The Ark Linux team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Ark Linux 2006.1 and Ark Linux Live 2006.1. This release adds KDE 3.5.4, X.Org 7.1.1, amaroK 1.4.1, and the new tool "rpmhandler", which makes installing third party packages easier.

Transgaming has announced Cider, their WINE-based gaming virtualization for Intel Macs. This is similar to their previous Cedega software, which served as a way to play Windows games on Linux.

"We've been talking, meeting, and arguing over GPL 3 for nearly two years. Recently, the second draft of the long-awaited rewrite of the popular free-software license arrived. But Linus Torvalds wasn't happy with the first draft, and nothing has been modified in the second draft to make him change his mind."

In all appearance of an ad-supported operating system is probably not that far off. This article takes a look at some of the finer points behind an OS which is financed with ad views, and more specifically the logic behind a free version of Windows which could make this a reality. There are a few issues which must be resolved first, but with Microsoft refining Windows Live and shifting some of their focus to advertising, many of the pieces seem to be falling into place. A few years ago we featured an editorial and poll on the subject here at OSNews.

"It was reported this week that Novell has banned all proprietary software from their Linux offerings. To me, this would be a bit like McDonalds announcing it will adopt an Atkins-only menu, selling only healthy, low-carb salads, and dropping fries, shakes, and the Big Mac as we know it. It might be a noble thing for McDonalds to only sell healthy items, but they would likely see a big decrease in customers. Most consumers want more balance in their menu choices, not less. Limiting choice, especially the most popular ones, is usually a bad idea."

"I've tested and/or reviewed every version of this operating system since the first version, and each time I start out impressed but end up walking away disappointed. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is not an exception to this tradition. While it may be a decent desktop operating system, I can't possibly recommend that sysadmins rely on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in a production environment."

"Is Fedora for its users, or is Fedora for Red Hat? That is, is Fedora a distribution that people should run and to which people should contribute, or is it really, as detractors have often claimed, simply a playground for new ideas on their way to Red Hat Enterprise Linux?"

Coming Monday, 'His Steveness' will once again hold a keynote, at WWDC 2006, in which he at least will talk about Mac OS 10.5, Leopard. Rumours abound: virtual desktops, .Mac file syncing. iChat Mobile. Improved Spotlight, Safari 3.0. Xeon-based Xserves, Mac Pro, and more. For me, it means ten Firefox windows open with live-text streams, spread out over three monitors. Also fun.

Firefox 1.5.0.6 is a stability update that is part of our ongoing program to provide a safe Internet experience for our customers. We recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version. Fixed an issue with playing Windows Media content.

"Two weeks ago Microsoft and XenSource announced an agreement to grant interoperability of virtual machines on upcoming Windows Server Virtualization and XenEnterprise virtualization platforms. The move raised the attention of the whole IT world, involving license, support, security, and performance issues. Virtualization.info interviewed both companies to understand the details of the agreement and shed light on what customers can expect from the Microsoft hypervisor release."

The KDE team announced a new project to re-synchronize our HTML engine, KHTML, with the WebKit engine. Code named Unity, the project has so far focused on porting the WebKit engine to Qt 4 with minimal changes to the existing code-base. WebKit is a derivative of the KHTML engine by Apple.

Intel has issued patches for flaws in its Centrino device drivers and ProSet management software that affect the security of the wireless products. One could allow an attacker to break into a PC via Wi-Fi or even create a worm that jumps from one wireless-enabled laptop to another, provided the computers are within each other's range. Another security hole makes the system vulnerable to attacks that let a malicious user gain additional privileges.

With beta testing underway for Windows Service 2003 Service Pack 2, which also is designed for Windows XP x64 edition, Microsoft is providing a bit more details about the impending upgrade. Window Server program manager Ward Ralston says SP2 will be much less painful than SP1.

"Following on the heels of the Firefox 2.0 beta in mid-July, Mozilla has released the first 2.0 previews of its Thunderbird email client. Firefox may get most of the attention, thanks to its flashier job, but it is the trusty email reader that conducts most of the killer-app conversations on a daily basis. Let's see what the new build holds in store."