Some nice-looking screenshots of Microsoft's next version of Windows Mobile - codenamed 'Crossbow' - have popped up on the web to show the upcoming operating system's swankier graphics. The images come courtesy of MSMobileNews, which has a selection of shots on offer. Meanwhile, the similarly names MSMobiles has a smaller pic showing Windows Mobile 6.0/Windows Mobile 2007's Vista-like folder icons.

Microsoft on Tuesday released a slew of patches for Windows and Office, but a glitch prevented the company from pushing the updates out automatically. The patches, which include critical fixes for both Office and Windows, can be manually downloaded from Microsoft's Web site, and the company said it hopes the more-automated tools will have the patch available later on Tuesday. Microsoft said that its technical teams "have been working around the clock" to solve the updating problems.

A senior Microsoft executive has promised that its new operating system will be more secure than ever. Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, said that beefing-up security was one reason behind delays to Windows Vista. Microsoft has been criticised for flaws in previous systems that left users vulnerable to attacks by hackers. Mr Courtois said Microsoft had done "tons of work to make Vista a fantastic experience when it comes to security".

"iXsystems, an enterprise-class hardware solution provider, announced today its acquisition of PC-BSD, a rock solid UNIX operating system based on FreeBSD. PC-BSD is a fully functional desktop operating system running FreeBSD version 6, with a KDE desktop interface and graphical system installer. Its PBI system, developed exclusively for PC-BSD, lets users download and install their applications in a self-extracting and installing format. iXsystems' acquisition of PC-BSD will provide funding to the PC-BSD project to increase distribution of PC-BSD and develop future versions of PC-BSD. Development is currently underway for a version of PC-BSD that will allow for easy installation and operation on servers, workstations, and laptops."

Hakon Wium Lie must feel a special kinship with the "Band of Brothers" soliloquy that Shakespeare reserves for Henry V. "We few we, happy few, we band of brothers..." the king proclaims before his men head into battle. With all of Microsoft's riches and power behind it, Internet Explorer has dominated the Web browser market since Netscape's defeat in the late 1990s. But as CTO of Opera Software, Wium Lie's job is to figure out how to incorporate the best technology possible in his company's software - and in this he's stolen a beat on Opera's much bigger rival.

Ray Noorda, the son of Dutch immigrants who drove Novell Netware to become the dominant local area network operating system in the 1980s, died Monday at the age of 82 after a long bout with Alzheimer's disease. Noorda was the first to clearly articulate that the many interoperating parts of the computer industry meant that one company needed to cooperate with another to ensure their products worked together. In some realms, they might be both partners and competitors, he noted, in a relationship he summed up as 'co-opetition'.

In the increasingly Google-YouTube-Web 2.0 age we inhabit, it's become fashionable to dismiss Windows as a relic. Ask around the office. You'll hear the Gen Xers sneer about how Microsoft's operating system is, well, so yesterday. Even a fair number of IT greybeards are warming to the notion that the times, they are a changing.

As computer technology moves forward, you'll already have the established base and experience working with FreeBSD 64-bit. It's not about higher performance except in compiling software, high-end graphics rendering, and math-intensive work such as compressing files or in complex cryptology applications. It's about future-proofing.

"As is the norm (for the most cases) with private software companies, yellowTAB before, and now Magnussoft, have been reserved in commenting what's coming down the road. We know Multi-User is coming and also that GCC4 is part of ZETA's future, but today we're going to bring you a small glimpse in what's coming for ZETA and its users."

Microsoft will end support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and SP 1a on 10 October, leaving users no option but to upgrade to SP2 if they wish to continue to receive support for crucial components, including security software. The move to drop support for SP1 is in line with Microsoft's stated strategy for support. According to its guidelines, Microsoft guarantees to provide 'mainstream support' for a full product for five years, but will only guarantee to support a Service Pack for 12 months after the launch of the next version of that pack.

The Inquirer has been looking at the latest release of Microsoft’s Vista operating system. This time, we tackle build 5744, otherwise known as Release Candidate 2. Tested today is the x64 version, which has a date stamp of 03/10/06. So what has changed over RC1 and earlier builds? Elsewhere, Microsoft has said they expect Vista's deployment rate to be twice that of Windows XP. Finally, even though RC2 will be the last public test build, Microsoft still has changes up its sleeve for Vista RTM.

Blogger Kiyoshi Saruwatari claims that Nintendo's upcoming Wii console runs on the open source Linux operating system. According to Saruwatari, who claims to be a Nintendo insider, the company reduced development costs by leveraging open source software and incorporating a Linux kernel into the Wii software platform. A wide variety of additional features like web browsing, video playback, file management, and emulation all run on Nintendo's custom Linux operating system, which uses a proprietary interface. Unlike the other specialized software components, the actual games will not run under the Linux platform, and can be played without booting Linux if the user holds down the "A" button while the Wii is starting up.

These two really interesting videos (1, 2) at YouTube document the beginnings of NeXT Computers. We can assume that these videos were shot either late 1985 or early 1986.

A declaration by SCO's backer, BayStar has revealed that the software Giant Microsoft had more links to the anti-Linux bad-boy. The declaration made by from BayStar general partner Larry Goldfarb has turned up as part of IBM's evidence to the court. Goldfarb says that Baystar had been chucking USD 50 million at SCO despite concerns that it had a high cash burn rate. He also claims that former Microsoft senior VP for corporate development and strategy Richard Emerson discussed "a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would 'backstop', or guarantee in some way, BayStar's investment". Thanks to The Inq for the summary.