Some weeks ago we hosted an interesting interview with Guillaume Maillard regarding the BlueOS effort to 'save' the BeOS by using a modified Linux kernel as its basis. The team has just released a new screenshot based on the BlueOS GUI, running under the BeOS app_server for the moment instead of under XFree. However, a preliminary BeOS-alike app_server for XFree, is already on their CVS.

Compared to the Whistler client releases, which became known as Windows XP back in February, the Whistler Server beta has been relatively quiet for a long time. Whistler Server hit Beta 2 in late March alongside Windows XP, when Microsoft noted that the two product lines would then follow different development paths. In late April, Microsoft announced that the Whistler Server products would be marketed as 'Windows 2002 Server', but it was later renamed to 'Windows .NET Server'. Screenshots and lots of information can be found at the WinSuperSite and an FAQ is also available for the product.

KDE 3.0 is mostly a release for supporting QT 3.0 rather than a full blown release with major new featues. Some new features (like font fading) and other minor visual changes do exist, but primarily this release will feature lots of new bundled KDE applications compiled for QT 3. Screenshots of KDE 3 can be found here (mirror page here) and even more info can be found at dot.KDE.org.

"Over the past few months the SourceForge development facility, which hosts a large number of Free Software projects, has changed its policies. Features for exporting a project from SourceForge have been removed. The implementation used to be exclusively Free Software but is now based on non-free software. Finally, VA Linux has become rather underhand in their attempts to grasp exclusive control of contributors' work. SourceForge did a lot of good for the Free Software community, but it's now time to break free." Read the rest of the editorial at FSFEurope.org.

SuSE Linux announced the release of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for S/390, the latest version of its server operating system for deployment in enterprise mainframes. Based on kernel 2.4, this SuSE server version now supports S/390 servers as well as IBM eServer zSeries z900. SuSE offers a solution for consolidation of mission-critical e-business applications with HiperSockets support, Logical Volume Manager and Journaling Filesystem. SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for S/390 will be available from the end of November from SuSE and SuSE Linux Enterprise Partners. Prices start at $4,500 USD.

"In my October, Byte.com column I described the new VM written by kernel hacker Andrea Arcangeli. In that article, I promised I would come back to my FreeBSD versus Linux comparison that I ran in my February 2001 column. Many people say FreeBSD has a very good virtual memory manager. As it turns out, I pretty much proved them right in that article. Now, with the new VM engine in Linux as of 2.4.10, things might look different, so I prepared a new test environment for the benchmark." Moshe Bar benchmarks the VMs between Linux and the previous FreeBSD, version 4.3.

"It's hard to browse the Web or read a computer magazine without finding a reference to Linux, the operating-system wunderkind created by Linus Torvalds and developed by a host of others. But although Linux steals the headlines, ISPs and system administrators often choose one of the BSDs - a group of operating systems based on code polished during more than 20 years of research at one of America's leading academic institutions. What are the BSDs? And why should you consider using them if you're looking for a non-Windows operating system?"

"They say that motorcycle riders go through three stages: fear, over-confidence, and finally respectful care. The same stages apply to OS programmers. Motorcyclists in the over-confident stage may be injured or killed. Programmers can create a subtle defect that is fantastically expensive to remove." Read the OS Manifesto at Byte.

Be, Inc. announced that the stockholders of Be have approved the sale of substantially all of its intellectual property and other technology assets to a subsidiary of Palm, Inc., pursuant to the terms of a previously announced asset purchase agreement between Be and Palm. The stockholders of Be have also approved the proposed dissolution of Be pursuant to the terms of a plan of dissolution. It is anticipated that the transaction with Palm will close within the next two business days. We hope that the sale of Be's IP to Palm will have a positive outcome regarding the BeOS and the BeUnited effort to license the BeOS source code.

"This is the third and final installment of my MacOSX 10.1 saga. For six weeks now, I have attempted to use 10.1 exclusively during my workday. When I first embarked on this adventure, I knew it would take several weeks to thoroughly test-run the new OS. In part two of my empirical extravaganza, I revealed software that I've found indispensable under 10.1, and admitted that I cheat daily by rebooting into 9.2.1 to perform backups. Now, I will present my final conclusions." Editorial by Stephan Somogyi.

"Will your next portable computer be a tablet PC? Microsoft hopes so, and it has lined up a handful of partners that are showing prototype models of its reference design and plan to ship the real thing in mid-2002. For the second year here at Comdex, the software behemoth is pushing tablet computing that combines the portability of a laptop, the convenience of pen and paper, and of course Microsoft software." Read the rest of the news report at PCWorld.

Descriptive Quote from the OSOpinion editorial: "Open source and free software were founded on the idea that all information and knowledge should be made freely available for the benefit of all, and what is software but the embodiment of knowledge? Unfortunately, much of today's open software is not free in one important respect. The use of copyright and the General Public License (GPL) restricts its commercial exploitation."

A new snapshot of the (AMD's 64-bit Hammer CPU) x86-64 Linux kernel tree has been released. It is based now on the 2.4.14 kernel. Changes to previous snapshot: Merged to 2.4.14 and some bug fixes. For information on how to compile and use it see at their main web site, full source tarball and patch against Linux 2.4.14 are available.

This week, KernelTrap spoke with Neal Walfield of the GNU/Hurd development team. From their project FAQ, "'Hurd', as an acronym, stands for `Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons'. Hird, in turn, stands for `Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth'. The Hurd is a radical departure from UNIX. A unique and interesting approach to solving many of the problems found in current operating systems. While it's not yet production grade, it's evolved enough to be quite usable.