"Linux had always lacked a Open Source virtualisation technology in the same league as Solaris containers or commercial product like Vmware. That was until Xen came into the picture. Xen is an opensource virtual machine monitor for x86 that supports execution of multiple guest operating systems. Recently, I downloaded the Xen Live CD ISO image from their website and burned it on to a CD in order to give it a trial run. What follows below are my experiences in trying out this very promising virtualisation technology."

"During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Apple climbed back to profitability and fame. Apple's colorful computers put them back into the spotlight, and the iPod diversified Apple's business successfully, bringing the Apple name to music." Jobs about the Cube, introduced in that timespan: "The G4 Cube is simply the coolest computer ever. An entirely new class of computer, it marries the Pentium crushing performance of the Power Mac G4 with the miniaturization, silent operation, and elegant desktop design of the iMac." I definitely agree. Best-looking computer ever made. I want one.

"Zenwalk 3 is an operating system based on Patrick Volkerding's Slackware GNU/Linux distribution, version 10.2. The entire operating system fits on a single CD, and stays true to what the author calls the 'Zen philosophy'. This philosophy, as it has been coined, refers to Zenwalk's policy of including one application per task. I've had a few problems with Slackware and Slackware-related systems in the past, but Zenwalk has alleviated all of my stress regarding those issues. Here's why."

The OpenOffice.org team has released OpenOffice.org 2.0.4. This release is mainly a bugfix release. You can download it form the OpenOffice.org website, and if you want to know if your pet bug has been fixed, have fun digging through the changelog.

Yesterday at 10:00 AM the president of the KDE e.V. Eva Brucherseifer welcomed the audience of the presentation track at the KDE anniversary event at the Technische Akademie Esslingen in Ostfildern near Stuttgart, Germany. Keynote speakers were Matthias Ettrich, founder of the KDE project, as well as Klaus Knopper of Knoppix fame. During their presentations they looked back at KDE's successful past 10 years and they offered their thoughts about the future of KDE and Free Software. Note: I'd like to congratulate KDE with their 10 year anniversary. Here's to another 10 years!

"There is one huge difference between the free and non-free software that has some very practical implications in the way we use it. One of those implications are the dependencies between single software packages in the free software model. What do they have to do with the free software philosophy and why should not you be afraid of them? Read on to find this out."

This chapter covers the features of Java and .NET security that make interoperability easier. It also discusses different technologies (such as authentication in the Presentation tier) and the open standards (such as Web services security) where Java and .NET applications can interact. Finally, two interoperability strategies are discussed.

Matthew David introduces the new .NET 3.0 Framework, comparing it to previous releases and pointing out the fancy new features we can look forward to using.

pfSense is a open source firewall derived from the m0n0wall operating system platform with radically different goals such as using OpenBSD's ported Packet Filter, FreeBSD 6.1 ALTQ (HFSC) for excellent packet queueing and finally an integrated package management system for extending the environment with new features. pfSense version 1.0 was released today.

"If you can believe what some of the online tech prognosticators tell you, Apple's real 'Top Secret' plan is to have Mac OS 10.5 Leopard out by Macworld Expo in January, or perhaps shortly thereafter. If true, it would give Apple a chance to trounce Windows Vista, at least in times of mind share as opposed to market share, assuming the latter indeed comes out around the same time. I think some of the folks who expect an early release ought to reconsider what they're smoking or drinking."

Microsoft has revealed a general release date for its upcoming operating system Vista - 5 December, 2006. Speaking to IT professionals, parliamentarians and senior law-enforcement officers at the Parliament and Internet conference in London on Thursday, Microsoft revealed its release plans. "We will officially launch Vista, Microsoft Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 on 5 December," said David Hipwell, a Windows client sales professional at Microsoft. On a very, very related note, the EC says that Vista will not be delayed due to regulatory issues. Also, the Shell: Revealed weblog has an item explaining why Aero Basic looks the way it looks. Update: ZDNet has removed the release date story, and since they are being rude by not offering an explanation, I have no idea what is going on.

OpenSSE 10.1 'remastered' has been released. "This release combines the 10.1 GM and all online updates that we have released for 10.1 so far, including libzypp, which should make the installing and working experience much smoother for everyone. We have created new CD ISO images and supplied delta ISOs from the goldmaster. The non-OSS DVD images will show up next week, we had to retract and will remaster. If you are running SUSE Linux 10.1 already, there is no need to download these images at all. Just do an update from our update repository to get all our security updates. This remastered media are useful for new installations."

Apple Computer this week released to developers the first pre-release update of its next-generation Leopard operating system since the initial preview in early August. Build 9A283 delivers "Significant user interface changes to iCal" and "Basic editing in Preview," according to the report. It also adds "new Parental Controls for content filtering, apps, and curfews" and "3D audio cues to indicate locations of items on the screen in the VoiceOver screen reader."

Microsoft has restructured its Windows Core Operating System Division into five teams in a move designed to better focus on PC hardware and provide a richer set of customer solutions. The software giant is also making changes on the security front by bringing its security, Trustworthy Computing and Engineering Excellence teams together in one group, known as the Trustworthy Computing Team, Jim Desler, Microsoft's group public relations manager, told eWEEK Oct. 12.