"If like me, you do most of your work from the command-line, using vim to edit files, mutt for e-mails, cd/ls/mv/find/etc instead of a file manager, then you may get annoyed by having to fire up a GUI calculator to make (what may sometimes be) a single calculation. This article shows how to quickly perform standard calculations on the command line."

"Apple researchers have built a full working prototype of a Mac tablet PC and three Companies in Taiwan are now costing a product for a potential launch in mid 2007. Sources in Taiwan have said that the focus has been more on the home and the education environment than the enterprise marketplace. Several months ago I was told that Apple was exploring a neat new device that is basically a touch screen that links to various source devices including a brand new media centre that Apple is planning to launch next year. The Mac tablet has been designed to handle third party applications such as home automation software that will allow users to control lighting, audio, entertainment devices and security feeds. It also acts as a full blown PC has wireless linking for a new generation of Wireless Hi Fi speakers that are currently being tested by Apple."

After much hard work, the PC-BSD team is pleased to announce that version 1.3 BETA2 is now available for download. This version adds support for installing in languages other than English, and addresses many numerous bugs found in BETA1. 1.3 BETA2 can be downloaded from the beta download page. You will also need to download 1.3 CD2 if you wish to install in languages other than English. Please report any and all unreported bugs on the BugsDB or the forums.

Calmira XP is no more. "After almost 15 years of Windows 3.1 and 5 years of Calmira XP this is the time to say goodbye to this great project. I had a great time developing this, and I hope you enjoyed using it. As a farewell-gift I made a last version which includes all the graphical enhancements of Calmira XP 4.0, but without the experimental LFN-support; so this is a stable version. Now it's time to search for a new, fresh project."

Mark Shuttleworth is trying to entice OpenSUSE developers to join Ubuntu. "Novell's decision to go to great lengths to circumvent the patent framework clearly articulated in the GPL has sent shockwaves through the community. If you are an OpenSUSE developer who is concerned about the long term consequences of this pact, you may be interested in some of the events happening next week as part of the Ubuntu Open Week."

CPU maker Intel is pressuring smaller rival Via Technologies to exit the CPU market, industry sources in Taiwan claim. In exchange, Intel will allow Via to continue making PC chipsets which use Intel's patented technology, say the sources at PC mainboard manufacturers, who do not wish to be named.

On Thursday, antivirus firm F-Secure published a brief analysis of a proof-of-concept adware program for the Mac OS X that could theoretically hook into any application to run attacker-specified code. The program, dubbed IAdware by F-Secure, could be silently installed in a user's account without requiring administrator rights. "We won't disclose the exact technique used here - it's a feature not a bug - but let's just say that installing a System Library shouldn't be allowed without prompting the user," stated F-Secure in the blog post. "Especially as it only requires copy permissions." My take: I'd say, hand over the code, then we'll talk.

"It's been a good week for Microsoft's documentation efforts as the company achieved important milestones with regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. US antitrust authorities signed off on Vista and IE7 and announced that Microsoft was making good progress in its efforts to document certain server protocols in Windows. In Europe, where Microsoft has encountered more problems and increased fines over the state of its documentation, the company got a rare bit of good news as the European Commission completed its initial review of the revised documents."

There is a new video of the 'Sugar' user interface for the USD 100 OLPC laptop. As you may know, the mission of this non-profit association is to develop a low-cost laptop, a technology that could revolutionise how we educate the world's children.

Microsoft is beating Oracle hands down with the security of its database, according to a new report. David Litchfield, a security researcher with NGS Software, published a whitepaper entitled Which database is more secure? Oracle vs. Microsoft on 21 November comparing the number of software vulnerabilities patched by both vendors in their respective products in the past six years.

Consumers cannot run home versions of Windows Vista as virtual machines because virtualization is not mature enough for broad adoption, says Microsoft. They claim "that consumers don't understand the risks of running virtual machines, and they only want enterprises that understand the risks to run Vista on a VM".

A whole flurry of RISC OS news the last few days. A port of Gnash is in the works, while a survey showed that users of the RISC OS word processors TechWriter/EasiWriter want .doc support. Meanwhile, RISC OS got transparent windows. Drobe also has a short article on re-writing RISC OS.

The first development build of Freespire 2.0 has been released: "Freespire version 2.0 Alpha (1.1.57) is now available for download. New features: KDM login manager; KDE 3.5.5 with user switching and SuperKaramba; kernel 2.6.18; desktop directory names (no spaces); Lbrowser with Flash Player 9 beta; Lmail including FreeLinuxEmail; Gaim 2.0.0 beta4; OpenOffice.org 2.0.4."

On the day after Thanksgiving, Xandros will be giving business Linux users an early holiday present: Xandros Desktop Professional version 4.0. This new version of this well-regarded Debian-based desktop is designed to work in both Linux- and Windows-based office networks. It comes ready for use on NT domain, Active Directory, and Linux/Unix NIS-based LANs. This new version also comes with a fancy 3D effect desktop. Expect a review here on OSNews soon.