OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Intel To Kick Off New Year with Yonah, Viiv

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-14 Intel 42 Comments

Yonah, a dual-core notebook chip based on a new design, will be released in January, said Keith Kresslin, director of mobile platforms marketing at Intel. It is expected to provide around 68 percent better performance than current Intel notebook chips, which sport one processing core. Computers with Yonah will also be better than PCs today at running many applications at once, he said.

Updating KDE at the Appeal Initiative

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-14 KDE 62 Comments

"As the release of KDE 3.5 draws near , work is already underway at the Appeal project to integrate 3.5's major changes into the 4.0 series. Subprojects beneath Appeal's umbrella target simplified usability and progressive adjustments to the graphical user interface: The Tenor and Plasma projects will add functionality, while Oxygen and Coolness will enhance visual freshness."

Vista Audio Stack, API

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-14 Windows 14 Comments

"Charles recently caught up with seasoned Niner, Larry Osterman, an SDE and 20 year Microsoft veteran, and Elliot H Omiya, a Software Architect and audio guru, to dig into the innerworkings of Vista's updated Audio Stack and new user mode API. Much of the guts of Windows audio have been moved up into the land of the user and this has consequences for both Windows audio developers at the API level and for Windows at the general programmability, reliability and stability levels."

Sun Pours Niagara II All Over Great Lakes

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-14 Oracle and SUN 2 Comments

"It's all a gush in Sun Microsystems' low-end SPARC server business with code-names flowing toward El Reg at speed. Last week, we brought you the details on Niagara II, and this week we bring you Michigan and Huron. The 1U Michigan box will replace the 1U Erie system and boast twice as much memory support - up to 64GB. Huron will be the 2U replacement for Ontario and also double the memory support, stretching up to 128GB." Sun also released the open-source Java database.

SchilliX 0.3, Err, 0.4 Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-14 Solaris 6 Comments

SchilliX 0.3, err, 0.4 has been released. It now uses the Opensolaris Nevada build 28, while WLAN support has also been added. 'Open' WLANs with DHCP are now automatically detected and configured, if your chipset is supported. Download here.

KDE Quality Assurance Meeting Report

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-14 KDE 2 Comments

"On the weekend of December 10th and 11th, a small group of nine KDE contributors met in Hamburg to work on quality assurance checks for KDE's code base. This not only covered C++ sourcecode but also other aspects such as checking the state of the API documentation, looking for common errors in KDE's manuals and evaluating the usability of KDE applications. Read on for the full report."

Submitted by BryanFeeney 2005-12-14 Apple 12 Comments

Because of the amount of controversy its review of Aperture received, Ars Technica have posted a follow-up to address some of the issues which were raised by readers. It includes a side-by-side comparison of Apple's RAW importer with those of Capture One Pro and Adobe, which illustrates the difference in quality.

Submitted by dylansmrjones 2005-12-14 Amiga & AROS 34 Comments

"Back in the old days of the original AmigaOS, the system used to allocate areas of unused memory to new tasks was pretty simple. The old method served its purpose well enough at the time, but with the increased demands of modern computing - and of course the desire to bring this new version of the operating system to the cutting edge - AmigaOS4.0 has introduced a better way of doing things."

Dependency Injection with AspectJ and Spring

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-14 Java No Comments

Dependency injection and aspect-oriented programming are complementary techniques, so it's natural to want to use them together. This article shows you how to add some power to your programming by combining dependency injection of the Spring framework with aspects written using AspectJ.

Episode 1: What is Bloat?

Adam Scheinberg 2005-12-13 Podcasts 50 Comments

We are very excited to share our first podcast (this one's a bit of an experiment). We are hoping to make podcasts a semi-regular feature on OSNews. In this episode, we discuss "bloat" and the way the term is used today. OSNews, episode 1 can be downloaded as an MP3 (4.37 MB) or an Vorbis (3.85 MB) file. Update: For those who claim it's not a podcast until it's published via RSS, we're now publishing a valid RSS 2.0 feed that can includes the podcasts. Update 2: Different filename for podcast RSS feed.

Linux Zones on Solaris now Available

Submitted by Nils Nieuwejaar 2005-12-13 Solaris 21 Comments

The Branded Zones community just opened up on opensolaris.org. This is the underlying technology that enables you to create Linux zones on a Solaris system.

An Overview of Nokia’s KHTML/WebCore-based S60 Browser

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-13 Wireless 19 Comments

Last week OSNews had the pleasure of meeting with three of the people behind the new Nokia S60 browser sharing with us information about the project. Dig in for more info and lots of screenshots.

Syllable 0.6.0 Released

Submitted by Brent P. Newhall 2005-12-13 Syllable, AtheOS 21 Comments

Syllable 0.6.0 has been released. This version includes stronger support for CD drives graphics cards and improved stability in the native file system, among many other improvements.

Java? It’s So Nineties

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-13 Java 100 Comments

Sun's groundbreaking programming language vaulted to popularity with Web developers. But now it's losing ground to a raft of upstarts.

Creating Secure Wireless Access Points with OpenBSD and OpenVPN

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-13 Privacy, Security 9 Comments

You know how insecure 802.11x wireless networks are. In this article we'll create an OpenBSD-based secure wireless access point that prevents unauthorized access and encrypts every packet using a VPN tunnel. OpenBSD is one of the most secure operating systems available, is easy to use, and includes almost everything you need for this project in the base installation.

Honda’s Robot Ready for Office Chores

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-13 Geek stuff 18 Comments

Only last year, Honda Motor's now-familiar humanoid robot, Asimo, was learning how to run and avoid tripping over obstacles. Now, the 5-year-old droid is ready to take on simple office work, greeting visitors and fetching refreshments.

Office Standards Battle Grinds On

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-13 Office 18 Comments

Standards body Ecma International has created a committee to standardize Microsoft Office document formats, handing the software giant a victory in an intensifying struggle over desktop software.

A Concise apt-get / dpkg Primer for New Debian Users

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-13 Debian 20 Comments

When we speak of Debian Linux distribution, the number one thing that come into our minds is its flag-ship utility apt-get . Infact this package management is so popular that a large part of Debian's popularity revolves around it. Ask any person why he or she thinks Debian is a better distribution and in 7 out of 10 cases the answer will be apt-get. Here is a consice but very complete article on using apt-get and dpkg the backend for apt-get.

Design with the JSF Architecture

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-13 Java 4 Comments

Design patterns help users to abstract details at a higher level and better understand architecture. If you are familiar with Gang of Four design patterns and the JavaServer Faces (JSF)framework in general, this article will help you gain insight about the design patterns used in JSF framework, and how they work in-depth.

1st Review of STX Linux, a Slackware Based EDE Desktop

Submitted by Gerald 2005-12-13 Linux 6 Comments

"I was a slightly intrigued when I saw the announcement on DistroWatch for Stx, but I was quite a bit behind in my projects for the weekend so I didn't really pay much attention to it until I saw the announcement on PcLinuxOnline. There STIBS posted his announcement as a request for "Distro testers wanted ..." This got my attention. When I read the information posted, all other reviews like Frugalware and Foresight would have to wait. This project sounded very interesting. And very interesting it was." More here.