Microsoft has released the first public beta of Microsoft Windows HPC Server 2008, a server operating system for the high-performance computing market. The company has also announced the Parallel Computing Initiative, a programme aimed at creating a set of common development tools across multi-core desktops and clusters. The beta is available for download here and the final version is scheduled for launch in the second half of 2008.

"The Asus Eee PC challenges many conventional assumptions about mobile computing. The daring, diminutive device combines a svelte subnotebook form factor with a unique Linux software platform and a budget-friendly price - factors that could make this unprecedented product a mainstream marvel. Last week, my colleague Jon described the Eee PC as game-changing: a characterization that we will put to the test in this review."

The opensource Windows-compatible operating system ReactOS released a status update today. The highlights are the ability to run OpenOffice.org 2 applications (screenshots), kernel bugfixes, a restructured win32 subsystem, and plans about the next release (December 2007).

"This is the listing of the open bugs that are relatively new, around 2.6.22 and up. They are vaguely classified by specific area," Natalie Protasevich said, posting a current list of bugs each linking to an appropriate bugzilla.kernel.org entry. Andrew Morton reviewed the list, noting 'no response from developers' in response to many of the bugs. David Miller pointed out that in some cases this wasn't true, referring to 46 bug fixes queued in his networking tree and another 10 already pushed upstream, "when someone like me is bug fixing full time, I take massive offense to the impression you're trying to give especially when it's directed at the networking. So turn it down a notch Andrew." Andrew wasn't convinced, "first we need to work out whether we have a problem. If we do this, then we can then have a think about what to do about it. I tried to convince the 2006 KS attendees that we have a problem and I resoundingly failed. People seemed to think that we're doing OK."

Here's a tour of the pre-alpha demo release of GNOME Online Desktop included in Fedora 8. Learn more about what it does and how you can get involved in the project, writes Havoc Pennington.

Delve into some of the compiler options used to build Visual C++ projects and the UNIX and g++ equivalents, take a closer look at the g++ attribute mechanism as it relates to porting, and examines some common problems you might encounter while porting from a 32-bit Windows environment to a 64-bit UNIX environment.

"You can tell that the new PRS-505 is from Sony because 1) it's a gorgeous piece of kit in a tiny package, 2) it has a Memory Stick Pro Duo expansion slot, and 3) it uses proprietary DRM. But the last two points, so unfortunately characteristic of Sony in the last decade, suggest that the company is changing-slowly. Not only does the new Reader sport an SD card slot alongside the Pro Duo slot, but it plays AAC and MP3 files; ATRAC doesn't even make an appearance on the spec sheet. Oh, and did I mention that the Reader is Penguin-powered?"

"With the introduction of Windows Vista, Microsoft has added a new form of mandatory access control to the core operating system. Internally known as 'integrity levels', this new addition to the security manager allows security controls to be placed on a per-process basis. This is different from the traditional model of per-user security controls used in all prior versions of Windows NT. In this manner, integrity levels are essentially a bolt-on to the existing Windows NT security architecture. While the idea is theoretically sound, there does exist a great possibility for implementation errors with respect to how integrity levels work in practice. Integrity levels are the core of Internet Explorer Protected Mode, a new 'low-rights' mode where Internet Explorer runs without permission to modify most files or registry keys. This places both Internet Explorer and integrity levels as a whole at the forefront of the computer security battle with respect to Windows Vista."

The twice-yearly TOP500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers is expected to become an hot topic of discussion as the latest list shows five new entrants in the Top 10, which is a big turnover and shows how active the supercomputer market is. 71% Of the supercomputers now use Intel processors, a big grow from 58% 6 months ago. Linux monopolizes the OS area with 85% of the supercomputers (77% 6 months ago) using Linux-based operative systems.

The second issue of the Syllable Development Newsletter has been published. It contains thirteen pages of articles, interviews and the second instalment of Kristian's programming tutorial. The newsletter is accompanied again by a software pack, rounding up seven packages that were released since the first edition.

Ryan Leavengood reports on the Haiku website: "I know I have been very quiet for a while in regards to my Haiku WebKit port, but that is because I've been in a long session of coding. I am happy to report that this weekend I finally got WebCore compiling for Haiku. So what does this mean? Does it mean the port is now complete? Unfortunately, no it doesn't." Update: Haiku gets a featured speaker spot and a booth at ScaLE 6x Expo

DistroWatch has reviewed Fedora 8. They conclude: "Overall, I truly believe that Fedora 8 is by far the best Fedora release to date (and I've tried every one of them). From the look and feel of the system, to the out-of-the-box configuration during installation, I couldn't be happier with a cutting edge release. As I mentioned before, the biggest aspects of a successful distribution for me are suspend/hibernate, correct screen resolution and the the ability to change the screen resolution in a GUI if it didn't configure it correctly the first time, system stability, and overall look and feel of a distribution. For me, Fedora 8 has excelled in all categories when I evaluate and review a system and I hope that Fedora continues to release versions that are put together as good as Fedora 8 has been."

"This is extraordinary news for all nerds, computer scientists and the Open Source community: the source code of the MULTICS operating system (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service), the father of UNIX and all modern OSes, has finally been opened . Multics was an extremely influential early time-sharing operating system started in 1964 and introduced a large number of new concepts, including dynamic linking and a hierarchical file system. It was extremely powerful, and UNIX can in fact be considered to be a 'simplified' successor to MULTICS (the name 'Unix' is itself a hack on 'Multics'). The last running Multics installation was shut down on October 31, 2000."

Although its official release is not until Nov. 14, a free evaluation of 'Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2' is already available from Microsoft's download site. According to release notes available with the download, the update contains several substantial enhancements to Windows CE functionality, including video-over-IP and Web Services for Devices.