This section of the site is no longer being formally maintained, although new items may be added periodically.
Operating Systems
Apple OS X
The latest version of Apple operating system is OS X, the current version of which is 10.3 which is also known as Panther. This is UNIX-based unlike the previous Classic operating systems (e.g. OS 8 and 9) which are no longer being developed.
Programs developed for Classic OS will not run on OS X so it has been necessary to modify them (a process known as Carbonising) or rewrite them in Cocoa, which is Mac OS X's native programming language. In 2005 Apple announced they will be switching to Intel processors in the near future. Existing applications will need to be modified to run on that platform, a process that will be significantly easier with Cocoa applications than with Carbonised applications.
BeOS
BeOS was developed by Be Inc. to provide a limited range of features that met most users' requirements in a small, fast and stable package. It achieved little market penetration and the company's assets were bought by Palm Inc in 2001. Product development has been discontinued but there is still a hard core of dedicated users.
Linspire (formerly Lindows)
This distribution of Linux has been designed specifically for desktop PCs, with the emphasis on ease of installation and use. It is no accident that the look and feel is very similar to Microsoft Windows, allowing Windows users to easily switch. However, in most cases it is not possible to use applications developed for Windows on a Linspire machine, although it is often possible to share data between the corresponding applications on the different OSs.
The operating system was originally known as Lindows, but on 13 April 2004 the company changed the name to Linspire following legal action by Microsoft Corp.. Lindows Inc still exists but the name is not used with respect to the operating system.
Mandrake Linux
Mandrake is possibly the second most widely-used Linux distribution after Red Hat. Having chosen not to join the UnitedLinux consortium Mandrake struggled as an independent, finally going into bankruptcy from which it was released in March 2004.
Microsoft Windows
The latest versions of the ubiquitous desktop operating system can be found here.
www.microsoft.com/windows/default.mspx
Red Hat Linux
Red Hat is the most widely used distribution of Linux. Although Linux has achieved significant penetration into the server market, it has not been widely used on the desktop partially because of compatibility issues between different distributions. With a small number of vendors becoming dominant, and simplification of the user interface and installation process, Linux is now becoming mature enough for desktop use.
SuSE Linux
Established in 1992, SuSE was among the second-tier Linux vendors until its purchase on 13 January 2004 by Novell made it a serious competitor to Red Hat.
UnitedLinux
UnitedLinux is the result of four second-tier Linux vendors - Turbolinux, Caldera International, Conectiva and SuSE merging their separate products into a single version. By improving compatibility and achieving critical mass the group expect to gain the support from application developers required for them to challenge Red Hat's dominance.
In January 2004 the company announced that "the mission of UnitedLinux has been accomplished" and development ceased. Conectiva, SUSE LINUX and Turbolinux will continue to market their respective UnitedLinux distributions and will support customers throughout the lifecycle of version 1.0. As of May 2004 there are no plans for a version 2.0.