OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

A Quick Rexx Tutorial

Eugenia Loli 2006-04-16 General Development 10 Comments

Rexx is a simple "power" language. Wait, isn't that a contradiction in terms? Not according to Howard Fosdick. While Rexx is easy to learn and simple to use, it nonetheless provides some strong capabilities that are making it a popular programming language.

A Tutorial Introduction to Full-Text Indexing in Java

Eugenia Loli 2006-04-16 Java 2 Comments

John Smart provides a quick intro to Lucene, a powerful and elegant library for full-text indexing and searching in Java, with which you can add rich full-text search functionality to your Java web application.

Why I Like Microkernels

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-16 OS News 158 Comments

Right in between a car crash and Easter, I knew I had to write a Sunday Eve Column. So here I am, digesting vast quantities of chocolate eggs (and I don't even like chocolate), craving for coffee (for me about as special as breathing), with the goal of explaining to you my, well, obsession with microkernels. Why do I like them? Why do I think the microkernel paradigm is superior to the monolithic one? Read on.

Submitted by Rahul 2006-04-16 Fedora Core 18 Comments

Free-Bees (what's in a name) reviews Fedora Core 5, and concludes: "The installer strikes me as the most polished part of Fedora, filled with pleasing touches. However, while the rest of the system is generally solid, there is some small instability that I never got with Fedora Core 4. There is also some post installation configuration required. While not necessarily a bad thing, how far you have to go just to get something such as Samba working is somewhat disconcerting. let's just say that Fedora Core 5, despite the small collection of problems that spoil the party, is truly an excellent distribution. To the absolute beginner, Fedora Core may not be the best solution, but if you have a little Linux experience, or want to try and learn something new, I can heartily endorse it."

Submitted by aaron 2006-04-16 Hardware 22 Comments

SilentPCReview tries to answer an important question: what is the best power efficiency achievable with currently available AMD and Intel processors that can be used on a desktop PC? The answer: "Our focus on thermals, power and energy efficiency led to mostly predictable results: mobile processors are best, followed by AMD desktop processor in general, and then Intel desktop processors. The power efficiency of AMD Athlon 64 single and dual core processors is excellent, even for their highest performance models. The Intel desktop processors suffer from inefficiency, even on the 65nm die. The Core Duo is a delightful exception in Intel's camp, with probably the highest performance-per-watt ratio of all the processors in our survey."

Second Issue of the OS2eCS eZine

Submitted by Jeramie Samphere 2006-04-16 OS/2 7 Comments

The second issue of the quarterly OS2eCS eZine was published on April 1, 2006. Articles include: 'Developing for Fun with OS/2 and OpenWatcom', 'Surfing in the Colorful Chinese World with OS/2 and eComStation', 'USB Thumb Drives and Flash Wristbands with eComStation', and more.

Porting Linux Applications to 64-bit Systems

Eugenia Loli 2006-04-16 Linux 42 Comments

With the pervasiveness of 64-bit architectures, it's more important than ever that your Linux software be 64-bit ready. Learn how to avoid portability pitfalls when making declarations and assignments, bit shifting, typing, formatting strings, and more.

A Look at GCJ 4.1

Eugenia Loli 2006-04-16 Java 9 Comments

One of the components of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is GCJ, the GNU Compiler for the Java programming language. GCJ is a compiler that can generate both native code and bytecode from Java source files. GCJ includes a runtime library (libgcj) that provides all runtime support, the core class libraries, a garbage collector, and a bytecode interpreter. Programs created by gcj can dynamically load and interpret class files or native shared libraries resulting in pure, or mixed native/interpreted apps.

Apple’s MacBook Pro: Using It As a Mac and a PC

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-15 Apple 31 Comments

AnandTech has published a very, very in-depth (17 pages) review of Apple's MacBook Pro. "With the MacBook Pro the desire to upgrade is even tougher to resist because Apple switched to a significantly faster processor than what was in the outgoing PowerBook G4. Honestly, as tempting as this new model may be to upgrade to for existing PowerBook owners, I would recommend waiting for a Merom version if you can. By the time Merom is introduced later this year there will be even more Universal Binaries available for the platform and hopefully by then all of the issues with the current MacBook Pros will have been worked out." In the review, Parallels's virtualization tool is compared to Apple's Boot Camp, and AnandTech concludes that it is already amazingly close to running Windows 'natively'.

Google Summer of Code 2006

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-15 Google 12 Comments

"A number of you have emailed us with one question on your minds: Will there be a Summer of Code this year? The answer, as you might have guessed, is yes! The SoC is our program to introduce students to the world of Open Source software development. Last year of the 8744 applicants, 419 students were accepted into the program and more than 80% of them succeeded, which means they received the full stipend of $4500. As of today, we're taking in applications from mentoring organizations, so watch that list of mentoring organizations grow!"

