download at the OpenOffice.org community website. OpenOffice.org 1.0 is the culmination of more than 18 months of collaborative effort by members of the OpenOffice.org community, which is comprised of Sun employees, volunteer developers, marketers, and end users working to create an international office suite that will run on all major platforms. Scroll down this page for mirrors.

"As the leader of the Mozilla.org project, an AOL-funded open-source Web browser technology, Baker has been trying to stoke the fire she helped light in 1998. Mozilla, which was created using Netscape's browser code, found support among a legion of software developers intent on blocking the juggernaut advance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Making sure that's a prediction and not a pipe dream is going to be Baker's challenge. She recently offered her thoughts to CNET News.com on why, despite the heavy odds against it, Mozilla will triumph." Read the interview at News.com.

The OpenBeOS project leader, Michael Phipps, sent us a status report and he even makes a guess as to when a packaged OpenBeOS alpha release might be ready: "The status is very good. The networking and FS groups are coming along really well. To the point where they are testing functional (albeit occasionally going to kernel debugger land) pieces. The other kits are mostly moving along quite nicely. Printing, Input and ScreenSaver are nearly done. Storage and Midi are moving very rapidly. You know all about prototype 5 of the app_server, and work is in progress on #6. Media is moving under the heroic efforts of Marcus, and there should be some exciting Kernel news shortly. As far as an alpha, it would all depend on what people are looking for. Anyone can download and build today. We encourage (and warn, since nothing is super well tested yet) that. As far as a completed, packaged alpha, I would not expect one for **AT LEAST** a few months. Probably more."

From ZDNews: "Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.0 was the most popular browser on the Web last month, with a total global usage share of 44.7 percent, according to Net analysis company OneStat.com. Microsoft IE 5.5 took the second spot with 26 percent of the global usage share, followed by IE 5.0 with 25 percent, AOL Time Warner's Netscape Navigator 4.x with 1.6 percent, Netscape Navigator 3.x with 0.5 percent and Opera 6.x with 0.4 percent. The numbers show that 'Microsoft dominates the browser market with a total global usage share of 97% on the Web,' said Niels Brinkman, one of the founders of OneStat.com." Let's wait and see if the release of Mozilla next month will at least overthrown Netscape 4.x which currently holds 1.6%. Konqueror and OmniWeb can only deliver better scores if their perspective operating systems they run on gain more popularity (Linux ~1%, MacOS <3%).

"The XP SE story appears in "Microsoft Windows XP--The Official Magazine," which the UK's Future Publishing produces. Dated June 2002, the issue describes XP Service Pack (SP1), a follow-up called XP SE, and the differences between the two releases. "Essentially XP SP1 is a free collection of enhancements and patches for Windows XP," the story reports. "Windows XP SE is a bigger upgrade--including IE 7 and DirectX 9--which you will have to pay for if you want it. When can I get them? Windows XP SP1 is out this summer...Windows XP SE is due early 2003." Read the rest of the report at WinInfo. Update: Microsoft: "XP SE Not Happening".

"Those of you who have read my posts at the DesktopLinux.com discussion forum may have noticed I'm a fan of SuSE's distribution. You might even be shocked by the title of this article. But don't get me wrong, I love SuSE Linux 8.0, even though I've been disappointed by some elements of it. But let's start at the beginning..." Read the review of SuSE 8.0 at DesktopLinux. In other SuSE-related news, ZDNews had two articles "SuSE 8.0 arrives without StarOffice" and "SuSE looks to stabilize Linux".

DaemonNews reports: "Citing lack of time, energy, fun and commitment, Jordan Hubbard resigned today from the FreeBSD core team. Hubbard, a founding member of the FreeBSD Project, has been a core member from the project's inception. Despite resigning from his administrative duties, Hubbard plans to continue to contribute to FreeBSD through code development."

Apple today introduced the eMac, a new desktop computer targeted specifically for education that mimics the all-in-one design of the original iMac. The eMac features a 17-inch CRT display (1280x960 maximum resolution at 72 Hz), 700MHz G4 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce2MX graphics, 128MB RAM, and a 40GB hard drive. The US$999 model features a CD-ROM drive while the $1,119 model includes a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. Apple also unveiled a new PowerBook G4 running at speeds of 667MHz and 800MHz and featuring higher-resolution 1280x854 15.2-inch display. The new PowerBook G4 also features a new 4x AGP ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics processor with DVI output.