Content and news by Rob Williams

WALTHAM, Mass. – July 17, 2006 – Novell today announced the worldwide availability of SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10, the next-generation platform for the open enterprise. SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 from Novell® includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, providing a secure and reliable foundation for enterprise computing from the desktop to the data centre – a lineup of enterprise-class solutions matched by no other Linux vendor. Novell will showcase SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 at the LinuxWorld* Conference & Expo in San Francisco Aug. 15-17.

OSNews was on the money with this prediction. You can read the full release right here.

Since yesterday, .iso downloads for SUSE Enterprise Linux Desktop/Server 10 have been available from Novell’s download page. After seeking confirmation from Novell’s Nat Friedman, we can confirm these are indeed the final releases. SLED 10 is available for x86 and x86-64, while SLES 10 can be obtained for x86, AMD64/EM64T, PPC, IBM Power, Itanium, and IBM’s zSeries. According to Friedman, a “big marketing blitz” will happen today.

If there has ever been a distro surrounded with hype, it may be SLED 10. SUSE 10 was completely bug ridden, as we saw in our article last month. Things are looking great for SLED and SLES though. You can expect our thorough evaluation in the coming weeks.

Starting on July 15, the day that the Mozilla Foundation was created, we ask that you tell just one person who doesn’t use Firefox why you think they should, why you do. Share Firefox with a friend. If your friend downloads Firefox before September 15, you’ll both be immortalized in Firefox 2.

In other news, the Firefox source code size for 2.0 will be quintupled due to all of the names. Seriously though, this is a great idea, but could it be due to the fact that Opera 9 seems to be getting rave reviews?

And so it is with digital cameras. Lots of people assume that a camera with more megapixels must take better pictures than one with fewer. The truth can actually, quite often, be exactly the opposite. And it’s getting worse. There are now plenty of rather cheaper consumer cameras out there that have 8MP sensors, because every manufacturer knows it’s hard to sell a five or six megapixel camera when your competitor’s shiny new 8MP model’s on the shelf for not much more money.

If you consider yourself a digital camera noob, then this article is going to be right up your alley. It clearly proves that more megapixels does not mean a camera is better, similar to AMD GHz vs. Intel GHz on PCs.

We all know this a year of change in the video game market place. The future of the industry is very much at a crossroads with the big 3 bringing out their new platforms and many questions remain unanswered. Maybe it’s time to say “the Emperor Has No Clothes.” The video game business is clearly broken and is in desperate need of fixing. This is not just another console transition—we are 6 years away from the last one and in a totally different world.

There are a lot of good points made here, including the fact that next-gen games will be too pricey. They are expensive now, so how much further are consumers willing to be pushed? Also noted is the fact that games are still considered as a ‘product’ and not a type of media.

Core 2 Duo E6300 overclocked on ASUS P5W DH Deluxe by more than 50%, which is a very good result. At the same time we managed to surpass (though not tremendously) the nominal frequency of the top-of-the-line model in the family – the Core 2 extreme X6800. Keeping in mind relatively low influence of the cache memory size on the overall performance, we can state that for less than $200 you can get a CPU running close to a 1000-dollar model.

It’s not too often I get excited by results displayed by a ‘value’ chip, but the E6300 can get any enthusiast excited. Not only did it get a good overclock on a ‘bad’ board, the performance results are nothing short of amazing. Super Pi 8 Million in three and a half minutes!

Gracenote, the company responsible for the CDDB database that helpfully grabs track and album titles from the Internet whenever you play a CD, has scored a major deal with dozens of music publishers. This deal will enable Gracenote to provide commercial song lyric services over the Internet.

Don’t get excited yet. When the service sees the light of day, it may be available only to those who purchase the song. Further details simply don’t seem to be clear right now. It would be great to see this used as a searchable database though, since current lyric sides are very pop-up and spyware ridden.

