Apple today introduced the eMac, a new desktop computer targeted specifically for education that mimics the all-in-one design of the original iMac. The eMac features a 17-inch CRT display (1280x960 maximum resolution at 72 Hz), 700MHz G4 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce2MX graphics, 128MB RAM, and a 40GB hard drive. The US$999 model features a CD-ROM drive while the $1,119 model includes a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. Apple also unveiled a new PowerBook G4 running at speeds of 667MHz and 800MHz and featuring higher-resolution 1280x854 15.2-inch display. The new PowerBook G4 also features a new 4x AGP ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics processor with DVI output.

The large team known as the OpenBeOS Team, who their goal is to recreate a new operating system that it is largely compatible (source and if possible, binary too) with the abandoned BeOS has made another release. Codenamed Proto5, it is the fifth release of the app_server BeOS replacement (for BeOS agnostics, the app_server is a major part of the BeOS graphics subsystem that does not live in the applicastion address space and it also deals with the graphics driver). In related news, the OpenBFS team have also created a BFS filesystem driver and they are looking for testers.

According to a leaked video, two documents and a PowerPoint presentation at MsBetas.com, the next generation of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, scheduled to be released sometime in 2005, is introducing a number of new features. Most notably, as seen in the video is the "task shelf" concept and the replication of a window. In the documents you will also find information about the 3D-based technology to render the desktop (please do not confuse the 3D composition rendering technique with a "3D desktop/interface" - different things) and its formula. According to the bandwidth formula including in the docs, for 1024x768x32bpp (refreshing at 60Hz and composing at 30Hz), the required bandwidth is, 0.93Gb per second in the local graphics card memory. Please note that this information has not been officially confirmed by Microsoft, and until then should be treated as you would any other rumour. Notice: This happened to be our 1000th news story at OSNews! Thank you for all your support during this second "birth" of OSNews since August 2001. We started serving less than 700 pages per day back then. Six months later, we were already serving more than 30,000 page views per day, with an average of 15,5 comments per story! Thank you everyone!

"We've waited more than four years for Mozilla, the Netscape-backed open-source browser--and we're still waiting for the completed version. But Mozilla has finally posted its official Release Candidate 1 (RC 1) and plans to release the final soon." Read the review at ZDNews. NewsForge also runs an editorial for Mozilla: "Three reasons to fall in love with Mozilla". Tabbed browsing is one of the reasons, and indeed a very handy feature.

ClosedBSD is a firewall and network address translation utility which boots off of a single floppy disk or CD-Rom, and requires no hard drive. ClosedBSD is based off of the FreeBSD kernel, and uses ipfw as its native ruleset management system, and natd as it's network address translation utility. The CD-Rom version has full DHCP client support. The floppy version (1.0B) is still without it for now.

"When PalmSource, Palm's operating system unit, previewed the Palm OS version 5 at the PalmSource conference in San Jose earlier this year, participants got a chance to see a test version of Palm's next-generation OS in action." Read the rest of the story and the comparison chart of PalmOS at ZDNews.