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When I think of open source software Microsoft is rarely the first word that comes to mind. Actually it's not even on of the first ten words. However, there are probably more Microsoft Windows users using open source software than on any other operating system. Despite this Microsoft's stance on open source is changing evidenced by recent initiatives into open source software development. Today Aras a provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software for companies that develop products announced the release if Version 9 of the Aras Innovator® suite. Version 9 delivers the first model-based service-oriented architecture (SOA) for PLM and includes single-instance multi-language capabilities and support for the latest Microsoft platform products; Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Aras is the first Microsoft Gold Partner to offer an open source solution.

The first supported first version of Sun Microsystems' OpenSolaris, AKA Project Indiana, makes its debut today with additional backing from Amazon's Elastic Computing Cloud. Sun is introducing three levels of paid support for the OpenSolaris 2008.5 code drop for developers and end users. Support starts at $49 per incident for developers and runs to $2,160 per system per year for tailored customizations, and includes 24x7 phone support along with fixes and updates.

PHP is the latest language getting the NetBeans treatment, with a PHP version of Sun Microsystems' open-source environment hitting early access today. Built on the same generic scripting framework that Sun used for Ruby, the NetBeans PHP bundle includes project management tools with refactoring and code completion to ease deployment. Sun hopes these features will, finally, wean users off Emacs and Bill Joy's vi.

Welcome to this year's 18th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! A week of many excellent releases - a brand new Slackware 12.1 (read our first-look review of the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution), an updated OpenBSD 4.3 (check out the exhaustive interview with the project developers at ONLamp.com), a hot new Puppy Linux 4.00 (with pretty artwork and a large number of state-of-the-art features and packages), and an Xfce edition of Mandriva Linux 2008.1 (complete with Compiz support on an installable live CD). But the excitement never ends here at DistroWatch; as we go to press, the first-ever stable release of OpenSolaris is hitting the download mirrors, together with a plethora of related announcements and Planet posts from the growing OpenSolaris developer and user community. There is also more news on the latest beta of openSUSE 11.0, information about the first alpha release of PC-BSD 7.0, and the usual columns, including a donation of €250 to the GSPCA project for its amazing work developing Linux webcam drivers. There is lot more, so enjoy the read!

Regular readers will know that I’ve rallied against Microsoft’s so-called “Get the facts” site for the last fortnight. Rather than give legitimate comparisons facing off Windows servers vs Linux options the site opts for bunkum and hogwash with sensational headlines that have no underlying substance. Here’s the state of play. First, let’s get the facts on Microsoft’s “Get the facts” campaign. Some readers have correctly pointed out this was something Microsoft promoted heavily a couple of years ago. While most all feedback has been very kind and positive some did question just what relevance this old campaign is to modern readers.

Zimbra, the open source email platform owned by Yahoo, gets a new lease on life now that the Microsoft-Yahoo discussions appear dead. Here's the scoop from The VAR Guy.

BIOSLEVEL.com looks at Sapphire’s Radeon HD3870 TOXIC edition videocard, and benchmarks it under both Linux and Windows. Is it enough to beat nVidia’s 8800GTX?

The International Organization for Standardization's OpenDocument Format standard is broken and needs to be mended, according to an expert who claimed to have carried out tests on the format. Alex Brown, a document-format expert who is convenor of the process to standardize Office Open XML (OOXML), posted a blog this week reporting the results of tests which he claimed revealed that OpenOffice documents did not conform to the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO's) version of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard.

Those people who frown at the Linux GUI (Graphical User Interface) haven’t actually experienced the 3D effects provided by Compiz. Compiz is a composite manager that adds visually pleasing 3D effects to your desktop - these include the cube effect and other window minimization effects that make things very appealing on your screen. For instance, drag a window and the window wobbles. Compiz also has plugin support which means that you can add more such effects to decorate your desktop’s look.

