OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Interview: Red Hat’s New CTO

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-12 Red Hat 17 Comments

"Red Hat is a completely different company than it was five years ago," insisted Brian Stevens, the company’s new chief technology officer. Stevens himself is a 14-year DEC veteran who lives in the Boston area. He's been charged with shepherding open-source technologies (not just Linux) toward mission-critical readiness. At DEC, he was an architect for the company's Tru64 Operating System. He also helped develop the X Window System, widely used as the graphical interface for Unix. Stevens stopped by the GCN offices and spoke with associate writer Joab Jackson.

Vista Stakes Its Future on Security

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-12 Windows 282 Comments

Microsoft is banking on enhancements to what it has dubbed the fundamentals to entice enterprises to upgrade to the next version of Windows, known as Vista. The company will use upcoming industry shows to sing the praises of improvements to the Windows networking stack and secure networking techniques such as server and domain isolation to sell both Vista and Longhorn, the planned update to Windows Server.

Interview: Raghuram Tupuri, AMD

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-12 AMD 33 Comments

"AMD’s drive to 64-bit processors surprised everyone with its speed, even as detractors commented that there would be little or no performance gain on the desktop without a 64-bit OS and 64-bit applications. Whatever the doubts within the industry, Intel lost little time in offering its own version of AMD64, in the form of the EM64T extensions. Traditionally perceived as the under-dog in the cutthroat world of microprocessors, AMD managed to take the design initiative at exactly that moment Intel was fixated on power consumption and the move to dual cores. DigiTimes recently had an opportunity to discuss AMD’s approach to microprocessor design with Dr. Raghuram Tupuri, Design Engineering, AMD."

What’s Next for Next-Generation Apps

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-12 Microsoft 10 Comments

"Don Box is an architect assigned to the 'Indigo' project at Microsoft, where he is working on next-generation Web services protocols and plumbing. Box recently spoke with eWEEK Senior Editor Darryl K. Taft about upcoming technologies from the company such as the Language Integrated Query project, Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation (Indigo)." In addition, here's an interview with Ray Ozzie, who Bill Gates is counting on when it comes to Internet services.

The Future of HTML

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-12 General Development 36 Comments

"HTML isn't a very good language for making Web pages. However, it has been a very good language for making the Web. This article examines the future of HTML and what it will mean to Web authors, browser and developers. It covers the incremental approach embodied by the WHATWG specifications and the radical cleanup of XHTML proposed by the W3C. Additionally, the author gives an overview of the W3C's new Rich Client Activity."

Reviews: Nokia 770 Internet Tablet

Submitted by Eric B 2005-12-12 Wireless 13 Comments

"After spending a few days using the 770 intensely, I feel conflicted about it. I want to love it, and some aspects of it exceeded my expectations. At the same time, the 770 has some serious shortcomings that need to be addressed in v2.0 of the 770 (or in the 771) if it is going to have wide success." More reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6. Update by ELQ: And another one too.

Review: the GNOME On-Screen Keyboard

Submitted by Henrik Nilsen Omma 2005-12-12 Gnome 9 Comments

"GOK is the GNOME On-Screen Keyboard. As the title implies, it is a keyboard that appears on the display as an alternative for those who are not able to use a regular keyboard. This report highlights some general usability issues with GOK as it appears in Ubuntu (5.10). Some of the issues highlighted here may be bugs (In which case I will file them), while others will be design features that I have not grasped the purpose of (most likely in support of hardware that I do not have). Some of the issues highlighted here will relate to the general GNOME a11y infrastructure and some may be related to the way things are set up on Ubuntu."

Pretty Useless Widgets: Games

Submitted by Berislav 2005-12-12 macOS 18 Comments

"Over the weekend I was checking the Apple site to find some useful widgets. I found some good ones, but in the process of browsing I came across some rather useless 'Gaming' widgets. Between all of the strange ones I installed, here are the ones that I find the most useless."

Should Microsoft Fear Google’s Future?

Submitted by Mihai H 2005-12-12 Microsoft 17 Comments

"What possible rivalry could there be between two companies, out of which one has been founded over 30 years ago and is running the global software show, while the other is just seven years old and has the purpose to help users search the dense jungle of today's Internet? If we were talking about any other companies, I would have advised you to bet on the first one, but when we're talking about Microsoft and Google, no rules apply."

