MandrakeSoft and Pearson Education sent us over a copy of their latest "pro" edition of the popular Linux Mandrake 9.0. We already wrote a review about Linux Mandrake 9.0, so this is going to be a review of the ProSuite deal specifically and what you get for $199 USD RPP (easily found for around $175 USD in the market). Update: Apparently, StarOffice 6.0 is included in its full version with the distribution. Too bad Mandrake does such a poor job and include its RPMs along with some hundreds other demos in the two Commercial CDs, without saying a word about it (or where to find it) in the "Commercial Software Guide" booklet or another really prominent place.

The first news report on Athene's upcoming commercial release reveals an all-new accelerated graphics system and a new set of screenshots showing some of the new features of the coming release.

This is old news, but still, everyone should be aware of it. And on a theoretical basis, the co-creator of UNIX, Ken Thompson wrote a paper on which he explains that it is possible to add a backdoor to a closed source compiler and when you first compile any other compiler (e.g. GCC), any concequent compiles from this new compiler, would include the backdoor by default. Pessimistic thought of the day: nothing is safe. Neither Windows or Unix. I wonder how "safe" the Security-Enhanced Linux from NSA is. It might secure you from others, but does it secure you from NSA itself? ;P Update: More info here (Ms reply on the issue) and here.

A major update to the eCS Maintenance Tool is contained in 1.10.5. In addition, the following packages are now available for download through www.ecomstation.com or by downloading eCS MT 1.10.5 and using its download capabilites.

The GCC 3.2.1 release is to provide a stable platform for OS distributors to use building their next OS releases. A primary objective was to stabilize the C++ ABI.

Today the UnitedLinux group announced the release of Version 1.0 of its UnitedLinux product, a standards-based Linux operating system targeted at the business user. Founding companies of UnitedLinux are Linux industry leaders Conectiva, SCO Group, SuSE and Turbolinux. UnitedLinux Version 1.0 is the engine that powers products to be sold by the four companies, each with its own local language support, value-add features, and pricing. There is already a new article, describing UnitedLinux, at DeveloperWorks. Our Take: Erm, great, but why there isn't a "buy now" link or a "contact me" form anywhere in that site?

"Okay, I'm playing with your head today, but I expect to write that headline for real sometime in 2003. We're seeing an explosion in the number of Linux distributions meant specifically for desktop users, and not all of them are going to survive." Read the editorial at NewsForge.

This Freetype release contains many important enhancements, including much improved automatic and Postscript hinters, resulting in higher quality of anti-aliased text. Announcement here, more information about this release here, and here is how you enable the bytecode for best quality (patented, not enabled by default - scroll down to read how to).

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.

"Coincident with Tuesday's release of the UnitedLinux distribution, the SCO Group is announcing shipment of SCO Linux 4.0, based on the UnitedLinux product. Though it will be the SCO Group's first release under the "SCO Linux" name, the numbering convention is in keeping with the company's previous existence as Caldera, whose last distribution was 3.1.1." Read the report at LinuxAndMain.

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.

"Joe Barr tests the installation process for the sample version of Xandros 1.0. Our hero finds that the Distribution Formerly Known As Corel Linux isn't just pretty... it's pretty darn easy to install, too." Read the article at LinuxWorld. We wish the article was more than a review of the installation process though.

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.

This is an informative article about the upcoming Reiser4 filesystem. It covers a lot of the performance improvements in Reiser4 along with a lot of ideas about a database filesystem.