Debian Etch moves ever closer, and Ian Murdock - the project's founder - has been interviewed about Debian's politics, its lack of strong leadership, and Ubuntu's ever-growing fame. He feels that Debian is too enveloped in process and politics, making it impossible for anybody to make big decisions, thereby hindering the pace of development. In addition, on his weblog Murdock has announced he is joining Sun.

"In response to Jeff Jones' Monthly Security Scorecard I did some research on Secunia and made some statistics to answer his. Jeff's Scorecard is quite minimal in my opinion and as pointed out by some of the comments, is missing some interesting facts. These facts include the outstanding advisories, for example, and of course the amont of software installed. Since Linux installs a lot more software the numbers are a bit skewed; however, even if I only take the numbers from Secunia with regard to advisories, vulnerabilites fixed, etc., things still look quite different then on Jeff's charts."

"Earlier this month I covered Ubuntu's Migration Assistant, which is one of the features that will be found in Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn. The migration-assistant is designed to make it very easy for Microsoft Windows converts to jump into the Ubuntu world by automatically transferring files and settings. However, when I originally tried out Ubuntu migration-assistant I had run into a few bugs that ultimately rendered the assistant useless. However, in that post Evan had commented that the two major bugs being recently corrected, so this morning I gave this installation assistant another shot."

It's Sunday afternoon here, there is no better time to spend by having some fun with some of the abilities of operating systems. There is definitely quite some rocky road still for speech recognition and in extend natural language & artificial intelligence. Hopefully we will still be alive when that happens.

Python is becoming popular, and using Python within a distribution in every aspects has just become real. Pardus is extensively built on Python, starting from init subsytem through installation, hardware configuration and system management. Read on to see how Pardus developers started with Python and built a mature system using Python APIs.

Thanks to improvements in PThreads support in the new version 0.6.3 of the Syllable desktop operating system, the Transmission BitTorrent client could be ported. Currently only the CLI version works. The project is looking for a volunteer to put a GUI on it, possibly by porting the BeOS GUI. Transmission is included in a new version of the Network Necessities package collection. Furthermore, there are new versions of the Developer's Delight and PERL Pit collections, with many updated packages. Most notably, GCC is now the new version 4.1.2. Also, a new version was released of the sIDE native integrated development environment. Lastly, there is now a driver for the popular SysKonnect/Marvell Yukon1 gigabit ethernet chips.

During my 8 years of Linux on and off usage I have tried more distros than I have chocolate bars. Each one of my previous encounters meant that I had to spend at least 2 days configuring before I have a desktop that I was somewhat comfortable with. With Ubuntu Feisty Fawn's latest test beta --for the first time ever-- this was not the case. I was up and running with all the niceties I wanted within 2 hours.

"With the release of Linux-based Xandros Server 2.0 Standard Edition, well-known Linux desktop vendor Xandros offers compatibility and other services that may give Microsoft SharePoint Server some competition. In the new server, due in April, Xandros will include Netherlands-based O3Spaces Workplace 2.0 office collaboration software. With Workplace 2.0, users will be able to use OpenOffice.org, StarOffice, and/or Microsoft Office to work on documents in commonly hosted Xandros workplaces. At the same time, Xandros claims, the system enables everyone involved in the project to track the work being done on it."

OSNews reader kaiwai has published a review of Solaris 10 11/06, and concludes: "Solaris Express is coming along; and for those who do want bleeding edge, ultra-super-duper features, then Solaris probably isn't your best bet, then again, assuming you're into that stuff, you'd be better catered for by the likes of Gentoo for example - for those of us who would prefer to have stability above features, then give Solaris a go and if you can make a contribution to Solaris by way of code contributions, then by all means do so."

Microsoft's own bug hunters should cut Windows Vista some slack and rate its vulnerabilities differently because of the operating system's new, baked-in defenses, according to the developer who is often the public persona of the company's Security Development Lifecycle process. Michael Howard, a senior security program manager in Microsoft's security engineering group, said that the Microsoft Security Response Center is being too conservative in its Vista vulnerability rating plans. Because Vista includes security techniques and technologies that Windows XP lacks, the MSRC should reconsider how it ranks Vista when a vulnerability affects both Microsoft's new operating system and its predecessor, he said.

"4Front Technologies is announcing the availability of Open Sound System version 4.0 for Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, Open Server6 and UnixWare7. Open Sound System is a cross platform audio architecture that provides drivers for most consumer and professional audio devices and comes with an API that allows applications to be simply recompiled on any of the supported operating systems."

Iconic technology firm Commodore has chosen Cebit as the launch pad for a new subsidiary dedicated to PC gaming. From April, Commodore Gaming will start selling a line of PCs that cater for the high-end home gamer. Crammed with high-end components, the machines will also sport distinctive artwork on the case.

"Beryl 0.2.0 is a complete overhaul of Beryl. The last stable release (0.1) featured a very fun, and eye-candy based compositing window manager. However, since it's release, many parts of Beryl have been rewritten, replaced, or simply dropped. It’s filled with eye-candy, better user support, new features, and stability."

Google has chosen the mentoring organizations that will be participating in Google Summer of Code 2007. Most of the usual suspects made the list, as well as a few newcomers, including Haiku. Google is now accepting student applications.