According to a brief paragraph on MacOS Rumours Apple may be switching to IBM POWER4 CPUs instead of the Motorola G5 for future Macs.

"In the true fashion of top ten lists, I've written and published for geeks without brains and decency my list of reasons for hating them." Read the top ten list at TUX Reports.

Security Update 7-12-02 increases the security of the Software Update process for systems with Software Update client 1.4.5 or earlier. Packages presented via the Software Update mechanism are now cryptographically signed, and the new Software Update client 1.4.6 checks for a valid signature before installing new packages. Downloaded packages which do not contain a valid signature are deleted from the system.

"Here's a riddle: What's a little bigger than a Wheat Thin, has more transistors than the adult population of the United States, draws as much power as a small vacuum cleaner, and costs as much as a top-quality HDTV? Give up? It's Intel's 64-bit McKinley CPU, soon to be released as Itanium 2. McKinley is the newest member of the IA64 processor family." Read the article at MCPMag.

"When my copy of SuSE Linux 8.0 arrived, I almost felt like I was coming home after a long trip. SuSE had been my primary Linux distribution for over two years, until last November, so it was exciting to see what they had been up to. SuSE 8.0 seems as good a way as any to come back to SuSE, after all it was the first distribution to ship with KDE 3, and it comes with a truckload of improvements over previous versions." Read the review at OpenForBusiness.

Adam Wiggins has put together 10 reasons of what he believes it is wrong with Linux today. Our Take: Some of his points seem correct, but others are already fixed for most distributions. I really had a smile in my face reading his point No 5. It is exactly what I was talking about 2 weeks ago, and only the Amiga, OSX and BeOS-6/Dano people were able to follow of what it really means to have a smooth desktop! Read the discussion and explanation starting here and especially here.

KDE 3 was released only a few months ago, and it is, to date, the most successful version of the series, serving more than 50% of the Unix and Linux desktops, surpassing Gnome (~21%) and the rest of the gang. However, KDE is not perfect, and still not as comfortable as the Windows or as sexy as the MacOSX desktops. It lacks two things: integration with the underlying system and UI polishing. Today, I will mostly talk about the polishing part, as a lot has been already said elsewhere about the seemingly unsolvable integration issue (because of the modularity and completely independant/remote software projects.) Update: And as I was just publishing this article, KDE 3.1-Alpha was released. I hope that some of my recommendations will make it to the final version of KDE 3.1.

"With Longhorn, the next version of Windows due out in 2005, the company will take its first serious stab at delivering on Gates' vision. And a new application programming interface (API) framework, code-named Avalon, will be at the core of Longhorn's new information-access architecture, according to sources. Avalon is the key to the new "inductive" user interface that will debut in Longhorn, sources say. The new UI will allow users to organize and share information more intuitively, most likely using some kind of "dock," a la Microsoft Office XP, sources say. " Read the report at eWeek.

The new Linux kernel maintainer speaks to ZDNet UK about opportunities for Linux in applications big and small, and explains why UnitedLinux is a good idea.

The Sun-backed group will unveil the detailed workings of their Liberty Alliance specification--leading the way to build "single-sign-on" Web sites and software. Read the report at ZDNews.

"Microsoft is to ship the McKinley version of its 64-bit .NET Server preview software to PC manufacturers later this month. It being tagged Microsoft Windows Advanced Server, Limited Edition version 1.2, one can reasonably conclude that it is not finished as such, but if we're going to provide software for Intel hardware as soon as it's out (which is what we've said we'll do, isn't it?) then LE it has to be." Read the report at TheRegister.

Microsoft yesterday released a new beta build 2800.1067 of Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1 to its set of external testers. The email sent to testers states that this new beta build includes all IE 6 security patches up to and including the security patch released on May 15th which addresses Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-023. The report was found at ActiveWin.

Nicholas Petreley explores desktop Linux beyond GNOME and KDE. In this column, he examines and compares several window-managers, detailing which of these applications is best for different types of users. The article is at LinuxWorld.

Computers of the future could be controlled by eye movements, rather than a mouse or keyboard. Scientists at Imperial College, London, are working on eye-tracking technology that analyses the way we look at things. The team are trying to gain an insight into visual knowledge - the way we see objects and translate that information into actions. Read the report at BBC News.