OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

GPL 3: Pre-Release Buzz Centers on Patents, License Compatibility

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-15 Open Source 17 Comments

The first public draft of GNU General Public License 3.0 will be released at an event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday, and open-source software advocates are hoping that effective provisions for software patents as well as GPL compatibility with other licenses will be prominent in the draft. There is much optimism among those in the free and open-source community that GPL 3.0, the next version of the license that governs much software, including the Linux kernel, will provide a stable licensing environment for the foreseeable future.

Progress Report on OOo for Zeta; More BeOS/Zeta News

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-15 Zeta 8 Comments

A selection of BeOS/Zeta news today. First off, here's a progress report on YellowTAB's attempt at porting OpenOffice.org to Zeta: "We have now succeeded in porting 50 of the total of 200 packages of OpenOffice to yellowTAB ZETA. This includes one of the most complex components namely the SAL (System Abstraction Layer)." Secondly, IsComputerOn points out that screenshots of the BeMediaCenter have been published, while an update to BeeF is almost finished. And last but not least, Cola-coder is working on a front-end to IM_Kit (ICO has a download link).

Osnabrueck IV Meeting Brings ‘Akonadi’ PIM Data Storage Service

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-15 KDE 8 Comments

For the fourth consecutive year a group of KDE PIM developers followed the gracious invitation of Intevation GmbH to meet at their headquarters in Osnabrueck, Germany on the first weekend in January. As in the past years, the face-time proved very productive especially since everyone felt that with KDE 4 the time for more fundamental changes has come. By the end of the meeting the group had agreed on a vision and initial architecture for a unified, extensible storage service for PIM data and metadata, allowing all applications on the desktop fast and reliable access as well as powerful search capabilities. This service, codenamed 'Akonadi', together with intiatives like Plasma and Solid will form the basis of an exciting KDE 4 experience.

Oracle, Sun Team Up to Provide .NET Alternative

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-15 Oracle and SUN 11 Comments

Sun and Oracle have established a new strategic partnership in an attempt to challenge Microsoft with what Oracle CEO Larry Ellison calls 'standards-based systems.' According to Ellison and McNealy, their mutual goal is the production of a complete Java-centric enterprise datacenter architecture that leverages Solaris 10 and Oracle's Fusion middleware. Designed specifically as an alternative to Microsoft's .NET technology stack, the new platform is competitively priced and based on robust frameworks.

How to Set Up Database Replication In MySQL

Submitted by Falko Timme 2006-01-15 Databases 2 Comments

"This tutorial describes how to set up database replication in MySQL. MySQL replication allows you to have an exact copy of a database from a master server on another server (slave), and all updates to the database on the master server are immediately replicated to the database on the slave server so that both databases are in sync. This is not a backup policy because an accidentally issued DELETE command will also be carried out on the slave; but replication can help protect against hardware failures though."

Path Finder 4 Released

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-15 macOS 50 Comments

The ultra powerful alternative file manager for Mac OS X 10.4.x was just released: Path Finder 4 (screenshot). The new version sports over 100 improvements and features bringing Path Finder one step closer to perfection. Read more for our quick write up on the new release.

Submitted by gprc_account 2006-01-14 KDE 79 Comments

"Recently at a Linux show, John Littler saw a preview of a new version of KDE running on a KDE developer's laptop. The interface looked cleaner than before, and apparently there was a whole raft of new stuff under the hood. John recently interviewed KDE developer Aaron J. Seigo about the forthcoming KDE 4 (due in the fall) and also a little about the recent controversy surrounding the porting of KDE to operating systems other than Linux."

RISC OS Features in Plain English

Submitted by NetSurfer 2006-01-14 RISC OS 6 Comments

"Over the years, RISC OS 4 and 5 have continued to move forward, however separate their paths. Despite reams of column inches covering on-going developments, it would appear that there is no up to date list of all the RISC OS features for either stream; instead details of new releases are strewn across various months old web pages and articles, some of which written in fairly technical and programmer oriented language. Here, we present our best attempt at summing up all the main features for both RISC OS 4.39 and RISC OS 5.09 under one friendly roof, so to speak, for both current users, those new to the platform and those curiously peeking in."

Submitted by mono 2006-01-14 Intel 64 Comments

Apple's television ads for its new Macs boast that for years, Intel's chips have been "trapped inside PCs - dull little boxes, dutifully performing dull little tasks." Now, the voiceover proclaims, the Intel processor will finally be set free. Of course, that's not exactly the way Intel would put it. "Never would we characterize our customers that way."

