"An internal alpha build of Microsoft's next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, made its way onto the Internet early Tuesday. The leaked build, which is numbered 3683, appears to be from late September and sports quite a few new feature concepts—although many are not yet functional. The oft-rumored Longhorn Sidebar can be enabled via Taskbar settings and uses XML to display customizable tiles such as a clock, virtual desktop manager and Internet search. The Start Menu can also be docked within the Sidebar, completely removing the Taskbar that has been a staple of Windows since 1995." Read the eWeek article for more information.

Under the leadership of CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft is free to turn its attention to such initiatives as acquisitions, .Net, shared source code and a more componentized Windows. Ballmer addressed these issues and others, including why Office 11 requires Windows XP, in an interview at Microsoft headquarters, in Redmond, Wash., with eWeek. Read the interview at eWeek.

"Anybody who is using a desktop computer' is a potential customer for SuSE Linux in its latest push for the open-source operating system. SuSE plans to announce in January an effort to bring the open-source Linux operating system to desktop computers, an attack on Microsoft that will be bolder than similar initiatives from Red Hat and Sun Microsystems." Read the report at ZDNews.

This past year has been a breakthrough for Sun for both their Linux and Solaris products. The most intriguing news of all is possibly the challenge Sun poses to Microsoft with their Desktop Initiative announced a couple of months ago. We spoke to Bill Moffitt, Product Line Manager of the Solaris Lifecycle, about Linux, the desktop and Solaris. Update: Bill Moffitt replies on our forums.

Some interesting programming and other articles are to be found this way round at InformIT. Read more for a list of the articles (free registration required).

Download the FreeBSD 5.0 Developer Preview 2 from the mirrors. Our Take: It seems that after the initial one year delay of FreeBSD 5, this time the project will also miss the November 2002 deadline. On the other hand, FreeBSD 5 is a major change to the traditional Unix-y way of doing things (introduces major SMP and multithreading innovations), so it worths the wait.

Although tablet PCs represent just a sliver of the PC market today, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer says the new category could eventually account for one-third of all computers--by supplanting the laptop. However, Microsoft is to shift focus from PCs to other computer gizmos: Software giant Microsoft will emphasize devices other than the personal computer in the coming year, Chairman Bill Gates said Sunday. Microsoft's attention is on Internet services, multimedia devices, handheld computers and tiny chips to make everyday objects computer-powered, Gates said.

AMD is showing off at Comdex a prototype 64-bit Windows OS running on its upcoming 64-bit Opteron processors. The demo units are running Information Server (IIS), 64-bit Terminal Services and 64-bit Microsoft Internet Explorer. Also they're running 32-bit Office XP over the ProtoWin-64 - the demo shows interoperability between the 32-bit and 64-bit apps, AMD says.

"Last week a friendly delivery driver brought me a copy of Mandrake's PowerPack Edition 9.0. This is the complete boxed set, full of bells, whistles, and bangles. As others have said before me, 9.0 is the smoothest Mandrake yet. This article is more in the "tips and tricks" vein than a review, since I think Mandrake's latest has already been reviewed more than enough, more often favorably than not." Read the review at NewsForge.

Microsoft has for the third time delayed the launch of its Windows .Net Server 2003 high-end operating system. During his Comdex keynote address on Sunday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates revealed that the company would launch Windows .Net Server 2003 in April, marking the third delay for the server counterpart to the company’s Windows XP OS. Read the report at News.com and the press release.

This SkyOS release includes a lot of bugfixes and many new features like OpenGL, Quake and Quake II, Developer Studio, GCC, Resource files and more.

Ladislav writes: "Knoppix has taken the Linux world by storm. Barely known outside its borders only a few months ago, it has suddenly become the focus of Linux media as a great way of introducing anyone to Linux. This amazing product is a brainchild of Klaus Knopper. Klaus was kind enough to take time off his schedule and agreed to answer a few questions for the benefit of DistroWatch readers."

"In May or June next year Sun will ship desktop computers running Linux, the open source Mozilla web browser, email program Evolution and Sun's StarOffice application suite. The desktops, being created under "Project Mad Hatter", will also ship with the open source WINE emulator program, allowing them to run Windows applications, and Samba, providing access to networked file and print services." Read the article at ComputerWorld. On Tuesday, OSNews will publish an exclusive article with more information on Solaris, Linux and Sun's plans for the desktop. Stay tuned for more.

"Having spent more than $1.2 trillion on information technology in the United States alone from 1995 to 2000, companies now want to wring the elusive productivity and bottom-line gains from this massive outlay. If buyers are glad to end their spendthrift ways, IT providers of course have a different perspective: After years of heady sales growth, they are now engaged in bare-knuckle competition as the industry confronts sated customers and overcapacity." Read the article at C|Net News.