Cases & Enclosures
• Coolermaster Xcraft HDD Enclosure – Red & Blackness

Cooling
• Jetart Aluminium HCA01 Hard Disk Cooler – Tech Domain

Memory & Storage
• A-DATA Football Disk 512MB – techPowerUp!
• July 2006 Storage Price Guide – AnandTech
• nMedia ZE-C26 External USB 2.0 All-in-1 Card Reader – Think Computers
• OCZ 2GB PC2-8000 Titanium VX2 – Pro-Clockers

Motherboards & Processors
• ECS C19-A SLI 30-day Test Drive – techFEAR
• Intel E6700 Core 2 Duo – T-Break
• Interactive Intel CPU Processor Guide 1.3 – OC Inside

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Bluetake BT500+ Bluetooth Rechargeable Super Mini Mouse – A True Review
• Everglide g-1000 Professional Gaming Mouse and Mouse Glidez – Big Bruin
• fUnc sUrface1030 Archetype Mouse Pad – XYZ Computing
• Ideazon FANG Gaming Pad – HardOCP
• Logitech MX610 Laser Mouse – GideonTech
• NorthQ 4775-500S PSU – Driver Heaven
• OCZ GameXStream 600W PSU – PC Modding Malaysia
• Plextor 760A DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner – PC Apex
• Razer Mantis Gaming Surfaces – Virtual-Hideout
• Saitek A-350 Wireless Headphone – Futurelooks
• Sapphire Ivory MP3 Player – Technic3D (German)

Displays & Video Cards
• HIS CrossFire Radeon X1600Pro Turbo 128MB – Bona Fide Reviews
• Powercolor 1600XTBRAVO256 – Hardware Logic
• Summer 2006 GeForce 7 Graphics Gear – Toms Hardware

Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
• AlphaShield X2 Professional Firewall – Phoronix
• Cooler Master Mystique 631 Contest – Overclockers Online
• GNOME v2.15.4 (Linux) – Phoronix
• Sony VAIO VGN-AR11S Blu-ray Notebook – Trusted Reviews

Many gamers feel they have to trim the system to keep their machines light enough to lug around but it stands to reason that the lighter the essentials, essentials like the case itself, the less of the important stuff you have to live without.

Check out the full review at UK Gamer.

The RIAA accused Debbie Foster of copyright infringement in November 2004 while adding Amanda Foster, Debbie’s daughter, to the complaint from the RIAA in July of 2005. Although offered the opportunity to settle out of court for $5,000, Foster elected to fight the case. After being asked to provide dates of alleged copyrighted files downloaded and when they were downloaded, the RIAA didn’t have the records — The RIAA decided to ask the court to withdraw its case. While doing so, Judge Lee R. West also awarded her attorneys fees.

So let me get this straight. The RIAA sues people, and doesn’t have records to back up their claims? You have to wonder how many of their cases lack such data.

There’s been a lot of recent fuss over freedb. My position is that freedb was just not free enough, and I would like to find a way to bring all the data into the public domain, just as MusicBrainz has done with much of their data. I had not thought that this would be possible until I received advice from various parties suggesting that it was.

Regardless of whether it should be public domain or not, the most important thing is that it doesn’t die to begin with. I use FreeDB near every day!

When building a complete system the choice of the components of course is very important. Many concentrate on picking a good CPU and video card but forget that the road to a stable and fast system starts with the motherboard. If you plan on building a system for two video cards the choice is pretty simple; a motherboard using NVIDIA’s SLI-technology or a motherboard using ATI’s Crossfire technology.

If you’ve been looking for the definitive multi-GPU article, then this collection of 8 or 9 will be worth reading. You can check out part 3 of this series over at Bjorn3D.

To the point, though. For $150, you could either outfit the perpetual in your system with good, silent air cooling, or the Nautilus 500, and considering that you’ll be running just one fan instead of several, it just makes sense to use something like this when it comes to systems where silence is a golden key.

I am a big fan of the N500, and have them on two of my PC’s. Motherboards.org also enjoyed the product, but expressed that an addition of a dual rad could make a substantial difference.

To be quite frank, the numbers speak quite clearly for
themselves when it comes to the performance delta between the ATI
Windows and Linux drivers. Even for the Linux drivers being based upon
the ATI Windows Catalyst suite, the frame-rate performance under Linux
is one of the critical areas for improvement in this graphics battle.

ATI certainly has a long way to go here. Some of the playtests scored less than half of the FPS Windows was delivering. NVIDIA is going to stay the Linux favorite for a while.

Ultra Products has entered the fast growing Small Form Factor (SFF) case market with the MicroFly. This case is made to be lite yet strong for traveling to LANS. Does it make the grade and have enough features to compete with the other SFF cases?

Yet another Ultra product review this morning, but this ones catered to you SFF folks. Looks like a sweet case for your HTPC and even includes a window!

An Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) is something many people forget when building a computer system. For most it’s not an essential item and the majority opt for just a quality surge protector. That’s fine, unless you are concerned about losing data and/or time when there is a power failure. Ultra has a wide range of UPS models. They range from 600 watts to 1200 watts and carry a $125,000 guarantee against damage to your connected equipment. Get backed!” Watch the Video to find out more…

Now THIS is a beast. 1200W worth of power, which Ultra claims could power your desktop PC for over 90 minutes. Check out what 3D Gameman has to say.

