OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Firefox 1.5 Stability Problems? Readers, Mozilla Respond

Submitted by Gubol123 2005-12-21 Mozilla, Gecko 73 Comments

"On December 8, 2005, we published a story that wondered: Firefox 1.5: Not Ready For Prime Time? In response, some 450 (and climbing) InternetWeek, InformationWeek, TechWeb Pipelines, and Scot's Newsletter readers have sent details about their experiences with Firefox 1.5. A picture is emerging about Firefox 1.5 in the real world - on a small percentage of Windows, Mac, and Linux computers - that is less than positive."

Submitted by kmarius 2005-12-21 Opera 10 Comments

Users of Java-capable cell phones anywhere may find browsing the Web easier and cheaper now that Opera Software is allowing anyone to download its Opera Mini application. The official worldwide launch of Opera Mini is planned for January but Opera has quietly lifted restrictions that previously allowed only residents of some Nordic countries and Germany to download the application, a spokesperson has confirmed.

Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 Updated (r1)

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-21 Debian 27 Comments

The first security and critical bug-fix update to Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 "sarge" has been released: "This is the first update of Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (codename 'sarge') which mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with some corrections to serious problems."

Submitted by alex_extreme 2005-12-20 OS News 73 Comments

PearPC, the PowerPC processor emulator capable of running Apple's Mac OS X on x86, has released version 0.4.0 after more than a year's wait. "This is the first release with G4 support by Daniel Foesch (you have to enable it in your config). Other features include support for native CD-ROMs (no need for images) and endianess safety (i.e. you can run PearPC on big-endian systems)." The full changelog is here, downloads are here.

Eclipse Web Tools Platform 1.0 Released

Submitted by WNB 2005-12-20 Java 11 Comments

"The Eclipse Foundation will make the Eclipse Web Tools Platform 1.0 release generally available the week of Dec 19th, 2005. Eclipse WTP 1.0 is an extensible, standards-based tool platform for developing J2EE and Web applications. This full version release solidifies the platform API for 3rd party extension, and accompanying major documentation improvements make WTP ready for the next-level of vendor adoption."

Book Writing Applications in Linux

Guest post by Alcibiades 2005-12-20 Linux 73 Comments

In order to see what is needed in book writing applications, you need to look carefully at the desk of someone who is actively writing a book. You will most likely see piles of paper, often cut up and marked with pencil, and if you examine those of the papers that are in piles, you will see that the pagination is all over the place because pages have been reordered. Read on...

Submitted by Robert Escue 2005-12-20 IBM 82 Comments

Unix isn't a flashy market. But what distinction there is has been going to Sun Microsystems lately, by making its Unix-based Solaris operating system available as open-source software. Last week, IBM moved to put its AIX Unix operating system back on everybody's radar by revealing plans to create a development center on its Austin, Texas, campus to speed up AIX development.

Qt 4.1 Released

Submitted by Anonymous 2005-12-20 Qt 206 Comments

Trolltech has just released Qt 4.1. Many new features were added since Qt 4.0, including integrated support for rendering SVG drawings and animations, a PDF backend to the Qt printing system and a lightweight unit testing framework. Qt Designer, OpenGL support and Visual Studio .NET integration were updated too.

Submitted by zam001 2005-12-20 Wayland 130 Comments

Aaron Siego of KDE: "It would be very nice if our X server could use OpenGL directly for its display and composition. Because then we could have hardware accelerated effects that are not only cool looking, but also very useful. Well, there is just such a project underway, called XGL. But don't hold your breath. The development of XGL has been largely removed from the community and is being done behind closed doors. Who is this company, you ask, that would take the development of something as potentially important as this out of the community and put it behind closed doors? Novell."

Improved KDE Startup Performance

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-20 KDE 47 Comments

According to these blog posts from SUSE/Novell KDE developers that include bootcharts showing KDE startup, recent performance improvements in fontconfig and KDE/Qt have a noticeable effect on startup times. KDE can even match Xfce startup time (both 5 seconds on a 900MHz laptop) when some KDE features are turned off to match Xfce more closely in terms of functionality.

Windows Server ‘Longhorn’ Updated

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-20 Windows 2 Comments

Alongside the December CTP of Windows Vista, Microsoft has released build 5270 of Windows Server 'Longhorn'. Both operating systems are available on the same DVD image. Although development is currently in line with the client build, the next Windows Server won't be ready until 2007.

