OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

A First Look at IronPython: Where Python Meets .NET

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-15 .NET 84 Comments

Jeff Cogswell writes: "I'm about to make a confession. Even though I've written several books and articles about C++, I have a secret: C++ isn't my favorite language. I have lots of languages that I use, each one for different purposes. But the language I consider my all-time favorite is Python."

Why I Will Not Buy a New (Intel) Macintosh

Thom Holwerda 2006-07-15 Apple 136 Comments

Not too long ago, I sold my iBook, right after the new MacBook was announced. I planned to buy that same MacBook somewhere this summer; however, I started to doubt. I had second thoughts. Let me explain why I decided to not buy a new Mac, but instead opt for a used G4 PowerMac. Note: After being absent for a week, here is another Sunday Eve Column.

Submitted by Umbra 2006-07-15 macOS 22 Comments

On Symantec's blog website, the company writes: "Researchers and engineers who are working in the security field must have strong constitutions - especially when it comes to weathering negative backlash and tired conspiracy theories whenever security and Mac OS X are mentioned in the same breath. With that in mind, in an effort to improve the quality of the dialogue, I would like to discuss some important issues regarding Mac OS X and security. Let's start with the hot-button issue of Mac OS X viruses. Simply put, at the time of writing this article, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X."

Using DesktopBSD

Submitted by BSD_User 2006-07-15 BSD & Darwin 28 Comments

Dru Lavigne explains the basics of DesktopBSD. "DesktopBSD provides many features that will allow a complete Unix novice to start using the operating system immediately." She concludes: "If you have been hesitant to try FreeBSD because you heard the install was difficult or were afraid you would have problems configuring the GUI or sound or networking, now is a great time to take the plunge. Both PC-BSD and DesktopBSD provide you with a fully configured, ready to use system so you can be up and running in under half an hour."

Interview: Andy Ritger, Christian Zander from NVIDIA About FreeBSD

Submitted by BSD_User 2006-07-15 3D 22 Comments

Will Backman speaks with Andy Ritger and Christian Zander from NVIDIA about the NVIDIA FreeBSD graphics driver. The interview gives an overview of the drivers current features, plans for future improvements, and a brief discussion about licensing and NVIDIA's open source efforts. Thanks to the FreeBSD guys themselves for this summary.

Installing Software in GNU/Linux

Submitted by Borys Musielak 2006-07-15 Linux 56 Comments

Here's a quick guide on how to install applications using various types of package formats in Linux. It is aimed at people new to Linux. "Installing software in GNU/Linux looks quite different to the way you’re probably used to from Microsoft Windows. This is due to philosophical reasons. GNU/Linux is a free (as in freedom) operating system. Most of the software is free as well. Thus, the programs can better cooperate with each other and often depend on each other for getting a job done."

Keeping up with KDE 4 Development

Submitted by Konqi 2006-07-15 KDE 8 Comments

The new KDE://radio podcast site keeps you informed and on the leading edge of KDE4 development. It holds at the moment 7 interviews which were recorded at the KDE Four Core developer meeting and deal with the new liveui framework, Akonadi PIM Storage Service, the Human Interface Guidelines, and more.

NTFS-3G: Full Read-Write Open Source Linux NTFS Driver

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-15 Linux 88 Comments

Finally Linux has got full read-write open source NTFS support! Preliminary benchmarks show that the still unoptimized driver already sometimes twice as fast as ext3 and 20-50 faster than the commercial Paragon NTFS. Interestingly Captive NTFS, which uses the native Windows NTFS driver, fails all benchmarks with file loss.

A Review of Motorola’s Linux-based Rokr E2 Music Phone

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-15 Wireless 5 Comments

Motorola's Linux-based Rokr E2 mobile phone looks ready to challenge Sony/Ericsson's Walkman phone in the hot emerging market for converged PMP phones (portable media player phones), according to this hands-on review. The phone uses the Chaemeleon API (enhanced Qt, no SDK available).

OpenCyc 1.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2006-07-14 Geek stuff 18 Comments

OpenCyc is the open source version of the Cyc technology, the world's largest and most complete general knowledge base and commonsense reasoning engine. OpenCyc can be used as the basis for a wide variety of intelligent applications. This is release 1.0 of OpenCyc featuring the complete Cyc ontology of over 260,000 terms and their definitional assertions numbering over 1.8 million. OpenCyc requires about 500MB of disk space and performs best with over 512 MB RAM. One GB of RAM is recommended for Cyc when accessed by Java applications.

