With a flood of ARM-based netbooks coming to the market starting somewhere end of this year, many hope it will be another opportunity for Linux to get some mainstream exposure. Since "normal" Windows doesn't run on ARM, Linux is the only obvious choice. Right? Well, Warren East, president and CEO of ARM Holdings plc, has been dropping hints that Windows might make its way to ARM after all. At least, that's what EETimes is concluding.

"The number and gee-whizness of features Sun Microsystems is putting into updates to both the Solaris 10 commercial operating system and the related OpenSolaris development release of Solaris are slowing. That's the best indication that Nevada - the code name for Solaris Next or Solaris 11 or whatever you want to call it - is getting closer to release. Closer doesn't mean close, however. According to sources speaking to The Reg, Sun is quietly telling customers that Solaris 11 is targeted for launch sometime around the middle of 2010."

Niche server maker Rackable Systems said this morning that the U.S. bankruptcy court in New York handling the Chapter 11 proceedings for supercomputer maker Silicon Graphics has approved Rackable's acquisition of most of the assets of SGI. Under the deal that was announced on April 1, the same day that SGI filed for bankruptcy protection, Rackable said it would be shelling out $25m to acquire most of the assets of SGI as well as assuming "certain liabilities" that were not specified. In the announcement today, that figure has risen to $42.5m in cash. The liabilities that Rackable is assuming have not been detailed.

Apple's recent hiring spree of chip designers reveals the company may be about to exert even more control over the components that go into its products. The company may go so far as manufacturing computer processors in-house, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cites only anonymous sources to bolster its claim that the internally designed chips will appear in products no sooner than 2010.

According to research that's supposed to be published later this year, growing demand for Internet use will soon outstrip the stamina of the infrastructure supporting it, and the Internet will cease to be reliable by 2012. Complete anarchy will ensue, and the world will essentially end along with the Internet we created for it. Perhaps this is what the Mayan prophecies meant?

While we generally don't really report on Apple rumours (for obvious reasons) I thought the one currently making its rounds across the countless copying/pasting Apple websites is pretty interesting discussion material. According to the ominpresent and omnipotent "people familiar with the matter", as told by AppleInsider, Apple is preparing to compete on... Price.

The OpenBSD team has released OpenBSD 4.5. There have been lots of changes and bug fixes, but it's a rather daunting list that doesn't really lend itself towards a summary (hint), but I guess if you use OpenBSD you are perfectly capable of figuring this out yourself. You can get the new release from the download page.

Icaros Desktop 1.1.1 has been released. Icaros Desktop is a distribution of the AROS operating system. "This newer version provides the latest system files, including the newer ata.device from Neil Cafferkey, which fixes many incompatibility issues and should help people who couldn't try AROS before, to boot it on their computers. This new releases includes also an improved version of the OWB browser and fixes some system issues encountered with the 1.1 release. For this reason, this update is available in two versions: an update CD for Icaros Desktop 1.1 users and a complete full live! DVD for new users."

I moved into the realm of digital SLR photography back in 2003 when when I got myself a Canon 10D. The 10D served me very well for 7 years and 14 000 pictures. Then I decided it was time for an upgrade so, I got myself a full frame 21 Megapixel monster, the EOS 5D MkII. It's quite an upgrade, it even does video. These are my impressions after having it for a few weeks.

As announced, the Windows 7 release candidate is now available for TechNet and MSDN subscribers. "The RC milestone is a result of feedback from millions of customers and partners around the world. It indicates the operating system is entering the final phases of development and is ready for partners to develop new applications, device drivers and services, and ready for IT pros to evaluate Windows 7 and examine how it will operate in their environment." The public release will be May 5.

The guys and girls behind the NetBSD project have released version 5.0 of their BSD operating system. NetBSD is a highly-portable operating system, the second open-source BSD implementation (after 386BSD). Naturally, version 5.0 comes packed with a whole boatload of improvements.

When the news got out that Windows 7 would get a "Classic"-like virtual environment for running Windows XP applications that would otherwise not run on Windows 7, we hoped it would mark the beginning of Microsoft moving backwards compatibility into a VM. This would then allow them to cut major cruft out of the operating system. However, with more and more information trickling out about Windows XP Mode, it becomes more and more clear this new feature has little to do with cutting backwards compatibility (as I already said when we covered this subject during our latest podcast). Update: Paul Thurrot states you can install other operating systems into Windows XP Mode's virtual machine as well. This is a great selling point for us enthusiasts.

Acer has stated that it has lowered its expectations for netbook sales for this year. Instead of selling between 12-15 million netbooks, the company now believes it will ship 10-12 million netbooks.

US media giant Time Warner has said it anticipates spinning off one or more parts of AOL as advertising sales decline at the internet business. The announcement came after Time Warner posted stronger-than-expected profits and reaffirmed its full-year forecast. Net profits for the first quarter came in at USD 661m (GBP 448.8m), a fall of 14% from the USD 771m reported a year earlier. Revenue at the company, which owns Time magazine and the CNN and HBO television networks, fell by 7% to USD 6.9bn.