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feature composited graphics for the desktop, something Apple has had since Mac OS X's debut. The result is that Longhorn's windows will be see-through, revealing the contents of other windows or the desktop below.

Dueling dual-core chips
Intel may have come out with dual-core processors a few days earlier than Advanced Micro Devices, but AMD says it is bringing dual-core chips to the market where it counts.

AMD on Thursday released its first three dual-core Opteron processors for servers. Sometime during the next two months, it plans to follow that release with three more server chips and a desktop line.

Server customers will be able to capitalize on the dual-core performance almost immediately. Several applications and operating systems have already been retrofitted for running on dual-processor systems. Hewlett-Packard, IBM and others will insert the dual-core Opterons into servers.

Intel's dual-core chips, which debuted Monday, are designed for desktops. Versions of its Xeon server chips won't come out until early 2006.

HP has upgraded a four-processor server with AMD's new dual-core Opteron and introduced a blade server with the chip. The ProLiant DL585 system will be available with all three speed grades of the new Opteron--1.8Gz, 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz--said Steve Cumings, manager of HP's ProLiant Opteron systems group. And in an effort to encourage fast adoption, HP is charging the same for a system with 1.8GHz dual-core processors as it would for the existing products with 2.6GHz single-core chips.

The new BL45p blade system, announced Thursday, is HP's first four-Opteron blade, and it brings a substantial change: It's half the size of the existing Xeon model. Four machines can fit into a 10.5-inch-tall chassis compared with two Xeon-based BL40p models.

PC makers got in on the act by rolling out their first dual-core processor desktop PCs--and they aren't cheap. Alienware, Dell and lesser-known maker Velocity Micro are among the first to begin taking orders on dual-core desktops. Their machines are based on Intel's Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 processor, the first dual-core PC processor to hit the market.

The desktops, which start at about $2,300 to $3,000, are aimed at home multimedia and game enthusiasts who want the latest technology, as well as professionals in areas such as video editing.

The chips represent Intel's latest thinking on advancing PC processors. Instead of driving rapid increases in speed, the chipmaker is now focusing on adding performance by stuffing additional processor cores into each of its chips, as well as building in new features such as virtualization, which helps carve a PC into different partitions to simultaneously tackle different jobs.

Bugs and flaws
Multiple vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to install malicious code or steal personal data have been discovered in the Mozilla Suite and the Firefox browser.

Ian Latter, senior security consultant at Internet security specialist Pure Hacking, said that most of the vulnerabilities are based on the way the applications handle JavaScript. Another issue could allow malicious scripts to gain access to random pieces of memory, he said.

As security bugs swarm around the Firefox browser, volunteer marketers want to shore up the open-source project's security message. As the Mozilla Foundation made patches available for significant new security holes, Firefox partisans finally acknowledged that the core sales pitch for their browser may be vulnerable.

"The versions of Firefox up to version 1.0.3 have had terrible security risks," wrote one participant for the volunteer Firefox promotion, Spread Firefox. "I think these security risks have undermined the promise of Firefox as a more secure browser."

A flaw in McAfee Internet Security Suite 2005 could let employees sharing the same computer break into one another's files, according to security consultant iDefense. The vulnerability, which exists in the default settings applied during installation, gives anyone the same access rights on a PC as an IT administrator.

That, in effect, would let someone remove any restricted access specified on a PC. It could also let an employee install software prohibited by his employer. An employee who shares a computer with co-workers, for example, could then access colleagues' files or install programs such as peer-to-peer software on the machine.

Also of note
Desktop publishing specialist Adobe Systems is buying multimedia applications maker Macromedia in a $3.4 billion deal geared toward building a software powerhouse...Despite his fondness for Windows, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the company will make it easier for businesses to manage a wide variety of machines--including those running Linux...Apple reached a settlement with a second man it had accused of leaking prerelease versions of Mac OS X Tiger onto the Internet...Complying with a court order, Yahoo agreed to give the family of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq access to the soldier's e-mail.