Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 10th Oct 2006 15:14 UTC, submitted by Charles A Landemaine
"iXsystems, an enterprise-class hardware solution provider, announced today its acquisition of PC-BSD, a rock solid UNIX operating system based on FreeBSD. PC-BSD is a fully functional desktop operating system running FreeBSD version 6, with a KDE desktop interface and graphical system installer. Its PBI system, developed exclusively for PC-BSD, lets users download and install their applications in a self-extracting and installing format. iXsystems' acquisition of PC-BSD will provide funding to the PC-BSD project to increase distribution of PC-BSD and develop future versions of PC-BSD. Development is currently underway for a version of PC-BSD that will allow for easy installation and operation on servers, workstations, and laptops."
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RE: Not so sure about this...
by hamster on Tue 10th Oct 2006 15:45
in reply to "Not so sure about this..."
Member since:2006-10-06
About iXsystems
iXsystems is a leading provider of high-performance computing clusters, blade servers, rackmount servers, and storage solutions to the global marketplace. iXsystems supplies FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux servers to a wide cross-section of industries. The company is headquartered in San Jose, CA.
RE: Not so sure about this...
by Janizary on Tue 10th Oct 2006 15:49
in reply to "Not so sure about this..."
Member since:2006-03-12
iXsystem has been providing the hardware for PC-BSD for a while, most of the people there are FreeBSD supporters.
PC-BSD is really just a few small KDE addons and their nasty package system, I audably laughed when I read about this last night because of how crazy the idea of buying something like this is.
However, as was soon after pointed out to me, it's quite likely that iXsystems is buying them out more as a community base than as a technology, since PC-BSD has that image that you bought into.
And PC-BSD is not a BSD distro, it's a FreeBSD distro, just like DesktopBSD. They are just an add on to the actual operating system, they are not full-flung operating systems of their own, like OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD or DragonFly BSD are. Those two are the only, "distributions," in the BSD world, and they're entirely FreeBSD.
RE[2]: Not so sure about this...
by KenJackson on Tue 10th Oct 2006 16:08
in reply to "RE: Not so sure about this..."
Member since:2005-07-18
RE[2]: Not so sure about this...
by Charles A Landemaine on Tue 10th Oct 2006 18:41
in reply to "RE: Not so sure about this..."
Member since:2005-11-11
PC-BSD is really just a few small KDE addons
Are you sure? 
http://www.pcbsd.org/?p=changelog
and their nasty package system, I audably laughed when I read about this last night because of how crazy the idea of buying something like this is.
Take a peek: http://www.pcbsd.org/?p=pmscreens
If you're laughing, I hope you're laughing for joy
RE[2]: Not so sure about this...
by BluenoseJake on Wed 11th Oct 2006 12:40
in reply to "RE: Not so sure about this..."
Member since:2005-08-11
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2005-09-15
PC-BSD is the first BSD distribution that cought my attention for simply one reason : integration. PC-BSD is simplier to use than major other desktop linux distributions. Their PBI model is easy to develop and easy to use. And while you can't deny it use FreeBSD, it has a little something that make it totaly different.
Now I'm somewhat scared for its future. Who are those iXsystem? Anyway, I though PC-BSD was somewhat open source... guess this is due to the BSD license. At last if things go wrong, we could fork it.