ITtoolbox reviews Windows Vista, and they conclude: "If you value innovation, new technology and you can afford it, Vista is a great buy and I seriously doubt you'd regret it. If you're a business user, the justification for the additional cost just isn't there quite yet (with a few exceptions). I was pleasantly surprised how nicely it has come together (at least at this point)." My take: Soon, I will write an article about how I feel about Vista after having used it for a much longer time than was the case in my previous review. I will also have something to say on using Vista on some lower-end hardware (it ain't pretty).

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."

Cairo v1.4.6 is released and it's got a "particularly juicy performance fix, (working around an X server performance bug), as well as native PDF gradients with alpha". In other interesting open source releases, the powerful audio application Ardour v2.0 was released (with Mac OS X support).

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."

Distrowatch has reviewed Mandriva Spring, and concludes: "All in all I'd say it's a fairly typical Mandriva release. It features improved looks and added features, but it is released with a few issues. I don't think many of the problems are of major importance for the average user, but for myself, I won't be using Mandriva without wireless support."

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."

"There are many factors which affect Website availability and performance from end user perspective, namely ISP Internet connection, server location, server parameters, programming language, application architecture and implementation. One of the critical parameters is a selected Operational System (OS). Most users often need to select between Linux and Windows, two popular choices for web servers. By providing free monitoring service, we at mon.itor.us collected large amount of data to perform a unique analytical research examining OS correlation with uptime and performance."

"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?"

After yesterday's unconfirmed rumour about Ubuntu being pre-installed on Dell machines, it has now become official. In a joint statement released today, Dell and Canonical announced that Dell will now offer laptops and desktop computers pre-installed with Ubuntu Linux 7.04. The computers will be sold via Dell's web site, said Canonical's director of operations Jane Silber. "We have worked with Dell to get Ubuntu fully supported and fully certified on Dell hardware," she said. "Ubuntu has the full endorsement of Dell." Update: Ubuntu Linux 7.04 Feisty Fawn review by Extremetech.

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.

"Amid falling sales of its bread-and-butter servers and mounting pressure on Schwartz to cut more jobs and boost a stock price that's dropped more than 22%, to USD 5.26, since early February, Sun is considering its most radical open-source move yet: releasing Solaris under the love-it-or-hate-it GPL. The move could reinvigorate Sun by putting one of its crown jewels into the thick of the open-source movement - or it could diminish the worth of one of Sun's most valuable pieces of intellectual property."

"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."

As promised, Amiga Inc. has released the specifications of the low end Amiga machine which will be available this summer. It will have the Flex-ATX form factor, with a Freescale PC8349E SoC (400MHz to 667MHz depending on requirements and price target), one DDR2 DIMM slot for a maximum of 1GB of memory, and more. It will cost USD 489. Manufacturing partner and final ship schedule will be following soon. The device is supposed to run AmigaOS 4, but the recent developments may interfere with that.

"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."