"Todd Fries and Todd Miller happily send along notice that OpenBSD 3.2 has been released. It's available by FTP, CDROMs are shipping, and is CVS if you want to source upgrade. This is a big release for OpenBSD with many substantial changes. Many users will want to reinstall from scratch and not upgrade, as architecture changes on some platforms as well as enhanced security features are best taken advantage of that way. Read on for the release notes." Read the full release notes at Deadly.org.

A very common question that comes up when trying Debian GNU/Linux is how the heck do you get Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (a.k.a. ALSA) sound modules set up properly? In this HOWTO LinuxOrbit shows you how to compile and install the ALSA kernel modules, and then setup things using the ALSA Debian script so that modules are automatically loaded and unloaded, and your mixer levels are saved and restored on boot up.

"IBM Corp is lining up the launch of its first xSeries server based on Intel's 64-bit Itanium-2 processor for the first quarter of 2003, and has confirmed that it has dropped plans to bring its AIX Unix operating system to the Itanium processor platform." Read the article at TheRegister.

Mozilla's HTML engine, named Gecko, has been powering a number of other browsers on many platforms for a while now, like Galeon, Chimera and more. Vote for your favorite one! Oh, and being on the subject, K-Meleon 0.7, Galeon 2-dev, Salamander 0.3 and Phoenix 0.4 are all very recently released.

"No matter how often it has been said, it seems that many GNU/Linux and Macintosh users refuse to see the obvious. The response to a recent article of mine demonstrated this statement as well as any other example I can think of. What is so obvious? That while speciality software and functionality is nice, it isn't going to make or break adoption of an operating system." Find out why at OfB.biz.

Workrave is a free program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Something possibly very important for all us (computer maniacs) OSNews readers. The program frequently alerts you to take micro-pauses, rest breaks and restricts you to your daily limit. Refer to the feature comparison for a complete list of features, and how the program performs with respect to other programs on the market. Currently, the program runs on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows .

Based on the number of vulnerabilities announced in 2002 that affect operating systems, the SCO Unix, Apple Macintosh and Compaq Tru64 Operating Systems appear to be the least prone to hacker attack and damage from viruses and worms. This is one of the startling conclusions of the end-of-October 2002 analysis of digital attacks to be released on 1st November.

"The only thing I regret -- and, unfortunately, I predicted this would happen -- is that the manufacturers of various competing forms of Linux have become as money-hungry as those they used to despise." Read the editorial at OSOpinion.

"Today, Microsoft launches its latest Windows XP version, XP Media Center Edition (MCE), at a special event in New York City's Bryant Park. Mike Toutonghi, vice president of the Windows eHome Division, will join actor and comedian Tom Arnold and other celebrity guests for the launch, which also coincides with the North American availability of the Hewlett-Packard Media Center PC, which runs XP MCE. Microsoft's latest OS combines the power of Windows XP with a remote control interface to digital media tasks and Digital Video Recording (DVR) functionality." Read the report at WinInfo. Update: Jim Allchin, Microsoft's Platforms Group vice president, talks about the future of specialized versions of XP.

HP and Dell, among other workstation manufacturers, have been shipping their systems with the function turned off. Right now, workstation makers say, the broad array of software used in that segment of the market doesn't take advantage of the technology yet. Users, though, can easily turn on the hyperthreading function if they wish (in the BIOS). Although the situation will change, the wrinkle in the workstation market--where Intel said users could see performance benefits of up to 30 percent on select applications--underscores the difficulties in gaining broad acceptance and use for a new technology. Only 30 apps had been fully optimized for the Pentium4 CPU in the first 9 months the chip was on sale.

Sun Microsystems-led Java Community Process Tuesday launched the latest iteration of its program, JCP 2.5, making it easier for Java-loving developers to write to the language with its focus on open-source licensing.

"MandrakeSoft PPC developer Stew Benedict has been working hard behind the scenes to give Mac users a look at how Mandrake Linux 9.1 PPC is shaping up. This is a great opportunity to take an early peek at KDE 3.1 Beta2, XFree 4.2.1, Gimp 1.2.3, Koffice 1.2, and many others." Read more and check out screenshots at MandrakeForum.

There are enormous amounts of information now available about evaluating, and examining Linux for the desktop. Almost every vendor/distribution is making pitches for the desktop. The quality of the software has improved, and continues to improve. In my personal tests, there are still some missing elements that I thought I would convey to you the reader. Some of my points may have answers, and solutions available. I may not be aware of them however, so be aware of this and I look forward to your responses in the comments area below the article.

"PalmSource has offered us a glimpse of the next milestone for PalmOS, version 6.0 due for release next year. Version 6.0 will be as dramatic a change for the platform as OS X was for Apple, or NT was for Microsoft, and represents the culmination of work from the former Be team Palm acquired last year." Read the report at TheRegister.