As seen over at PCLinuxOnline: "Lycoris is scheduled to announce the availability of Deskxop/LX Update 2 build 46 on Monday. In the meantime, you can freely download the 3 isos from various mirrors as they become available. sunet.se seems to have it available as of this morning."

OSNews reader Prognathous writes: "Well, actually it was released earlier this year, but I couldn't find any references in your news section, so it's about time. The only problem is that other than in usenet, details are scant and the official release was very subdued (search the page for "4.52")." This release is only available to IBM's active software subscription customers of OS/2 Warp 4 and it does seem to be a service pack ("Convenience Package" as IBM calls it). IBM does not intend to provide any additional convenience packages in the future.

The Syllable team makes strides these days on their AtheOS fork, and most of the AtheOS developers have joined Vanders and Rick to their quest of a better operating system. OSNews reader Daryl Dudey joined the Syllable team recently, and he already wrote a nice networking preference panel for Syllable. The team is still looking for a kernel developer though, or C++ developers who like writting low level system software. On a related hobby-OS note, SkyOS made its first steps into the SMP world.

"Sun will use the LinuxWorld venue here to discuss its second change of heart -- the resurrection of Solaris for the Intel architecture, sources said. Internal friction within Sun still could prevent Solaris from returning to the Intel platform. Sun has moved its Solaris and Linux efforts under the supervision of Anil Gadre, former vice president of Solaris and now vice president of marketing and operations for software at Sun, combining the OS teams for the first time, sources said." Read the report at InfoWorld.

"Windows .NET Server is a surprisingly full-featured release, but because it builds on the strong base of Windows 2000 Server, it will be a simplein-place upgrade for those customers. Thanks to its new upgrade features, it should also prove to be a simpler upgrade for the large crowd of NT 4.0 Server holdouts, though we'll have to test that functionality before passing final judgement." Read the preview at WinSuperSite. On a related note, Microsoft has posted the long-awaited RC 1 version (Build 3663) of Windows .NET Server on MSDN Subscriber Downloads. Here is the good stuff available:

Gentoo Linux, perhaps the fastest growing new linux distribution, has taken the linux world by storm. Comming out of obscurity only a short time ago, it has leapt into the mainstream of the community and has become one of the top ten distributions. TinyMinds recently got a chance to interview Daniel Robbins, founder and Chief Architect of the project. Daniel speaks of the new installer they are working on, gcc 3.1, LinuxWorld, Portage and more.

Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems are cooperating on a version of Sun's StarOffice productivity software for Mac OS X, the companies said. Apple gains a friend to help counter its increasingly contentious relationship with Microsoft, which has been struggling with sales of its Office v. X suite for Macintosh. Currently, OpenOffice only runs with the aid of X11, but a native OSX version based on Java is under way, with Apple, Inc. developers giving a hand for the port. Update: Corey O'Connor emailed us regarding the Java and C/C++ parts of Star Office on OSX:

GCC 3.1.1 has just been released. This release is a bug fix release relative to GCC 3.1. The next release of GCC will be GCC 3.2. This release will be available very soon (within days or a week). The only changes in GCC 3.2 relative to GCC 3.1.1 will be changes to the C++ ABI.

"Microsoft Corp. has halted hardware driver support for users of Windows 98 and Windows NT in a bid to push users to the company's new operating systems. On its web site, Microsoft explains that 'Beginning 01 July 2002, at 12:01 A.M. PST, WHQL will no longer accept submissions for all hardware devices and systems for the following operating systems. This includes all submission types for all devices and systems: Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (SE); Windows NT 4.0 Workstation; (and) Windows NT 4.0 Server.'" Read the report at ExtremeTech.

"A bizarre rumor about Microsoft making sweeping changing to its Product Activation technology in Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) is completely untrue, the company told me today. The rumor, which was started by a small technology enthusiast Web site, had Microsoft changing the product keys for all of its customers using volume licensing." Read the report at WinInformant.

"IBM and Linux combined represent a threat and inspiration as Microsoft Corp drives into enterprise computing, top company executives said yesterday. Computing giant IBM wages war against Microsoft in lucrative corporate accounts while Linux, the low-coast threat to Windows, wins supporters in fertile developer communities." Read the article at TheRegister.

"Are the software giant's customers hungry for the next version of its server operating system? The company is banking on it, but industry watchers aren't so sure." Read the article at ZDNews.

"Eight years ago, as Purdue undergraduate Ian Murdock flipped through a Unix magazine, he came across an intriguing advertisement. It was for a Linux distribution that promised to let you run your Windows applications on the free operating system. Linux had sprung into existence a scant year before and now -- according to the ad -- it could support Windows applications. This seemed too good to be true. It was." Old, but good read, to match the release of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0.

"Microsoft Corp. today announced at the company's .NET Briefing Day that its upcoming Windows .NET Server operating system has reached the RC1 milestone. Release candidate 1 (RC1) is an important step leading up to the product's final delivery, signifying that engineering, development and beta testing have been completed and that the server code is entering the final phases of testing and completion work prior to its release to manufacturing. Microsoft Windows .NET Server RC1 code will be available for third-party testers to download beginning tomorrow and will be available for customers to begin previewing next week." Read the rest of the press release at Microsoft.com.