Why First Generation Apple Products Suck, Part II

"Originally, I had never intended to write a follow-up to 'Why First Generation Apple Products Suck'. But after receiving exceptional feedback on my thoughts, I think I need to make few things clear. Many of you thought I was unfairly singling out Apple even though defective first generation products are a common occurrence across the technology sector – software or hardware. Just to be clear, let’s not mesh software and hardware together. Neither I nor anyone else should ever expect software to be perfect. On the opposite end, with hardware, it is possible to perfect the craft of developing tangible products, such as the iPod music player."

The Emerging ODF Environment: Spotlight on StarOffice 8.0

"In this third in-depth interview focusing on ODF-compliant office productivity suites, I interviewed Erwin Tenhumberg, Sun's Product Marketing Manager, Client Systems Group. This series of interviews, and the other activities I have planned to follow, are intended to illustrate the rich environment of applications and tools that are evolving around the OpenDocument Format specification developed by OASIS, and now adopted by ISO/IEC."

Developing Games on Mac Using Third-Party Game Engines

"In this article, you'll learn about four powerful but easy-to-use game engines that will handle the heavy lifting for you, freeing you to concentrate on the fun parts of game development. You don't need a large budget, big teams, or awe-inspiring artistic and programming skills. All you need is a Mac running Mac OS X, a game engine, and a willingness to jump in and try out some ideas to see if they can gel into a fun and exciting game. With these tools, you're closer than you think."

Lenovo Denies Ditching Linux

Chinese computer supplier Lenovo has denied a report that it is planning to stop offering Linux on its range of PCs and laptops. On Friday, CRN reported that Frank Kardonski, Lenovo's worldwide product manager for its 3000 series, had indicated that Linux support was being dropped. But Lenovo made strenuous efforts on Monday to set the record straight, emphasizing that Kardonski provided incorrect information to CRN and that the company plans to continue to offer Linux on ThinkPads.

Fedora ‘Re-Spins’

"The Fedora Unity Project is proud to announce the release of DVD ISO Re-Spins of Fedora Core. These ISOs are based upon Fedora Core and contain all updates released as of the Re-Spin date. They are available for i386 and x86_64 architectures as of Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 via BitTorrent. The x86_64 Re-Spin is currently available for testing only."

Microsoft’s New Fonts

Vista and Office 2007 have many new fonts. NeoSmart takes a look at the ten most popular Vista and/or Office 12 fonts with screenshots, sample usages, and a critique of each font, one-by-one. These 10 fonts are the latin-based scripts that ship with Vista and/or Office 2007. My take: Microsoft has created some very beautiful fonts here. I especially like Segoe UI; it looks stunning when in use in Vista.

Inside the Linux Boot Process

"The process of booting a Linux system consists of a number of stages. But whether you're booting a standard x86 desktop or a deeply embedded PowerPC target, much of the flow is surprisingly similar. This article explores the Linux boot process from the initial bootstrap to the start of the first user-space application. Along the way, you'll learn about various other boot-related topics such as the boot loaders, kernel decompression, the initial RAM disk, and other elements of Linux boot."

Protothreads Library 1.3 Released

Protothreads are an extremely lightweight, stackless, thread-like programming abstraction designed for severely memory constrained embedded systems that may have as little as a few hundred bytes of RAM. Protothreads are designed to replace event-driven C code with sequential programming but without the memory overhead of full multithreading - a protothread requires only two bytes of RAM. Protothreads are implemented in ANSI C, does not require any machine code, and is therefore highly portable. Version 1.3 adds the possibility to determine if a protothread is blocked, has yielded or has ended, and can be downloaded here. Also be sure to read how protothreads work, under the hood.

Learn Object-Oriented Analysis with Generative Analysis

How do you elicit high-quality information from information sources that are subject to deletion, distortion and generalization? According to Jim Arlow, the answer is generative analysis, which is a new approach to learning object oriented analysis that teaches you how to deal with these and other real-world human issues of software engineering. Also, Mike Kelly examines a recent testing experience that should have worked: plenty of scripted test cases, plenty of time developing and testing the scripts. So what went wrong? Plenty.

What Sucks About DEs, pt. I: Ubuntu’s GNOME

I enjoy using many different desktop environments and operating systems. On a day-to-day basis, I use Finder, Explorer, GNOME, and KDE. They all have their good sides, but obviously, they have their fair share of bad sides as well. The next couple of columns will be about the latter. This week, I take a look at whatever bothers me about Ubuntu's GNOME/Linux combination (Dapper, obviously).

Office, Vista Changed in Wake of Adobe Threat

Microsoft is making changes to the next versions of both Office and Windows as part of an effort to head off a legal challenge from Adobe Systems. Microsoft said earlier Friday that it expects an antitrust suit from Adobe after months of negotiations in which the companies failed to reach an accord. The software maker is unilaterally making changes to both Office 2007 and Windows Vista in an effort to assuage some of Adobe's concerns. More important, the move is an attempt to lower the chances that an injunction could stop Microsoft from shipping those products.

Switching Back to Desktop Linux

"I kept my Linux desktop, but moved most of my daily work to the laptop. I also repartitioned my hard drive and reinstalled Mac OS X to give myself space to use Linux/PPC. I tried to get used to Mac OS X for six months, but when a new version of XFree86 came out and supported my video card fully, I finally switched away from Mac OS X. Why? There are plenty of reasons, most of them related to my primary goal."