Microsoft has further delayed the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, moving expected availability from the second half of 2007 to the first half of 2008. The change came silently in an update to the company's service pack roadmap. Although that date is still listed as 'preliminary' a similar delay for Windows Server 2003 SP2 seems to be finalized. Initially planned for the end of this year and currently in beta testing, SP2 will now arrive in the first quarter of 2007.

Michael Lotz, of Tracker.NewFS, SVG, Haiku USB, Qemu, and countless other cool-things-to-have fame has checked in Haiku's first wireless network driver, for the Intel Pro Wireless 2100. This chipset, which inhabits nearly all early Centrino-badged devices, is amongst the more common wireless hardware found in recent computers. It works on r5 as well.

The Ubuntu team not only released the first release candidate for Edgy Eft (release notes), but also started pondering their next release, dubbed the 'Feisty Fawn'. "In the next cycle we'll expand on the brand new infrastructure that has landed in Edgy as well as branching out in some exciting new directions. This combination of courage and restlessness is also found in a young deer that sets out to explore a world that is new and exciting - seeing the world through eyes unprejudiced by what has gone before. In that spirit, the release will be be code named 'The Feisty Fawn'."

The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 1.3 BETA1. This release gives users and testers the opportunity to test-drive the new PC-BSD install wizard, along with the updated base system, running KDE 3.5.4, an improved look and feel, and many other enhancements.

Apparently, OpenBSD turned 11 today. " It's been eleven years to the day since the formation of the OpenBSD Project. In celebration, here's a little timeline of memorable events. Feel free to add your own entries and links." Congratulations.

The FreeBSD Project has announced their status report for the third quarter of 2006. This report covers topics such as GJournal, Xen, DTrace, ZFS, iSCSI and the ARM port. Also, there is a lot of information about upcoming BSD conferences.

Adobe has released a beta for Flash Player 9 for Linux. "While we are still working out exactly how to distribute the final Player version to be as easy as possible for the typical end user, this beta includes 2 gzip'd tarball packages: one is for the Mozilla plugin and the other is for a GTK-based Standalone Flash Player. Either will need to be downloaded manually via the Adobe Labs website and unpacked."

A new version of the Autopackage cross-distribution packaging system for Linux has been released. The most important enhancement in the new 1.2 version is the improved C++ support, making it possible to create a package that will install on systems with different C++ ABI versions (gcc 3.2 or gcc 3.4). Also, first steps to integrate Autopackage with native package managers have been done: now it is possible to uninstall an RPM package conflicting with the autopackage that is being installed. There are also many other GUI and backend improvements.

Microsoft will release the final build of IE7 today to customers. IE7 will be made available via Automatic Updates on the 1st of November. At the moment there is no link on Microsoft.com, but Yahoo has the final build bundled with Yahoo Mail. FlexBeta is currently hosting Internet Explorer 7 Final without the need of downloading Yahoo Mail. My take: Read about my thoughts on IE7's new interface on my blog.

Increasing component costs and pressure to cut its prices mean Apple's best bet for long-term success is to quit the hardware business and license the Mac to Dell, analyst firm Gartner claimed on Tuesday. In a surprisingly ambitious report, called Apple Should License the Mac to Dell, Gartner says Apple should concentrate on what it does best - create software - and make use of Dell's production and distribution infrastructure.

Sun Microsystems engineers have begun designing Niagara 3, a second sequel to the company's ambitious lower-end processor. John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun's server division, confirmed the development in an interview Tuesday and suggested it will continue Sun's push to squeeze more processing cores onto the chip. This new member of the Sparc family will be built using a manufacturing process with 45-nanometer circuitry elements, he said.

SGI says it has emerged from chapter 11 bankcrupcy protection and emerged 'leaner' and quite possibly meaner. Having dispensed with its own militant tendency, the company says it is now the 'New SGI'. It has slashed an burned a bit, dumped its old board of directors and management team and in the process saved a suggested USD 150 million a year.

The long-touted Microsoft Vista/Office 2007 tandem launch is on for the last week in November in New York, sources said. This event will focus on business usage and scenarios. The new client Windows operating system and Office client and server applications have been promised for volume business customers by year's end and for consumers by early 2007. Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division, would not comment on a specific launch timing or venue but said the company remains on track for the two promised delivery windows. He applied the usual caveat: Microsoft will not ship the code if it's not ready.

RISCOS Ltd have today announced RISC OS Six on the Glasgow leg of their northern road show. RISC OS Six is built from a completely 26 bit / 32 bit neutral source, and the move away from the RISC OS 4 brand is because 'RISC OS 4 has always been linked with 26 bit computers'. The name RISC OS Six is also said to have been chosen due to links with Advantage Six. ROL 'hopes that everyone will soon see the advantages of RISC OS 6'.