Jambi ships as a single Java library, or JAR (Java Archive) file, plus a handful of tools, including an interface layout and design tool, and an Eclipse plug-in. Trolltech uses its vaunted Qt C++ library as the GUI engine and puts Java wrappers around it. This approach uses the JNI (Java Native Interface) to call the necessary functions from Java. More here.

Stephan Kulow has announced the availability of the first development release of openSUSE 11.0: "We'd like to kick start the development of openSUSE 11.0 with releasing the current state of Factory as Alpha0 release. Since the release of 10.3, we checked in 2,187 packages including such fundamental package updates as GCC 4.3.0, Linux kernel 2.6.24-rc4, X.Org 7.3, KDE 3.5.8 and 4.0 RC1, CUPS 1.3.4, ALSA 1.0.15, GIMP 2.4 and YaST 2.16. The change between 10.3 and Alpha0 is big, but it still works pretty nicely." More here.

Microsoft is serious about getting Windows XP to work on OLPC's low-cost laptop, but the company still isn't sure it will be able to make a go of it. In an interview, James Utzschneider, the general manager of Microsoft's emerging market unit, says Microsoft has devoted about 40 employees and contractors to work on its effort. However, there are plenty of technical hurdles, he said. One of the biggest is the fact that the XO has no hard drive and only 1GB of built-in memory. The company concluded it needed at least 2GB of memory just for Windows and Office, so it convinced the OLPC folks to include an SD slot on the laptop's motherboard.

"Microsoft has started printing up the invites for the launch of Windows Server 2008 as it finally sets loose release candidate 1 of the long-awaited server operating system. Microsoft's decision to put a red ring around 27 February came as it released another test version of Vista Service Pack 1, the update it is banking on to breathe some life into the so-far zombified desktop operating system."

Ars has reviewed the new Santa Rosa-based MacBook, and concludes: "All in all, the new MacBook is shaping up to be a worthy replacement to my old PowerBook. In combination with Mac OS X 10.5, the most polished iteration of Apple's operating system, the MacBook is a joy to use. Even Omniweb, my favorite but much-maligned web browser, is snappy, and the Core 2 Duo processor appears capable of handling anything I throw at it. Certainly for someone with my fairly modest computing needs (word processing, web browsing, data manipulation, light graphics work, and media playback) the consumer line does what I want and does it well."

"The Christmas 2007 show, a relatively quiet affair held earlier this weekend in leafy Warwickshire, has been and gone. The main highlight was the appearance of Paul Stewart's home made portable RISC OS machine. Paul has managed to pack an A9home, laptop keyboard, touch pad, flatscreen monitor, a couple of speakers and other bits and pieces into what appears to be a slim flight case. Although he is remaining tight lipped about the project, Paul is set to reveal more details in the new year. It's understood the case has sockets for USB, video-out and ethernet, includes electronics to take power from a battery, and video is supplied to the flatscreen via analogue VGA."

A review of the Asus EeePC. It concludes: "The Eee PC may be targeted at children and students, but it should also entice anyone needing a compact, low cost, yet fully functional PC. It is featherweight, far easier to use than a Windows machine, starts up three times faster, and costs about a quarter of anything in its weight class."

"Sun Microsystems today announced a multi-year program called the Open Source Community Innovation Awards Program, which will foster innovation and recognize some of the most interesting initiatives within Sun-sponsored open source communities worldwide. To participate in the program's first year, Sun has selected six communities: GlassFish, NetBeans, OpenJDK, OpenOffice.org, OpenSolaris and OpenSPARC. Prizes are expected to total at least $1 million (USD) a year."

An enterprise Linux "expert" answers the question: "How can an open source software company like Red Hat stay in business if CentOS - and Red Hat itself - give their code away for free?"

The Contiki team has just released version 2.1 of the open source Contiki operating system for low-power, wireless, memory-constrained networked embedded devices that typically have as little a few kilobytes of RAM. The major highlight of this release is a unique energy profiling mechanism that measures where energy is spent, and how much energy that is consumed. This is extremely important when optimizing for low-power operation: to know where to optimize, one must first know where energy is spent. Other additions to the 2.1 release are low-power radio protocols that increase system lifetime from days to years, and improved data collection routing protocols.

Microsoft is doing away with “reduced functionality mode” for individuals that its WGA activation and validation scheme deems to be running “non-genuine” software. The company also is plugging two WGA loopholes that pirates have been exploiting successfully.Microsoft is attributing the changes it is making to “feedback from customers and partners.”

For the last several years, Red Hat has been pushing forward the development of real-time enhancements for Linux. Yet the company has made no formal product announcement of how it would attempt to productize its real-time Linux innovations. That changed today, with the announcement of the Red Hat MRG (Messaging, Real Time and Grid) platform. The product is expected to be available as a public beta this month, with a generally available release set for early 2008.

From the WSJ: "The dream of cheap computers in the hands of millions of poor children is becoming a reality, though not exactly as its proponents imagined. For-profit competitors snatched the idea and have run with it."

"No one is unhappy with Mac OS X Version 10.4, known as Tiger. OS X is not an application platform that needed repair, speeding up, or exterior renovation. Motivations for major upgrades of competing system software - roll-ups of an unmanageable number of fixes, because the calendar says it's time, or because users are perceived to have version fatigue - don't apply to OS X. People buy Macs because the platform as a whole is perfect, full stop. Leopard is a rung above perfection. It's taken as rote that the Mac blows away PC users' expectations. Leopard blows away Mac users' expectations, and that's saying a great deal."