OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

DTracing Linux Userspace Using BrandZ

Submitted by tpenta 2005-12-19 Linux 23 Comments

Adam Leventhal (one of the DTrace developers) was in volved in making DTrace work for BrandZ. He's written a blog entry on using this combination to have a look at the "top issue" (why is it that whenever you run top, the top process is top?). The blog entry shows how using DTrace and OpenSolaris (the only way that you can currently d BrandZ), can be of benefit to Linux.

Mandriva Linux 2006 Review – Linux Desktop Showcase Part 3

Submitted by Rob Teng 2005-12-18 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 33 Comments

Part 3 of the extensive Linux Tips for Free Mandriva Linux 2006 review has finally been published, covering multimedia, productivity and entertainment software. It also discusses Mandriva Linux security features, the Mandriva Club and looks ahead at the future: "... 1990-something was the year of Server Linux, 2003 was the year of Desktop Linux, 2005 the year of Laptop Linux, 2006 will be the year of Mobile Phone Linux and 2007 will be the year of Handheld/Palmtop Linux." Parts one and two were previously mentioned here at OSNews.

Cleartype Team – Typography in Windows Vista

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-18 Windows 90 Comments

Channel9 met with Bill Hill and the ClearType team again and see what's the latest with the fonts in Windows Vista. They talk about trends in display resolution, research done in aesthetics and quite a few other things.

Is One Standard Always Better Than Two?

Submitted by Andy Updegrove 2005-12-18 Office 28 Comments

"I've received several emails and seen several articles asking whether any eventual decision by Massachusetts to approve two different document standards (e.g., Microsoft's XML Reference Schema (XMLRS) as well as the OASIS OpenDocument Format) would be a serious blow to the goal of achieving long-term access to documents. The quick answer is that this is not a binary situation, because there are different types of standards that serve different purposes, as well as different situations that have different dynamics."

Java Perspective: Advanced Core Data

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-18 Java 5 Comments

Although it is possible to use Core Data with little or no coding on your part, what if you want or need more fine-grained control over the persistence layer in your application? Marcus Zarra walks you through some of the more advanced features of Core Data.

Profiling in Linux Performance Tuning

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-18 Linux 5 Comments

This chapter covers several methods to measure execution time and real-time performance. The methods give different types of granularity, from the program’s complete execution time to how long each function in the program takes.

FreeSBIE 2.0 Beta Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-18 FreeBSD 17 Comments

Without much ado, the FreeSBIE team has released a beta of their upcoming version 2. "You can download the beta from the torrent. You can log in as user 'freesbie' (no password) and try 'startxfce4' or 'startfluxbox'. You won't find the preconfigured menus and settings as Dave's still working on them, but you can run `openoffice.org' from a terminal. All you readers are strongly welcome if you can give it a test and report feedback, we are working hard for the new release." Note: Let's try not to get knickers in a twist over the icon this time, shall we?

Bill Gates Time’s Person of the Year

Submitted by BCM 2005-12-18 Microsoft 83 Comments

"For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are Time's Persons of the Year." Here is an article dedicated to Bill and Melinda Gates, while an interview with all three can be found here.

The Apache Geronimo Push for Clustering

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-18 Java 7 Comments

"Clustering allows an application server to support multiple nodes with failover, session data sharing, and load balancing across many network nodes. This article provides details, direct from Apache Geronimo clustering effort team leader, Jeff Genender. Find out who is working on the details, how they work together to get the code written, and the ramifications these efforts are having on the open source community."

The Differences Between Red Hat and Novell

Submitted by creo 2005-12-18 Rumors 38 Comments

Matt Asay, who quit Novell recently, has written an opinion piece on the differences between Red Hat and Novell in the Linux industry. "Red Hat has long dominated the Linux market. In part this has resulted from serendipity - the company raised gobs of cash in a boom-time IPO and so was the first big player to market - but it also results from the company's rabid focus on customers. Importantly, Red Hat has never wavered from a core understanding that the low-hanging fruit is Unix."

