"The dual Athlon is still the fastest PC we've tested, but the single Intel P4 2.53 GHz machine runs a close second, and even beats the dual Athlon on some of the tests. And, as expected, the Mac dual 1GHz G4 could not even come close to keeping up with these two PCs. Even though the P4 machine has only a single processor, it was easy for it to leave the dual-processor Mac far behind." Read the benchmarks at DigitalVideoEditing.

"Microsoft is planning what could end up being quite a shock for the Windows XP warez world, and what currently looks to be one of the most amazing moves made by Microsoft since Windows Product Activation was introduced. Currently, Microsoft is in the works of completely rewriting the algorithm for the way Windows XP Corporate keys are generated, and is rewriting the code for Windows XP to recognize this new algorithm. This new code will be an added ‘feature’ of Service Pack 1 due out later this year." Read the report at BetaONE.

Object Desktop 2002 is a desktop enhancement suite designs to allow Windows users to completely transform Windows into anything they want. It includes WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ObjectBar, IconPackager, WinStyles, and more. It also includes a 1 year subscription to ObjectDesktop.NET where users can download all the components of Object Desktop, updates, and new features. Our Take: I was lucky to have a "live" demo of the product from Stardock's CEO, Brad Wardell , a few months back. This set of applications truly transform the Windows GUI to something completely different, which is certainly not just skining, but a complete change of how the UI behaves and interacts with the user.

"Mainframe Linux's near-term attraction is it relative ease of operation, not price per se. We project mainframe Linux will remain a shrinking niche, whose term will be defined by the dual mainframe/Wintel gaps of cost (widening) and management functionality (closing)." Read the analysis at ZDTechUpdate.

The campaign to free Blender's sources has officially started. 100,000 Euro are needed in order Blender to become open source and be the first truly powerful 3D rendering package for the OSS community. If you can spare some money this weekend, help this great application get freed.

The Syllable folks have released some screenshots of their AtheOS-based operating system, and also a binary of ABrowse, the Konqueror-based browser for AtheOS/Syllable. The team is looking for a kernel hacker, and more developers in general, to join the project.

The Debian Project is pleased to announce the release of Debian GNU/Linux version 3.0. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, which now supports a total of eleven processor architectures, includes KDE and GNOME desktop environments, features cryptographic software, is compatible with the FHS v2.2 and supports software developed for the LSB. With the addition of the IA-64, HP PA-RISC, MIPS (mips, mipsel), Alpha, and S/390 architectures, Debian GNU/Linux now supports a total of eleven architectures. For the first time, Debian comes with the KDE 2.2. The GNOME desktop environment is upgraded to version 1.4, and X itself is upgraded to the much improved XFree86 4.1.

Why Microsoft's Palladium project threatens to send Linux and open-source into exile: "Unless Microsoft signs a particular Linux kernel, it will almost certainly refuse to run on Palladium-equipped hardware." Read the editorial at SecurityFocus.

"Put all these threads together, and it appears that Apple is shifting strategy towards becoming a software company--admittedly, a software company that depends upon its own hardware. In the future, I expect to see more software from Apple, and for more of it to be sold as an upgrade to what users already own, or delivered as a paid service of some sort." Editorial and MacWorld roundup at ZDNews.

A good break down of what needs to be done for the Linux kernel 2.6 (which might be coming out as soon as in November) can be found on LWN and on KernelTrap.

Perl 5.8.0 is a major new release of the Perl 5 language. It incorporates all development and maintenance changes since the last major release, 5.6.0, including all the changes of 5.6.1.

Let's face it, the most important, truly alternative, hobby operating systems that are somewhat usable today are three: MenuetOS, SkyOS and AtheOS. All three are hobby, open source OSes, written from people who enjoy coding low level programming. Read more about the differences between these OSes and which one you might want to try out.

The Idea Basket holds an interesting interview with Stuart Cheshire, Apple Computer employee and also Chairman of the IETF ZeroConf, regarding Rendezvous and more.

A new version of Mandrake Cooker, the unstable version of Mandrake, has been released on the FTP servers with many fixes and new software packages. Please note that this version is not production level quality, but it is intended for testing purposes only.