OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

When a Computer Loses It with a Meter Maid

Thom Holwerda 2006-07-02 Office 66 Comments

People say I rant too much. I complain and complain, but never seem to really like anything. As I promised a few weeks ago, I will talk about things I love about computers. After explaining why I like to complain and rant, this column will solely deal with fluffy bunnies, green meadows, blue skies, and shiny, happy people. I promise.

FreeDOS Is Not Dead

Submitted by Anonymous Coward 2006-07-02 OS News 16 Comments

Smile, you're on candid camera! Apparantly, FreeDOS is anything but dead. "FreeDOS is definitely still very much alive! Moving forward, I'm trying to put the focus on our '1.0' release. What's done is done. Right now, I want to get a '1.0' out there by end of July. We're already pretty stable, so what we have by month end will be '1.0'. I think we can do it." We got owned.

Submitted by Gzzy 2006-07-02 Microsoft 19 Comments

"It's no secret that WinFS was a great idea without a killer application. Microsoft had to go to great lengths in their demos and evangelism to get people to picture what would be capable with a WinFS application. Microsoft also had problems recruiting for their 'killer app' because those job openings posted on the WinFS blog were actually first posted on the Microsoft website in February and still unfilled in May. iView's Media Pro application is the perfect killer app for WinFS/SQL Server codename 'Katmai'. It relies heavily on a database for it's features."

Third Issue of Quarterly OS2eCS eZine Released

Submitted by Jeramie Samphere 2006-07-02 OS/2 7 Comments

The third issue of the quarterly OS2eCS eZine has been released. In this issue: covering the updated JFS/LVM and Lucide; writing NetRexx programs using Java Swing; using the AMD Geode CPU to run OS/2 and eComStation; using a D-Link DFE-690TXD Fast Ethernet cardbus card with eComStation; and more.

Submitted by falko 2006-07-02 Internet 9 Comments

"This tutorial will show you how to setup greylisting with Postgrey and Postfix on Debian. Greylisting will not replace spam filtering software like SpamAssassin but it will serve as a powerful first hurdle for spam thus reducing the amount of spam entering the system at all."

Damn Small Linux 3.0 Review

Submitted by Mark 2006-07-02 Linux 13 Comments

As its name suggests, Damn Small Linux (DSL) is a damn small distribution! The ISO is just 50MB and it fits on a business card CD so you can carry it with you wherever you go. It also acts as a Live CD so you can run the system without installing it on the machine. The idea is to access your Linux environment from any computer, thanks to a tiny CD that would fit in your wallet.

Nokia 770 Tablet OS 2006 Released

Submitted by anonymous 2006-07-01 Wireless 26 Comments

Following a beta release on June 9, Nokia has released a highly anticipated Linux operating system update for the 770 Internet Tablet. The Tablet OS 2006 update is now available for download by 770 owners on Nokia's website. The Tablet OS 2006 upgrade apparently completely wipes out all Tablet OS 2005 applications. Specifically, the Nokia 770 upgrade page states, "Installed applications designed for OS 2005 will not be compatible with OS 2006 edition and will not be restored even from backup."

Submitted by trevor 2006-07-01 Wayland 46 Comments

"We are very pleased to announce this release, the first major update to cairo since the original 1.0 release 10 months ago. Compared to cairo 1.0, the 1.2 release doubles the number of supported backends, adding PDF, PostScript & SVG backends to the previous xlib/win32, and image backends."

Sun Denies Open Source Java Imminent

Submitted by Stephen 2006-07-01 Java 28 Comments

Sun was quick to deny published reports today that it plans to open source Java in the next few months. The company is working on the project, but any transition to open source is closer to a year away. Simon Phipps, chief open-source officer for Sun, made a comment he said was misconstrued at the Open Source Business Conference in London earlier this week concerning Sun's efforts to release Java as an entirely open source project.

Review: Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3

Submitted by Karyn Good 2006-07-01 Internet Explorer 65 Comments

NeoSmart has a review of the just released Internet Explorer 7 and screenshots to match. The review focuses on the user interface, security, and compatibility of Internet Explorer 7 compared to IE6, Opera, and Firefox. They conclude: "The world of online browsing has finally reached a point where, by-and-large, it doesn't matter what browser a user chooses or how they decide to browse the web, for the most part pages will display the way they should, the users will be secure, and malware needs to find a new venue. This latest build of Internet Explorer 7 only strengthened our opinion."