Can There Be Another Google?

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-12 Google 27 Comments

Internet search is reaching an important pivot point, where market leaders are rewarded by Wall Street, laggards are punished, and start-ups try to fill niches left empty by the major players. Though the market has seen a few leaders come and go over the last decade - anyone remember AltaVista? - few would doubt that a distinct top tier has emerged, occupied by Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN.

The Cost of Free Software

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-11 Open Source 143 Comments

Free software advocates focus on the ability to share, develop, and improve software as a community effort. But how do these freedoms affect the business community? David Chisnall takes a look.

TCP/IP Route Maps; Multiservice Networks; Windows Admin on Macs

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-11 Internet 6 Comments

Route maps are similar to access lists; they both have criteria for matching the details of certain packets and an action of permitting or denying those packets. This chapter explains the basics of Route Maps. Included are sample exercises to help you practice administration and use of Route Maps.

Coding Guidelines: Fact and Fiction

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-11 General Development 27 Comments

Derek M. Jones looks at low-level coding errors and the use of coding guidelines as a cost-effective means of avoiding some of the more common instances of such errors.

Mandriva Strives to Win Business, Desktop Users

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-11 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 45 Comments

Mandriva has long had its Linux fans, but it's recently been turning its efforts toward the business and desktop markets and, if CEO François Bancilhon has anything to do with it, Mandriva will become as big a Linux name as Red Hat and Novell in the enterprise.

Review: BeleniX Live CD

Submitted by totalrecall 2005-12-11 Solaris 23 Comments

"BeleniX is a free live CD based on the OpenSolaris kernel. With it you can have Solaris, which once ran exclusively on SPARC, powering your modest desktop computer. But with few applications and lacking an installation script, the Live CD does little more than slake a nerd's thirst for a taste of Solaris."

Foresight 0.9.2 Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-11 Linux 13 Comments

Foresight, one of the few distributions using the Conary package management system, which got fame for being the first distribution shipping with GNOME 2.12, has a new release. Important improvements were done on the laptop front: "Added laptop-tools, which includes some nice wireless drivers, NetworkManager, GNOME Power, and ndisgtk (GUI for configuring windows wireless drivers)." Also, Foresight now uses the Tango icon set by default. You can download Foresight here.

The Inq’s ‘Little Difference’ Awards 2005

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-11 Humor 18 Comments

"Every year the Inquirer announces nominations for awards but with a little difference. Often the nominations are there because products or strategies have made just that, little difference. This time round we've invited nominations from our team of worldwide hacks and those who could be bothered have come up with a list of contenders for the Gongs of Little Difference."

FreeBSD Waters Are Easily Waded

Submitted by I_dont_have_an_osnew.... 2005-12-11 FreeBSD 98 Comments

"FreeBSD is an enterprise-grade operating system that leaves little to be desired. Most people have tried Linux by now, but a surprisingly large number of people have not yet taken FreeBSD for a spin. Now may well be the optimal time to take the plunge, as FreeBSD 6.0 provides the same rock-solid stability for which FreeBSD is known, and also implements some outstanding new features."

Submitted by dylansmrjones 2005-12-11 Amiga & AROS 19 Comments

Various bits of news from the AmiZilla front. "Firstly, oli has finished his GTK->MUI AROS Bounty. Also, OS4 people have ported the the GTK->MUI emulation layer from AmigaOS3.1 to AmigaOS4." Other than that, the AmiZilla project will be recieving help from a group of students from King's College (London) as part of their practical coursework. "AmiZilla has been split up into individual projects for them- as we have five students, we have added in creating a GTK->Reaction layer to AmigaOS4, and maybe porting AmiZilla to MorphOS and AROS, as well as the AmigaOS 3.1 target."

Submitted by Valour 2005-12-11 Hardware 27 Comments

"With the recent introduction of dual-core processors come more questions about system performance. Does a dual-core computer really perform better than a single-core CPU? How does it compare to a true multi-CPU system? What about Hyper-Threading Technology -- is it a thing of the past? Read on for an explanation of dual-core processors and symmetric multiprocessing and what it means to your computing experience."