Demystifying Regular Expressions

Submitted by Mark 2006-04-15 General Development 18 Comments

"In this article a simple usage of regular expressions is described. Its intention is to bring users to try the most powerful search and replace paradigm available and hopefully start using it. This however can not replace good tutorials available on the sites that are also mentioned in this article. The article is written reproducing actual steps I took to complete my task, to show the specifics and possible problems."

‘Try KDE’ Aims to Market KDE

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-15 KDE 21 Comments

"Try KDE is a new resource listing ways that you can try out KDE without commiting to a full GNU/Linux or BSD install. It includes links to live cds, VMware player images and Klik bundles as well as links to KDE desktops available over NX, with explanations of these technologies. It is linked to from the KDE frontpage and will be updated regularly as more resources are discovered. You the community can help us out, by sending your comments and suggestions to the email address listed at the foot of the Try KDE page."

Lessig, Stallman on ‘Open Source’ DRM

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-15 Open Source 18 Comments

When Sun trumpeted its 'open source DRM' last month, no one at first noticed an unusual name amongst the canned quotes. Lending his support to the rights enforcement technology was Free Software Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation board member, and Software Freedom Law Center director, Professor Lawrence Lessig. A name usually associated with the unrestricted exchange of digital media. Debian activist and copyright campaigner Benjamin Mako Hill noticed, and thought this was odd. "The fact that the software is 'open source' is hardly good enough," he wrote, "if the purpose of the software is to take away users' freedom - in precisely the way that DRM does." And on a related note, here are some photos from inside the FSF headquarters in ~~Massa Massat~~ Mass.

Submitted by JCooper 2006-04-15 Windows 45 Comments

Microsoft estimates it lost about $14 billion last year to software piracy - and those may prove to be the most lucrative sales never made. Although the world's largest software maker spends millions of dollars annually to combat illegal copying and distribution of its products, critics allege - and Microsoft acknowledges - that piracy sometimes helps the company establish itself in emerging markets and fend off threats from free open-source programs.

Why Windows Is Less Secure Than Linux

Submitted by Dylan 2006-04-14 Privacy, Security 112 Comments

"Windows has grown so complicated that it is harder to secure. Well, these images make the point very well. Both images are a complete map of the system calls that occur when a web server serves up a single page of html with a single picture. The same page and picture. A system call is an opportunity to address memory. A hacker investigates each memory access to see if it is vulnerable to a buffer overflow attack. The developer must do QA on each of these entry points. The more system calls, the greater potential for vulnerability, the more effort needed to create secure applications."

New PS3 Operating System Details?

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-14 Games 10 Comments

Ars's Hannibal analyzes recent rumours concerning details about the operating system used for the PS3. "The site Playstation 3 Portal recently got hold of a few details of the PS3's OS, and how it will make use of the Cell hardware. Technically, these details qualify as 'rumor', but for the reasons given below I think they're pretty plausible."

Distrust for Windows Could Help Apple

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-14 Apple 68 Comments

A new report out by market research firm Forrester suggests that Apple could double its market share through defections from the Windows platform alone. The firm said that much of this has to do with customers' deep distrust of Microsoft. Apple, along with TiVo, was the only company whose brand trust increased in the last two years. Consumers trust technology brands like Bose, Dell, Sony, Panasonic, and Hewlett-Packard the most, while Toshiba, Hitachi, Gateway, and LG joined Microsoft at the bottom.

Mozilla Plugs Firefox Code Execution Hole in 1.5.0.2

Thom Holwerda 2006-04-14 Mozilla, Gecko 46 Comments

Mozilla has released a new version of the Firefox Web browser with what is described as 'significant security and stability improvements'. Details on the security vulnerabilities being patched were not available April 13 when Firefox 1.5.0.2 was shipped as a high-priority update. However, a source told eWEEK that the most serious flaw could allow 'remote code execution' attacks. A Mozilla spokesperson said information on the security patches will be publicly released soon.

The BeOS/Zeta CD Project

Submitted by Mr.H. 2006-04-14 Haiku 13 Comments

A CD with BeOS/Zeta-related information is in the planning stages as donationware. It offers information in different languages (German, English, Italian, French, etc.). The content includes BeOS programmer interviews, magazines, and further BeOS-related articles. Think interviews with developers, Technoids, the BeOS Bible, etc.

FreeBSD Status Report: 1st Quarter 2006

Submitted by Joel Dahl 2006-04-14 FreeBSD 3 Comments

The latest FreeBSD status report has been released. "The highlights of this quarters report certainly include the availability of native Java binaries thanks to the FreeBSD Foundation, as well as progress has been made with Xen support and Sun's Ultrasparc T1. Futhermore we are looking forward to FreeBSD 6.1 and TrustedBSD audit support has been imported into FreeBSD 7-CURRENT. All in all, a very exiting start to 2006." And on a related note, FreeBSD now boots on the Intel Macs.