"From Microsoft Surface to next-generation social networking, here's a quick rundown of about 35 Microsoft Research projects from around the world that were showcased this past week at TechFest 2009 in Redmond. Microsoft Research's TechFest, not to be confused with the yearly TechFest event that occurs in India, is an annual showcase of the various technologies that the company's researchers have been working on. The 2009 event that took place last week (February 24-26) featured a few prototypes that we've already seen before, like WorldWide Telescope and Microsoft Songsmith, but there were also many that have only started to emerge out of Microsoft's research labs around the world, including those in China, India, the UK, and the US."

Nokia today announced the availability of version 4.5 of the Qt cross-platform application and UI framework. It also introduced Qt Creator, a new lightweight cross-platform IDE. Qt 4.5 and Qt Creator combined comprises the Qt SDK, an easy to install package that will let developers create applications quickly and easily. "Qt 4.5 is setting the benchmark for application development," said Benoit Schillings, Chief Technologist, Qt Software, Nokia (and for those who remember, one of the original BeOS developers). It's also the first release of Qt under the LGPL.

IT solutions companies have been generating lots of buzz regarding thin clients basically since the early 1990s, but have yet to really penetrate into many suitable environments. These relatively cheap computer appliances carry broad promises like energy efficiency, space efficiency, and centralized maintenance and data storage. These claims could sound like the computer industry equivalent of snake oil. Kiwi-LTSP, a combination of KIWI imaging technology and Linux Terminal Server Project, is one open source solution for thin client servers.

The Atom processor, the only bright spot on Intel's balance sheet, will soon no longer be manufactured by Intel itself (CNet has more). Intel has signed an agreement with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), outsourcing the production of the successful chip to Taiwan. While it's not the first time Intel outsources production of its silicon, it is still an unusual move for the company to outsource the production of such a major chip.

eWeek has reviewed Debian 5.0, and concludes: "Version 5 of the Debian GNU/Linux open-source operating system offers the same top management tools and processor support that previous versions of the Linux operating system have. There also are a host of updates to open-source components, and the Linux distribution is still a great fit for servers and a solid desktop choice. However, the top reason for upgrading from version 4 may be the relatively short three-year security fix window, less than the coverage time offered with Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux-derived CentOS."

Earlier this month, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte open sourced the hardware for the OLPC device, inviting manufacturers to use the technology developed for the device in their own laptops, and of course to build OLPCs themselves. Negroponte also believes the OLPC project can help make netbooks better. ZDNet talked to IDC, and they don't think large OEMs will make use of OLPC's offering.

Yet another week has passed, so it's time for another week in review - the 8th instalment already. This week was marked by the realisation that Qemu and DOSBox on mobile phones are cool, that Apple is working hard on Safari 4, and that Microsoft appears to be more concerned about Linux than about Apple. And, of course, Haiku got Flash. This week's My Take is about zombies.

Long-time OSNews reader Kaiwai has written down his experiences with his Acer Aspire One, Linux, and Windows. He concludes: "After a hectic few weeks trying to get Linux to work, I am back to square one again - a netbook running Windows XP SP3 as it was provided by Acer when I purchased it. I gave three different distributions a chance to prove themselves. I expected all three distributions to wipe the floor with Windows XP - after all, these are the latest and greatest distributions the Linux world have to offer. There has been at least 7 years since the release of Windows XP for Linux to catch up to Windows XP and from my experience with Linux on this said device - it has failed to step up to the plate when it was needed."

The recent text-to-speech craze dealing with the Kindle 2 eventually got to the top as we all knew it would. Amazon has now released official word that their TTS feature is completely legal, but not to challenge those who were causing a fuss over its legalities earlier. They're stating that they're reprogramming the Kindle's system and are going to let the rightsholders decide whether to allow their book to be read by the Kindle's TTS on a title-by-title basis, and also that Amazon has much commercial interest in the audiobook business and believes that TTS will help the business, not detract from it. In Amazon's own words: "With this new level of control, publishers and authors will be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their commercial interests to leave text-to-speech enabled. We believe many will decide that it is." Phew. Glad that legal squabble has been dealt with. Lawyerless, courtless, suitless resolution; if only all disputes could be solved this way.

AMD recently said that they'd be starting onto the 32nm track, beginning production around the fourth quarter of 2010. Intel, on the other hand, has already demonstrated some of its prototypes and will be rolling these babies out to the public come the fourth quarter of-- ah-- this year. AMD isn't manufacturing these chips, however, and is instead laying the load on the newborn Foundry Company, which was created with the help of AMD out of ATI.

The time is finally here: the first VIA Nano-based notebook! As promised, Samsung is the first to use VIA's Nano platform, but contrary to expectations, the NC20 isn't a netbook. It's a normal laptop, albeit small. Still, this is the first VIA Nano laptop, and therefore, deserves attention.

It took them two years, but the Xfce team has just released Xfce 4.6.0, with a whole slew of improvements. Xfce started back in 1996 as a Linux equivalent of CDE, but soon diverged from that goal to stand on its own two feet, and by now it's safe to say that Xfce is the best of the rest - after KDE and GNOME. Xfce 4.6.0 seems to cement them further into that position.

It's been nearly two months since the beta of Windows 7 was officially released to the general public, and some of us have been getting fidgety to know just what bugs have been reported and what will be fixed. Microsoft was biding its time, letting the information collect and nearly stagnate, when we finally got official word on some of the results of the testing process.

The two major features of chrome when it was released was the multi-process design of the browser, as well as the focus on JavaScript performance. TechRadar has an interview with Lars Bak, the developer who headed the effort behind the v8 JavaScript engine in Chrome. He talks about the impact v8 had on the browser ecosystem, as well as why it is taking so long for Chrome to get third-party plug-in support.