El Reg has a write-up on the amazingly beautiful and hopelessly impractical Honeywell Kitchen Computer. We've covered this bizarre piece of computing history before on OSNews, in my list of the ten most beautiful computers. For those that have no idea what I'm talking about, read on for more details. Trust me, you want to know.

Even though FreeBSD 7.x is already out and updated, the FreeBSD team keeps working on the FreeBSD 6.x branch, now designated the legacy branch. They released FreeBSD 6.4 today, with lots of new features, fixes, and updates. They are expecting FreeBSD 6.4 to be the last release in the 6.x branch.

While most people detest Flash for its rather resource intensive operation, and its role in creating really annoying websites where the back and forward buttons don't work, the tool does have an important place on the web. Most internet video players, such as Youtube's, run using Flash, and as such, it's kind of important to be able to run it. eComStation has just taken the first few steps to being able to run the official Flash player - Mensys has received permission from Adobe to distribute the Windows version with eCS, which with a bit of work will work on eCS using ODIN. "This is a first step but the legal block is gone now," Mensys' Roderick Klein writes, "The writing of the code to run the Flash DLL is the next big step!"

"Before 2007, using the internet on your phone would make you want to kill yourself, if you were dumb enough to believe the crap splattered across that tiny screen even was the "internet." But the combination of increased bandwidth and better mobile software means that more phones really are promising to deliver the real internet, in living color. We tested eight different browsers, and while some put smiles on our faces, others proved that rendering HTML correctly is a far cry from actually giving you an awesome web experience. And what about 3G vs. Wi-Fi? Everything the carriers have told you is a lie. This is the true state of mobile web."

Linux distributions come and go by the dozens almost every day, and most of them live and die an unknown, irrelevant life, mostly because no, changing three icons and adding the suffix '-nix' to any random word doesn't make it different from Ubuntu. Anyway, sometimes, a new distribution is started that brings something new to the table. One such "distribution" is Glendix, which aims to combine the Linux kernel with the userpsace tools from Plan 9. Distribution is probably not the right term for this project.

openSUSE is adopting a new license which is based on the the license used by Fedora. The new license will be used for the release of openSUSE 11.1 . "Users no longer need to agree to the license. This is not an EULA, it's a license notice," says Joe Brockmeier, openSUSE Community Manager. This is an effort make openSUSE easy to re-distribute and make modifications. To learn more about what is new in openSUSE 11.1 check out this review of the 11.1 beta4 release.

It's a sad day for all those countless admirers (seriously now, apart from myself...?) of Sun's Ultra 20 and Ultra 40 workstations. The Ultra 20 M2 and Ultra 40 M4 workstations have quietly reached their end-of-life, meaning the company currently has no more AMD-based workstations on offer. The magnificent case design of these machines, which made its debut in the form of the Sun Ultra 20, appears to be slowely but surely on its way out, since the UltraSPARC-based Ultra 25/45 have also been retired. This leaves the Ultra 24 (x64 Core 2 Duo/Quad) as the sole bearer of this case design. I would be very sad to see the angular and clean design go, seeing I placed it at number 7 on my list of most beautiful computers.

Apple isn't exactly known for catering to the lower end of the market, but so far, it doesn't really seem to have slowed them down much. They are selling more Macs than ever, and especially in the ever-growing notebook market, Apple is very successful. However, with people all worried about possible economic downturn, and with the success of cheap, small laptops (netbooks), people are starting to speculate if Apple will enter the netbook market.

Although GNU/Linux has the reputation of being a more secure operating system than Microsoft Windows, you still need to secure the Linux desktop. This tutorial takes you through the steps of installing and configuring antivirus software, creating a backup-restore plan, and making practical use of a firewall. When you finish, you'll have the tools you need to harden your Linux desktop against most attacks and prevent illegal access to your computer.

Fedora 10 is now available, sporting a new graphical boot-up sequence, OpenOffice.org 3, many improvements to sound support via PulseAudio, and other updates. See the release notes here, and Linux Format has a detailed look at F10's features and changes.

"Federal district judge Dale A. Kimball has handed down the final judgment in the SCO case. The decision dismisses SCO's latest claims, grants declaratory relief to Novell, and sustains the court's previous judgment that SCO owes Novell over $2.54 million (plus interest) for unjust enrichment."

"The Ubuntu developers have announced the availability of Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 1, the first prerelease for this version. Ubuntu 9.04 is codenamed Jaunty Jackalope and is scheduled for official release in April. The initial plans for Jaunty were published in September, prior to the release of Ubuntu 8.10. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth aims to boost the software experience and make the popular Linux distribution more competitive with Windows and Mac OS X on the desktop. Canonical intends to push the platform into the mainstream by putting its resources into upstream usability improvements. In addition to the ongoing long-term usability enhancement efforts, Canonical and the Ubuntu development community are focusing on several specific technical goals for 9.04, including improving performance and boot time and integrating web services more tightly with the desktop."

I am personally a big proponent behind the idea of the Creative Commons movement, which tries to create a free-er multimedia society where listeners, users and remixers build upon original works and freely exchange that information. The Creative Commons culture features the biggest amount of free music (22,000+ high quality albums), it's easy to find, and they usually have the right license for the job (ported to the legal systems of most countries). In other words, it's your best bet to find a music piece that will fit your video without potential legal consequences.

When you're diving into the history of computing and its concepts, you rarely have to look much further back in time than the Second World War. It happens sometimes, but not that often. However, there are exceptions - and this is one that really boggles the mind: the pixel? One of those little dots on your screen? It's well over 400 years old.