A long time ago, we asked everyone to show their desktops, and we figured it would be nice, on this (for me) cold and dreary Monday to do that all over again, over two years later. The questions remain the same: cluttered or clean? Icons or no icons? Dual or single panel layout in GNOME? How free-form is your Plasma desktop? Are there any real computer users in here (as in, using CDE)? Read on for my own two desktops.

As noted in Hubert Feyrer's blog, the upcoming Sidekick LX 2009/Blade is rumored to be running NetBSD instead of Microsoft CE, causing Microsoft's recruiters to look for NetBSD engineers.

The team behind KolibriOS has released a new version, KolibriOS 0.7.5.0. This operating system is written entirely in assembly language and fits on a single floppy disk. Sadly, there is no information available on what exactly has changed between this version and the last one, so all I can do is point you towards the downloads section.

While last week was a tad bit uneventful, this week made up for it. Not only did we get the long-awaited release of KDE 4.2, we also gained more insight into the whole Palm/Apple thing, NVIDIA's CEO said a few funny things, and we got an important sit-rep on SkyOS straight from Robert Szeleney himself. This week's My Take is about life, death, and resurrection.

Sony just reported that through the fourth quarter of 2008, their profits plummeted a staggering 95%, losing $1.67 billion. The reported down profits were taken from last year's Christmas season, usually the time of the year that all companies including Sony sell the most products. This is the first loss that Sony has reported since 1995 when they produced several box-office flops. In lieu of the situation, Sony is reportedly cutting 8,000 jobs and going to shut down five or six of the 57 worldwide factories. Will the headless chicken that is the economy ever recover?

Boys and girls, it's time to dust off your Pegasos II machine, or maybe to reduce the size of your MorphOS partition, because there's a new contender coming your way: ACube Systems Srl has announced the immediate availability of AmigaOS 4.1 for the Pegasos II. It's 01:40 here, so I can't check if the sky is falling, but I'm pretty sure it is.

From the announcement email: "On behalf of the NetBSD Release Engineering team, I am proud to announce that the first release candidate of NetBSD 5.0 is now available for download. Those of you who have been paying close attention will have noticed that RC1 was tagged on Sunday. A few hiccups delayed the availability of binaries, but they can now be downloaded from here."

Yesterday, we reported on the security flaw in Windows 7's UAC slider dialog, and today, Microsoft has given a response to the situation, but it doesn't seem like the company intends to fix it. "This is not a vulnerability. The intent of the default configuration of UAC is that users don't get prompted when making changes to Windows settings. This includes changing the UAC prompting level." I hope this reply came from a marketing drone, because if they intend on keeping this behaviour as-is in Windows 7 RTM, they're going to face a serious shitstorm - and rightfully so. Let's hope the Sinfoskies and Larson-Greens at Microsoft rectify this situation as soon as possible.

SkyOS has always been criticised for the fact that you have to pay for it in order to beta test it. I personally never saw a problem with this construction, especially since the price included a full copy of SkyOS 5 (they dropped the five) once it was completed. However, as of late, it has become increasingly clear that there may never be anything like a final version - or another test release for that matter. Update: In the comments, Robert Szeleney explained the current SkyOS situation in more detail. For future readers who find this article via a search engine, I've attached Robert's comment to the actual story for completeness' sake. The reply can also be found on the SkyOS website.

At OSNews, we usually do not report on individual security breaches, because there are websites specifically tailored to that sort of thing. Still, every now and then, an interesting security issue pops up that deserves some attention. How about this one: through a simple VBScript, you can completely disable UAC in Windows 7. The reason for this might surprise you. Update: Microsoft's response.

The usually reliable Wall Street Journal claims that Dell, the world's no. 2 computer maker, will enter the smartphone market in an effort to make up for the lost income due to the economic downturn. They say the Texas company is planning on releasing several models, pitching them against RIM's and Apple's phones.

Sure, you can buy a netbook and run Linux on it, but what if that's still too clunky and big for you? What if you want a mobile internet device, one that is open source, preferably? Even though the OpenPandora project appeared to be shrouded in a cloud of vapour, the product design team has now published a video of the open source MID in action.

"As someone who wants Microsoft to be cooler, I'm all for them making an aggressive pitch to consumers. I say make Windows 7 a simplified, colorful, fun experience for everyday users. Emphasize how it can store and share music and photos. Keep those potential Mac users from switching. Heck, open up retail stores while you're at it. But of course Microsoft has to walk the line here. By kowtowing to consumers, it runs the risk of neglecting its core customer, the business user. In a recent interview on CIO.com sister site Network World, Windows blogger and editor of Supersite for Windows Paul Thurrott contends that Microsoft is biting the hand that feeds it by leaning heavily on consumer features with Windows 7. Enterprise needs have been reduced to an afterthought, he says."

There has been a bit of a buzz lately surrounding some indeterminate patent threats going back and forth between Apple and Palm. Palm is about to launch the Pre, which supposedly could infringe on a number of iPhone patents. Both companies have stated that they will defend themselves against any possible patent infringements. Engadget enlisted the help of two patent attornies, and they took a good look at both sides and came up with some interesting results: while Palm could be infringing on Apple's patents, Apple sure as water is also infringing on a number of Palm patents. Still, that doesn't have to mean anything.