I don’t know if you are aware, but NGOHQ is based and hosted in Israel, despite the fact that most of our staff are located in the United States and Europe, except one person. However, when we communicate with hardware manufacturers they agree to give us cooperation until they hear that the site is based in Israel. And then the excuses start.

Discrimination? Could be. You can read what Regen has to say right here.

It is hard to boil down the analysis of a device as powerful and useful as the Treo 700p into just a few sentences, but overall this smartphone is worth considering. The 700w was an OK attempt at a Windows Mobile phone, but now Palm is back in its element and has put together a successor to the legendary Treo 650.

While the e-mail functions can’t touch Blackberrys capabilities, this is one solid looking PDA.

Bellevue, WA, July 14, 2006 – Valve®, developer of the blockbuster series Half-Life® and Counter-StrikeTM, unveiled Team Fortress® 2 and Portal, two new games to be included in its next release, Half-Life® 2: Episode Two. In addition, the studio announced its plans to deliver these products, plus enhanced versions of Half-Life 2 and Episode One, in one tremendous package for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Ok for one, I am psyched for Episode 2 and even this new Portal mode. But, what in the blazes happened to TF2? It was nothing like this back in the day. Check out the entire release and you will see what I mean.

The NDA has finally been lifted, and there are countless reviews around the web.

As much as I appreciate the performance and efficiency of these new CPUs, though, I can’t endorse forking out a cool grand (minus one) for a Core 2 Extreme X6800. These top-end CPUs are always iffy values, even if they’re insane performers. Meanwhile, the prices on the first two Core 2 Duos are very reasonable for what you get. At $316, the Core 2 Duo E6600 looks like a tremendous deal, provided you can get your hands on one. The E6700 is pricier at $530, but it’ll beat the much more expensive FX-62 at almost every turn. – Tech Report

Intel’s Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme are almost here, and they seem to be everything Intel promised and then some. The Core 2’s 4-issue core, shorter pipeline, Smart Memory Access and Advanced Smart Cache technologies make Intel the performance leader once again. It was a tough few years for Intel, as AMD’s Athlon 64, FX, and X2 processors outperformed their products almost across the board. But Intel isn’t playing second fiddle to AMD anymore. Make no mistake, the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme are very real, and their performance is undeniable. – Hot Hardware

If I had an older system and had to put my foot down and choose a system with the future in mind, I would probably lean toward the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 platform for “future proofing” if Oblivion were any indication of future games. If you have a higher-end AMD Athlon 64 system platform right now though, there really isn’t any need to go scrambling to Intel Core 2 at this particular time for gaming. I’d wait it out and see what the future brings. – HardOCP

With both the Core 2 Extreme X6800 and the Core 2 Duo E6700 easily outperforming the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 across the board we expect AMD to do something here in the near future. We had the chance to talk with AMD on the phone today they promised Legit Reviews that AMD will have an agressive price move come in July and went on to say that AMD will not give up the lead in price versus perfomance. – Legit Reviews

WOW! That one word describes my exhilaration at Intel coming back into the Enthusiast market with a bang. The X6800 outclasses the AMD CPUs by a wide margin in virtually every circumstance of performance measurement. The CPU also runs cool in comparison to earlier Intel CPUs and consumes less than 75W. By any standard of measurement the X6800 is an success bringing Intel back on top. – GamePyre

Compared to AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 the situation gets a lot more competitive, but AMD still doesn’t stand a chance. The Core 2 Extreme X6800, Core 2 Duo E6700 and E6600 were pretty consistently in the top 3 or 4 spots in each benchmark, with the E6600 offering better performance than AMD’s FX-62 flagship in the vast majority of benchmarks. Another way of looking at it is that Intel’s Core 2 Duo E6600 is effectively a $316 FX-62, which doesn’t sound bad at all. – AnandTech

Is the game over for AMD then? By no means. The performance race might be over for the time being, but it still can look at more attractive platforms for the enthusiast customer base (for ATI Crossfire and Nvidia SLI). In addition, AMD spokesperson Damon Muzny told us earlier this week that AMD intends to adjust its processor prices to keep delivering the best price/performance for the customer. – Toms Hardware

Other reviews/previews at Phoronix, Hardware Secrets, Legion Hardware, TweakTown, ExtremeTech and ByteSector.