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."

"Those flash-based laptops we're all dreaming about may be a lot cheaper than we expected. Asus just announced their plans to make five budget, solid state laptops this year priced from USD 199 to USD 549. Each machine will have a 7-inch display, and depending on the model it'll have a flash drive ranging from 1GB to 40GB. The lappies are expected later this year."

Let me begin by telling you a little story. Some time ago I needed to run a script at work once a day. We had tons of machines ranging from big Unix servers to Linux desktops. Due to various reasons the script could only be run on a desktop machine. However using cron was disabled on desktops. All other machines allowed cron.

The founder of the Ubuntu-project talks in an interview about the integration of proprietary drivers, the One Laptop per Child project, and 'great applications' from Microsoft. "I certainly would not push the large IT companies to put Linux on consumer PCs, because I understand that in their business, the cost of a user accidentally getting Linux, thinking that they get cheap Windows would be a problem for the companies selling the computers. So I don't think it is really ready yet for mass consumer sales of Linux on desktop."

Microsoft has released a Windows Media Player plugin for Firefox. The plugin obviously only works on Windows. "We couldn't respond as quickly as we would have liked to (we had to get Windows Vista out the door!), but now that it's shipped, the team has moved its attention to getting Firefox users up and running. This week we are happy to say that we have a new plug-in for Firefox that makes WMP work once again."

Microsoft has given a go-to-market name for its cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in for delivering the next generation of user experiences and rich Internet applications for the Web. The technology formerly known as WPF/E is now known as Silverlight.

Haiku enthusiast umccullough has posted two very interesting screenshots of Haiku. In the first screenshot, you see Haiku serving a web page using RobinHood, where the second one shows an XP box browsing said web page. The Haiku groupies axe murderers users and developers in #haiku explained, however, that people should not get the wrong picture; Haiku is not ready, in any way, for public consumption, nor is it capable of serving a web page for a prolonged period of time. Just so you know. Update: And another screenshot showing BeShare running on Haiku.

"Trolltech today announced the start of the Qtopia Greenphone Developer Challenge, a global contest for innovative development of Linux-based mobile phone applications. Entrants can create their applications using either the community or commercial version of Qtopia Phone Edition."

"This article, the first in a five-part series on real-time Java, describes the key challenges to using the Java language to develop systems that meet real-time performance requirements. It presents a broad overview of what real-time application development means and how runtime systems must be engineered to meet the requirements of real-time applications. The authors introduce an implementation that addresses real-time Java challenges through a combination of standards-based technologies."

Intel is developing its own take on the mini-tablet, with a new ultra-mobile PC platform to be announced at this week’s Intel Developer Forum in Beijing. The big surprise? It’s based on Linux. In the meantime, Intel announced new details of its forthcoming Santa Rosa PC platform, including a significant revision of the Core 2 Duo chip.

NewsForge reviews NeoOffice 2.1 and concludes: "All in all, NeoOffice 2.1 is an incremental improvement over NeoOffice 2.0 Beta 3. Microsoft Office OpenXML compatibility is still a weak point, and if you are looking for help, you are better off avoiding the inconsistent and outdated documentation on the wiki and heading directly to the discussion forum. Nevertheless, NeoOffice remains far superior to the X11-based Mac builds of OpenOffice.org. The OS integration work is impressive, and the new features make the suite as a whole all the more indispensable."