"Many changes have gone into the SUSE Linux operating system since version 10.1, including a name change: the entire operating system is now known only as openSUSE. All of those changes appear to have been for the better - openSUSE 10.2 is as great a release as 10 was - but despite the improvements and bug fixes, there are still several underlying problems that prevent openSUSE 10.2 from being competitive with commercial desktop operating systems."

"Say, you've got an SVN for your OpenSource project and would like to mirror it to some remote location that hosts opensource projects (such as SourceForge.net or dev.java.net). I'll skip the phase of an account and project registration and assume you've already got your credentials and SVN repo url. I also assume you are on Debian or Ubuntu and your SVN is up and running under Apache httpd."

AmiKit 1.3.0 has been released. "We are very proud to announce the AmiKit now supports modern icon formats. This is the first time the OS3.x based environment is able to show and use PNG, dual PNG and OS4 icons. Moreover, Directory Opus Magellan II (included in AmiKit) is able to use them too." Indulge yourself in the screenshots, boys and girls.

"Are you confused by the plethora of testing and comparison options in the Bash shell? This tip helps you demystify the various types of file, arithmetic, and string tests so you will always know when to use test, , ], (( )), or if-then-else constructs."

The following letter was received from Eric S. Raymond, who has sent it to a number of Linux-related publications and mailing lists. It is presented verbatim. "After thirteen years as a loyal Red Hat and Fedora user, I reached my limit today, when an attempt to upgrade one package pitched me into a four-hour marathon of dependency chasing, at the end of which an attempt to get around a trivial file conflict rendered my system unusable."

Microsoft has apologised for serving malware via its websites and Windows Live Messenger software. APC reader Jackie Murphy reported the problem: "With Microsoft launching Vista along with their Defender software to protect users from viruses and spyware, it seems therefore to be an oxymoron that they have started to putting paid changing banner advertisements for malware, on the popular MSN groups servers." A Microsoft Australia spokesperson confirmed the malware vendor had slipped through its ad booking processes.

The open source, freely available, stable read/write NTFS driver, NTFS-3G 1.0 has just been released. The driver, released half year ago for beta testing, made progress, thanks to ten or even hundreds of thousands testers, early adopters, and developers. In consequence of the open communications and positive experiences, NTFS-3G is available for over 60 Linux distributions today, including most major ones. Moreover it was ported to new operating systems like FreeBSD, BeOS, Haiku, and Mac OS X.

The Book of JavaScript (2nd edition) by "thau!" (Dave Thau, according to the book's companion website) is a new and comprehensive introduction to the JavaScript language presented in an entertaining, practical format. I was provided a review copy by the publisher, No Starch Press. I have significant practical experience with JavaScript, so I do not consider myself in the target audience for this book; however, I still found much of it useful so it will remain as a valuable reference on my bookshelf.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates have committed to a rare joint appearance at the fifth anniversary of the The Wall Street Journal's 'D: All Things Digital' conference later this year. The two men, both seminal figures in the development of the personal computer, will jointly discuss the history and future of the digital revolution in an unrehearsed, unscripted, onstage conversation on May 30 with D co-producers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

"We are excited to announce that Haiku developer Ingo Weinhold has recently committed UserlandFS to the repository. UserlandFS is designed to provide, for the first time in Haiku (and the BeOS platform), a stable and flexible environment for file system add-on development. Along with UserlandFS, Ingo has also committed several file system modules, including a Reiser FS 3.6 read-only implementation, a RAM FS (which is still work in progress), and NetFS, a Haiku-specific networking file system. NetFS is a native Haiku network file system that provides peer-to-peer networking capabilities for computers running Haiku on a LAN and includes full support for BFS attributes and live queries."

"There's lots to like in the newest version of Windows. Vista's look is stunning, the OS should be more secure, and finding things is often easier. But Windows wouldn't be Windows without those aspects, big and small, that just drive you nuts with frustration. Here's our list of Vista features that just make us wonder, 'What were they thinking?'"

Enlightenment 0.16.8.6 has been released. "Fix window move through desk switch. Fix crash on opening certain dialogs when sound is enabled. Various minor bug fixes and enhancements." Get it from the Sourceforge project page.

"During the Southern California Linux Exposition 5x's mini-conference on women in open source software, BSD Certification Group member Dru Lavigne put forth the idea that free/open source software provided an excellent opportunity to inexpensively change one's career path. Since this is an idea that has not been widely explored, Dru took some time to talk to me about it, as well as provide an update on the BSD system administrator certification program that is currently in development."

Dell has been asking for input from their (prospective) customers, via a Digg-style site called Dell 'Ideastorm'. It turns out that the top requested feature is for Dell to pre-install Linux (alongside Windows) as an option. The second most requested feature is Openoffice.org, either as an alternative to or alongside Microsoft Office.