Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 18th Aug 2010 21:02 UTC, submitted by koki
"Back in mid-2001, when the news that Be Inc. had sold its intellectual property to Palm hit the streets, what many had suspected and rumored for quite some time - that BeOS development was headed towards closure - finally became a reality. This news and the sad realization that it ensued hit hard the developers and users of BeOS; but many of them did not give up on the idea of letting the operating system of their dreams die, and instead embarked on the daunting task of recreating BeOS in an open source fashion. This is how OpenBeOS - now known as the Haiku Project -- was born."
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RE[3]: Not bad.. - Port of VMs to Haiku
by BlueofRainbow on Fri 20th Aug 2010 19:32
in reply to "RE[2]: Not bad.."
Member since:2009-01-06
I have looked at various programming languages available for BeOS/Haiku as I'm not a C/C++ person. The one I would have a preference for (Oberon which was ported to BeOS in the form on an Oberon-to-C translateor) has completely dis-appeared from the Web. So, I may have to become more fluent in C/C++.
There has been a few of Java VM porting projects to BeOS/Haiku over the years. BeKaffe appears to have stalled in 2006. The Sun sanctioned JVM port to BeOS/Haiku (same as the OpenJDK?) appears to have stalled late 2008 when the developer at that time decided to re-prioritize his life.
Perl and Python have been ported to Haiku and this suggests that porting a language is technically feasible.
The Java VM in it-self likely brings a higher level of complexity in the porting exercise in relation to API. The security model inherent to the Java VM may also impede porting to the BeOS/Haiku API which is described as weak in this area.
The "code once and reuse many times" concept allowed by a VM is attractive. However, would this allow access to all the distinctive features of the native API? Probably not.
It looks like experimenting will be the only way to find-out.
RE[4]: Not bad.. - Port of VMs to Haiku
by vodoomoth on Fri 20th Aug 2010 21:16
in reply to "RE[3]: Not bad.. - Port of VMs to Haiku"
Member since:2010-03-30
The Sun sanctioned JVM port to BeOS/Haiku (same as the OpenJDK?) appears to have stalled late 2008 when the developer at that time decided to re-prioritize his life.
It's still alive. I've asked a few weeks ago how I could contribute and someone on the mailing list pointed me to a Wiki page. Just days before that, I read a post (not necessarily on the mailing list), by someone who seemed (to me) to be one of the current leaders, stating that, contrary to what was commonly thought, the port isn't dead...
The "code once and reuse many times" concept allowed by a VM is attractive. However, would this allow access to all the distinctive features of the native API? Probably not.
I think the point of VMs is to offer a well-defined subset of features (VirtualBox comes to mind). The subset does not have to cover all imaginable features found in the real hardware/OS that's being accessed. The JVM has the JNI, which is a significant asset in terms of extensibility, isn't it?
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.More Features »
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2010-03-30
On the other hand, Haiku has now tutorials on developing applications, developers/user conferences.....will it now go in hyperbolic development? Sincerely hope so (and best wishes to them).
Just to reply on this point, I think one straightforward way to get this hyperbolic development is by opening the flood gates to Java and other virtual machine-based things. The amount of software in Java is just huge. Problem is, the OpenJDK port was announced in January 2008 and still no release date that I know of. The motto should be "reuse as much as possible". In that sense, the FreeBSD networking stack is a good move but the OS needs more of that.
Another way, less easy in my opinion, is the developer momentum. I think Haiku has gained it, at least, they've earned me and I knew strictly nothing about BeOS and Haiku before this year. The general view seems rather favorable as I have never read anything negative about Haiku anywhere on the web, which is a rare fact.
What do you think?