The AROS Show has interviewed Nick 'Kalamatee' Andrews. Nick discusses a variety projects he has worked on for AROS during his 10 years with the project and various other topics. "There's a few things I personally could use that I feel would greatly improve the AROS user experience - a decent standards compliant web browser, reworking the existing data types to support streamed data, a decent media player, productivity tools (word processing packages and so on) - let's face it, there's tons of apps we could really benefit from."

"The recently released 1.0.106 version of Libferris includes initial support for mounting Web photo services as a filesystem. This means that sites such as 23hq.com and flickr.com can be seen as filesystems, which allows users to upload digital pictures easily by using the cp(1) or ferriscp(1) tool with a destination of 23hq://username/upload."

Hyperion has replied to the litigation started by Amiga Inc. "Whilst it is not Hyperion Entertainment’s policy to comment on ongoing litigation, we would like to reassure our customers that development of AmigaOS 4.0 related components is still ongoing and will continue apace during the duration of the litigation with Amiga Inc. We welcome the opportunity to finally present our case in a court of law which was regrettably the only remaining avenue after Amiga Inc. repeatedly and consistently stonewalled any attempt to resolve the outstanding issues. In closing, we would like to remind dealers and other third parties that distribution of Amiga OS 4.0 without the prior permission of Hyperion VOF and certain third party developers is illegal under EU, US and international copyright legislation and therefore entirely at their own risk."

Apple on Tuesday released a QuickTime update to fix a security flaw that was used to breach a MacBook Pro at a recent security conference. The media player vulnerability lies in QuickTime for Java, Apple said in a security alert. The hole could be exploited through a rigged Web site and let an attacker commandeer computers running both Mac OS X and Windows, the Mac maker said.

Progeny Linux has shut down. The notice on the webpage reads: "We are sorry to inform you that Progeny Linux Systems, Inc. ceased operations April 30, 2007." OSNews reader m_yates informed us that the following email was sent to the Progeny mailing list: "We are sad to inform you that Progeny Linux Systems is ceasing operations. This mailing list that we are hosting will be closed and decommissioned later tonight, Eastern Daylight Time. If you want the list archives, please download them now. Thank you."

OpenBSD 4.1 has been released. "We are pleased to announce the official release of OpenBSD 4.1. This is our 21st release on CD-ROM (and 22nd via FTP). We remain proud of OpenBSD's record of ten years with only two remote holes in the default install. As in our previous releases, 4.1 provides significant improvements, including new features, in nearly all areas of the system."

"There is a lot of variety in the hardware market: hundreds of types of processors, motherboards, hard drives, graphics cards and other components to choose from. And although consolidation has been going on for several years, leaving only AMD/ATI, Intel and Nvidia as the main players, along with a few motherboard makers and storage giants, finding the right products still can be an exhausting task. This is where benchmarking comes into play, because it helps to measure qualities and characteristics by applying a certain metric. Windows Vista now provides a built-in benchmarking solution to assess component and system performance, but does the so-called Experience Index correspond to what Tom's Hardware and other tech publications find on the test bench?"

Microsoft plans to extend its mainstream development tooling to Silverlight, its Flash challenger, and add support for dynamic languages. At the Mix '07 Web developer and designer conference, Microsoft executives said the company will allow .Net developers to create applications for Silverlight, its alternative to Adobe Systems' Flash format. Microsoft on Monday released an alpha version of Silverlight 1.1 that will allow people to write applications using .Net applications such as C#. Version 1.0 of Silverlight will be available this summer.

Dino Dai Zovi, the New York-based security researcher who took home USD b10000 in a highly-publicized MacBook Pro hijack on April 20, has been at the center of a week's worth of controversy about the security of Apple's operating system. In an e-mail interview with Computerworld, Dai Zovi talked about how finding vulnerabilities is like fishing, the chances that someone else will stumble on the still-unpatched bug, and what operating system - Windows Vista or Mac OS X - is the sturdiest when it comes to security.

This article examines aspects of threading and synchronization that an implementation of the Real-time Specification for Java (RTSJ) must support.

"Officially, Dell hasn't said a word yet about which Linux it will be preloading on its desktops and laptops. Several sources within Dell, however, have told DesktopLinux.com that Dell's desktop Linux pick is going to be Ubuntu. While unable to confirm this through official Dell channels, we have heard the same story now from several internal Dell sources. They tell us that the computer giant will be preinstalling the newly released Ubuntu 7.04. These systems will be released in late May 2007."

The developers behind Etoile have discussed their future plans for the project recently, and have provided a summary of the discussion on the mailing list. The Etoile live CD project will be transferred from Nicolas (due to a lack of time) to Quentin; he says: "I will recreate an environment for building the LiveCD from scratch (will now be built on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn LiveCD). To help in this process, Nicolas sent me the current LiveCD scripts. I hope to succeed in two or three weeks." On Etoile itself: "Focus will be put on core elements like System, MenuServer, Azalea, AZDock etc. rather than polished applications for this release. We don't have enough manpower for now and it's better to have a stable foundation to begin with." The next release is now planned for the coming three weeks.

"We'll walk you through Vista's many neat features and more than 50 tips on installing Vista optimally, configuring it for you and your family, improving system speed, and turning up its coolness. When we're through, you'll have made the new OS uniquely yours."

"LinuxDevices.com's survey results consistently show Debian to be the most popular distribution among device developers. For example, our 2007 survey indicated that Debian was used in device-related projects by 13 percent of the survey's 932 participants, roughly double the score of MontaVista, the most popular strictly-embedded distribution. In addition to Debian's 13 percent score, Ubuntu, which is based on Debian packages, jumped to 6 percent this year, its first year in our survey. In contrast, Red Hat, achieved a 5 percent score and Fedora came in at 6 percent, while SUSE scored just 2 percent. The complete results and analysis are here. Why do device developers prefer Debian?"