October 16, 2006

Linux Forums just published a review of the Mandriva 2007 commercial distribution of Linux. The review is quite thorough and includes a number of screenshots showing the various unique features of Mandriva 2007. Among the new features are a better installer, 3D desktop effects, multimedia acceleration, and better package management and configuration tools.

October 16, 2006

Softpedia has published a review of the three most popular free anti-virus software packages for Windows. They include Avira's AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic 7, Grisoft's AVG Free Edition 7, and Avast! Home Edition 4.7. The review features dozens of screenshots depicting all the functions of each software package.

November 1, 2005

Open source operating system OpenBSD 3.8 was released today. New features include improved hardware support, new tools for RAID and IPSec management, enhanced wireless capabilities, support for the UDF file system, enhanced ospfd and bgpd routing features, OpenSSH 4.2, and dozens of other security enhancements.

October 1, 2005

The Mozilla Foundation has released version 1.0.7 of the Mozilla Thunderbird mail client software. The new version includes a number of security fixes and is a recommended update for all users of Thunderbird.

August 17, 2005

WindowsDevCenter has published an in depth look at Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system. The article covers installation, new search functionality, virtual folders, Internet Explorer 7, Network Presentation, SafeDocs, User Account Protection, the Aero Glass interface, and a number of tips and tricks.

August 12, 2005

NewsForge has published a review of Xandros Desktop 3.0 Business Edition, a commercial Linux distribution aimed at corporate and small business desktops. One of the unique features of Xandros is the inclusion of CrossOver Office 4.2, which allows users to run many popular Windows software packages.

August 9, 2005

Tom's Hardware has published a PC game preview guide for the upcoming holiday season. The article takes a look at the newest upcoming games, including Age Of Empires III, Black And White 2, Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood, Call Of Duty 2, Civilization IV, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, F.E.A.R., Quake 4, and Star Wars: Empire At War.

August 6, 2005

Several news sites have published coverage of the OSCON 2005 conference. The O'Reilly Open Source Convention featured talks and presentations by many of the most important people in the Open Source community, including Larry Wall, Jonathan Schwartz, Guido van Rossum, Jeremy Zawodny, and many more.

August 6, 2005

Macworld has published an article detailing the new features in Mac OS X 10.4.2. These include enhancements to iChat AV, Safari, RSS management, Mail, and more. The biggest feature is an updated Disk Utility and new Disk Management framework that features enhanced disk repair functions.

June 15, 2005

ArsTechnica has published a lengthy and informative review of Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Bridge. New reviewed features of Photoshop CS2 include layer management, new thumbnail options, Smart Objects, Smart Guides, Smart Sharpen, Vanishing Point, HDR and RAW image support, and more. The article then goes on to review the new Adobe Bridge application for image and file browsing. In addition, this review features a number of QuickTime clips of the various new software features in action.

June 14, 2005

Sun Microsystems today released the Solaris operating system as open-source software. The company has published source code to the kernel on the OpenSolaris web site, and will be publishing other code over the next few months. The move is seen as critical in competing with Linux and Windows for the hearts and minds of developers and users. OpenSolaris is being released under the Community Development and Distribution License (CDDL), which means that programmers are able to use code from the operating system in other open source and commercial software projects.

June 14, 2005

MadPenguin has published a review of the new Xandros Desktop 3 Business Edition commercial distribution of Linux. Xandros Desktop 3 Business Edition is a business-oriented Linux designed to play nicely on Windows networks, working smoothly with Windows Domains and Active Directory. The product also includes CrossOver Office for Windows application compatibility. Features include Linux kernel 2.6.11, GNU/Debian package support, KDE 3.3 desktop environment, OpenOffice.org 1.1.2 and Sun StarOffice 7, Codeweavers Crossover Office 4.2, Novell Evolution 2.0.4 for use with MS Exchange, Xandros Antivirus 1.34, Skype 1.0 free Internet telephony, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7, Citrix ICA Client 8.0, xt5250 IBM 5250 terminal emulator, SAP Java Client for Linux 6.3.0r2, Wireless 802.11g support, and more.

June 10, 2005

NewsForge has published a review of the recently released Debian 3.1 distribution of Linux, previously known as Sarge. Among the new features are a much better installer; better security and reliability; enhanced package updating functionality; support for the ReiserFS, JFS, and XFS file systems during installation; KDE 3.3 and GNOME 2.8 desktops; Mozilla 1.7.8, OpenOffice.org 1.1.3, Samba 3.0.14, Python 2.3.5 and 2.4.1, and Perl 5.8.4; and more.

June 9, 2005

NewsForge has published an article that takes a look at the most powerful extensions to Mozilla's Thunderbird open source e-mail software. Among these are: Quicktext, for grouping text elements and pre-filling e-mail forms; Signature Switch, for toggling your signature with one button; Dictionary Search, an enhanced spell checker and dictionary; QuickReply and QuickQuote, for improved reply handling; Contacts Sidebar, for keeping all your contacts visible; Sender Verification, to allow authentication of e-mails; QuoteCollapse, for managing multi-level quoted text; Buttons, for adding enhanced features to Thunderbird's toolbars; infoRSS, for enhanced RSS feed management; QuickNote, for managing sticky reminder notes within Thunderbird; and many more.

June 8, 2005

Microsoft has added tabbed browsing to Internet Explorer through a new feature of the free MSN Toolbar. The software can be installed on Microsoft Windows XP / Server 2003 / 2000 and Internet Explorer 5.01 or later. Along with tabs, the MSN Toolbar features integrated web and desktop search, smart filling of online forms, and instant access to Hotmail and a number of other free MSN services.

June 8, 2005

We all know that many of the first reviews of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger were rather shallow, and really just versions of Apple's marketing literature. Now that reviewers have had some time to really use the operating system, a new wave of reviews is hitting the web. These look at Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger at a much deeper level and point out things that previous reviewers simply missed. Here are several of the new reviews of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

June 4, 2005

MacDevCenter has published a two-part article exploring all of the features of Safari RSS in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. See how you can easily manage your feeds and customize the RSS functionality in Safari to make it even more useful.

June 2, 2005

According to the Mozilla Foundation, version 1.1 of the Thunderbird open source e-mail client will support podcasts. Using existing RSS functionality, the client adds additional support for Podcast-type content and multimedia attachments. Some other new features of Thunderbird 1.1 are enhanced security, anti-phishing support, an improved spell-check engine, and better integration with third-party antivirus software.

May 19, 2005

According to a new global software piracy study done by Business Software Alliance (BSA), more than one third of all software in use today is still pirated. Estimated software company revenue losses due to piracy in 2004 was $33 billion. The countries with the highest piracy rates were Vietnam (92%), Ukraine (91%), China (90%), Zimbabwe (90%) and Indonesia (87%). The countries with the lowest piracy rates were the United States (21%), New Zealand (23%), Austria (25%), Sweden (26%), and United Kingdom (27%).

May 19, 2005

Microsoft has revealed some details about the upcoming Office 12 software suite. New features include enhanced collaboration, advanced searching and indexing, document management, incoming e-mail prioritization, creation of dashboards, XML data sharing, easier integration with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and more.