After MacOSX and Linux start to become viable alternatives to Windows on the desktop, more and more applications are developed to be cross- platform; all potential users can run them on their platform of choice. In the following article I will discuss different ways of creating a cross-platform application and their (dis)advantages for the user.

"Is open source still a grassroots social movement made up of idealistic underdogs trying to revolutionize an amoral industry? Or has it become a cloak used by IT vendors large and small to disguise ruthless and self-serving behavior? Some observers argue it's the latter. Despite occasional protests from old-timers - the heated backlash against the Microsoft-Novell détente, for example - open source has become so co-opted by mainstream IT, so transformed by 'accidental open sourcers' simply looking for a better business model, that it's lost its cherished moral edge."

"Exercise good memory-related coding practices by creating a comprehensive program to keep memory errors under control. Memory errors are the bane of C and C++ programming: they're common, awareness of their importance for over two decades hasn't eradicated them, they can impact applications severely, and few development teams have a definite plan for their management. The good news, though, is that they needn't be so mysterious."

"Simple Persistence for Java is an open source object-relational persistence library that uses a custom query language and built-in database support to simplify object persistence in Java applications. In this article, software architect Sami Salkosuo introduces the library and walks you through its zero-admin, zero-config approach to object persistence."

"What is it with the Windows Vista Firewall and its refusal to go away? All our PCs are secured behind two firewalls: a hardware firewall and Microsoft ISA Server. The only traffic that gets in is the traffic that we want to get in. Now we can appreciate having the firewall on by default; but after turning it off over 20 times, it’s getting to be too much."

OpenSSH is an important tool that keeps the communication and transfer of information between machines secure. Not only does it provide a secure alternative to common tools like Telnet, FTP, and RCP, it can also act as a transport protocol for other services like Subversion, X Windows System, and rsync. This article shows you how to get the best out of the main tools provided by OpenSSH.

"MEPIS Linux founder Warren Woodford began, a year ago, to migrate MEPIS from Debian to Ubuntu packages, and in July achieved the first Ubuntu-based simplyMEPIS release. In light of the recently announced Linspire/Ubuntu collaboration, DesktopLinux.com asked Woodford to clarify the MEPIS/Ubuntu relationship."

David Reveman writes: "I'd like to get all of you updated on the compiz related things discussed at the X developer conference that was held last week. My talk was mainly focused on 'what's next' and how to get desktop compositing in X to the next level." He also discussed the fork: "I had the chance to talk to Quinn Storm from the beryl project during xdevconf. I would have hoped that the current situation with beryl could be improved but it seems like Quinn at least isn't interested in that. However, after talking to Quinn it's very clear to me that the fork was partially motivated by assumptions that were wrong."

In this interview, Sam Leffler of the FreeBSD Project and FreeBSD Foundation and 'old school' hacker from the UC Berkeley Computer Systems Research Group (where the original Berkeley Software Distribution was developed) explains what the Foundation actually does, and the kind of work it has fostered. He also talks briefly about the current status of FreeBSD, and the degree to which Apple contributes to the project.

Decibel is a service that is concerned with real time communications; therefore, everything that connects one user with another user and makes it possible to get replies instantaneously is in the scope of Decibel. Decibel is based on the Telepathy D-Bus API's and uses the Tapioca implementation of these API's.

MBReview.com reviewed Windows Vista, and concluded: "Overall, my first impressions of Vista, and specifically Vista Ultimate, are quite good. I had few problems moving over hardware and software, other than issues of driver support by manufacturers. This is an extremely annoying issue and I'm sure I'm not alone in my distaste for such lack of driver support. The new Aero interface is gorgeous and is one of the big reasons I have moved over to Vista on my main system. It has it's quirks like anything, but it is a big improvement from WindowsXP. Thus far, I'm impressed."

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 Herd 4 has been released. The Ubuntu Wiki lists all the changes for Ubuntu and Kubuntu. "Pre-releases of Feisty are not encouraged for anyone needing a stable system, or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are however recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs. Installing a milestone and then upgrading through the release cycle should leave you with a close approximation of the final release."

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer said Thursday that Wall Street's current expectations for revenue from its newest operating system may be too 'optimistic'. "I'm really excited about how enthusiastic people are about Vista, but I think some of the revenue forecasts for Vista in 2008 are overly aggressive," Ballmer said in a meeting for financial analysts. " is primarily a chance to sustain what revenue we have - not every release is a revenue growing opportunity." On a related note, boxed sales of Vista trail those of XP in the first few weeks after launch.

The video of the Haiku Tech Talk at Google has been published online on Google Video. "This is an introduction to Haiku, an open source operating system designed from the ground up for the desktop, inspired in the concepts and technologies of BeOS. The presentation will cover the concepts and features that make Haiku unique, as well as a hands on demo."