Ever since Honeycomb's release, Android has had two versions out in the wild (well, if you disregard the non-current versions, that is). The next major Android release, Ice Cream Sandwich, is supposed to fix this problem by having one single version of Android for both phones and tablets. Google now has a blog post up which presents some options for developers to prepare their applications for Ice Cream Sandwich.

So, after a bunch of attacks from Apple, Samsung seems to have gone on the offensive against the gadget maker from Cupertino - and big time, too. In three countries, France, Australia, and South Korea, Samsung has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Apple - with the South Korea suit being the weird one. Unlike Apple's software patents and napkin scribbles community designs, Samsung is using actual hardware patents.

With the Xeon 7600 line, Intel is finally using the 'R' word: RISC. It's targeting the mission-critical market dominated by Sun SPARC and IBM Power with the new chips, a first. Can the Xeon E7 processor deliver Intel's final blow to the RISC market, which includes its own Itanium?

InfoWorld's J. Peter Bruzzese provides a list of 15 open source tools for enhancing your Windows server-side experience. 'You might imagine that the best place to go for improving your Microsoft server-side experience is to the mothership itself. In many cases, you would be right. But the truth is there are a meaningful number of open source tools that go above and beyond what Microsoft has to offer in support of Windows Server, Exchange, SQL, and SharePoint. Many of these alternatives provide -- for free -- more powerful capabilities than what you'd get with third-party retail products.' Bruzzese also offers a look at the best free server tools Microsoft has to offer.

"Many Linux distributions have taken the path of easy GUI-based installation, in order to appeal to a broader mix of users. But not Arch Linux, which emphasises simplicity of technical complexity over general usability. Richard Hillesley explains."

In the article on Windows 8, I already mentioned that in order to demonstrate the viability of Metro for something other than Facebook and Twitter, Microsoft should come up with a Metro interface for Microsoft Office - one that doesn't leave out 90% of Office's features. Well, Microsoft has hinted that they are, indeed, working on Metro Office. In addition, it turns out Microsoft isn't entirely sure to how to address the issue if legacy applications on ARM.

InfoWorld's Doug Dineley and Brian Chee round up the best new features of Windows Server 8. 'If you're a large shop struggling to manage hundreds of Windows servers, Windows Server 8 should ease the job. If you're a small shop trying to squeeze high-end capability from a low-end budget, Windows Server 8 has plenty for you, too. With Windows Server 8, everything from server deployment to high availability becomes smoother and more automated.' From multiserver management, to friction-free server deployment, to flexible live migration, 'whatever grudge you may hold against Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 8 will almost certainly make amends.'

The client version of Windows isn't the only one getting overhauled. It's a little less sexy, but Windows Server 8 is every bit as different from its predecessors as the Windows 8 client. Server Core (Windows Server running without the graphical user interface) is the, uh, core now, and everything is done using PowerShell - either directly, or through the new Metro-style Server Manager which is a layer on top of PowerShell. The buzzword here is cloud - not the big one, but those smaller ones on intranets.

This is mandatory listening and watching material for understanding the design methodology and ideas behind the Metro interface in Windows 8 (and thus, Windows Phone 7). All this sounds great in theory, and Jensen Harris, one of the minds behind Metro, is clearly passionate about it - and I love people who are passionate about their work. It's just that to me, the Metro UI doesn't seem to work very well for actual work. I want window management! I'm taking all this into account for an article on Metro in the Developer Preview. Stay tuned.

McAfee demonstrated the workings of its new McAfee DeepSAFE technology at the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday. It sits beyond the operating system and close to the silicon, and by operating beyond the OS, it provides a direct view of system memory and processor activity. Among the threats that it detects are Stuxnet, SpyEye, the TDSS roorkit family and the NTRootkit.

Chip Hazard posted a pic of a Windows 8 error screen, which in keeping with the overall trend in Windows8, is actually a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the old Blue Screen of Death. Plus: frowny face!

Today, at Microsoft's BUILD conference in Anaheim, California, Microsoft unveiled the biggest overhaul of Windows since Windows 95. The venue was not coincidental; in the same city, in 1993, during the first Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft unveiled Windows 95 for the first time. Steven Sinofsky, supported by an army of Microsoft executives, demonstrated a whole boatload of things for Windows 8, and make no mistake, they had a lot to show. Two important notes: the Windows 8 Developer Preview will be free to download later today (no activation, will be updated regularly, and includes the new interface), and Win32 is the past.

I usually write about topics like operating systems and computer refurbishing. Today let's ditch that trivial stuff and tackle something really important like... How have computers and operating systems been portrayed on TV and in films? It's time we seek our inner geek. With this hearty sign of approval we're on our way...

Remember Fusion Garage, the company behind the JooJoo? That thing kind of went absolutely nowhere, but the company is back with another product - well, two products to be exact, or three if you want to get pedantic (and I'm nothing if not, you know, that). The Grid10 is a tablet, Grid4 a smartphone, and GridOS the operating system. It all looks pretty awesome, and is supposed to come out October 1. The Grid10 for a mere $299, and JooJoo owners will get one for free.