"In this article, I'll compare Ubuntu 7.04 with the upcoming release of PC-BSD 1.4. Having used both operating systems extensively, PC-BSD is the one I recommend and the one I install in desktop environments. If you've used Ubuntu before, but haven't tried PC-BSD, give it a try. The increase in responsiveness (i.e., everything seems to just run faster) and ease-of-use will surprise you."

OpenSUSE 10.3 beta 2 has been released. "The openSUSE Team is proud to announce the release of openSUSE 10.3 Beta 2. Though this release should not be used on any production machines, everyone can help shape this release by testing out installations and much more. For more information on the release schedule, take a look at the Roadmap."

DragonflyBSD 1.10.1 has been released. It includes several bugfixes. "DragonFly is an operating system and environment originally based on FreeBSD. DragonFly branched from FreeBSD in 2003 in order to develop a radically different approach to concurrency, SMP, and most other kernel subsystems."

It is not too surprising that Ubuntu came in first in DesktopLinux.com's 2007 Desktop Linux Market Survey, or that Firefox was the topmost browser by far. More interesting is that for the first time ever in the site's annual surveys, GNOME surpassed KDE among desktop environments (45% over 35%), with Xfce a solid third (8%).

The third installment of Ars' series on the history of the Amiga begins with the third prototype and covers the rest of Amiga's history as an independent company. "Modern chips are designed using high-powered workstations that run very expensive chip simulation software. However, the fledgling Amiga company could not afford such luxuries. It would instead build, by hand, giant replicas of the silicon circuitry on honeycomb-like plastic sheets known as breadboards."

"The development of the kernel has changed, and Linux is just getting better and better. However, with a community as large and fractured as the Linux community, it can sometimes be hard to get a big picture overview of where Linux is going: what's happening with kernel version 2.6? Will there be a version 3.0? What has Linus been up to lately? What does he get up to in his spare time? I had the opportunity to chat with the original creator of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds, in a number of email exchanges."

"Zonbu is a very simple system. It is geared for users who may not necessarily care what operating system they are using, but someone who just wants a functional system. Zonbu does exactly that. The software is very straightforward to use. Zonbu is very environmentally friendly. Not only does it not require a lot of power to run, it also does not contribute to noise pollution."

Phil Hester, AMD's chief technology officer, stopped by the Hot Chips conference here at Stanford University on Tuesday to talk a little more about Fusion, AMD's plan to integrate a graphics processor and PC processor onto the same chip. By the time the chip is ready around 2009, Hester thinks the growing explosion of video and 3D graphics on PCs these days will require an affordable chip that still delivers great graphics performance.

"Who's afraid of SELinux? Well, if you are, you shouldn't be! Thanks to the introduction of new GUI tools, customizing your system's protection by creating new policy modules is easier than ever. In this article, Dan Walsh gently walks you through the policy module creation process."

Apple, which last week asked that developers provide feedback on their experiences using pre-released builds of Mac OS Leopard, has followed up by seeding a significant stability update to the next-generation system software. The latest seed, labeled Mac OS X Leopard 9A500n, arrived via Leopard's Software Update mechanism as a 'recommended' update for all developers running Mac OS X Leopard build 9A499.

Kelly Wilson ported the Gnash Flash player clone to Syllable , enabling the playing of Adobe Flash content. It uses the Boost C++ libraries, the SDL and Anti-Grain Geometry libraries for graphics rendering and FFMPEG for multimedia decoding. Work on the player is continuing to add the FreeType library and make the player native to Syllable, so it can be integrated in the web browser. Also, on some Adobe Flash news, an upcoming update will be supporting native h.264 videos, HE-AAC audio support, as well as hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced full screen video playback.

"With Bill Gates' announcement earlier this year that Windows Home Server would be available as a 'system builder' product (that means 'OEM' to most hardware geeks), enthusiasts and system builders alike have been looking forward to its release. With several different rumors being floated last week regarding when Windows Home Server would hit store shelves, we checked in with Microsoft to get the full and somewhat-confusing story. The short version is: it's already out in the wild, but catching a copy from your favorite reseller may prove tricky for at least two more weeks."

Bruno Souza, the NetBeans Community Manager for Sun, wrote: "As you all know, we are working hard for the release of NetBeans 6.0. The new release will bring exciting technical features and this is a great time to consider what else can we do to empower the NetBeans Community. As a result of requests from the comunity, we are considering the potential adoption of a new license model. We are considering releasing a future early access version of NetBeans 6.0 under a dual licensing scheme of CDDL and GPL v2 with Classpath exception. A move like this would be well received by many of the NetBeans contributors, and will benefit the community at large."

"A new startup out of MIT emerged from stealth mode today to announce that they're shipping a 64-core processor for the embedded market. The company, called Tilera, was founded by Dr. Anat Agarwal, the MIT professor behind the famous and venerable Raw project on which Tilera's first product, the TILE64 processor, is based. Tilera's director of marketing, Bob Dowd, told Ars that TILE64 represents a "sea change in the computing industry", and the company's CEO isn't shy about pitching the chip as the "first significant new chip architectural development in a decade". So let's take an initial look at what was announced about TILE64 today, with further information to follow as it becomes available."