The Fedora project has released Fedora 7 Test 2 (6.91). New in this release are Linux 2.6.21rc1, GNOME 2.17.91, a brand new icon set, the merger of Core and Extras, fast user switching, and much more. See the release schedule for more information.

The European Union escalated its trans-Atlantic fight with Microsoft on Thursday, threatening new multimillion fines against the software maker over claims it fails to offer rivals a fair deal on licenses for helping servers work with Windows. In response, Microsoft charged that the treatment it receives from the EU is unmatched around the world and harmed Europe's efforts to become a thriving high-tech economy. The EU said Microsoft could face fines as high as euro3 million (US$4 million) a day, accusing the software company of trying to protect its interests by overcharging rivals for complete and accurate interface documentation - which would allow them to interoperate with Windows PCs and servers - on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

"Once again FOSDEM is over and was a great success for GNUstep. Attendance by GNUstep developers/users was, if anything, even better than last year, and the combined GNUstep/OpenGroupware booth was well attended and looked very good with a selection of leaflets to give away, books to show NeXT and Cocoa relationships, and T-shirts for sale."

Simon Phipps writes on his weblog: "I'm in Berlin today opening the very first OpenSolaris Developer Conference. I'll be announcing that the new Get.OpenSolaris.org site that allows anyone in the world to order a kit containing DVDs of OpenSolaris distributions, documentation and source. With a nod towards the good folks at Ubuntu, Sun is sponsoring the kits so that they are completely free of charge, including global delivery. Hopefully this will mean even folks without the bandwidth to download DVD ISOs will be able to join the OpenSolaris community."

Hoping to get a jump on Google and other competitors, Adobe Systems plans to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing application within six months, the company's chief executive said Tuesday. The online service is part of a larger move to introduce ad-supported online services to complement its existing products and broaden the company reach into the consumer market, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen told CNET News.com.

A modified version of the code for Windows Mobile 6, which Microsoft launched less than two weeks ago at the 3GSM mobile phone conference, has hit the Net. It's the handiwork of 'Kyphur', a moderator at the discussion forums on XDA Developers site, who has released a hacked version of the code for Windows Mobile 6, aka 'Crossbow'.

"In the world of operating systems, Microsoft Windows Vista is just a baby. It's just now toddling along on new systems being sold throughout the U.S. And, like a small child being dropped by the stork to new parents, it's available to older desktop PCs via Microsoft's download-to-buy program. Giving early adopters such easy, unfettered access to the somewhat untested OS was a bold move by Microsoft. The company had to know that people like those who work at PC Magazine would be among the first to test-drive this new installation option."

GNOME 2.18.0 RC1 (2.17.92) has been released. "This is the last unstable release before 2.18.0. We've all added cool features, important bug fixes, great translations, or shiny documentation during the past six months. And it'll be soon ready for public consumption. There's still one week before the hard code freeze, so it's not too late to fix this last bug you're ashamed of."

"As of today Magnussoft has started shipping the first Zeta 1.5 cd's to their customers. Although 1.5 is almost a month delayed the developers did add lot's of features in the last phase of development. These include an Abiword port, drivers for PCL6 and Radeon, and others. With 1.5 being shipped, Magnussoft also introduces 'MZSP' or Magnussoft Zeta Service Packs. MZSP's will be freely available in the future as downloads. To install MZSP's you will need to have your Zeta version activated, and they will only install on the most recent version. Alongside the MZSP's there is also an update application planned so you can keep your system up to date automatically."

Ubuntu developers are finalising preparations for the release of the next version - dubbed Feisty Fawn - of the popular Linux distribution in mid-April. Overnight, Ubuntu developer Tollef Fog Heen announced Ubuntu's main software repository had been frozen - with no changes allowed to the code - as developers got ready to issue a fifth major test version ('Herd 5') of the next version of Ubuntu.

A hacker from Malaysia has used the game-centric PPL programming language for PocketPCs and has created a replacement of the "Today" PPC screen that closely resembles that of the iPhone's. His clone is still under development, although it is already impressive what he was able to do with a few lines of code. He was even able to recreate the iPhone's scrolling effect. Nevertheless, a nice toy.

This first article of a three-part series introduces PHP5's XML implementation and help those relatively new to using XML with PHP to read, parse, and manipulate, and write a short and uncomplicated XML file using the DOM and SimpleXML in a PHP environment.

During FOSDEM 2007, a live CD using the Etoile desktop environment was demonstrated, and this live CD can now be downloaded (screenshots inside the link, boys and girls). Etoile is a desktop environment based on GNUstep. "This is the 0.2 prerelease that we worked on at FOSDEM 2007. There's still quite a lot of problems on it (check the bugtracker), so we expect the final 0.2 release in about a month. In the meantime, feel free to download the iso and to play with it."

Corel made a play for a piece of the Web 2.0 pie on Tuesday, releasing WordPerfect Lightning in beta, a free, compact version of its standard word processing suite that combines both online and offline functionality. The company is referring to the product as a Google Writely, Adobe Reader, and Microsoft OneNote competitor rolled into one. At 16MB, the entire program can be placed on a USB stick or burned to CD to allow for maximum portability.