This third Firefox 3 Release Candidate is a preview release of Mozilla’s next generation Firefox browser and is being made available for testing purposes only.

Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 34 months. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 14,000 updates including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.

View: Mozilla Firefox 3 RC3 Main Page
View: Mozilla Firefox 3 RC3 Release Notes

Downloads (via official distributed mirrors):
Mozilla Firefox 3 RC3 English Windows | 7.15 MB
Mozilla Firefox 3 RC3 English Mac OS X | 17.2 MB
Mozilla Firefox 3 RC3 English Linux | 8.7 MB

Microsoft is denying a recent report that suggests it deliberately included a technical loophole in Windows Vista that lets users install the OS without paying for the full priced version. In an article that appeared earlier this week in the Windows Secrets newsletter, reporter Scott Dunn noted that the Service Pack 1 version of Windows Vista gives users the option of buying the ‘upgrade edition’ and installing it on any PC, which enables them to avoid paying for the more expensive ‘full’ edition. In the U.S., the list price of the upgrade edition is more than $100 cheaper than the full edition, according to Dunn.

According to Dunn, the same option was available to users when Vista was first released, and Microsoft’s failure to close this loophole in Vista SP1 suggests that the vendor “approved the back door as a way to make the price of Vista more appealing to sophisticated buyers.” But a Microsoft spokesperson disputed the notion that the vendor supports users taking advantage of the technical loophole in Vista.

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Source: InformationWeek via MSFN

Based on the well-known original memtest86 written by Chris Brady, memtest86+ is a port by some members of the x86-secret team, now working at www.canardplus.com. Our goal is to provide an up-to-date and completly reliable version of this software tool aimed at memory failures detection.

Memtest86+ is, like the original, released under the terms of the Gnu Public License (GPL). No restrictions for use, private or commercial exist other than the ones mentioned in the Gnu Public License (GPL). Texts about the original version was taken from the original website and written by Chris Brady.

Download: Memtest86+ v2.01
View: Memtest Homepage

Changes:

*** Enhancements in v2.01 : ***

* New Features
o Added support for 45 nm Mobile Core 2 w/ 3 Mo L2
o Added support for i945GM/PM/GME & i946PL/GZ
o Added support for iGM965/iGL960/iPM965/iGME965/iGLE960
o Added detection for SiS 649/656/671/672
o Added detection for i430MX/i430TX
o Added an optional beep mode (pass completed w/o error)
o Pass duration 20% reduced
o Removed the blinking cursor
o Reverted Test #0 to cached

* Bug Fixes
o Solved a major bug in Memory Address Errors Reporting
o Patched for Intel-Powered Mac
o Corrected Intel 3-Series (P35/X38) chipset init
o Corrected a bug with SPD Display and ESB6300
o Correct a detection bug on P965/G965 C-Stepping
o Solved a incoherency with pass progress indicator
o Patched Makefile to compile on x86_64
o Bootable Memtest86+ ISO more compatible

I had a bunch of people internally ask me why Windows Server shows it’s version as Windows Server 2008 SP1 (for brevity - WS08). I will explain it, but I wanted to use the Writer feature that allows me to insert pictures. Who says anything beyond notepad is a waste of time. Actually, that’s me usually… The history here goes back to problems we had form the split we had when we broke Windows XP from Windows Server 2003 (WS03) way back in 2000.

At the time we had Windows 2000 (Win2k) out in the market & it was being very well received. Especially on the client side which was doing well with corporate desktops. At the same time in the consumer side, we had Windows ME. I never worked on WinME, I have never installed it, & I know nothing about it except what people have told me.

Mid 2000, we had a combined release on the rails but the pressure to do a client release for consumer got high. So we forked WinXP from what was to become WS03. On one side, I think we did exactly the right thing. We met the dates required from OEMs for WinXP & closed down the server release in exactly the right way. I believe the longevity of WS03 in market was because we did a load of right things in the end game. I sill think what we knew when we released WinXP in august 2001 it was a great product. It’s just that the world changed 2 weeks later…

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Source: MSFN

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 contains many new features building incrementally upon .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0, and includes .NET Framework 2.0 service pack 1 and .NET Framework 3.0 service pack 1.

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µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. µTorrent was designed to use as little CPU, space and memory as possible while offering all the functionalities expected from advanced clients.

Changelog:
Build 4470
- Fix: crash bug in Mainline DHT compatability

Download: µTorrent 1.7.4
View: Homepage

The most full-featured Internet power tool on the market, Opera includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like Opera’s groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. And because we know that our users have different needs, you can customize the look and content of your Opera browser with a few clicks of the mouse.

Download: Opera v9.23.8808 Classic | English | International
View: Opera Homepage
Source: MSFN

IE7Pro is a must have add-on for Internet Explorer, which includes a lot of features and tweaks to make your IE friendlier, more useful, secure and customizable. IE7Pro includes Tabbed Browsing Management, AD Blocker, Flash Block, Super Drag Drop, Crash Recovery, Proxy Switcher, Mouse Gesture, Tab History Browser, Web Accelerator, User Agent Switcher, Webpage Capturer, Greasemonkey like User Scripts platform, User Plug-ins, Spell Check and many more power packed features. You can customize not just Internet Explorer, but even your favorite website according to your need and taste using IE7Pro.

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Microsoft moves Windows to a different continent to further mute all details about the platform.

Asphyxiated under Sinofsky’s Windows Omerta, the Redmond company is not breathing a single word about the future of Windows XP and Windows Vista, and the whole of the Windows platform for that matter. But Redmond is no longer the sole epicenter of the Windows operating system. Apparently, Microsoft has exported its Windows projects to India.

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Mozilla Firefox - faster, more secure, easier to use and sporting a new look, this latest Firefox release sets a new standard for web browser innovation. Mozilla Firefox project (formerly Firebird, which was formerly Phoenix) is a redesign of Mozilla’s browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. It is small, fast and easy to use, and offers many advantages over other web browsers, such as the tabbed browsing and the ability to block pop-up windows.

Download: Windows | Linux | Mac OS | Other OS & Languages
View: Release Notes | Mozilla Firefox Homepage
Source: Flexbeta