"As thousands of programmers converge on San Francisco to attend Sun Microsystems' JavaOne conference, which opens Monday, Microsoft is working in parallel to convince some of the flock to switch banners. That job falls to John Montgomery, who has the chore of trying to convince millions of Java developers to embrace Microsoft's .Net technology." Read the interview at News.com. "Java is drawing a rising number of businesses and software developers but still must overcome major obstacles before its long-term success is assured--including roadblocks from the very people who support the programming language." Read the story at ZDNews.

Just some days ago Apple requested input from PC users or from Mac users coming from the PC world. They asked for some input regarding what a PC user would like to see on Apple's products. While I am already a Mac user, I would like to see the following. If it doesn't happen (as it hasn't), I intend to do it myself with some smart friends.

From the press release: "Trolltech, the leader in multi-platform development frameworks, today unveiled Qtopia, a Linux-based application environment that brings the power of desktop computing to mobile embedded devices. Trolltech is the creator of Qt, the application framework that lets developers create cross platform, single-source applications that run natively. Qtopia is already being used to power the new Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA, with several additional design wins bringing products to market in 2002."

"An attorney for Microsoft argued in court on Monday that Red Hat Inc. had failed to popularize the Linux computer operating system because of its own shortcomings, not because of any interference from Microsoft. Cross-examining Red Hat Chief Technology Officer Michael Tiemann, Microsoft attorney Stephanie Wheeler said Red Hat had spent little money on research and development, and dedicated few of its employees to winning over software developers to write programs for Linux." Read the report at ZDNews.

Sun Microsystems launches its annual JavaOne conference with a new determination to reverse its fortune. For all its hype and popularity, Java has made more money in direct software sales for competitors than for the company that invented it. "As Sun Microsystems' chief claim to fame in the software world, Java began seven years ago as a bold assault on the company's sworn enemy, Microsoft." The article is at ZDNews. "At the JavaOne conference in San Francisco this week, Java software makers will attempt to regain ground lost to Microsoft in the emerging market for Web services development tools and technologies." This article also at ZDNews. "Sun Microsystems Inc. is pushing Java further into the Web services realm with a new version of its Java 2 Enterprise Edition under development. In addition, the company will broadly release this week a beta of its next-generation Java virtual machine for handhelds." This article is at ExtremeTech.

"Microsoft Windows XP Embedded offers developers a componentized version of the Windows XP operating system. Developers can pick and choose exactly those components required to fulfill their design requirements, resulting in a reduced footprint that is specifically tailored for their design. This article presents a technical overview of security considerations in the componentized environment offered by Windows XP Embedded." Read the article at MSDN. "A component, the most basic element of a Microsoft Windows XP Embedded configuration, is an indivisible unit of functionality that can be included in an embedded run-time image. The next level of complexity is a macro component, which bundles several individual components. Macro components make it possible for multiple components to be included, or instantiated, in the configuration by instantiating only the macro component." Read the article at MSDN."

This week OSNews spoke to Addison Snell, a Product Marketing Manager at SGI. The legendary computer maker has been through some tumultuous times in the last few years but seems ready to make a healthy resurgence. Two weeks ago they hosted their Global Developer Conference in San Francisco. This is the first of a number of conversations OSNews will be hosting about SGI.

"This is Part 1 in a two-part series on system panics. In this column, Michael Lucas talks about how to prepare a FreeBSD system in case of a panic. In the next column, he'll talk about what to do when the worst happens." Read the article at ONLamp.com.

From the announcement: "Yes, it's gotten to this. The developers are working in their sleep. It's time for SKIPJACK, the new Red Hat Linux beta. Packed with the very latest technology, SKIPJACK includes: the 2.4.18 kernel, XFree86 4.2.0, KDE 3.0pre, GNOME 1.4, including Evolution, Mozilla 0.9.9 and more..." The beta comes in five CDs (no less than 2.8 GB of download) but as usual, only the first disk is needed to have a working installation.

On March 13, a special report published on News.com site described the revival of an old Microsoft initiative. That News.com report said: "Microsoft is replacing the plumbing of its Windows operating system with technology borrowed from its SQL Server database software. Currently, documents, Web pages, e-mail files, spreadsheets and other information are stored in separate, mostly incompatible software. The new technology will unify storage in a single database built into Windows that's more easily searchable, more reliable, and accessible across corporate networks and the Internet."

A former Gateway executive recently testified (NY Times login required) that Microsoft punishes PC clone manufacturers like Gateway for developing rival products. This was i.e. done by reducing discounts Gateway received for the Windows operating system. Gateway at a time was developing a new Amiga computer, but all of the sudden this ambitious project was cancelled, reliable sources (read the comments section of this article I recently wrote for OSNews) have stated Microsoft to be the reason behind this sudden move. My opinion: A good example of how Microsoft stifled technological progress within the computer industry these last 10 years. Hopefully people will start to understand why it has taken the Amiga community this long to get a new Amiga computer onto the market and why PC manufacturers left Amiga technology in the cold when the classic still was clearly superior technology compared to Microsoft's offerings.

Just two days ago the last "Release Candidate" for KDE3 was released with major bug fixes. There are source and RPM packages for Slackware 8, SuSE, Connectiva, Tru64, RedHat and Mandrake. One of the interesting new features that KDE developer Nikolas "WildFox" Zimmermann was working the last few months, was to add SVG support to KDE (screenshot 1 and 2 - the icons shown are just test icons borrowed from Nautilus). SVG is a vector graphics format, similar to Flash, but more standardised as it is recommended by the W3C Consortium. While the code is completed, Nikolas will not see his work integrated to KDE, at least not before KDE 3.1, simply because no one has created some original artwork, SVG graphics for KDE (this iconset in SVG format should look good). If you own tools that can export to SVG (free tools like Kontour and Sketch should do the trick too, in addition to Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand, etc), and you are a graphics artist, you may want to join the KDE team and contribute your icons to be used by millions of users worldwide.

"Microsoft has reshuffled its roadmaps once again, and begun briefing partners and customers to expect an interim upgrade to Windows XP, dubbed XP "SE", in the first quarter of next year. This buys more time for the Longhorn team to complete the complex task of implementing a native database file store, which Jon Honeyball first revealed to the world at The Register here, last August. In January we exclusively confirmed that the native, SQL Server-derived database would go in Longhorn, with the Blackcomb release - originally earmarked for the transition - pushed out to 2004." Read the exclusive report at TheRegister.

"Whenever I visit Microsoft, I'm always reminded that the Microsoft of reality--at least the Microsoft I see when I talk to the people who actually design, build, and market the company's technologies and products--is very different from the Microsoft of myth. Before I calculate my Microsoft Report Card, based on my trip to Redmond earlier this week, I'd like to address some of those myths and explain how they vary from the reality I've seen firsthand." Read the rest of the article at ZDNews AnchorDesk.