PalmSource, Inc. today featured their OpenHouce day (with the Sunnyvale mayor cutting a ribbon and all), a number of press releases and a few insights. OSNews was there, so here is our mini-report and a few pictures of the event.

"Red Hat 8.0 is scheduled to be formally released on Sept. 30 and many in the Linux user community are watching the development of the new "Bluecurve" desktop design very closely. In the retail edition of Red Hat that's coming out this Monday, the Linux vendor is replacing the traditional GNOME interface with Bluecurve, a Red Hat-created GUI theme combining elements of both GNOME and KDE, the major rival to GNOME." Read the article at LinuxPlanet.

A few days ago Apple announced the release of Darwin 6.0.1. This release of Darwin is in sync with Mac OS X 10.2 aka Jaguar and includes "enhancements from FreeBSD 4.4" and is built with GCC3.1. Seperately, the OpenDarwin project today announced an initial beta of the new DarwinPorts system, designed by Jordan Hubbard formerly of the FreeBSD project.

"This computer could turn out to be a very big deal. Not so much because it’s the first under-$200 new PC to hit the marketplace or because it runs a version of Linux which can run some Windows programs; but because the idea had been embraced by the No 1 online service." Read the article at MSNBC. OSNews recently carried out an in-depth review of the LindowsOS system.

What is BSD? If you ask a typical computer "expert," he or she is likely to reply (incorrectly!) that it is "an operating system." The correct answer, however, is more complex than that. BSD is -- among other things -- a culture, a philosophy, and a growing collection of software, most (though not all) of which is available for free and with source code.

"Regular readers of this column already know there is no lost love between me and GUIs. In fact, I rarely use them; I do most of my work from the regular console, using a variety of tools to do all the things I'd ever need from a GUI: Multiple terminal sessions (screen, Linux virtual terminals, Emacs, vim) and a good e-mail client (nothing beats pine)." Read the article at Byte.

Sun in August joined IBM, HP and Dell in offering Linux as a server operating system. A month later, IBM expanded its prepackaged Linux server offerings. Even Apple computers can be purchased with Linux preinstalled. Clearly, the Linux bandwagon is gathering speed -- Sun has said it anticipates a 30 percent annual growth rate -- but where is it going? For the first time in years, Microsoft’s unassailable lead in computer operating systems is being challenged by manufacturers offering Linux software. Even a puny challenge is better than none. Read more at Economist.

According to developers close to the Redmond, Wash., company, a proposal to deliver a Windows 'Yukon' release—timed to tide over Microsoft and its users until the long-awaited Longhorn debuts—is on the company's drawing boards. Microsoft executives have held fast to their promise that Longhorn will be the version of Windows designed to follow Windows XP on the desktop, and Windows .Net Server 2003 on the server. In recent weeks, however, company representatives have taken to calling Longhorn the next "major" version of Windows.

New tools will boost developers' ability to create cross-platform applications for sophisticated mobile devices. Enterprise tools are also on the way.

The Tablet PC operating system matches people's scrawls against the company's own database of handwriting samples. But there's some debate as to whether to tailor it to the individual. Read the report.

From MandrakeLinux.com: Mandrake 9.0 is out and it's been certified LSB 1.2-compliant today (ProSuite Edition). It's called + Dolphin. It's a major evolution in the Linux-desktop field, and will also empower your servers like never before. Read the press-release, discover all the great and unique features, pre-order it at MandrakeStore.com. Download is available through the usual mirrors, and Club Members benefit from an extended range of download places.

"This project started with a simple dual boot between Windows 98 and 2000. Then I added some Linux distributions and BeOS. Somewhere along the line, adding operating systems became an obsession. I wanted to see exactly how many I could stuff in one box. It also became a project to prove people wrong. Many people told me that what I achieved could not be done." Read the original article at TechTV and the interview with the OS geek, Richard Robbins, at MaximumPC.

The information that I could find on the web about Sprint’s new '3G' high-speed data service was a little short on solid information, so I spoke with Kevin Packingham, Senior Manager of Business Marketing for SprintPCS’ new Vision service. I sought him out because Ubiquitous, affordable high speed wireless data services are something of a holy grail for tech-savvy road warriors like myself, so I received each morsel of information about Sprint’s new service with great interest. Mr. Packingham spoke over the phone and he clarified many of the questions that I had about the new service.

Popular KDE developer and Red Hat employee Bernhard "Bero" Rosenkraenzer left Red Hat today upon disagreement with their leadership direction regarding KDE. Bero cited reasons that Red Hat made KDE "crippleware" so he does not agree with this company line. We have already reported on the issue here, while Red Hat's UI team recently posted an explanation for the much-discussed issue. In other Red Hat news, the official date for the full release of Red Hat 8 is Monday, Sep 30th.