Microsoft: Open Source ‘Not Reliable or Dependable’

Microsoft 127 Comments
A senior Microsoft executive told a BBC documentary that people should use commercial software if they're looking for stability. "Some people want to use community-based software, and they get value out of sharing with other people in the community. Other people want the reliability and the dependability that comes from a commercial software model. And again, at the end of the day, you make the choice based on what has the highest value to you."
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Review: Apple MacBook

Apple 30 Comments
Ars reviews the new MacBook, and concludes: "Apple's new consumer level laptop is full of new features (iSight, widescreen display, MagSafe power connector, optical audio connections, etc.) and the prices are reasonable. Apple has thrust themselves back into a state of competitiveness when it comes to the consumer laptop space, and even offers prospective users features that other computer manufacturers cannot. Someone who buys a Dell or HP laptop cannot legally or easily boot OS X and Windows, and other laptops just don't look as good (your mileage may vary)."
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A Linux Distribution for an Old Laptop

  Submitted by Mark Linux 33 Comments
"I am faced with a challenge: I need to find a Linux distribution that is both small enough, efficient enough and easy enough to maintain for my laptop. Realizing that all Linux distributions are not created equal, I did my research and was able to narrow my list to a handful of distributions that may be suitable for my needs and my laptop. Throughout the course of this article, I am going to test each of these distributions on my laptop and discuss my experiences. I will attempt to install and evaluate each distribution for a period of a couple of days. Based on my findings, I will select the distribution that best suits my needs."
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CARP Ported to NetBSD

  Submitted by Jan Schaumann NetBSD 5 Comments
NetBSD's Liam J. Foy has ported CARP from OpenBSD and committed it into NetBSD-current. CARP is a secure, free alternative to the Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol and the Hot Standby Router Protocol. CARP works by allowing a group of hosts on the same network segment (known as 'redundancy group') to share an IP address, and in the event that the master host suffers a failure, the IP will move to one of the backups hosts and the service will continue unaffected.
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Red Hat: ‘Java Linux License Does Not Go Far Enough’

  Submitted by Pat Java 69 Comments
Sun Microsystems' new GNU/Linux-friendly Java license does not go far enough for Red Hat. It says Sun should have open-sourced Java instead. Brian Stevens, Red Hat CTO, told The Register Sun should open-source its Java Virtual Machine (which is licensed by Red Hat) so developers can improve the software's real-time capabilities. According to Stevens, Sun's Distro License for Java - launched at this week's JavaOne conference - will reduce companies' legal costs, but does not satisfy the desire for open source Java. He criticized Sun for being reactive, rather than leading, on the issue of open source Java. "They try to do the minimal amount they can get away with," he said.
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Symantec Sues Microsoft Over Trade Secrets

  Submitted by deathshadow Legal 17 Comments
It's court time again, people. "Symantec filed a lawsuit in Seattle today alleging Microsoft committed a host of business misdeeds, including misappropriating trade secrets and violating a contract that covered code used in part of the coming Windows Vista operating system. The suit, filed in US District Court for the Western District of Washington, relates to a contract between Microsoft and Veritas, which merged into Symantec last year, dating to 1996."
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AMD Turion X2 Released

  Submitted by anonymous AMD 24 Comments
"AMD today introduced AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile technology, the first and only family of 64-bit dual-core processors designed for thin and light notebook PCs. AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile technology allows people to get more from their mobile lifestyle through long battery life and outstanding performance, even when using multiple applications simultaneously, including demanding digital media applications."
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How Shellcodes Work

  Submitted by Mediv Privacy, Security 4 Comments
Here is an article explaining how shellcodes work: "This article is not a guide on writing exploits, nor an overview of popular vulnerabilities. This is a step-by-step guide on developing a shellcode, a crucial point of any exploit software. Hopefully, learning how they work will help conscientious and respectable developers and system administrators to understand how malefactors think and to defend their systems against them."
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Dell To Launch AMD Server

AMD 27 Comments
Dell will use AMD's Opteron chip. The PC maker has long been an Intel shop. But it intends to change that later in 2006, when it will begin offering a multi-processor AMD Opteron server. Dell, which announced its first-quarter earnings May 18, said in a statement that it would begin offering "AMD Opteron processors in our multi-processor servers by the end of the year offering a great new technology to our customers at the high-end of our server line." The Opteron server, likely to be a four-processor machine, will be sold alongside new Intel-based servers, Dell indicated.
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Microsoft Tells All on Vista’s Hardware Needs

Windows 70 Comments
As expected, the software giant on May 18 unveiled its Windows Vista Get Ready Web site, along with a set of minimum PC hardware guidelines for Vista Capable PCs - which call for at least an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and a DirectX 9-capable graphics processor, but ask for more for those who seek to use all of Vista's features - and a Windows Upgrade Advisor application as part of a campaign to prepare people. on a related note, the WinFS team whetted the appetites of advocates of Microsoft's next-generation file system by sharing information on plans for a new, Microsoft-developed application for WinFS, code-named "Project Orange".
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Sun Blesses Java Phone

  Submitted by anonymous Wireless 7 Comments
"SavaJe, a spinoff of Lucent Technologies, threw its hat into the ring at the 2006 JavaOne Conference in San Francisco this week, with the unveiling of a 'sophisticated' handset that runs a unique, Java-centric operating system. The Jasper S20 mobile phone, running SavaJe's Java-based SavaJe Mobile Platform, also garnered JavaOne's 'Device of the Show' honors. But why create a Java-based phone OS, when the mid- and high-tier mobile phone market appears to be locked in a three-way battle among Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Linux?"
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Volunteer Distributed Computing Results

  Submitted by Michael Muchmore Hardware 6 Comments
"There are dozens of other massively multiprocessor projects - known alternatively as distributed computing, grid computing, or volunteer computing - that can take advantage of your otherwise unused CPU cycles in an effort to do things like predict global climate change, calibrate particle accelerators, or develop drugs to combat cancer and AIDS. We decided to look into whether these projects have actually accomplished anything or were just spinning CPU cycles unnecessarily and making their users feel virtuous."
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