Red Hat shows off Enterprise Linux 5

Red Hat has announced the beta release of RH Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5), which will now include virtualisation, reports Tech World. Out this month, it follows the release some months ago of the community-based Fedora Core 4 which includes Xen, Xensource`s open source hypervisor.

Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens said the issues RHEL5 is aiming to solve are twofold: how to allow customers to move to next generation hardware when IT has locked down the environment to make the systems stable, and how to take spare CPU cycles and harness them.

Dell has moved to quash rumours that suggested the company had acquired rival PC vendor Alienware, reports CNet. Speculation about a possible buyout has been rife since Rahul Sood, CEO of US-based Voodoo PC, posted his thoughts on such a move on his blog.

"The PC gaming market is threatening Dell`s `perceived technology leadership`--and ultimately the consumer space. The Alienware brand is cooler than Dell, and perhaps a likely candidate for Dell to take over based on size alone," Sood wrote.

A new poll released yesterday found that more than half of the high school students surveyed reported at least one symptom of hearing loss associated with the use of portable music players, portable DVD players and other devices, reports News Day.

The study found that high school students are more likely than adults to say they have experienced three of the four symptoms of hearing loss: turning up the volume on their TV or radio; saying "what" or "huh" during normal conversation; perceiving that people`s voices are mumbled or muffled; and, having tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.

Google has acquired @Last Software, a 3D-design toolmaker and developer of the SketchUp software, reports ZD Net. @Last Software`s SketchUp, which is used by architects, game players, woodworkers and others, has a plug-in designed to allow developers to export 3D models into Google Earth.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed and Google declined to further elaborate on the deal, other than to point to its company blog. "We can confirm that we have acquired @Last, and we are happy to welcome their talented team to Google," a Google spokesperson said.