Slow news day today, but this product is truly interesting and it deserves our attention. It is the most innovative graphics application I've seen since Painter (demo here), and that was many years ago. ZBrush from Pixologic is neither strictly 2D or 3D, but it is "2.5D". In addition to new features, ZBrush1.5, which comes out tomorrow, also provides significant enhancements in nearly every tool and palette. You'll get expanded and improved 2.5D painting capabilities, texturing options, and sculpting utilities, plus many behind-the-scene changes. The available demo for download (Mac/Win) is only for version 1.23b currently, but it will give you an idea of what this is all about. Also, CorelDraw 11 is out.

Easily learn how to setup file sharing in Linux using Samba, by reading this tutorial, titled Easily Compile and Configure Samba. It will show you how to compile samba, create your own configuration file, how to secure your samba server, and how to activate swat.

An article on Japanese site PCWatch writes about a briefing Microsoft gave journalists earlier this week about 64-bit products it is proposing. One 64-bit OS is conspicuous by its absence, it would appear. Microsoft has outlined, according to the article, four different types of .NET server – Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter – and the article gives an interesting table describing the differences between these products. In particular, the table outlines IA-64 support, memory requirements, Numa support and also whether the products will support multiple CPUs. But Opteron support is still a mystery.

I just came back from the festivities taking place in the Apple Store at Palo Alto, California, regarding the launch of MacOSX 10.2 Jaguar, and I got some exclusive pictures (well, almost...). There was a huge line of people waiting to get in the store. They were probably there for many-many hours. Just a few minutes before they open the doors to people, Steve Jobs enters the building (passing next to me by just one meter from where I was standing), and people around started getting really excited!

Download and beta test the version 9-beta 4, of the popular Linux distribution, Mandrake.

Borland, in the midst of a turnaround after years of financial struggles and strategic missteps, is preparing to go head-to-head against Microsoft next year with new programming tools that allow developers to build software for Microsoft's Windows operating system and its overarching .Net software strategy. Borland's suite of tools, code-named Galileo, will be positioned to compete against Microsoft's popular Visual Studio.Net tool suite, said Ted Shelton, Borland's chief strategy officer. In the meantime, Borland has just released Kylix 3 for Linux.

Apple plans a contrarian celebration for the anniversary of the Windows 95 launch, unleashing a new operating system aimed at stealing customers away from Microsoft. Saturday, the official release date of MacOSX 10.2, also is the seventh anniversary of the day that Microsoft presented Windows95 to the world in the most extravagant product kickoff in computing history. Apple hopes to make a little history of its own with software it sees as capable of wooing Windows users to the Mac. Read more at C|Net.

Are open-source developers all sandal-wearing geeks? A new survey reveals a detailed picture of free software developers' motivations and expectations--and even their personal lives. Read the research's results over at ZDNews.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article for OSNews entitled "Update on Red Hat's Limbo Progress." It was to be a short article on how much Red Hat's beta releases have impressed me - to share with everyone some of the changes a desktop user sees and maybe generate some additional interest in my choice, Linux. Little did I know, one of my comments nearly incited a riot- it would flood my Inbox, leave me feeling silly about something that I still think is true...it was just poorly stated.
So, let's try a little experiment.

It seems that it is not just Apple, via Quartz Extreme, using the 3D capabilities of a graphics card to render a 2D desktop. Stardock has already released WindowFX 2, as part of their ObjectDesktop product, which is very equivelant to QE. As you can see from the screenshots, their preference panel for WindowFX contains a number of adjustments that you can do to the system and allows for very special effects to your modified Windows desktop with ease and speed.

The company plans to reset its tools to work with new products expected to ship in the coming months, including Windows.Net Server and an update to the SQL Server database. Stories at C|Net and eWeek.

Tim O'Reilly made an informal survey of some members of the Geek Elite and confirmed that Mac OS X has generated significant enthusiasm. He also found that Linux and Unix users are even more likely than sold school Mac users to make the switch to OS X. Read more at O'Reilly's Mac Dev Center.

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.1 beta1, the second development release of KDE 3.1, which follows 6 weeks after the release of KDE 3.1 alpha1, a significant feature upgrade for KDE 3. KDE 3.1, scheduled for final release in October 2002, will provide substantial improvements to the KDE desktop experience.

The latest beta of Red Hat 8, named "null", released a couple of days ago, includes some UI changes, mostly new icons, showing the clear wish of Red Hat to enter the corporate desktop market. Texstar from PCLinuxOnline posted some screenshots of his Null beta, so you can see the UI changes for yourself. I took the time this afternoon to try and suggest ways to clean up the new Red Hat UI even more (particularly, the menu). See the original shot, and the modified one. Our previous article, based on a random shot of Red Hat's older UI can be found here.