Submitted by sanjaya5 2006-07-01 General Development 4 Comments

Callisto, an effort from Eclipse Foundation, which bundles ten projects in order to ease the integration with Eclipse, has been released. "Callisto is about improving the productivity of the developers working on top of Eclipse frameworks by providing a more transparent and predictable development cycle. By releasing 10 projects at the same time, the goal is to eliminate uncertainty about version compatibility and make it easier to incorporate multiple projects into your environment."

Build a Better SOA Client with AJAX and the Dojo Toolkit

Submitted by anonymous 2006-07-01 Internet 3 Comments

Learn how to use the Dojo toolkit to build enterprise SOA clients for Java Platform, Extended Edition applications, and the the JavaScript Object Notation–RPC to invoke server-side Java objects.

RedHat Shares Tumble as Result of JBoss Acquisition/Lawsuit

Submitted by Tom Magnum 2006-07-01 Red Hat 128 Comments

Red Hat watched its stock tumble 6.4% on Thursday as Wall Street digested the open-source software firm's latest results and details on the drag its recent JBoss acquisition will have on its profit this year.

Turning Wine Into Windows on a Mac

Thom Holwerda 2006-06-30 macOS 28 Comments

CodeWeavers is in early testing with CrossOver Office for Mac now and plans to release a final version of the software in July or August. Wine is a compatibility layer, not a true emulator, so it works with only some Windows programs. Developers at CodeWeavers and others on the open-source Wine effort have to work on each program they want to make compatible.

Lawsuit Calls Microsoft’s Anti-Piracy Tool Spyware

Thom Holwerda 2006-06-30 Legal 60 Comments

A computer user is suing Microsoft over the company's Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy tool, alleging that it violates laws against spyware. The suit by Los Angeles resident Brian Johnson, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle, seeks class-action status for claims that Microsoft didn't adequately disclose details of the tool when it was delivered to PC users through the company's Automatic Update system.

Intel Core Duo T2400 with Linux

Submitted by Phoronix 2006-06-30 Intel 9 Comments

Intel's Core Duo T2400 has a maximum operating frequency of 1.83GHz, 65nm process, 2MB of L2 cache, and 667MHz FSB; however, how does this dual-core component fare under Linux? Phoronix has taken a look at the Intel Core Duo T2400 in conjunction with the Lenovo ThinkPad T60, and has comparison results against the previous Pentium M 750 1.83GHz.

Manage Source Code Using Git

Submitted by anonymous 2006-06-30 Linux 12 Comments

"Git is the open source revision control software that Linus Torvalds developed to help manage Linux kernel development. You can download it yourself and use it for your own kernel hacking - or for software projects of your own. This article shows you how to get started hacking Linux with the Git tools."

NVIDIA FreeBSD Kernel Feature Requests

Submitted by Joel Dahl 2006-06-30 FreeBSD 18 Comments

In a mail to the FreeBSD hackers mailing-list, a very detailed request is made from Christian Zander at Nvidia, concerning several missing features in the FreeBSD kernel. In order for Nvidia to provide improved OpenGL performance and SLI support in the future for FreeBSD/i386 and FreeBSD/amd64, several important tasks needs to be completed.

Borland Developer Group To Get New Owner Soon

Submitted by Nick Mayor 2006-06-30 General Development 15 Comments

The fate of Borland's developer tools group will finally be sealed in the next couple of months, as the software vendor works to finalize deal with a buyer. Nick Jackson, managing director of Borland DTG in the Asia-Pacific region, told ZDNet that the company, which announced its intention to divest its developer product lines on Feb. 8, has attracted about 16 qualified bidders so far.

Why Linux Has Failed Most Beginners

Submitted by Yadav Ji 2006-06-30 Linux 176 Comments

"Over the years, I've had a number of people asking me what I believe the problem was with further migration over to Linux by the public at large. To be frank, I don't believe that there is a simple answer to this. To me, there are a number of factors that play a role in keeping Linux out of the mainstream limelight" writes Matt Hartley in his opinion piece.