A new version of popular server-side scripting lanaguage PHP was released today. Stephen Smith writes "PHP 4.3 includes bug fixes from PHP 4.2.3, as well as enhanced command line mode for non-web scripting, a better GD library, and more." Changelog can be found at php.net.

Nowadays, all you hear about is Windows, MacOS X, or GNU/Linux. However, what ever happened to the good old BeOS?

"Reid Ellison is a 15-year-old high school hacker who, for a time, had complete control over his school's computer system. A hack attack from a smart kid is just about any school's worst nightmare. But Ellison got a pat on the back for his exploits, rather than a slap on the wrist. This is actually a good news story about a kid who used his hacking talents for good rather than evil." Read the full story at ABC News.

Pahtz writes: "A very alpha release of The Humane Environment (THE) for MacOS was made on Christmas Eve. Jef Raskin, creator Apple's Macintosh, and author of the book "The Humane Interface", is the leader of the open-source THE Development Team."

Although Mandrake 9.0 is a breeze to install, there are a few important things that Debian does better. Nicholas Petreley lists the pros and cons of Mandrake when compared to Debian and sets the record straight about his first Xoops column and his opinion of Britney Spears.

Apple provides many programming resources for creating MacOSX applications, and which one you choose depends upon your needs, preferences, and constraints. If you are unfamiliar with the MacOSX platform, the process of choosing the right approach can be time-consuming and confusing. The purpose of this Guide is to get you started porting an existing procedural Win32 application written in C or C++ to MacOSX.

dave_sn alerted us to the news first reported by Distrowatch, "Just in time to interfere with our last-minute Christmas shopping - an unexpected new beta release from Red Hat, code-named "Phoebe" and numbered as 8.0.92 has hit the mirrors." Release notes can be found here.

CNET News.com reports: "Mobile phone maker Sendo has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the attempted theft of technical expertise and proprietary technology, adding to the intrigue surrounding its recently terminated relationship with the software giant." Last month Sendo announced that the company decided to license Nokia's Symbian based Series 60 Platform for future Sendo smartphones instead of Microsoft's software. Update: Reuters.co.uk has some more information.

The major PostgreSQL news this week is the upcoming release of 7.3.1, which will provide some fixes for early adopters of 7.3. In other SQL news, the Firebird team is pleased to announce the release of the Firebird v1.0.2 update for Win32 and Linux.

Have you ever been in situations which made you think "I wish I had Linux running right now", or are you a person who just would like to try Linux quickly? Knoppix Linux might just be your thing!

In an article for OSOpinion, Mike Berman has a thing or two to say about the past, present, and future of the BeOS. Although he makes some acute observations in an effort to generate discussion, he doesn't mention any of the developing BeOS replacements, Zeta, OpenBeOS, or BlueEyedOS. Read the article here.

FreeBSD 5.0 RC2 has been released and the final release is scheduled for January 17th 2003.

The stable version of GTK+ 2.2 was released today, along with GLib2 2.2.0 and Pango 1.2.0. This version of the GTK+ libraries will be used in the upcoming Gnome 2.2 release, which is the first version truly geared towards end-users.

In the Brazilian martial art capoeira, it can be hard to tell if the participants are fighting or dancing. Players cooperate and compete, and spend as much energy trying to impress the crowd and one-up each other as they do in combat. Read the article at ZDNews.