"This is my opinion on the various distros that I have tried. I'm not a Linux expert at all. I have been using some flavor of Linux for about 2 years now, and have become proficient with Linux. Here are things that I noticed about some of the distro's that I have tried". Read the article at DesktopLinux.

Saturday evening here, nothing more exciting to do... let's suggest some geek/tech gifts for you or your loved ones, for this Christmas.

Phoenix is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to Galeon, K-Meleon and Chimera, but written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. Phoenix 0.5 (Naples) was just released for Linux and Windows. Other recent releases include Opera's 6.11 for Linux/FreeBSD and Opera 6-beta3 for Mac.

"What got me started on all this was a recent conversation I had with Ming Poon, the Xandros VP for software development, in which he explained why Xandros eschewed KDE's generic UNIX file manager in favor of a home-grown Xandros File Manager , that's tightly linked to the Linux OS. Now building a file manager has to be a huge task, and, in Ming's case, it's been his pet project ever since his days a manager of Corel Linux. Three questions come to mind: Why did they do it? Was it worth the effort? What’s the future of the XFM?" The article is focusing in the tweaked Xandros file manager.

Linux got its first big Hollywood break in 1997 when Venice, California studio Digital Domain (D2) used Linux to render the special effects for the hit movie Titanic. LinuxJournal spoke with D2 while they were in production using Linux with Star Trek: Nemesis, which has a scheduled US release date of December 13, 2002. D2 uses Linux for both renderfarm servers and artist desktops.

We were the first to inform you about the buyout of gobeProductive 3.x by starter FreeRadicalSoftware (headed also by the Gobe CEO) back in August. One of the ideas was to make gobeProductive GPL (a beta Linux version already exists). Unfortunately, it seems that FreeRadicalSoftware might not succeed in this. Read more for Gobe's and FreeRadical's Scott Lindsey's email in the Gobe user mailing list regarding the status, as it was sent by OSNews readers and GP3 users Chris Rupnik and Greg. Update: Gobe's Tom Hoke comments here and Scott Lindsey comments here.

The Moho competition is now over, and here are the three lucky winners who will be sent a Registration Code for this great cartoon-making application: Dan Severns (destatnj2 AT hotmail DOT com), Mikael Larsson (gdf759d AT tninet DOT se), Ben Oon (oonyk AT yahoo DOT com). Congratulations!

If you've used Linux for more than ten minutes, you've almost certainly come across the nightmare that is package management. You know what I mean - dependancy hell has become legendary and it's no exagguration to say that one of the most offputting aspects of Linux for a new user is the lack of InstallShield type 3 click installs. This article looks at how we ended up in the quagmire of RPM and dependancy hell, and then moves on to talk about a possible solution in the form of autopackage. It takes a high level overview of how autopackage works and what it's capable of. If you want more technical details, check out the website. Finally, this article assumes only that you're interested, not that you have any Linux experience.

"Sun Microsystems is pondering whether or not to offer Solaris code in an open-source format to boost deployment of the operating system on Intel hardware, but questions remain about the effectiveness of open source, a Sun official said this week." Read the report at InfoWorld. We asked the Sun Software CTO about it too a few days ago.

It’s easy to grow increasingly cynical the more you follow “innovation” in operating systems and software. New releases often turn out to be nothing more than reinventing, or repackaging, the wheel, with new icons and steeper system requirements. Yet every now and then persistence pays off and that lengthy download or poorly written web site delivers something truly amazing and faith in the future of computing is, albeit temporarily, restored. I experienced such a sensation a couple of months ago when I downloaded the CD-ROM based, Linux distribution known as Knoppix.

Moho is a 2D vector-based cartoon animation application for Windows and Macs, created by Lost Marble. It is not an ink & paint tool that requires you to draw and scan each frame of your animation - Moho provides the complete set of tools you need to create an animated cartoon, from drawing and coloring to keyframe animation, multi-layer compositing and final rendering of QuickTime and AVI movie files. Moho can be used to create animation for video, film, or streaming over the web and you can now be one of the three lucky OSNews readers to win a free, full copy of Moho 4.0.1.

I'm a long-time Windows user, but for years I've been searching for an intelligent alternative. Macs are actually a great choice, but have you priced them lately? I don't have two grand to spend for another system. I had been reading all the hoopla surrounding Xandros Desktop for a number of months and decided to take the plunge. I had been burned two times previously trying to install other Linux distributions. Their tech support was non-existent. I'm essentially working in a vacuum. When something has gone wrong in the past, I've found that I was on my own.

Four new articles appeared today regarding Linux on the desktop: "As business looks to Linux desktops, some critical apps lacking", "Microsoft Says Linux on Desktops Would Hurt Growth", "Red Hat chief: Linux will take desktop market share from MS", "$199 PC with no Windows, no Intel inside".

Sun Microsystems loaned OSNews the high-end version of the new Sun Blade 150 series workstation, which sells for $3,395 USD (no monitor). Since this Solaris 9/SPARC machine is intended as a workstation, it is here reviewed as such in this article and not as a server.