Well this makes a change. Linus Torvalds has announced that the next version of the Linux Kernel release is to be '3.0'. "I decided to just bite the bullet, and call the next version 3.0. It will get released close enough to the 20-year mark, which is excuse enough for me, although honestly, the real reason is just that I can no longer comfortably count as high as 40."

There's a new REBOL like programming language in town. It's called Red, it's BSD licensed and contrary to REBOL and Boron, Red is a compiled language. The Syllable project is proud to announce that Red programs now run on Syllable Desktop. Here is a screenshot from a demo program. Syllable is the third Red target platform, after Windows and Linux.

You don't need a Chromebook to try Google's Linux-based Chrome OS. Here's how to give it a try today.

"KDE has released a first beta of the upcoming 4.7 release of the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Frameworks, which is planned for July 27, 2011. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing new and old functionality."

On a recent recent visit to Beijing, Anna Shipley of Nokia Conversations - China, caught up with Stephen Elop for a short interview. In the interview, Elop illiterates once again the importance of the partnership with Microsoft, their new strategy, roll out, renewal and challenges faced ahead - in his own words "Nokia has to move forward faster and more aggressively now, than we have ever done before because of the competition". He talks about the importance of creating a great environment for developers of applications so that they can be effective, especially with the new Windows platform on Nokia devices. He also mentions that investment in Symbian will continue with support and updates way into 2016, with new apps, customer service and all of the elements that Symbian customers are currently experiencing.

The concern for efficient and easy-to-use inter-process communication is prevalent among microkernel-based operating systems. Genode has always taken an unorthodox stance on this subject by disregarding the time-tested standard solution of using an IDL compiler in favour of sticking to raw C++ mechanisms. The new version 11.05 of the OS framework takes another leap by introducing a brand new API for implementing procedure calls across process boundaries, facilitating type safety and ease of use, yet still not relying on external tools. Furthermore, the platform support for the Fiasco.OC kernel has been extended to the complete feature set of the framework. The most significant new features are L4Linux (on Fiasco.OC), an experimental integration of GDB, ARM RealView PBX device drivers, and device I/O support for the MicroBlaze platform.