It's way too early to make a proper assessment of Windows 7, but Microsoft has made its intentions clear: Windows 7 is intended to right the wrongs Vista wrought, but retain that operating system's good points. And at this point, we can't argue with that. We'll be updating this review as we get more information on and time with Windows 7, so be sure to bookmark this page.

Google Android is an exciting development in the world of mobile operating systems. It's not so much what it can do right now, as what the world's application developers can create when they get their hands on the code.

Xandros will no doubt offend Linux purists, both by the tight integration of commercial software into its business model and by the lack of features such as Gnome. On the other hand, for a Linux newbie who wants a Windows-like experience, it may make a reasonable choice.

Citrix has long been the leader in the terminal services/remote desktop game. Its ICA protocol is heads and shoulders above alternatives, and the manageability of its solutions continues to be strong. By coupling this existing technology with VDI, Citrix aims for the best of both worlds, delivering streaming and hosted applications to a small-footprint desktop VM. XenServer still lags the capabilities of the VMware ESX hypervisor, but XenDesktop does not require XenServer to function and will play nice with VMware and even Microsoft Hyper-V.

We're impressed with FreeNAS. Windows Home Server has more media-friendly capabilities such as Xbox 360 connectivity, but if you are looking to set up a basic NAS box using your existing hardware, for free, FreeNAS is well worth a spin.

VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 2 is certainly a beta release, but even so, it feels quite polished and well appointed. VMware has some heavy competition in Parallels, which has most of these features already, but Fusion 2.0 looks very promising.

Microsoft's attempt at toppling VMware VI3 is chock-full of classic embrace-and-extend goodness, including support in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (tested in beta) for managing VI3 assets. The Hyper-V hypervisor technology is sound and should scale well enough to challenge VMware's ESX Server. However, Microsoft still lags in the area of high availability, though the functionality in Virtual Machine Manager should be good enough to deliver wins in less demanding virtualization environments.

On the whole, Fedora is a solid Linux distribution that will probably serve you well for desktop usage. Red Hat can rightly claim extensive experience as a commercial Linux vendor; it practically invented the market. Installing Fedora is a good way to ensure an extensive repository of pre-built software. The hardware support is right up there with any other user-friendly distribution. But our experiences with trying a multiboot install make us leery of recommending it to anyone who wants to use it in a dual-boot environment. The distribution may be robust, but the installer needs to learn to play better with others. It's also a little too intimidating for non-geek users, so if you're going to get any less-experienced friends on Fedora, you might want to schedule an afternoon to help them out.

If this first taste is any indication, Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron is shaping up to be a worthy upgrade for existing users and a good jumping-on point for new ones. Wubi, in particular, makes it ideal for anyone who has hesitated to give Linux a try before now. Look for the final version to be available in April.

Windows Server 2008 is definitely faster, more manageable and secure. But it's still missing the virtual link.

The bottom line? If you're an IT pro and need to test out Windows XP SP3 before its official launch, it's worth trying out now. Others might as well wait for the final version – there's nothing that's an absolute must-have right now, but the improved security will be worth it in the long run.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RC is more internal evolution than user-experience revolution, but it points to a brighter future for Microsoft's latest consumer operating system.