OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

FreeBSD Development Projects Summary

Submitted by Anonymous 2006-07-10 FreeBSD 9 Comments

Joel Dahl, FreeBSD developer: "FreeBSD development is fast these days and reading CVS commit mails is a time consuming task, but almost always both fun and interesting. However, somewhat secret, the really interesting stuff can be found in the Perforce repository. This is where all the cool projects are maintained, and the daily activity is quite high." It's a summary of all the 'secret' development they have in their perforce repository. It mentions DTrace, Xen, FreeBSD/ARM, FreeBSD/MIPS, a new USB system, and sun4v development, for example.

Submitted by Rahul 2006-07-10 Linux 18 Comments

As has been reported on LWN recently , Andrew Morton (one of the core Linux kernel developers) has been heard to worry that bugs are being added to the kernel more quickly than they are being fixed. But it is hard to know for sure. In an attempt to obtain a little more data on the problem, Andrew has asked LWN to run a survey of its subscribers. The results will, hopefully, shed some light on how a wider part of the community sees the kernel quality issue; they will be discussed at the upcoming kernel summit.

Virtual OS, Virtual Machines: Observations by Author Jeff Dike

Submitted by Jane Walker 2006-07-10 OS News 4 Comments

"Sit tight, Linux Users. User Mode Linux will soon have the same capabilities as Xen in the virtualization arena - like live migration, says Jeff Dike, author of User Mode Linux. Operating out of the Linux kernel port, UML enables the port to host multiple virtual operating systems. Speaking with SearchOpenSource.com, Dike described the pros and cons of virtual machines versus virtual operating systems and offers some advice on whether to opt for UML, Xen or VMware."

Submitted by muratmat 2006-07-10 Graphics 11 Comments

AmanithVG is an implementation of OpenVG, the new application programming interface (API) for hardware accelerated 2D vector and raster graphics, created by the Khronos group. Differently from any other OpenVG implementation, AmanithVG is entirely built on top of OpenGL (from 1.1 to 2.0, using extensions where available) and OpenGL|ES (1.1 and 2.0) APIs. You can watch the AmanithVG video at YouTube.

Lotus Notes Tuned for Linux

Submitted by James Arthur 2006-07-10 IBM 22 Comments

IBM plans to unveil this week a version of its Lotus Notes desktop collaboration software for Linux. Lotus Notes on Linux 7.0.1, which will be generally available July 24, is based on the Eclipse open-source framework. That technology will also be used in the next update to Lotus Notes, code-named Hannover, which is expected to ship next year.

Zoho Reviewed: a Web 2.0 Office Suite

Submitted by mikemuch 2006-07-10 Office 6 Comments

ExtremeTech has an review of Zoho Office Suite, an online office suite. The interfaces are nice to work with, but inconsistent, and some basic features are missing, such as undo for the spreadsheet. But Zoho's spreadsheet still beats Google Spreadsheets, which have no charting and no multiple document capability. Though Zoho is closer to Web 2.0 dictums, ThinkFree Online delivers a richer feature set, and 1GB of free online storage. Of course, in terms of feature sets, all of the webware still has a lot of caching up to do with Microsoft's venerable installed standbys.

Microsoft Shows Off Vista Interface for Glass-Less Users

Submitted by Dan Warne 2006-07-10 Windows 38 Comments

From Microsoft-Watch: "While Microsoft has been touting the Aero Glass interface as one of the main selling points for Windows Vista, there will be another new interface – one for users running Vista on less-powerful systems –too. Microsoft hasn't said much about its final plans for that interface until now. Microsoft has posted some screen shots of the non-Glass theme for Vista, which officials are currently calling the Standard or Basic theme. Vista experts have plenty to say about the Basic theme."

The GNU/Linux Semantic Storage System

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-09 Linux 20 Comments

GLS³ is an open source semantic storage solution for GNU/Linux that indexes your data, extracts from it metadata and relevant information, allows you to organize it using queries and tags, an API to allow Developers to integrate searching and organization capabilities in their application, shared schemas between applications through an API, a pseudo file system for backward compatibility, a web interface, As-You-Type searching and more. Check their site for demonstration.

