FreeSoftwareMagazine has an article about burning software available for Gnome. Two more interesting choices are the GTK-based Graveman! and Nero which released NeroLinux 3.0 beta very recently.

Macaulay, a software engineer, was able to hack into a MacBook through a zero-day security hole in Apple's Safari browser. The computer was one of two offered as a prize in the 'PWN to Own' hack-a-Mac contest at the CanSecWest conference. The successful attack on the second and final day of the contest required a conference organizer to surf to a malicious Web site using Safari on the MacBook - a type of attack familiar to Windows users.

A recent discussion on the lkml examined the possibility of a Linux implementation of Sun's ZFS. It was pointed out that the file system is released under the GPL-incompatible CDDL, and that Sun has filed numerous patents to prevent ZFS from being reverse engineered. Max Yudin pointed out, "according to Jeff Bonwick's blog Sun issued 56 patents on ZFS, but I have no idea what they patented. Sorry, binary compatible ZFS reimplementation with GPL license might not be legal."

Apple on Thursday plugged over two dozen security exploits within the client and server versions of its Mac OS X 10.3 'Panther' and Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' operating systems that could potentially expose Mac users to a variety of malicious attacks.

The pkgsrc developers are very proud to announce the new pkgsrc-2007Q1 release. Pkgsrc is the primary package management system for NetBSD and DragonFlyBSD, but also supports AIX, BSD/OS, Darwin, FreeBSD, IRIX, Interix, Linux, OSF1, OpenBSD, and SunOS. Apart from a lot of new and updated packages, the infrastructure of pkgsrc itself has been improved for better platform and compiler support, and also for enhanced security.

The GNOME Foundation announced today the GNOME Mobile and Embedded Initiative (GMAE) today at the Embedded Linux Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. The initiative is aimed at bolstering GNOME usage as an embedded and mobile development platform. The initiative has been in development since last year, says GNOME Foundation board member Jeff Waugh. The platform will be distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). In the next 12 months the group plans to add a mobile email framework called Tinymail, the GeoClue geolocation service, Java Mobile & Embedded (Java ME), PulseAudio audio management, and the HAL hardware information system.

An enhancement to the Mac OS X operating system under development by Apple looks to pave the way for active desktop pictures, or desktop backgrounds that can include motion graphics and alter themselves based on user actions or the time of the day.

Thunderbird 2 is now available for download on Windows, Mac and Linux in over 35 languages. It offers easy ways to manage and organize your email with message tags, advanced folder views, message history navigation, find as you type, and improved new mail alert notifications. Thunderbird 2 also includes a refreshed user interface and support for Microsoft Vista.

"An early preview of the next version has been released under version number 3.1.3, an interim release intended for developers who want to see the bleeding edge of MINIX and perhaps then track the current source. For more information, see the 3.1.3 release notes and the download page." MINIX3 will now also release weekly snapshots.

"iXsystems announced an agreement with Adobe Systems that will allow the next version of PC-BSD to have a Flash-enabled browser available on a default installation. The Linux version of Adobe's popular Flash player will run on PC-BSD using FreeBSD's Linux compatibility layer." In other news, snapshots of the development branch of PC-BSD are now available and built three times a week.

In this article, I'm going to explore the idea that the 8 bit home computer not only had a great deal to offer the prehistoric early-humans of 1985 but that it may also have a place in the modern world; perhaps, there is something that we can learn from it. Having identified the laudable, worthwhile elements of this class of machine, I'm going to make some suggestions towards a scheme that would embody these characteristics in the form of a machine that would have a place within the modern world.

Apple's new 'Stuffed' commercial pokes fun at preinstalled applications - better known as craplets - loaded up on new Windows PCs. Apple isn't alone in the craplet disdain. Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg wrote columns on April 5 and April 12 about the craplet dilemma. Mossberg identified two problems: "One is the plethora of teaser software and advertisements for products that must be cleared and uninstalled to make way for your own stuff. The second is the confusing welter of security programs you have to master and update, even on a virgin machine."

Mandriva announced the release of Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring. Download the hybrid live/install CD One or the purely free/open source Free. Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring includes the latest software (KDE 3.5.6, GNOME 2.18, Firefox and Thunderbird 2.0) and several new features: Metisse; WengoPhone; Google desktop applications like Picasa and Earth; updates and improvements to many of the Mandriva configuration tools and the brand new drakvirt for configuring virtualization; and a brand new desktop theme. For more information see the Spring product page and the Wiki page, where you can find download and installation instructions, the Release Tour, the Release Notes and the Errata.

GNUstep Base 1.14.0 has been released: "This release continues the process of cleanup and restructuring to further improve MacOS-X compatibility, fix bugs, optimise performance, and improve portability between different hardware/operating system platforms." GNUstep Make 2.0.0 has also been released: "Version 2.0.0 is a new major release of gnustep-make which includes a number of major changes compared to previous 1.x releases."