Submitted by alcibiades 2006-01-14 Apple 37 Comments

"These days it's hard to find a pundit willing to question Apple's long-term prospects or the calls of its famous CEO, Steve Jobs. After all, Apple's fortunes have been on the rise for nearly a half-decade now, and they seem to be only gaining steam. That is, unless you're Clayton M. Christensen, the Harvard professor and author of the seminal 1997 book 'The Innovator's Dilemma'. Christensen, who more recently wrote 'Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change', isn't willing to jump on the Apple bandwagon just yet. As well as Jobs & Co. is performing now, Christensen fears that success is built on a strategy that won't stand the test of time."

Software Engineering, Not Computer Science

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-14 General Development 46 Comments

What is the best way to think of software development? Is it science? Is it art? Is it craft? Is it something else entirely? Read Steve McConnell's article here.

‘Java Is Dead, Long Live Java!’ – the Future of Java

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-14 Java 56 Comments

Although, because of its prominence, Java gets a lot of attention and with it much criticism (some of it valid), many don't realize that some big breakthroughs have arrived and that the Java development landscape is solving important problems. Also, Developer.com posted their "product of the year" awards for 2006. Java related products have the strongest showing with the largest number of awards.

Submitted by sean batten 2006-01-13 IBM 32 Comments

"While the press brouhaha happily follows Apple about and co-conspirator Intel looks on, smugly hoping its tie-up with the much-loved computer maker will bring it some added kudos in its assault on the consumer electronics market, IBM, the giant ousted from the party, is getting on with business. Big Blue may have been dumped by Apple but its compensation is plentiful. Its Power chips form the heart of upcoming console offerings from Sony and Nintendo as well as the XBox from Microsoft. And let's face it, the press might like Apple and the kids might dig iTunes but sales of a million or so computers annually is pretty small beer in the grand scheme of things."

GNOME 2.12 Released for AIX; GTK+ 2.8.10 Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-13 Gnome 8 Comments

GNOME 2.12 has been released for AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3. You can get both the binaries as well as the source in .rpm format here. The maintainers have dropped support for AIX 4.3.3 and for GNOME 2.2.1 through 2.8. On a related note, GTK+ 2.8.10 has been released.

Submitted by Raffaele 2006-01-13 Morphos 15 Comments

With a delay of a few days, Genesi has released the schematics to its Pegasos Rev.2b5 motherboard. You can download it from here, but you'll need to sign up (free) on Power.org. They even blogged about it, stating: "If you are just along for the ride you can stop reading now. Your challenge: be the best you can be. That is the competition. We are in the human line that stretches behind and beyond us. We all can have a role to play. To participate we have to start within ourselves, find firm footing, and launch into the world around us."

Open Source Darwin for Intel a No Go?

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-13 BSD & Darwin 34 Comments

Possibly in fear that hackers will be able to find backdoors in the Intel Darwin version and allow OSX to run on PCs other than Macs, Apple has only posted the sources of Darwin for PPC for the latest version.

Just how Different are Intel-Macs from Intel PCs?

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-13 Apple 44 Comments

The very first Apple computers, distributed nationwide in 1977, had a hood you could pry off to reveal the CPU, the memory, and the motherboard. But almost three decades later, the company that pioneered "open architecture" with the Apple II, even with thousands of admirers looking on, was reluctant to pry the back panel off its new Intel Core Duo-based iMacs and MacBook Pro portables.

GNU/Linux vs Microsoft on R&D: Answering the Microsoft

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-13 Rumors 34 Comments

Linux News raises questions about Microsoft's alleged $6 billion per year investment in R&D. Is it money well spent, or are they just throwing it away?

Submitted by Tyr. 2006-01-13 macOS 35 Comments

Microsoft has officially halted development of its Windows Media Player for the Mac and plans no future Apple Computer versions of its music-playing software, CNET News.com has learned. "It's basically a business decision for Microsoft," Anderson said. "Like any other company, we have business priorities. Our focus really is in delivering the best experience to Windows customers." Instead, users should now use this, which has a few problems though, according to some Mac users.

Running Commercial Linux Software on FreeBSD

Submitted by Nix_User 2006-01-13 FreeBSD 9 Comments

"One of the more intriguing capabilities of the BSD operating systems is their ability to run binaries for other Unix-like operating systems. I recently found myself requiring the commercial PGP Command Line for a project. Rather than install a Linux box just for this one piece of software, I jumped through some hoops and made it work perfectly on one of my existing FreeBSD systems. Getting a random piece of commercial Linux software running on a FreeBSD system isn't always as transparent as you might like, but you can do it with a minimum of fuss if you have a few extra troubleshooting skills".