The new "Linux-enabled" Lenovo laptop launched this week at LinuxWorld will not actually come "pre-loaded" with Novell SUSE Linux, a high-ranking Lenovo official said today, contradicting some industry reports stating otherwise.

If you are a security conscious or have to spend some time on less reputable web sites a great option is to use either Linux or OS X. Because the high majority of security threats which we are exposed to are designed to compromise Windows, by moving to a non-Windows operating system those threats no longer matter. This is not true all the time, especially for spam and phishing, but the possibility of a virus or spyware is greatly decreased. The problem is, of course, that people are reluctant to move to a new operating system, even a free one. A solution to this is virtualization, or basically running one of these non-Windows operating systems from within Windows.

Mandriva Linux 2007 Beta 2 version "Odin" has been released: It comes with GNOME 2.16 beta 2, Kernel 2.6.17 (based on 2.6.17.8, with ALSA 1.0.12 rc2, i965 support, and new kernel factorization: normal, enterprise and legacy). KDE 3.5.4, more applications migrated to XDG menus, new 'Ia Ora' Mandriva Theme (only included in GNOME for now) and a new VPN configuration tool (drakvpn).

Windows Mobile 5.0 is an operating system for the mobile devices. It is based on Windows CE version 5.0 and is a 32-bit operating system. Just like any other operating system, it performs many services like process management, file management, memory management and also power management. In this article, OSWeekly explores the memory architecture of Windows Mobile 5.0.

"Linspire Inc. claims that the recently released Freespire is the development version of Linspire, much like Fedora Core is the freely available development version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. During the several days that I used it, I found this to be true in both a good and a bad way. It's good in the sense that the software that comprises Freespire is a bit more modern, but bad in that it has a few problems that make it unsuitable for a production release." Read more at TheJemReport.

If you write Windows kernel mode drivers you really should watch this video. You will be impressed with the work that has gone into the Kernel Mode Driver Framework. This framework abstracts some of the pain points away for driver developers giving them the freedom to concentrate on their algorithms related to device usability.

RealNetworks will release open-source software this year that will let Linux computers play Windows Media files legally. The media delivery software company and Novell made the announcement at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. Novell said it will include the tool in its Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in the fourth quarter.

"I'm rather impressed. Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is designed to do just that – impress the user from the start, with a smooth and (mostly) simple experience that will satisfy the secretary through to the MD. It does still have some areas to work on, however." Read the rest at Tectonic's.

AMD plans to announce its new 'Rev F' generation of Opteron server processors Tuesday, the next volley in a competition with Intel's newly competitive Xeon models. The Rev F Opterons, all dual-core models, add new virtualisation abilities and faster memory, run at the same 2.6GHz top speed as preceding mainstream models, and plug into AMD's new 'Socket F'. Although that new socket disrupts server designers' easy upgrade path from one Opteron to the next, it also lays the foundation for quad-core chips in 2007 and for server designs through the end of the decade.

OpenOffice.org has hit back at claims that the alternative office applications suite is riddled with security holes. Researchers at the French Ministry of Defense say that OpenOffice is subject to security weaknesses that make it at least as susceptible to computer viruses as the commercial, more widely used, Microsoft Office.

The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo lurched to a start on Monday at the Moscone Center in San Francisco with half-day tutorials and after-hours parties for the early birds. As per usual, the first day of LinuxWorld consisted of tutorials only, while the exhibitors worked furiously to get their booths set up before the exhibit floor was scheduled to open on Tuesday morning.

Dell plans to announce a voluntary recall of 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries used within its laptops because the batteries could overheat, prompting a risk of fire. The batteries, manufactured by Sony, were found in 25 Dell laptops and eight Dell 'mobile workstation'-class notebook PCs. Dellbatteryprogram.com provides instructions on how to determine whether a notebook battery was affected by the recall, and if so, how to ship it back.

The developers of RISC OS 5 are prepared to open source 'elements' of the operating system, acccording to a report in Archive magazine today. Castle boss Jack Lillingston reportedly told Archive editor Paul Beverley on-the-record that the company is "very seriously considering making RISC OS open source".

Version 0.63 of Visopsys was released today. It's a maintenance release with bugfixes and loads of small tweaks throughout the system, but also a few new little features, including the ability to format and resize Linux swap partitions, more reliable OS loading, better CPU detection, and a simple text editor. Detailed change log and downloads.