SeaMonkey 1.0 Beta Released

Submitted by BCM 2005-12-20 Mozilla, Gecko 35 Comments

"The SeaMonkey Council announces a new developer release, SeaMonkey 1.0 Beta. Compared to the Alpha version released in September, SeaMonkey 1.0 Beta enhances the product with new features like tab drag and drop, but also is the first release branded with the new SeaMonkey logo, which was unveiled earlier this month. While much of the core code is shared with the popular Firefox 1.5 browser, SeaMonkey comes with the the look and feel familiar to users of its ancestors, the Mozilla Application Suite and Netscape Communicator packages."

Submitted by Raffaele 2005-12-20 Morphos 8 Comments

MorphZone presents an article from the 'Amiga Professor' Peruggi in which he explains the managing of TrueType webfonts on MorphOS and all other Amiga-like systems. It is a complete tutorial with AREXX scripts on how to adjust webfonts to obtain correct aspect ratio of HTML pages in Amiga browsers.

Vista Build 5270 (December 2005 CTP) Screenshots, Features

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-19 Windows 90 Comments

The December CTP of Windows Vista has been released. ActiveWin has published screenshots, and a list of features, of the latest CTP of Windows Vista. Key areas of improvement in this CTP are security (Windows Defender, parental control, enhanced firewall, control over installation of device drivers, and more), performance, power state transitions, and the user interface ("evidence of Aero's progress in the December CTP includes the translucent 'glass' appearance of open windows, smoother transitions between windows and a re-designed start menu").

Fedora Core 5 Test 2 Slipping Until January 16

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-19 Fedora Core 69 Comments

"Due to the recent upgrade of gcc and the subsequent full rebuild of everything that gets built with gcc, including java stuff with gcj, and the need to further test package selection windows in Anaconda, system-config-packages for upgrades, and the development tree in general once we settle down the rebuilds, we have decided to delay test2. Here is a new schedule that we will be working toward."

The OpenDocument Foundation, Registered with OASIS

Submitted by LinuxFanBoy 2005-12-19 Office 5 Comments

"Last week i was able to register with OASIS, as a non profit, The OpenDocument Foundation, inc. The Foundation is a USA 501c(3) non profit incorporated in California, and duly registered with the IRS. OASIS has been kind enough to expedite the registration, and hopefully Foundation members will be able to join the ODF TC and the newly formed OASIS ODF Adoption TC."

The Reasons Why Apple Is Better

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-19 Apple 192 Comments

"Apple really is is the better way, but why? No, not for the trendy industrial design, not for the OS, not for the CPU, but for the money. It charges quite a bit, but it is not the 'reassuringly expensive' factor either, the price/performance is nothing to brag about. What makes Apple better is quite simply the fact that it doesn't compete."

Christmas RISC OS Roadshow Report

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-19 RISC OS 1 Comment

Fresh from attending the Manchester leg of this year's Christmas RISC OS roadshow, David Llewellyn-Jones reports on the developments and products he saw on display yesterday evening. "It seemed like a good event with what could be described as a good atmosphere. The room was quite small - apparently smaller than the usual Birmingham venue - so that it was quite cramped with all of the exhibitors present. It was difficult to get a feel for the number of people attending, and I hesitate to speculate. You can get an idea of how busy it was from the photos below. There was a list for visitors to fill in and sign on arrival, so presumably RISCOS Ltd have a relatively accurate figure."

Doubts Raised on Palm OS Future

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-19 Wireless 15 Comments

PalmSource officials insist there is a future for the veteran handheld operating system, but some industry experts say deploying Palm OS-based handhelds is risky. Access, which is best known for its NetFront cell phone browser, has yet to provide a detailed road map for Palm OS.

Fish: the Friendly Interactive Shell

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-19 General Development 27 Comments

"This is an in-depth look at fish, the friendly interactive shell. Fish is a GPLed commandline shell, written for Linux and other Posix-like systems. I felt there was a need for this article after all the attention that has been given to Monad, Microsoft's upcoming shell. Unlike Monad, fish is not a new way to look at the shell concept. Fish is based on the same ideas as other Unix shells like bash and zsh, but contains many user interface improvements and makes shellscript into a proper programming language."