OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Hardware Virtualization Slower Than Software?

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-13 OS News 28 Comments

" a new white paper by VMWare that comes to the surprising conclusion that hardware-assisted x86 virtualization oftentimes fails to outperform software-assisted virtualization. My reading of the paper says that this counterintuitive result is often due to the fact that hardware-assisted virtualization relies on expensive traps to catch privileged instructions while software-assisted virtualization uses inexpensive software substitutions." Read more at Slashdot.

Inside Mac OS X v10.5, a Visual Preview

Submitted by Mark White 2006-08-13 macOS 48 Comments

Here are just a couple of screenshots from Leopard and explanation of some of the new features.

Advanced Installation Tasks in FreeBSD 6

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-13 FreeBSD 19 Comments

This chapter explains the ins and outs of non-standard FreeBSD installations. If you are installing FreeBSD on a system with another operating system previously installed, or if you aren't using a CD or DVD to install FreeBSD, you'll want to read this chapter before performing the installation.

Editing and Refactoring Code in NetBeans

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-13 Java 4 Comments

NetBeans IDE provides a wide variety of tools to support Java application development, but it is the Source Editor where you will spend most of your time. Given that fact, a lot of attention has been put into features and subtle touches to make coding faster and more pleasurable. This chapter covers the ins and outs of the Source Editor.

Fun with Fractals in Visual Studio .NET

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-13 .NET 1 Comment

If you're old enough to remember the 1970s, the current popular fascination with fractals probably flashes you back to those halcyon days of big hair and wild imagery. Whatever your age, you'll enjoy Peter Aitken's explanation of how fractals work. You can even plug in his Visual Studio demo program and make some fractals of your own.

Submitted by binarycrusader 2006-08-13 Intel 43 Comments

The driver source code released for the Intel 965 Graphics chipset recently isn't as open as first thought. Keith Packard posted a reply on the linux-kernel mailing list detailing what parts were not available.

Ubuntu vs. Debian: What Canonical Doesn’t Want You To Know

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-12 Debian 93 Comments

"Debian and Ubuntu. Ubuntu and Debian. How are they different? How are they the same? Well, most of the differences lie in the target userbase of the OSes. Debian is attempting the unattemptable by making a distro that's right for almost every use imaginable. Servers use it, workstations use it, monkeys I'm sure could use it too. That comes at a price." More here.

Take a Closer Look at the Most Secure Unix OS: OpenBSD

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-12 OpenBSD 36 Comments

OpenBSD strives to be the most secure UNIX derivation. Design principles, such as code auditing, extensive use of encryption, and careful configuration choices, combine to ensure OpenBSD's secure by default philosophy holds true. This article gives you a close look at the operating system so secure that it was once banned for use in a DEF CON competition, where crackers go after each other's systems.

Submitted by Rahul 2006-08-12 Fedora Core 16 Comments

"Overall, FC6 looks and feels like a more solid, polished version of FC5 rather than a wholesale revamp. I look forward to the finished product this fall." Check the short commentary here.

Submitted by Begasus 2006-08-12 Zeta 19 Comments

Magnussoft has posted a news item to let customers know that the first games have been ported for ZETA 1.21. These are pretty important releases for Zeta's software base.

No Open Graphics Drivers from AMD

Submitted by fish reloaded 2006-08-12 3D 77 Comments

Statement by ATI: "For other markets, such as workstation and consumer, performance and feature differentiation are key metrics. Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open source. In addition, multimedia elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature, be allowed to go open source."

Yet Another Way to Browse OSNews

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-12 OS News 20 Comments

Between the full desktop version, the subscriber's ad-free version, the normal mobile version (via autodetection), the very lite mobile version and the WAP version of OSNews, here is one more: http://osnews.com/pda . This version is built around our RSS feed and it's geared towards cellphones (like the Motorola RaZR line) that can't quite manage to render our normal mobile front page (28 KB overall) while the very lite or WAP versions don't have enough information in them so they leave our readers with a bitter taste. Hence, we implemented this RSS-based middle-ground mobile version, like we also did for other popular sites yesterday (screenshots). The PHP source code that generates this mobile-friendly layout is freely available and ready to be deployed, courtecy of MoBits.com.

