This is a detailed description about how to set up an OpenSUSE 10.2 based server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters (Apache web server (SSL-capable), Postfix mail server (with SMTP-AUTH and TLS), BIND DNS server, ProFTPd server, MySQL server, Courier POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc.).

KVM, the kernel-based virtual machine for Linux, will be merged into the Linux kernel , according to Andrew Morton's merge plans for 2.6.20. Besides VMware, Xen, qemu, etc., Linux users now have a full virtualization solution built in the kernel which supports running unmodified Linux or Windows images.

Christopher Hallinan examines the bootloader's role in a system, followed by an introduction to some common features of bootloaders. He also takes a detailed look at a popular bootloader used for embedded systems, and introduces a few of the more popular bootloaders.

"If you could ask Bill Gates one question, what would you ask? I spent an hour today with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the company's Redmond campus. I chose to ask Bill about Microsoft's intellectual property stance against Linux and its open source developers, from the SCO Group's litigation against IBM to Steve Ballmer's recent claim Linux infringes on Microsoft patents after signing a patent indemnity with Novell."

"Microsoft has a problem. Vista, its long-awaited update to the Windows operating system, can't run the current version of SQL Server. The company is working on a SQL upgrade that is compatible with Vista - called SQL Server 2005 Express Service Pack 2 - but it's in beta and can be licensed only for testing purposes. Microsoft hasn't set a release date for the new SQL program. So companies looking to install Vista, which went on sale to corporate customers Nov. 30, are going to have to get their database management software someplace else."

eComStation 2.0 beta 3, the new evolution of OS/2, is available to download for registered users. The new features of this beta version are available on the online readme file. Among other things, this new release includes better support for wireless chipsets and advanced power management features.

eWeek's Peter Coffee has compiled his idea of the 25 killer applications of all time. "Microsoft's Vista has widely inspired the 'Why do I need that?' question, which past 'killer applications' have answered in different ways for different platforms during three decades of personal computing."

"The FSF today launched a campaign with a twofold mission of exposing the harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting free software alternatives that respect users' security and privacy rights. "Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new 'features' in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We'll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care", said FSF program administrator John Sullivan."

The Linux kernel has been updated with several serviceability improvements, chiefly around the kdump and SystemTap features. The kdump enhancements should improve the ability to reliably and quickly create crash dumps that can be analysed offline. The new SystemTap features enable IT professionals to debug a running system in real-time without affecting performance or recompiling.

"The Thunderbird email client doesn't get half the attention that its big brother, the Firefox browser, gets, but the Mozilla Foundation has finally gotten around to lavishing some love on it, and the first beta of version 2 is now out. If you think there's nothing more that can added to an email client - except for the fabled seek-out-and-destroy-spam option - prepare to be pleasantly surprised. The new Thunderbird comes with numerous new features."

GNU Classpath 0.93 'Dreamland', a core class library for the Java programming language, has been released with lots of enhancements (free swing, html, corba, new i/o, graphics2d/cairo support). The release announcement also details pointers to supported applications and screenshots, the status and future of the 1.4 and 1.5 generics branches. An update on the Summer of Code student work. Plus some prelimenary ideas on cooperating with the Sun GPL OpenJDK Java project. And the GNU Classpath commitments to the Free Software community for the future of various projects around GNU Classpath, the users and GNU/Linux distros relying on GNU Classpath.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has written article in which he wonders if your operating system isn't broke, why 'fix' it? If what you're running now works for you, why should you move 'up' to Vista? Joe Wilcox responds to SJVN: "Colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols asks 'If your operating system isn't broke, why 'fix' it?' The very question is the problem. The question reflects a sentiment I hear too often as an excuse for keeping old technologies in place - long after their real usefulness is gone."

"It doesn't matter what you (or tech reviewers) think of Windows Vista; sooner or later, it's what most people will have on their PCs. In that light, it's fortunate that Vista is better looking, better designed and better insulated against the annoyances of the Internet. At the very least, it's well equipped to pull the world's PCs along for the next five years - or whenever the next version of Windows drops down the chimney." More here. Free registration might be required.

Early adopters of Vista may notice that it will not connect to Samba share folders out of the box. This will be a bit of a pain for many enterprise customers. The technical reason is because Microsoft Vista’s default security policy is to only use NTLMv2 authentication. To get Vista to work with Samba follow this simple tutorial.