Bill Hayden did the obvious: He forked AtheOS (which is technically similar to BeOS) and used its app_server and Interface Kit (without the use of X11) and rest of its kits on top of the 2.4.x Linux kernel. While the AtheOS kernel has some very nice features, by being modular, semi-microkernel, with good preemptive/multithreading support etc., it lacks a solid VM and swap support and of course, it lacks a good driver support, things that the Linux kernel provides. Bill Hayden accounced his fork on the AtheOS mailing list and made known that the "Atheos API has been merged with the BeOS API, there is PowerPC support, gcc 3.0.X compatiblity and OpenTracker/Deskbar as the desktop manager".

"You might still be wrestling with your Windows 2000 deployment. You don't have the time or inclination to consider a migration to Windows .NET Server (Win.NET Server). But you might want to take a moment to see what Win.NET Server has to offer: Although Win.NET Server isn't a momentous release, as Win2K was, it offers some serious new features and significant improvements that smooth out some of Win2K's rough edges. The complete list of Win.NET Server's new and improved features is long, but the product's key infrastructure improvements—such as Active Directory (AD) modifications—can present compelling business reasons to consider the new platform." Read the exclusive report on the next major Widnows version at WinNetMag.

"Trying to hasten its acceptance among enterprise users, Red Hat on Tuesday will roll out its first series of Linux-based operating environment products aimed specifically at corporations that plan to migrate away from Unix. The first product to be available as part of the company's Enterprise Platform Series is the Red Hat Advanced Server, which will feature improved management capabilities along with better performance, availability, and scalability features. Pricing on the Advanced Server starts at $800 per server." Read the rest of the article at InfoWorld.

"As thousands of programmers converge on San Francisco to attend Sun Microsystems' JavaOne conference, which opens Monday, Microsoft is working in parallel to convince some of the flock to switch banners. That job falls to John Montgomery, who has the chore of trying to convince millions of Java developers to embrace Microsoft's .Net technology." Read the interview at News.com. "Java is drawing a rising number of businesses and software developers but still must overcome major obstacles before its long-term success is assured--including roadblocks from the very people who support the programming language." Read the story at ZDNews.

"Web Services signal a new era of lightweight distributed application development. While Web Services are not intended nor do they have the power to solve every distributed application problem, they are an easy way to create and consume services over the Internet. One of the design goals for Web Services is to allow companies and developers to share services with other companies in a simple way over the Internet." Read the rest of the article at ExtremeTech.

From the press release: "Trolltech, the leader in multi-platform development frameworks, today unveiled Qtopia, a Linux-based application environment that brings the power of desktop computing to mobile embedded devices. Trolltech is the creator of Qt, the application framework that lets developers create cross platform, single-source applications that run natively. Qtopia is already being used to power the new Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA, with several additional design wins bringing products to market in 2002."

"To speech recognition is the way of the future. To imagine a world where you can simply capture devices, write him the males and messages to friends, and receive your fingers from the syndrome site carpal tunnel syndrome. Unfortunately, it's not perfect. Obviously, the paragraph above was "written" using speech recognition, and clearly either I, or the software, has a ways to go. It's not even clear what I was trying to say, which was: "Speech recognition is the wave of the future. Imagine a world where you can simply talk to devices, write emails or messages to friends, and relieve your fingers from carpal tunnel syndrome". Read the article at ExtremeTech.

Sun Microsystems launches its annual JavaOne conference with a new determination to reverse its fortune. For all its hype and popularity, Java has made more money in direct software sales for competitors than for the company that invented it. "As Sun Microsystems' chief claim to fame in the software world, Java began seven years ago as a bold assault on the company's sworn enemy, Microsoft." The article is at ZDNews. "At the JavaOne conference in San Francisco this week, Java software makers will attempt to regain ground lost to Microsoft in the emerging market for Web services development tools and technologies." This article also at ZDNews. "Sun Microsystems Inc. is pushing Java further into the Web services realm with a new version of its Java 2 Enterprise Edition under development. In addition, the company will broadly release this week a beta of its next-generation Java virtual machine for handhelds." This article is at ExtremeTech.

OSNews reader Chris Odum writes: "I have set up something that I call "The Linux Experiment Page", which is an attempt to try and determine once and for all whether or not Linux is truly ready for the desktop." Our Take: My vote would go on both Gentoo and Lycoris. Both not exactly ready, but especially Lycoris, close enough, as revealed on our recent review.

This week OSNews spoke to Addison Snell, a Product Marketing Manager at SGI. The legendary computer maker has been through some tumultuous times in the last few years but seems ready to make a healthy resurgence. Two weeks ago they hosted their Global Developer Conference in San Francisco. This is the first of a number of conversations OSNews will be hosting about SGI.

"IBM's first 32-bit version of its advanced PC operating system was released 10 years ago this month. It was better than anything around, yet it failed. Its hopes were pinned on many of the same things we hope today will bring Linux to the forefront. What lessons are to be learned? Will we learn them? A glimpse of a sorry chapter in computing history." Read the editorial at LinuxAndMain.

From the announcement: "Yes, it's gotten to this. The developers are working in their sleep. It's time for SKIPJACK, the new Red Hat Linux beta. Packed with the very latest technology, SKIPJACK includes: the 2.4.18 kernel, XFree86 4.2.0, KDE 3.0pre, GNOME 1.4, including Evolution, Mozilla 0.9.9 and more..." The beta comes in five CDs (no less than 2.8 GB of download) but as usual, only the first disk is needed to have a working installation.

ActiveWin got their hands on a beta version of the third service pack for Windows 2000. They report that the update will be released very soon. Here is the bug fix list for the SP3.

A former Gateway executive recently testified (NY Times login required) that Microsoft punishes PC clone manufacturers like Gateway for developing rival products. This was i.e. done by reducing discounts Gateway received for the Windows operating system. Gateway at a time was developing a new Amiga computer, but all of the sudden this ambitious project was cancelled, reliable sources (read the comments section of this article I recently wrote for OSNews) have stated Microsoft to be the reason behind this sudden move. My opinion: A good example of how Microsoft stifled technological progress within the computer industry these last 10 years. Hopefully people will start to understand why it has taken the Amiga community this long to get a new Amiga computer onto the market and why PC manufacturers left Amiga technology in the cold when the classic still was clearly superior technology compared to Microsoft's offerings.