OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Googles Announces Google Pack, Video-on-Demand

Submitted by Adurbe 2006-01-07 Google 16 Comments

As expected, Google on Friday announced several new products. "Google Pack, a bundle of software from Google and other companies that was announced by the Web giant on Friday, is aimed squarely at consumers. But Google's goal is to be the front end for everything people do on a computer, and enterprise use is not far off, analysts and solution providers said." Google also enters the video-on-demand business: "Google announced a service Friday that will let people rent or buy downloadable videos online, including classic and contemporary CBS television shows and NBA basketball games."

Input / Output Redirection Made Simple in Linux

Submitted by Bjorn 2006-01-07 Linux 8 Comments

"Linux follows the philosophy that every thing is a file. For example, a keyboard, monitor, mouse, printer... You name it and it is classified as a file in Linux. Each of these pieces of hardware have got unique file descriptors associated with it. Now this nomenclature has got its own advantages. The main one being you can use all the common command line tools you have in Linux to send, receive or manipulate data with these devices."

Red Hat Disputes CERT Vulnerability Figures

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 Privacy, Security 125 Comments

Open source experts have hit back at a study published by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team that said more vulnerabilities were found in Linux/Unix than in Windows in 2005, labelling the report misleading and confusing. The report has attracted criticism from the open source community. Linux vendor Red Hat said the vulnerabilities had been miscategorised, and so could not be used to compare the relative security of Windows and Linux/Unix platforms.

Highlights: EuroBSDCon 2005

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 BSD & Darwin 1 Comment

"The EuroBSDCon Conference is the largest BSD event in Europe, attracting more than 220 attendees from 27 different countries. November's 2005 conference, the fourth EuroBSDCon, took place in the University of Basel, Switzerland. Here are some highlights."

Portable Version of OpenOffice.org Unveiled

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 Office 26 Comments

The latest version of Portable OpenOffice.org, an edition of the open source office suite that fits on a USB stick, includes a number of updates such as full support for Windows 2000 and launchers for each OpenOffice.org application. Portable OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 includes all the applications included in OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 and takes up only 144MB of storage space, compared to the 300MB of disk space required by the full version of the office suite. But 144MB is still too big, considering that many USB sticks only store 256MB, according to Gary Barnett, a research director at analyst firm Ovum.

Submitted by letsrock 2006-01-06 Linux 31 Comments

"Linux is not Windows, and although there are some similarities, you must realize that there may be a few 'new ways of doing things' to learn before you can be comfortable in Linux. Linux is an open-source clone of UNIX, a secure operating system that predates DOS and Windows and is designed for multiple users. The items in the following list generally apply to any UNIX-based *nix system, such as Linux and the various BSD's. For the purposes of this article, assume that it's all Linux."

Mass. Replaces CIO in OpenDocument Fray

Submitted by Andy Updegrove 2006-01-06 Office 11 Comments

Massachusetts has named an acting chief information officer, and the state is 'on track' to use OpenDocument-based desktop software next year, a spokesman for the commonwealth's governor said Thursday. Bethann Pepoli has been appointed acting CIO of the state's Information Technology Division by Thomas Trimarco, the state's secretary of administration and finance, according to Eric Fehrnstrom, communications director at Gov. Mitt Romney's office.

The Vision and History of Notes and Domino

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 IBM 10 Comments

"As you might expect of such complex and successful software, Lotus Notes and Domino share a long and rich history. In some respects, this history mirrors the evolution of the computing industry itself-the development and widespread adoption of PCs, networks, graphical user interfaces, communication and collaboration software, and the Web. Notes and Domino have been there nearly every step of the way, influencing (and being influenced by) all these critical developments. This article briefly retraces the history of Notes and Domino, starting with the earliest conceptual and development stages and continuing through major feature releases."

GNOME 2.13.4 Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 Gnome 45 Comments

GNOME 2.13.4 has been released. As always, the odd-numbered branches indicate dev-branches, and as such the 2.13.x series is the step-up to the GNOME 2.14 release, planned for March this year. Release notes: platform, desktop, and bindings; downloads: platform, desktop, and bindings.

Microsoft: We’re in ‘Fighting Shape’

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 Microsoft 55 Comments

"Microsoft has some catching up to do. It's not a phrase you hear every day. But whether it's Apple Computer's iTunes-iPod combo or Google's advertising engine, the software maker's top executives readily admit that they are coming from behind. In a rare joint interview ahead of the CES, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer outlined their plans to catch their rivals and discussed why it's Sony that will have to play catch-up in the video console wars."