Submitted by Lazarus 2005-12-17 BSD & Darwin 69 Comments

Fans of DragonFly BSD will be getting their Christmas present late this year, and plans for 1.5 have been announced. MP safe networking code, the long awaited cache coherency management system, and a port of Sun's ZFS. Read here for more. Update: Refresh, empty cache, whatever, and check the shiny new beastie icon! And there was much rejoicing. Can we now please discuss DragonFly BSD?

New Windows Vista Test Build Expected

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-17 Windows 49 Comments

Windows testers will get a new beta version of Windows Vista, dubbed the December Community Technology Preview beta build, just before next week's holidays, according to tester scuttlebutt. New to the December release, testers say, will be a number of features and user-interface tweaks. a new defrag module; tight integration of Windows Defender (formerly known as Windows AntiSpyware); and a functional parental-controls filter are all rumored to be in the December Vista build.

Submitted by oGALAXYo 2005-12-17 Amiga & AROS 30 Comments

The AROS-Max team has released version 0.4.8 of their AROS-based live-CD. Their website is hopelessly outdated, so don't count on that to give you any information. A direct link to the download can be found here, and oGALAXYo has put up some screenshots of this new release (1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8).

Mac OS X 10.4.4 Development Winding Down

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-17 macOS 33 Comments

The development of Mac OS X 10.4.4 update appears to be in the final stages at Apple Computer, as tipsters say the latest developer builds of the software are accompanied by only a few outstanding issues. According to sources and reports already present on the Web, Mac OS X 10.4.4 stands to deliver over 120 bug fixes to the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system. Targeted areas are said to include audio, AppleScript, Bluetooth, Dashboard widgets, DVD Player, graphics, graphics drivers, iChat, Safari, and Spotlight.

Google, Microsoft, Sun Join Forces to Set up R&D Lab

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-17 In the News 6 Comments

Google, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, along with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are helping to set up a software research laboratory. The three companies are providing $ 7.5 million in funding over five years, which combined with other industry funding covers 80 percent of investment in the lab. The other 20 percent will come from government institutions such as the National Science Foundation. The Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems Lab, or RAD Lab, will primarily concentrate on developing technology to assist small groups or individuals in creating, testing, and publishing Internet services.

Google Snatches AOL From MS

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-17 Google 19 Comments

Google has apparently won the battle to retain AOL's affections, edging out a bid from Microsoft. But the cost is high, and establishes several precedents for the Mountain View company that might have been unthinkable a couple of years ago. While AOL's parent Time Warner has yet to make a public statement, published reports claim that Google has paid $1 billion to take a 5 per cent stake in the media giant. AOL's sales team gets access to the Google Network, and Google will also give Time Warner's media properties preferential treatment.

Submitted by mono 2005-12-17 Windows 41 Comments

"TechWorld is reporting that Microsoft plans to move graphics outside of the Windows Vista kernel by pulling the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF, formerly codenamed 'Avalon') out of the Vista kernel. MSWatch asked Microsoft for clarification. Here's the official statement: "Because WPF is largely written in managed code on the common language runtime, it never ran in kernel mode."

How-To Resize Your Windows Partition To Make Room

Submitted by supergeek 2005-12-17 OS News 40 Comments

You would like to install Linux/BSD but the Windows partition is taking up your whole hard disk space and you don't want to pay money for commercial solutions? Not to worry, you can resize partitions with the KNOPPIX Live Linux CD.

Apple Axes ‘iRingTones’ Project

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-16 Multimedia, AV 61 Comments

If you think that RIAA is the No1 greed force in the world you obviously don't have a cellphone. According to The Register Apple was pressured by mobile carriers to remove an upcoming feature from iLife'06 that would allow users to remix their own ringtones via iTunes. The cellular networks charge between $1 and $4 for a single ringtone and obviously don't want to lose this huge revenue to Apple. Apparently ringtones are their No2 source for data revenue after SMS. My take: I don't get all the millions of people who spend money on a 10-second .mid ringtone! Use the defaults or mix your own.

Submitted by dbprice 2005-12-16 Solaris 31 Comments

Solaris Express 12/2005 (derived from Nevada Build 27) was posted recently, providing a variety of improvements. ZFS and the "Yosemite" UDP performance project were added. Roughly 700 bugs were fixed. You can obtain a free download. An overview of new features is also available.