OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Protest Against ATI Nearly Led to the Arrest of RMS

Submitted by Mitarai 2006-04-30 Open Source 126 Comments

"When Richard Stallman learned that a compiler architect from ATI would be speaking at MIT, he immediately started organizing a protest against ATI's damaging free software policies. It all started, like most good protests, with a trip to Kinko's printing to make a sign. The request came from Richard Stallman for a 3'x2' sign, mounted and able to be carried with one hand easily. Several frustrating minutes with Inkscape, two trips to the store and one foam-core backing later, we had our sign, and it stated our message clearly in black letters on white background."

Introducing LKM Programming

Submitted by Mark 2006-04-30 Linux 3 Comments

"This is the first part of a series of articles regarding Linux Kernel Modules. In this series we will see some examples of module programming and some techniques and general rules that we must keep in mind when we work in kernel mode. This is not an in-depth series of articles, but and introduction for those people who want to know more about kernel internals. A background in C programming will be helpful."

Apple Interested in Solaris’ ZFS

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-29 macOS 85 Comments

Apparantly, Apple is interested in porting Sun Solaris' ZFS to Mac OS X. From the zfs-discuss mailinglist: "Chris Emura, the Filesystem Development Manager within Apple's CoreOS organization is interested in porting ZFS to OS X. For more information, please e-mail him directly at . Speaking for the zfs team (at Sun), this is great news and we fully support the effort."

Microsoft Releases First Beta for Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-29 Microsoft 7 Comments

Microsoft has released the first of two betas planned for its Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1 product. Virtual Server 2005 R2 service pack 1 will support AMD Virtualization and Intel Virtualization Technology, giving customers better interoperability, strengthened isolation to prevent corruption of one virtual machine from affecting others on the same system, as well as improved performance for non-Windows guest operating systems.

Jobs Touts Product Pipeline to Apple Shareholders

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-28 Apple 38 Comments

Apple CEO Steve Jobs touted the company's forthcoming products as "the best I've ever seen in my life", and told Apple shareholders that the Mac's transition to Intel processors will pay off in the long run. Jobs, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller answered investors' questions Thursday during Apple's annual shareholder meeting at its Cupertino campus.

Microsoft Earnings Slip Below Targets

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-28 Microsoft 25 Comments

Microsoft said the weaker earnings came as it invests money in its services push and also as it tries to ramp up production of the Xbox 360 games console. Microsoft on Thursday reported third-quarter sales and earnings that were below what some analysts were expecting, and said future earnings will be dented as it aims to boost its Windows Live Internet services and other new businesses.

Submitted by ormandj 2006-04-28 Solaris 20 Comments

Solaris Express 4/06 has been released. You can click here to download this release. There have been some minor bugfixes and some relatively noteworthy additions in this release (including PostgreSQL and PCIe support). Sun has a nice, detailed list of new features for this release.

Introducing OpenBSD 3.9

Submitted by nitsudima 2006-04-28 OpenBSD 20 Comments

Open source expert David Chisnall gives us the ins and outs of where OpenBSD has been, where it is now with the new version 3.9, and what lies ahead in the future. "OpenBSD began life as a fork of NetBSD, the oldest of the currently active BSD projects. A personality clash between Theo de Raadt and the rest of the NetBSD team lead to Theo’s access to the project’s CVS tree being revoked."

Submitted by DigitalDame 2006-04-28 Google 23 Comments

PCMag reviews Google's SketchUp beta. "Google SketchUp Beta, the brand new, free 3D drawing tool isn't an obvious fit for the Google desktop application canon. However, this blend of vector-based 3D drawing and CAD-like control lets you rapidly build 3D models that can be exported to numerous bitmap and compressed file formats and, more importantly, geo-coded and shared on the company's Google Earth satellite imagery program, which is also free. So, it's a undeniably cool, oddball app that has the potential to turn one of Google's most popular services, Google Earth, into an even more powerful and personal tool."

GNOME Won the Desktop Battle, Will Linux Lose the War?

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-28 Gnome 228 Comments

"Despite the head start that KDE enjoyed, the large number of KDE users and developers, and Linus Torvalds personally endorsing KDE, GNOME has won the desktop environment battle. The final victory came with the third piece of a corporate trifecta, giving GNOME the official nod from Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and finally Novell. The question is, will the triumph of GNOME lead to the rise or downfall of the Linux desktop?" Run Forrest! Run!

Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu 6.06 Beta 2 Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2006-04-28 Ubuntu 35 Comments

"The Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Edubuntu teams are proud to present a second Beta release of Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu 6.06 LTS, codenamed "Dapper Drake". This release corrects some serious flaws in the installer present on the Desktop CD in the first Beta release. Although the text-mode install CD also forms part of this release, it has not been modified since Beta 1. An updated Xubuntu release is also in preparation and will be announced shortly." Hey look, a screenshot tour.

Submitted by fsmdave 2006-04-28 Oracle and SUN 7 Comments

FreeSoftwareMagazine reviews the Sun Ultra 3 mobile workstation, and concludes: "As a portable development unit it is a dream. The ability to effectively run both a client and a deployment environment on the same machine at reasonable speeds certainly makes a difference to your ability to work while mobile. The size of the display and the speed of the unit make it ideal for working with multiple source files, or within environments like Sun Studio or Eclipse, both of which ran perfectly. The binary compatibility is obviously key for those who need a portable SPARC unit, but I could just as easily see it being used as a Java or script based development platform."

SUSE Linux 10.1 RC3 Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2006-04-28 SuSE, openSUSE 11 Comments

"I'm glad to announce SUSE Linux 10.1 Codename 'Agama Lizard' RC3. We have fixed the majority of bugs from RC3 and look forward to the goldmaster - if testing does not show serious problems." Okay, I will try not to mention the lack or release information this time.

‘Sun Is Working True to the Spirit’

Submitted by Alan DuBoff 2006-04-28 Oracle and SUN 22 Comments

"Linux distributor Novell has taken a shot at open-source rival Sun, saying the company's moves to open the code on its Solaris operating system had added little to the open-source community." A Sun employee responds: "I can't see how OpenSolaris creates any forks from any of the open source efforts and really does help many folks that do use it. Freedom is the ability to have choice, in addition to removing the restrictions of licenses. OpenSolaris accomplishes both, and works to become "true to the spirit".

Haiku Code Bounties

Submitted by Karl 2006-04-28 Haiku 17 Comments

"This site intends to stimulate interest in coding for the Haiku OS by offering financial compensation to software developers once they have completed one of our code bounties." Donate away, boys and girls.

Mini-Interview with Chander Kant of Zmanda

Eugenia Loli 2006-04-28 Original OSNews Interviews 6 Comments

Zmanda, Inc. introduced recently the first business-ready open source backup solution: the Zmanda Network is a suite of enterprise-ready software and services based on the popular Amanda open source data backup and recovery technology. Today we are very happy to feature a mini-interview with Zmanda's CEO, Chander Kant.

Submitted by jamesd 2006-04-28 Unix 25 Comments

Scale-with-rails compares Solaris Express to FreeBSD and then goes on to demonstrate the power of the Sun Niagara based T2000.

Apple Guards the Secrets of the Server; Aperture Killed?

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-27 Apple 36 Comments

Apple Computer is guarding its server plans closely, leaving observers to wonder what will come of the product line. The Mac manufacturer said on April 5 that it will preview its new Mac OS X 10.5, dubbed Leopard, at its Worldwide Developers Conference in August. But the company has yet to reference a Leopard server edition. Nor has it hinted about any plans it might have to move its Xserve server line to Intel processors from the PowerPC under its June 2005 decree to move from PowerPC chips to Intel processors by June 2007. On a related note, another Apple product's future is uncertain. Apple has asked the development team behind Aperture to leave-- probably related to the fact that Aperture got some pretty harsh reviews after its release.

BitLocker Gives Dual-Boot Systems the Elbow

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-27 Windows 41 Comments

Security features introduced in Windows Vista will make setting up PCs to boot in either Linux or Windows far more difficult, according to security guru Bruce Schneier. Vista is due to feature hardware-based encryption, called BitLocker Drive Encryption, which acts as a repository to protect sensitive data in the event of a PC being either lost or stolen. This encryption technology also has the effect of frustrating the exchange of data needed in a dual boot system.

Is the Palm OS Missing the Multimedia Boat?

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-27 Wireless 14 Comments

The Palm OS may be losing its mojo with software developers. It's been two years since the release of the last major upgrade to the Palm operating system for mobile devices, not counting the upgrade that never appeared in public. With a brand-new version of the pioneer mobile OS not expected to appear for at least another year, some larger developers of mobile applications are looking elsewhere when launching their new multimedia applications.