Intel Brings Internet, Media Content Providers Under Viiv Platform

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 Intel 10 Comments

"Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, outlined plans to bring a wide range of content, from sports to first-run movies, to anyone with a broadband Internet connection and a remote control using its new Viiv PC platform, during a Thursday night keynote at the 2006 CES. While it incorporates new hardware and software, including Intel's latest Core Duo and Pentium D 900 series chips, Viiv represents the company's larger effort to bring together a variety of content and display it on a range of devices, including televisions and handhelds." In addition, Intel teamed up with Google to provide video content for the Viiv platform.

YellowDog Linux 4.1 Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 Linux 29 Comments

Terrasoft has released YellowDog Linux 4.1. This new release of course incorporates the latest and greatest of the Linux world, but besides that it also features support for the latest Apple PowerBooks, beta support for Apple G5 PowerMacs with dual-core processors, and basic 64-bit development and runtime support. The release is now only available to subscribers, but a public release is planned for mid-February.

Coders Wooed by Novell for OpenSuSE

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-06 SuSE, openSUSE 10 Comments

Early in 2006, Novell plans to release a development framework that will let outside contributors or third-party software developers contribute software or patches. The framework also will include a publicly available server that any registered developer can use to build software, Novell said. Since the OpenSuSE.org site was launched, there have been 750000 verified installations of SuSE Linux, Novell said.

Submitted by raoulsland 2006-01-06 General Development 8 Comments

"This is a guide to create or restore images of your partitions using the great open source tool Partimage. It provides information on how to do this locally or across the network, by setting up a Partimaged Server. I guess this info is non distribution specific, since we will work from a Rescue environment. Partimage is a command line tool with a basic ncurses user interface. For information about the supported filesystems, you can check its homepage."

Linux Heats Up in the Mobile Phone Market

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-06 Linux 18 Comments

At least three Linux-based phones were shown at CES this week. WNC's GW1 dual mode GSM/WiFi SIP phone is running a version of Trolltech's latest Qtopia Phone edition with VoIP/SIP capabilities. Motorola showed its new Linux-based ROKR E2 feature-phone too (pics, video), but the iTunes software is now removed. This feature phone uses Motorola's new softkey-based UI. Recently, information became known for Motorola's A1200, which uses the older touchscreen UI, same to the one we reviewed a few months ago. Unfortunately, the SDKs of these phones won't be released to developers at large to create native applications, as Motorola is not interested in creating a compatible Linux "platform" similar to Symbian/WinMobile/Palm platforms and instead is pushing just for generic Java apps.

Run Mac OS on your Sony PSP

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-06 Games 28 Comments

We all know that PSP users who haven't upgraded their firmware beyond 1.50 are able to run third party hobby applications as opposed to just commercial ones. This community has ported a large number of emulators to the PSP able to run almost every console game ever released. Apparently, someone also ported the Basilisk-II 68k emulator which allows users to run a full copy of Mac OS 8.1 on it. Video here (since that video was made a new version of the port allows for a much faster runtime).

Arch Linux 0.7.1 (Noodle) Released

Eugenia Loli 2006-01-05 Linux 47 Comments

Arch Linux 0.7.1 was released with some better hardware detection (not hotplug), stock initrd support for usage with encrypted root filesystems, network profiles, and more little goodies here and there. As always, read the the docs before installing. You'll find ISO images here (torrents here).

Microsoft Officially Releases Patch for WMF Flaw

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-05 Windows 45 Comments

Microsoft has officially released the patch that fixes the WMF flaw. The patch can be download individually here, but it is advised to simply use Windows Update. Yesterday, Microsoft said it would not release it until next Tuesday, but two (1 | 2) third party fixes were already available. And to make matters worse, Microsoft accidentally leaked their own patch to the Net yesterday.

Gates Sees IBM, Not Google, As Top Microsoft Rival

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-05 Microsoft 74 Comments

Media coverage focuses on Microsoft's competition with Google, but Chairman Bill Gates sees IBM - not the Web search leader - as its biggest challenger. "People tend to get over-focused on one of our competitors. We've always seen that," Gates said, comparing the potential threat of Google's search capabilities to past competitors such as Internet browser Netscape and Sun Microsystems' Java programming language.

A New Palm Treo Uses Microsoft’s Software, But It Doesn’t Beat 650

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-05 Wireless 12 Comments

"Palm this week introduced a Treo model that uses the latest version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile software (formerly known as Pocket PC). On the outside, the new Treo 700w looks very much like the current Palm-based model, the Treo 650, which will remain on sale and will continue to be developed on a parallel track. On the inside, though, the new Treo's key software functions - phone, email, Web, multimedia - are all different."