Now power users can rejoice! Windows XP Hacks offers tips, tools, and know-how to bend Windows XP to your will. The book delves into XP topics such as controlling the control panel, changing unchangeable icons, removing uninstallable XP components, stopping pop-up ads, taking a bite out of cookies, speeding up file downloads, protecting yourself with firewalls and proxy servers, and more. Users of both Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Pro Edition will find smart, timesaving, fun, and useful hacks for virtually every feature in their operating system. Even if you're not a power user yet, this book will have you well on your way.

Windows XP marks the biggest change to the Windows OS since the advent of Windows 95. It combines the stability of the NT/2000 operating system with the user-friendliness and hardware support of the consumer Windows line—and it does so literally, because those two operating systems have been combined for the first time in XP. Although there are two versions of XP—Home Edition and Professional Edition—the differences between them are relatively minor and have to do primarily with security and administrator tools. Under the hood, they're the same OS.

XP marks several other change as well. DOS is no longer a part of the underlying OS, although it's still available as a command prompt. Multimedia and graphics have been built into the operating system more directly than before and are no longer treated as an afterthought. And, cosmetically, XP has been given a makeover, in both the way it looks (rounded windows and almost cartoonish at times) and the way it works.

All this is good news for would-be operating system hackers. Because of the operating system's greater stability, those who work under the hood of XP can concentrate on actually getting work done and making the OS more effective, rather than trying to fix its shortcomings. Because of the richer interface and greater support for graphics and multimedia, you can more easily change the way the operating system works and looks. And, because the OS offers a variety of tools for recovering from errors, you can hack to your heart's content without worrying that you'll damage the OS beyond recognition.

This collection is based on the hands-on, real-world experience of those who in many cases have been using PCs well before any version of Windows even existed. They have wrestled with each new version of Windows as it was released, and found ways to take advantage of every nook and cranny of the operating system. When XP came out, they applied that hard-earned knowledge to it as well, and came up with ways to take advantage of the myriad new features of the operating system.

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Sun Microsystems reached an agreement with Toshiba to preinstall its OpenSolaris operating system on some of its laptops. The first models would be available in the United States in early 2009 and would include the newly launched OpenSolaris 2008.11.

Both companies have yet to confirm which specific models of laptops will be pre-installed and configured with OpenSolaris, in addition to their final price.

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Neutron is a small 3D game originally intended for the new platform of the iPhone and iPod Touch from Apple, but thanks to the expertise of its author, Josep Florit, is also now available in a free beta version for Linux, and Mac OS X PSP Home-Brew.

For those who seem familiar, Neutron is a remake of the classic game TRON tridimensional lifetime.

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Linux is so versatile and powerful enough to be able run on almost any modern electronic device. And for prove that assertion, this is a brief list of some recognized and products that can, in one way or another, run the system Operating free penguin even if they are not designed for that purpose:

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