"Pixel (formerly Pixel32) is an image editing program, similar to Photoshop or Gimp, that runs on a large variety of platforms: Linux, FreeBSD, Zeta, OS X, SkyOS and more. In an 8 year period, it has grown to become a very pleasant-looking and usefull application. Unlike Gimp, it has support for CMYK and uses its own GUI toolkit called eLiquid. Pixel can work with PSD files and work is being done to improve this feature. Pavel agreed to answer some of our questions regarding Pixel."

At the MicroProcessor Forum, Dr. Brad McCredie of IBM continued to tease out particulars regarding the POWER6. The presentation discussed a lot of general microarchitecture features, but did not reveal many specific details; a full revelation of the microarchitecture will likely have to wait till ISSCC, next February. However, from the details that were revealed, it is clear that the POWER6 inherited many characteristics from its predecessors, yet made substantial improvements in others.

Axel Knabe will show the EFIKA board running MorphOS 1.5 at the 'Amiga Meeting Nord' in Bad Bramstedt this weekend. Axel will also take preorders for the board which is planned to be available before christmas 2006.

"When it comes to computers, the average person usually believes that 'newer is better'. After all, you can get more memory, a faster processor, and a larger hard disk, merely by waiting a few months. Old hardware is usually shunned as being of little value. In contrast, the elementary education sector has consistently found traditional educational methods to be superior to the newest, latest, and greatest methods. Some of the most knowledgeable and capable children are produced by the schools that use seemingly antiquated techniques. So what happens when the world of technology collides with the world of education? Why, the Commodore 64 makes a comeback!"

"These Release Notes cover what's new, download and installation instructions, known issues and frequently asked questions for the Firefox 2.0 RC3 release. Please read these notes and the bug filing instructions before reporting any bugs to Bugzilla."

Microsoft has agreed to make a number of changes to Windows Vista in response to guidance from the European Commission, the EU's competition regulator. It has also had successful talks with competition authorities in Korea who raised concerns about Microsoft's business practices. It expects to ship Vista on time in that country as well. Here's a summary of Microsoft's explanation of the changes that will be made in Windows Vista. Microsoft says the changes will apply worldwide.

Microsoft is expected to announce on Tuesday that it is making its virtualization file format available for free and without a license. At an interoperability conference in Brussels, the software giant said that its Virtual Hard Disk Image Format specification can be used by third parties without the need for them to get a commercial license. The virtualization technology will be available under the terms of Microsoft's Open Specification Promise, which it introduced in September.

"Whenever IT managers complain about their jobs, one of the things that always tops the list of their complaints is the time, money, and annoyance that comes from simply integrating the servers, storage, and networking gear they acquire. If integration is a big pain point, then so is building out data centers. In many cases, companies simply do not have the power and cooling to add more gear to their data centers without causing a meltdown. Enter Sun with Project Blackbox."

Softpedia posted today a small review of three anti-virus software that are free to use, complete with screenshots. Consider using Microsoft's or Adaware's anti-spyware utilities too to keep your XP healthy.

A recent security advisory announced today by Rapid7 explains, "the NVIDIA Binary Graphics Driver for Linux is vulnerable to a buffer overflow that allows an attacker to run arbitrary code as root. This bug can be exploited both locally or remotely (via a remote X client or an X client which visits a malicious web page). A working proof-of-concept root exploit is attached to this advisory." The advisory goes on to note that the FreeBSD and Solaris binary drivers are also likely vulnerable and cautions, "it is our opinion that NVIDIA's binary driver remains an unacceptable security risk based on the large numbers of reproducible, unfixed crashes that have been reported in public forums and bug databases."

The Enlightenment team has released 0.16.8.4, and as usual, this is mainly a bugfix and maintenance release. You can grab the release from the Sourceforge page.

Yellow Dog Linux 5 has been announced. Surprisingly, it will first be released for Sony's Playstation 3, and then later for PPC Macs. Yellow Dog Linux 5 for the Playstation 3 will use E17 as its desktop environment (YDL's page on E17), which will be a boost to E17's adoption rate. Sony had mentioned the PS3 would include Linux in some capacity, but it has been unclear how Linux would fit into the rest of the system.

"The Firefox web browser has come a long way since the project was announced as a fork from the open-sourced Mozilla project. Version 1.0 was released in 2004 and quickly won critical acclaim for its speed, compatibility with web standards, and features. In a couple of years, Firefox managed to reach a milestone that its predecessor never quite reached: hitting 10 percent market share worldwide. Version 2 of the browser recently hit RC2, but the team is already making plans for 3.0. The Mozilla organization has set up a feature brainstorming web site that allows everyone to enter their favorite wish lists for the open source browser."

NEC confirmed that it was exiting the European PC market, announcing it had reached a deal to sell its Netherlands-based Packard Bell subsidiary to Chinese entrepreneur Lap Shun 'John' Hui. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Although a popular brand of computers in for a short period of time in the mid 1990s worldwide, Packard Bell quickly was eclipsed by competitors, mainly for a reputation of lackluster quality and poor customer support.