From DarkReading:

New technology 'patches' the operating system kernel, protects it from rootkits

Researchers at North Carolina State University and Microsoft Research have come up with a way to combat rootkits by using the machine's own hardware-based memory protection: the so-called HookSafe tool basically protects the operating system kernel from rootkits.

One of the top copyright lawyers in the US takes Big Content to the woodshed in his new book, saying that "the Copyright Wars are a fight against our own children and it is a fight that says everything about the adults and very little about the children."

By Nate Anderson | Last updated November 3, 2009 11:31 PM CT

William Patry might not look from the outside like a man with a fire in his belly. A copyright lawyer for 27 years, Patry has written one of two definitive accounts of US copyright law (all 5,500 pages of Patry on Copyright can be yours for the low, low price of only $1,589). He served as a key counsel to the House of Representatives and is currently Senior Copyright Counsel at Internet behemoth Google.

From X-bit Labs:

EVGA, a leading maker and supplier of advanced graphics cards and mainboards, has unveiled a unique graphics board that features Nvidia GeForce GTX 275 graphics chip to process graphics and Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 (G92, 9800 GTX, 8800 GTS 512MB) chip to process physics effects using PhysX application programming interface.

Third correction traced to October's massive Patch Tuesday

By Gregg Keizer
November 3, 2009 11:47 AM ET

Microsoft yesterday re-patched Internet Explorer, the third time it's been forced to repair one of the updates from its largest-ever bug fix, which was delivered on Oct. 13.

Mozilla has announced the availability of the first Firefox 3.6 beta release. Ars tests the new version, which introduces support for fullscreen video and lightweight theming.

By Ryan Paul | Last updated November 3, 2009 8:13 AM CT

Mozilla announced the availability of the first Firefox 3.6 beta last week. Firefox 3.6, codenamed Namoroka, is an incremental update that introduces a handful of new features, enhanced performance, and some noteworthy improvements to Web standards support. The final version of Firefox 3.6 could be released next year.

From the Inquirer:

Smooth Windows upgrade it ain't

Ubuntu 9.10 is causing outrage and frustration, with early adopters wishing they'd stuck with previous versions of the Linux distro.

Sharp Corp. has been showing off its latest solar cell, intended to provide charging power to future mobile devices, such as cell phones.

This new version is uniformly black in appearance, measures 65.5 x 41 x 0.8mm, and can produce up to 450mW.

The rise of Web-based apps, virtualization, and a crop of powerful mobile devices have the traditional PC desktop on the run.

By Serdar Yegulalp
October 31, 2009 07:00 AM

Well, is it? If all the buzzwords about cloud computing, Web apps, software as a service (SaaS), the free desktop, and the rise of netbooks and tablet PCs, are to be believed, it may well be.

The truth, I suspect, is more modest. What looms for the desktop as we know it is not the end, but rather death and then transfiguration. The desktop PC is set to go through a grand mutation of the form that will expand its reach rather than kill its current incarnation(s) outright. It may be the end of the desktop as we know it, but also the birth of many more desktops. As Roger Ebert said about the James Bond archetype during the post-Soviet era, the sun hasn't set on England yet -- but it's getting mighty dark out.

Early users see promise in the energy-saving features and boot-up times of troubled Vista's successor.

By Gregg Keizer and Patrick Thibodeau
November 2, 2009 06:00 AM ET

Microsoft Corp.'s standing as an operating system developer is on the line with the launch of Windows 7, according to analysts and other experts.

Late last month, the company formally unveiled its next-generation operating system -- the first new Windows release since co-founder and longtime CEO Bill Gates departed in 2008.

Windows share drops in Oct despite Win 7

Electronista is reporting that Windows is losing ground to other operating systems, especially Apple's OS X.  They're suggesting that some of this loss may be due to Microsoft not providing Win XP users with an upgrade path, leaving them with the clean install option only, and therefore the opportuinty to start fresh with OS X, or Linux.