"Apple first introduced PowerMac G4 computer systems using AltiVec -- a high performance vector processing expansion to the PowerPC architecture -- in the fall of 1999. Architecturally, AltiVec adds 128-bit-wide vector execution units to the PowerPC architecture. Early versions of the G4 processor had a single AltiVec unit, while more recent versions have up to four units (simple, complex, floating, and permute). These vector units operate independently from the traditional integer and floating-point units". Read the interesting article at O'ReillyNet.

Improvements include important pam/shadow/util-linux security fixes, new KDE3 ebuilds, many important improvements to Portage, new NVIDIA drivers and seamless OpenGL configuration, and more. Existing Gentoo Linux users can upgrade in-place by following the instructions included in the release announcement. New users can find install instructions and ISOs and build tarballs. Also be sure to read our new Portage Manual to get up to speed with the new Gentoo Linux 1.0+ features.

"The latest rivalry to erupt is between the IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0 high-speed serial bus specifications. In addition to 400Mbps-class bandwidths (400Mbps for 1394 and 480Mbps for USB 2.0), hot-plug connectivity, and auto-configuration capabilities, both can support either asynchronous or isochronous operation, theoretically making them suitable for both computer peripherals and digital A/V equipment. Not surprisingly, many users have no idea why they should choose one over the other." Read the interesting benchmarking article at ExtremeTech and witness FireWire beating USB 2.0 on all tests.

Apache 2.0 offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performance boosts over the 1.3 codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition is the ability to run Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platform that supports both threads and processes. This has shown to improve the scalability of the Apache HTTP Server significantly in our testing. Apache 2.0 also includes support for filtered I/O. This allows modules to modify the output of other modules before it is sent to the client. There is also support for IPv6 on any platform that supports IPv6. This version of Apache is known to work on many versions of Unix, BeOS, OS/2, Windows, and Netware.

"Gentoo solved many problems for me. Some distros install everything, whether you really need it or not. Not Gentoo; other than the base packages required for Linux to run, the only software installed on the system is the software you put there. Gentoo resolves dependancies automatically, eliminating RPM prerequisite hell. As an added bonus I got something I wasn't even expecting. Speed. Blinding, blazing, incredible speed." Read the rest of the interesting installation review for Gentoo Linux at Kuro5hin.

"Microsoft this summer will institute some changes to Windows XP as part of a settlement agreement meant to benefit consumers and increase competition. But some state trustbusters and Microsoft's chief rivals aren't convinced that those changes go far enough." Read the rest of the report at ZDNews.

"Smart Device Extensions (SDE) for Visual Studio .NET allow programmers to develop applications for the .NET Compact Framework, a new platform that maintains many of the features of the .NET Framework in a version optimized for handheld devices. This article shows how SDE provides access through Visual Studio .NET to a variety of .NET classes for devices running Windows CE, including classes for creating user interfaces. Data access classes and Web Services for the .NET Compact Framework are also explained. Following that overview, a sample Web Service called XMLList is built. Then the UI—the XMLList client-side application—is created." Read the rest of the article at MSDN.

"There are two Linux file systems that continually prove to be confusing stumbling blocks to new Linux users. These two directories, /proc and /dev have no Windows counterpart, and are not at first glance easily understandable. They are, however, powerful tools for understanding and using Linux. This article is a walk-through of the device (/dev) and process (/proc) file systems. It will explain what they are, how they work, and how they are used in practice." Read the rest of the article at NewsForge.

With the 2.4 release of Linux come many new filesystem possibilities, including Reiserfs, XFS, GFS, and others. These filesystems sound cool, but what exactly can they do, what are they good at, and exactly how do you go about safely using them in a production Linux environment? Daniel Robbins, CEO and president over at Gentoo Linux (and creator of the sophisticated Portage packaging system) answers these questions by showing you how to set up these new advanced filesystems under Linux 2.4. In this final installment (Part 10/10), Daniel shows you how to get XFS up and running on your system and explores some of XFS's more advanced features. Recommended reading is also the previous article, Part 9, exploring XFS's features over the other Linux filesystems. In a similar recent article, Bert Scalzo for Linux Jounral, benchmarks ReiserFS, JFS and ext2/3.

Daemonnews reports: "FreeBSD/sparc64 now boots multiuser on multiprocessor Ultra and Enterprise class machines with all CPUs active. We believe this is the first open source BSD operating system to fully support SMP on UltraSPARC hardware."

KDE 3.0 was finally released. The official announcement will come soon, but for now, you can download KDE 3.0 for Conectiva, FreeBSD, Mandrake, Red Hat, Slackware, SuSE, Tru64, YellowDog or the source code. Debian, IRIX, AIX or Solaris packages not available yet.

"Many low-end Mac users lament Apple's choice of NeXTstep over the BeOS as the foundation of Mac OS X. Many arguments have been made on technical merits, and many blame the demise of Be, Inc., on Apple and Microsoft. The following is an in-depth look at the demise of Be and reflections on Apple's choice of NeXT. Hopefully this will debunk some common ideas about BeOS and lay this debate to rest." Read the editorial at LowEndMac.

Many interesting articles at O'Reilly's .NET corner, more than twenty articles, most published the last month. Among the very recent ones, you will find "Uncovering Rotor -- A Shared Source CLI", four parts of Web Services essentials, "An Architectural Tour of Rotor", "Get Your Rotor Running" (which includes some compiler speed differenes between FreeBSD and Windows) and many more.