Sun Microsystems announced version 9 of its Solaris operating system on Wednesday along with a Microsoft-reminiscent strategy to integrate higher-level components. Solaris 9 comes bundled with the Sun Open Network Environment (Sun ONE) directory server, used for keeping track of network information. And by the end of 2003, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based server seller also will build into Solaris its application server for e-business tasks and Web server software for hosting Web sites. Solaris 9 is available only for the SPARC platform.

"Netscape 7.0 is the latest version developed around a technology called Gecko, which was created by the AOL-funded Mozilla open source browser movement. Will it lure consumers back from Microsoft?" Read the article at ZDNews.

Scott Robert Ladd has updated his GCC versus Intel C++ compiler benchmarks. This time round he includes updated results of the recently released GCC 3.1. The new version of GCC seems to be much better than its 3.0.4 predecessor, and GCC 3.1 even wins some benchmarks it lost previously over ICC. Overall, ICC remains a much faster C/C++ compiler, but GCC has successfully narrowed the gap. Read Scott's interesting conclusion at the end of the article too.

The first pre-alpha Linux version of gobeProductive 3, the popular office suite, is now available for download. Read through for installation, other information and the download URL, along with a message for the OSNews readers, directly from Gobe.

We were the first to feature the world preview of gobeProductive 3 for Windows, the popular office suite, and now we have for you five brand new screenshots of the upcoming, GTK+ based, Linux version. Dig in for the goodies!

"This sample chapter from 'Linux Filesystems' begins by providing a detailed overview of how Linux identifies filesystems, verifies that they are usable, and makes them available to users. The remainder of the chapter explains the differences between journaling and non-journaling local filesystems, shows how journaling filesystems track filesystem changes, and highlights the major reasons why these types of filesystems are becoming more common on today's computer systems." The Part I, available at InformIT (free reg. req'd). "How is data storage organized and allocated on Linux and Unix systems? This article discusses the basics of Linux and Unix filesystem organization, highlighting some of the more modern approaches used to improve performance, deal with larger files, and solve other problems." Part II. "Minimizing system restart time is the primary advantage of using a journaling filesystem, but there are many others. As "newer" filesystems, journaling filesystems can take advantage of newer techniques for enhancing filesystem performance." PartIII.

The release of Apple's latest hardware offerings this month has caused quite a stir among Apple loyalists. This is only Apple's second foray into creating a truly dedicated server machine, the first of which being the "Network Server 500/700", which Apple sold in 1995 running AIX. The question on everyone's mind now is going to be what this means for Apple's prospects as a server platform. Certainly everyone agrees that the new machine looks nice, but how will it on the duties it will be required to perform. Furthermore, what kind of price/performance ratio is Apple offering when compared to the current group of servers.

OpenBSD 3.1 was just released with many improvements and new software installed (more than 1000 packages and XFree 4.2). Get it while it's hot.

"The GNOME 2.0 Desktop Beta 5 release, "Reciprocity", is ready for your bug-busting and testing pleasure! It is now available for immediate download. The GNOME 2.0 Desktop is a greatly improved user environment for existing GNOME applications. Enhancements include anti-aliased text and first class internationalisation support, new accessibility features for disabled users, and many improvements throughout GNOME's highly regarded user interface." Read more at LinuxToday.

"FreeBSD 4.6-RC1 (i386) is now available for download. The RC has been on ftp-master for over 24 hours so most of the mirrors have the ISO and FTP install tree, except for some reason ftp.freebsd.org. The build for the Alpha platform should be available within the next 24 hours." Read more at KernelTrap.

America Online has dropped Internet Explorer from a test version of its software for MacOSX, the latest sign that the Internet giant wants a rematch in the browser wars with Microsoft. Read more at ZDNews.

"As children, many of us watched TV shows like The Jetsons and dreamed about the day we might have our own robot maids, mechanics, and assistants. Evolution Robotics says it's making this happen. The Pasadena, Calif., company has released an operating system designed for the personal-robotics industry and says it hopes to do for that industry what Windows did for the PC. The Evolution Robotics Software Platform contains everything a company needs to develop and program robots, says Jennifer McNally, the company's senior director of marketing. It consists of a robot-control architecture, core software modules, and a set of developer's tools, she says." Read the story at InformationWeek.

"Linux is set to become the de facto standard in so-called "embedded" devices such as robotics, information appliances and automobile information systems. However, fragmentation could prove a stumbling block, said Inder Singh, chairman of the Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC)." Read the rest of the article at ZDNews.

The Lycoris Development Team is hard at work finishing Desktop/LX Update 2, a very exciting enhancement to the popular desktop operating system. Included, is a new Desktop/LX Control Center that makes it easier to accomplish configuration tasks in a simple, plain language way (screenshot). A new Desktop/LX Software Wizard allows you to install software from local media or right from the Internet using Iris, the Internet Rapid Installer for Software (IRIS). Lycoris also put work into the Desktop/LX Installer and some cosmetic changes are readily apparent (screenshot). "Fry's Electronics will be carrying Desktop/LX on the west coast. More to follow for sure. We are hard at work finishing Update 2 and dealing with our explosive growth." Jason Spisak of Lycoris told OSNews.