I was cleaning up my /home partiton when I noticed I had several tiny distros hanging around waiting to be tested. So I thought this might be a good time to write an updated Mini-distro Roundup. Unlike last time, the five contestants are all less than 88 MB in download size. The five contestants are CDlinux 0.6.1, Damn Small Linux 4.3r2, Puppy 4.0rc, Slitaz 1.0, and Austrumi 1.6.5. All of these are the latest stable except Damn Small and Puppy, that are release candidates. So, we'll cut them just a bit of slack in the stability department if need be.

Dell, HP and Lenovo have promised to push chipset vendors to make open source drivers for Linux. Representatives from Dell, HP and Lenovo made the commitment at a Linux Foundation conference last week, promising to include wording in their hardware procurement processes to "strongly encourage" the delivery of open source drivers for integration into the Linux kernel.

When I have a few spare time or just want to loosen up a bit, I always indulge myself into playing some computer games. Since most of my extra time is very limited, I usually pick those that are less stressful and less time consuming. I go for the old-fashioned and graphics card-friendly puzzle and arcade games. Call me boring, but these stuff are really addictive and highly entertaining. So, what are these games? If you are using Linux, some of these games are probably included out-of-the box with your distro. If you are using Windows, better tell your boss to switch to Linux if you don't want to be stuck to playing Solitaire and Minesweeper your entire office life.

NAC, Trustsec, PCI, Linux and more are all on the table as Cisco VP outlines the network giant's strategy moving forward. While the economy may be cool, the world of networking is anything but, according to Marie Hattar, VP of Network Systems and Security Solutions for Cisco. There are a lot of reasons why Hattar is so upbeat including new product initiatives, compliance drivers and overall customer sentiment.

I've had the Asus Eee PC at home for about four hours. But I haven't been able to get my hands on it yet because my two pre-teen sons LOVE the Eee PC. They didn't ask a single question about how to use the sub-notebook. In fact, the Eee PC shatters the myth that consumers aren't ready for Linux. Here's why.

Today a discussion started about the availability of CrossOver for BSD systems on the CodeWeavers mailing list.

"So this merge window was somewhat rocky in the sense that there was a lot of arguments about it, but at the same time I at least personally think that from a technical angle, we had somewhat less scary stuff going on than has been almost the rule lately," noted Linux creator Linus Torvalds, announcing the 2.6.26-rc1 kernel.

SSH’s (secure shell) most common authentication mode is called “interactive keyboard password authentication”, so called both because it is typically done via keyboard, and because openssh takes active measures to make sure that the password is, indeed, typed interactively by the keyboard. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to fool ssh into accepting an interactive password non-interactively. This is where sshpass comes in.

The new version of VirtualBox, 1.6, for Linux, Mac, Windows, and Solaris has just recently been released with lots of new features.

Microsoft has decided to withdraw from its bid to buy Yahoo, with Steve Ballmer citing Yahoo's demand for US $37 per share as just too much – but is the deal really dead? It had been shaping up as the tech world’s biggest ‘deal or no deal’ of 2008 – a multi-billion dollar takeover offer of Yahoo by Microsoft. But in the end, Microsoft has said ‘no deal’ and walked away, only willing to pay US $33 per share - itself a revised offer that added US $5 billion to Microsoft's original offer of US $31 per share, against Yahoo’s demand for US $37 per share.

Modern CPU's can be power-hungry beasts, and they can also run quite hot. Take, for example, the highest speed offerings from both Intel and AMD. Intel's 3.0 Gigahertz Yorkfield Quad-core is rated to consume about 130 Watts of power, while AMD's 3.0 Gigahertz 6000+ Dual-core is rated to consume about 125 Watts. Fortunately, modern processors from both companies now include a power-saving technology known as CPU Frequency Scaling. So, when super-high speeds aren't needed, the frequency will get scaled back, so that the CPU consumes less power and runs cooler. (AMD's implementation of this is called Cool n' Quiet, and Intel's implementation is called SpeedStep.) This is all supposed to happen automatically, but there may be times when you'll want to control it manually. Here's one example of why.