A group of state attorneys general urged a federal judge on Tuesday to hold Microsoft to a 2002 antitrust settlement another five years so that the company can't stymie embryonic Web 2.0 rivals of its Windows operating system. According to six states - California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Massachusetts - and the District of Columbia, Microsoft could use its Internet Explorer browser as a 'chokepoint' to block moves that might unseat Windows dominant position on the desktop.

"10 Years ago - on October 3rd 1997 - the pkgsrc software management system was created by Alistair Crooks and Hubert Feyrer. pkgsrc, the NetBSD Packages Collection, was intended primarily as a packaging system for NetBSD. Derived from the FreeBSD Ports system, pkgsrc became a success story. Today, pkgsrc is a cross-platform framework, running on the BSDs, Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, many Unix derivatives, and even on QNX and Windows. Ports- and pkgsrc-like software build frameworks are today standard on the BSDs and quite popular on some newer Linux distributions. In 2005 pkgsrc was adopted as the package management system for DragonFly BSD. Presently, pkgsrc provides more than 7300 stable packages. We continue the anniversary celebrations with a series of interviews: developers and users of pkgsrc and of related systems give insights into the history, the concepts, the problems and the future directions of packaging systems."

GNOME 2.20.1 has been released. "This is the first update to GNOME 2.20.0. The update fixes all known and unknown crashers, even for those modules which haven't released a new version (gnome-terminal)."

Ars reviews a Dell Ubuntu laptop, and concludes: "The Dell Inspiron Notebook 1420n with Ubuntu preinstalled delivers software freedom and solid value. For serious Linux enthusiasts who are already comfortable handling the various idiosyncrasies of the platform, Dell's preloaded Ubuntu laptop is a practical and cost-effective choice that eliminates the need to perform a manual installation and provides Linux users with a means of dodging the odious Windows tax. Although I consider this product a strong buy for experienced Linux users, I don't recommend it (yet) for users who aren't already familiar with the operating system. Ubuntu's prodigious ease of use is diminished by a litany of frustrating minor hardware support problems that many average computer users will not be inclined to resolve."

PCMag takes a look at the Windows XP SP3 beta. "There's very little new here, but SP3 increases security and collects all those hundreds of hotfixes you might have been too busy (or cautious) to keep downloading. But make sure you understand the compatibility issues before applying SP3."

Remember those great "home of the future" demonstrations from days past? If you're not old enough to remember them from world fairs, Disneyland, or movie newsreels, you've probably seen the cartoons parodying them: Robotic maids, self-cleaning kitchens, futuristic-looking plastic furniture, dehydrated food; everything white, round, and sparkling. Well, it's the future now, and it didn't exactly turn out the way they thought it would, but thanks to ubiquitous computer technology, today's home can have capabilities that futurists 50 years ago would never have imagined.

The KDE Projects is announcing the third beta of its future KDE 4.0 platform. "This Beta has mostly been focussing on finalizing the design of the libraries in preparation for the release of the KDE Development Platform. Yet, many user-visible changes have gotten in as well. While new features and usability improvements were added, bugs were found and fixed in KDE and the stability of Beta 3 has improved much compared to the previous Betas. With the third Beta, the KDE project has begun to finalize KDE 4.0."

"Former Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony was pretty gung-ho about the company's upcoming release back in June. He said it would 'fill some key holes in our current offering'. Unfortunately Linspire 6, released last week, lacks the refinements you'd expect in a distro you pay USD 50 to download. It drops some key distinguishing features, and in return gains only some Microsoft technology as spelled out in the Microsoft patent covenants Linspire agreed to. This release seems to be about deferring to Microsoft."

Nokia today introduced the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, signifying a new phase in portable internet communication. Sporting Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g connectivity, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a full-fledged web browser, there's only one thing missing: WiMAX. However, a WiMAX version of the N810 will be coming next year. In the meantime, the N810's Wi-Fi connectivity will provide Internet access through hotspots as well as home and office networks, including via Boingo Mobile. Applications compiled for the previous two Internet Tablet models will not be compatible with this one. This hurt the N800 a lot too, because most developers didn't care to re-compile their apps as they kept their N770. Hopefully this is the last time Nokia breaks compatibility.

The KDE team has released KDE 3.5.8, a maintenance release. New stuff: "Improvements in Konqueror and its web browsing component KHTML. Bugs in handling HTTP connections have been fixed, KHTML has improved support of some CSS features for more standards compliance. In the kdegraphics package, lots of fixes in KDE's PDF viewer and Kolourpaint, a painting application, went into this release. The KDE PIM suite has, as usual, seen numerous stability fixes, covering KDE's email client KMail, the organizer application KOrganizer and various other bits and pieces."

"Acting on the advice of the License Approval Chair, the OSI Board today approved the Microsoft Public License and the Microsoft Reciprocal License. The decision to approve was informed by the overwhelming (though not unanimous) consensus from the open source community that these licenses satisfied the 10 criteria of the Open Source definition, and should therefore be approved."

Project Indiana, Sun Microsystems' Linux-like OpenSolaris effort, will begin shipping to developers before the end of October, the company announced Oct. 15 at its open-source summit press event here. The developer release will include Image Packaging System, a new package manager slated for inclusion in the next version of Solaris, but won't be back-ported to Solaris 10, the most recent version to ship, said Ian Murdock, Sun's chief operating systems platform strategist, in an address to the media. All of the technology developed under Project Indiana will be delivered through OpenSolaris going forward, he said. The full release is expected in March. More here.

Asus has formally rolled out its Eee PC line of sub-notebook computers, a week after UK supplier RM - formerly Research Machines - spilled the beans on two of the models. The complete line-up comprises four computers. All four models are based around the same 7in display; 900MHz Intel Celeron processor and chipset; 10/100Mbps Ethernet port and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi for internet access; HD audio; three USB ports; SD card slot; stereo speakers and microphone input; and a version of the Linux open source operating system, Xandros. My take: I want one. It has everything I need: small size, Linux, wireless, and email client/browser/IM. I don't need more from a laptop.

Apple has revealed Leopard's releast date to be 26th October, confirming earlier rumours. "Packed with more than 300 new features, Mac OS X Leopard goes on sale Friday, October 26, at 6:00 p.m. at Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, Apple announced today. And, beginning today, customers can place pre-orders on Apple's online store."