Talking Mono with Miguel de Icaza

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-11 Mono 39 Comments

Sam of Port25 sits down with Miguel de Icaza, VP Development Platform at Novell and co-founder of Ximian. In this interview Sam and Miguel talk about the history behind Mono, the current state of the project and Miguel's thoughts on Mono as it relates to .NET.

Submitted by Saad 2006-08-11 IBM 27 Comments

"August 12, 1981 marks the birth of the IBM PC, the computer that single-handedly turned personal computing to the business market. IBM's success forced Apple and others to change their focus, and most personal computer companies from the pre-IBM era have become historical footnotes. By 2006, even Apple Computer had followed IBM's lead and adopted Intel CPUs and built Macs that can boot Microsoft Windows." Yes, boys and girls, she's that old. A 'thank you' is in order, I suppose.

Haiku LiveCD Script

Submitted by sardaukar siet 2006-08-11 Haiku 29 Comments

The Haiku news just keeps on coming lately. "HaikuLiveCDScript is a shell script to build a Haiku live CD. It downloads, decompresses, and generates a boot image and drops files in a folder ready to be burnt. Just unpack the script files and execute 'makelivecd', and wait a while."

openSUSE 10.2 Alpha 3 Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2006-08-11 SuSE, openSUSE 14 Comments

openSUSE 10.2 alpha 3 has been released: "I'm glad to announce the third alpha release of our 10.2 product. It's the first time that we call our distribution 'openSUSE' instead of 'SUSE Linux'." The full release announcement can be found at LinuxCompatible.

The GNU Linear Programming Kit

Submitted by IdaAshley 2006-08-11 General Development 1 Comment

"The GNU Linear Programming Kit is a powerful, proven tool for solving numeric problems with multiple constraints. Get an introduction to GLPK, the glpsol client utility, and the GNU MathProg language to help find the best solutions to complex numeric problems. Then, learn to solve the problem of optimizing the operations for Giapetto's Woodcarving, Inc., a fictional toy manufacturer."

Submitted by Dolphin 2006-08-11 .NET 82 Comments

"Four short years ago, Microsoft unveiled its new framework/engine for programming and running applications in a virtual environment, and the world was stunned. Microsoft had introduced a run-time environment that was for the first time a true 'write once, run everywhere' implementation, but that was far from being the end. With .NET 3.0 on the loom, NeoSmart Technologies takes a look at how far .NET has come and just how long it can keep going."

Debunking the Blue Pill Myth

Submitted by Alessandro Perilli 2006-08-11 Privacy, Security 2 Comments

"Blue Pill is the prototype resulting from a security study made by Joanna Rutkowska, which took advantage of new virtualization capabilities of AMD processors (known as SVM and previously as Pacifica) to inject a rootkit in a running Vista operating system. Ms Rutkowska claimed a malware using this method is undetectable. Virtualization.info met Anthony Liguori, Software Engineer at IBM's Linux Technology Center, and, most of all, one of the men behind the Xen hypervisor, to finally debunk the Blue Pill undetectabiliy myth."

Submitted by alcibiades 2006-08-11 Apple 50 Comments

Ars does its usual thorough stuff on the new Mac Pro. According to Ars: "The interior layout is a big win for Apple. Four drive bays is adequate for a pro tower, and the fact that each drive is on its own bus is a smart design decision. It's also great having room for a second optical drive. In terms of performance, it's good news - with a caveat. While the fully-buffered memory, the screaming-fast Xeon 5150s, and the 1333MHz FSB are all great, Apple's video card choice is most definitely not. It doesn't fit, and it detracts from the overall experience. Despite that, the Mac Pro is a very solid graphics or video editing workstation. When all the major 'pro' applications have made the transition to Universal Binaries, the PowerPC years will be little more than a memory."