"I admit it: I have a soft spot for Gentoo Linux. I'm not sure if it's because it's the shiny new kid on the block, or its focus on a part of the Linux market that was fairly ignored before (distribution-wise). Maybe it's just the excitement and energy that tends to surround any new project. Who knows." The review is at LinuxPlanet. Our Take: Hmm, it seems that women like the challenge of Gentoo (count me in). Or, maybe that "soft spot" is for Daniel and Spider. ;-)

The new Linux kernel maintainer speaks to ZDNet UK about opportunities for Linux in applications big and small, and explains why UnitedLinux is a good idea.

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"Microsoft is to ship the McKinley version of its 64-bit .NET Server preview software to PC manufacturers later this month. It being tagged Microsoft Windows Advanced Server, Limited Edition version 1.2, one can reasonably conclude that it is not finished as such, but if we're going to provide software for Intel hardware as soon as it's out (which is what we've said we'll do, isn't it?) then LE it has to be." Read the report at TheRegister.

Larry Kettler, the new director of Builder sales at Lindows, says the response to last month's announcement of the Builder Program "has been overwhelming." In an email letter, he says that many OEMs are preparing to launch LindowOS on "a number of computer system SKUs." Read the rest of the report at NewsForge.

Nicholas Petreley explores desktop Linux beyond GNOME and KDE. In this column, he examines and compares several window-managers, detailing which of these applications is best for different types of users. The article is at LinuxWorld.

"Apple Computer plans to serve up a new iMac model with a larger flat-panel display during next week's Macworld Expo trade show, according to sources. The upgrade to a 17-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) comes as sales have all but stalled on existing 15-inch flat-panel iMacs." Read the report at ZDNews.

The initial release of the IBM WebSphere SDK for Web Services on Linux is now available. Developers can easily create Java-based applications for Web service providers and consumers. This offering contains everything developers need in a single convenient package, including a IBM SDK for Java technology, a runtime environment, a private UDDI registry, tools, samples, and documentation. It's based on open specifications for Web services such as SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI and runs on both Linux and Windows operating systems. The IBM WebSphere SDK for Web Services includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation and is being offered at this time for free.

"A security mailing list has alerted Apple's OSX users to a program that could let a hacker piggyback malicious code on downloads from the company's SoftwareUpdate service." Read the report at ZDNews.

"Microsoft has delayed the third service pack for Windows 2000- Service Pack 3 —for an indefinite period of time, according to internal documents I viewed over the weekend. Win2K was originally due July 17, but Microsoft recently discovered several major bugs in its Microsoft Installer (MSI) 2.0 code, which was to have been bundled with the update. So now the company will remove MS 2.0 from SP3 and include the older version, MSI 1.1, instead, unless feedback from its beta testers and partners indicates that MSI 2.0 must be included. This indecision, obviously, will adversely affect the release schedule for SP3." Read the report at WinInformant. Update: MSI 2.0 to be Included in Windows 2000 SP3.

"Palm Inc was considering Linux as the foundation of the next-generation PalmOS as recently as last spring, sources tell us. Palm eventually acquired Be Inc's development team last August, but internal discussions on the viability of a Linux-based handheld OS were taking place as recently as fifteen months ago. These were squashed by the lawyers, who concluded that Palm couldn't reconcile the GPL with the in house view of intellectual property. Palm is not using the cut-down embedded version BeOS, BeIA, which was targetted at the NatSemi x86 system on a chip, but a ground-up OS for ARM." Read the report at TheRegister.

"In Dennis Powell's 'The view from the desktop' column last week, he noted a problem with the development of KDE (and other Open Source projects). Generally speaking, KDE developers work on KDE for fun, and while interested, they are not necessarily concerned about the needs of end users. Obviously hobbyist developers should not be required to do anything for those using their code, but this situation often causes features that users want and need to be overlooked." Editorial at LinuxAndMain.

From DaemonNews.org: FreeBSD 4.6.1 is scheduled for release July 17, 2002 in order to update SSH, BIND, incorporate a partial ATA fix, and other changes from the RELENG_4_6 release branch. On a side note, FreeBSD 5.0 developer preview 2, a full release for the i386, Alpha, and sparc64 architectures is scheduled for release July 25.

Support for Intel's Itanium 2 CPU continues with 64-Bit Windows .NET servers; WindowsXP 64-Bit Edition Ver. 2003 to be available in early 2003. Read the press release at Microsoft.com. In the meantime, Windows 2000 has been given nine months to live, as far as OEMs are concerned, and Microsoft is pressuring the PC companies to stop offering dual install Win2K/XP systems immediately.