Global Usage Share Mozilla Firefox Has Increased

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-09 Mozilla, Gecko 26 Comments

OneStat.com reported that Mozilla Firefox's browsers have a total global usage share of 12.93 percent. The total usage share of Mozilla Firefox increased 1.14 percent since May 2006. The total global usage share of Internet Explorer is 83.05 percent which is 2.12 percent less than at the of May. The same provider also reported recently that the 800x600 resolution is still used by 12% of the internet population.

An Overview of the Eclipse Infrastructure

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-09 Java 7 Comments

Eclipse isn't a single monolithic program, but rather a small kernel called a plug-in loader surrounded by hundreds (and potentially thousands) of plug-ins. In this chapter Eric Clayberg and Dan Rubel give you a more in-depth understanding of Eclipse and its structure in relation to creating plug-ins.

Patterns for Successful Framework Development

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-09 General Development 1 Comment

Object-oriented frameworks play an important role in many IT projects these days. Developers typically build a framework with the intention of large-scale reuse. This chapter presents a collection of patterns targeted at software architects and developers who are building a framework to meet requirements for reuse.

Understanding Color Profiles in Windows XP

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-09 Windows 3 Comments

Joshua Weisberg dives into profiles, explaining profile types and differences, profile installation, native color space, and printing a target file that will create profiles for your printer.

Hacker-friendly Linux PDA Stack Enhanced

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-09 Wireless 6 Comments

The OpenZaurus Project has released a new version of its Linux-based software stack for Sharp Zaurus PDAs. OpenZaurus 3.5.4.1 is based on a 2.6.16 Linux kernel, and includes some 13,000 "ready-to-install" packages. Nine Zaurus models are fully supported, while others can be updated selectively.

Why Is Firefox So Darn Popular?

Submitted by Tom H. 2006-07-09 Mozilla, Gecko 108 Comments

"Recently, I have been pondering why is Firefox so darn popular? This is a question that I honestly ask myself sometimes, often while browsing the web from within the browser itself. The real trick is that there are so many different ways to answer this." More of the editorial here. Additionally, the first set of release candidates for Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 have been posted to the Mozilla FTP of nightly releases.

Review: Going Back to a G3 iMac

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-08 Apple 83 Comments

A few months ago Thom bought and reviewed an iMac G3 333 Mhz while it was running Mac OS 9. I was always fond of the looks of the classic iMacs. They were just too cute to not want one. Recently Geeks.com restocked their Mac line with refurbished iMac G3s. They sent us one in, a 400 Mhz DV model (first released in October 1999) and we tried out not only Mac OS 9.2.2 but also the latest Mac OS X, v10.4.7. Read more as to how this old good classic iMac G3 performed.

Review: Xandros Desktop Linux 4.0

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-08 Oracle and SUN 46 Comments

The newly released Xandros Desktop Linux 4.0 is one of the few remaining for-pay Linux distributions on the consumer market. The Home Edition is available for $40, or $80 for a Premium Edition. What do you get for your hard-earned cash? Let's take a look.

Submitted by diegocg 2006-07-08 Privacy, Security 20 Comments

In the past, SELinux has been critized for being too dificult to configure. To solve this, the SELinux policy editor was created: A GUI-oriented editor with a simplified policy description language (ala Apparmor). According to the announcement, this new version includes a much improved user interface and some improvements to the "Policy description language".

Desired Feature in Leopard: Windows Migration Assistant

Submitted by David Liang 2006-07-08 Apple 4 Comments

Interesting read over at Switch To A Mac about a Windows Migration Assistant in OS X Leopard. Other Apple news: portents of Mac growth, antiVirus company suggests home users switch to Macs.

Move an Entire File System on a Live Unix System

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-08 Unix 10 Comments

Copying a live file system can be risky, especially if there are open files. You should also be careful to ensure that you don't accidentally overwrite a partition, or existing files, with the files you are trying to copy. With some careful thought, you can effectively migrate files reliably to take advantage of more space, even on a live system.

Windows, Office To Get ‘Critical’ Fixes

Thom Holwerda 2006-07-07 Microsoft 36 Comments

Microsoft plans to issue patches for 'critical' Windows and Office security problems as part of a regular update scheduled for Tuesday. The software company said in an advisory Thursday that it will issue four bulletins for Windows flaws and three for Office. At least one Windows and one Office problem are deemed 'critical', Microsoft's highest-risk category for security vulnerabilities, according to the advisory.