Milestone 5 for the coming Java Development Kit 7 includes just minor changes. Despite these little updates, JDK 7 has caused quite a stir.

A research group in the computer sciences faculty at North Carolina State University has written a prototype to prevent rootkits from manipulating kernel object hooks to do their damage.

A null-pointer dereference in the Linux kernel allows local users to assume root privileges. Brad Spengler, who claims first discovery, announced that he will present a corresponding exploit during the course of the day.

The Linux-Kongress is traditionally where kernel developers exchange honors and advice about new features and enhancements. This year a number of speakers presented performance improvement data and discussed what aspects of Linux can be drawn out even more.

Not long after the release of GNOME 2.8 comes a new version of NScripts. Included are a handful of new ease-of-use functions for GNOME's Nautilus data manager.

Python paterfamilias Guido van Rossum has proposed a multi-year moratorium on the scripting language: no more grammar or semantic changes.

Open Search Server, the free Web and document search engine, is now available in version 1.1.

The Bash shell has long supported extending command completion through scripts. The Bash-Completion package delivers full scripts for Linux commands and is currently available in version 1.1.