GNOME 2.15.4 Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-07-14 Gnome 48 Comments

GNOME 2.15.4 has been released. "This is our fourth development release on our road towards GNOME 2.16.0, which will be released in September 2006. GNOME 2.15.4 has some rough edges but you should definitely try it to see how well it works." Easiest way to get it is via GARNOME.

KOffice 1.5.2 Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-07-14 KDE 16 Comments

"The KOffice team is announced KOffice version 1.5.2. This is mainly a bugfix release but also contains numerous translation updates. Especially KWord, KSpread and Kexi have received critical bug fixes."

Review: Intel’s Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme

Thom Holwerda 2006-07-14 Intel 14 Comments

After an 18-page in-depth review of Intel's new processor line, The Tech Report concludes: "After years of wandering in the wilderness, Intel has recaptured the desktop CPU performance title in dramatic fashion. Both the Core 2 Extreme X6800 and the Core 2 Duo E6700 easily outperform the Athlon 64 FX-62 across a range of applications - and the E6600 is right in the hunt, as well. Not only that, but the Core 2 processors showed no real weaknesses in our performance tests."

EC: ‘We Had to Fine Microsoft’

Thom Holwerda 2006-07-14 Microsoft 49 Comments

In a Q&A, Neelie Kroes, who fined MS for not complying with the EC's antitrust ruling, said: "I regret that the Commission has had to take such a step today, but given Microsoft's continued non-compliance to date, I have been left with no alternative. Today's decision reflects my determination to ensure that Microsoft complies with its obligations.Microsoft has claimed that its obligations in the decision are not clear, or that the obligations have changed. I cannot accept this characterisation - Microsoft's obligations are clearly outlined in the 2004 decision and have remained constant since then."

Submitted by DigitalDame 2006-07-14 AMD 21 Comments

AMD executives said this week that they will promote its '4x4' enthusiast platform to counter the Core 2 Duo. AMD also plans to push a sort of 'performance number' into the market to redefine how consumers should think about power. The 4x4 platform will place two physical sockets on a motherboard, connected by AMD's Direct Connect architecture. Mounted on each socket will be an AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor, for a total of 4 cores. An eight-core '8X8' program will roll out in 2007.

IIS 7 Shows Continued Security Push

Thom Holwerda 2006-07-14 Internet Explorer 27 Comments

eWeek reviews IIS 7 Beta. "Versions of IIS prior to 6 were the main points of attack for major worms and viruses such as Nimda. With IIS 6, Microsoft moved the Web server to a default profile that was much more secure. This and other security improvements have paid off, as IIS is nowhere near the major security problem it once was. To a certain degree, IIS 7 carries on this move to greater security with a default install that is even more secure than Version 6's and improvements in security management."

Submitted by kelvin 2006-07-14 Gnome 6 Comments

GNOME/GTK+ hacker Federico Mena Quintero blogs about the responses to the Questions for GNOME Deployments. "It's an informal study of the requirements that those deployments have, based on feedback which they provided about their particular needs. By fixing the most common problems which the deployments are experiencing, we will make GNOME more attractive for future deployments, and we'll get more users faster."

Smart Package Manager: a Better Mousetrap

Submitted by lh8 2006-07-14 Linux 26 Comments

"The Smart Package Manager hopes to beat the native package management applications for distributions like Red Hat, SUSE, and Debian at their own game. Still in beta, it has support for most major GNU/Linux package and repository formats, with a modular codebase that hints at further compatibility. Smart introduces many innovative and useful ideas, but its killer feature, with which it purports to excel beyond its counterparts, is the algorithms it uses to select packages and versions that best resolve dependencies and ensure cooperation between the hundreds of applications and libraries on a user's system."

Submitted by Mr. Tan 2006-07-14 Intel 35 Comments

OCAU reviews the new Core 2 Duo line from Intel, and concludes: "Thanks to its new micro-architecture, Core 2 Duo is performing far better than the previous generation dual core Pentium D. An X6800, for example, is between 30% ~ to 40% faster than a Pentium D 955XE. Core 2 Duo is achieving performance in applications and games that has not been seen before with a dual core desktop CPU. In addition Core 2 Duo consumes 40% less power and runs much cooler than Pentium D."

Fourth Mac OS X Browser Test

Submitted by Stamatis George 2006-07-14 Internet 19 Comments

"In our last test, we tested the four major browsers on Mac OS X (Safari, FireFox, Camino, and OmniWeb). It has since become the most popular article on our site. Since then, there have been several improvements on almost all of the browsers, so we decided to test again." More here. Elsewhere, check a preview of Firefox 2.0 too.