OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

ReactOS Weekly Newletter

Submitted by TwoTailedFox 2005-12-04 ReactOS 27 Comments

"Welcome to Issue 7 of the ReactOS Weekly Newsletter, as persistant as a Jehovah's Witness. This week, I'll be taking a look at the NDK used by the ReactOS developers, covering WINE 0.9.2, and detailing the latest SVN activity."

Research OS Singularity Revisited

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-03 Microsoft 36 Comments

Charles Torre again sits down with some of the people behind MSR's Singularity research OS. This time, they drill down into the architecture of Singularity and discuss design decisions, usage of safe code, Channels, SIPs, etc. They even manage to get Galen Hunt, the OS Guy, up to the white board to map out some of Singularity's architecture.

Vista’s Transactional File System

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-03 Windows 76 Comments

Surendra Verma, Development Manager on the Vista Kernel team, digs into Vista's new Transactional File System with Charles Torre. TxF, as it is referred to internally, is a new kernel construct that is part of an updated Vista NTFS. Surendra provides a high level overview of TxF in this video. Elsewhere, Microsoft is serious about meeting its ship date for Windows Vista during the second half of 2006.

A Sneak Peek at Novell Linux Desktop 10?

Submitted by Carondelet 2005-12-03 Novell and Ximian 118 Comments

An observing poster at the Ubuntu forums unearthed what he says are screenshots of the upcoming Novell Linux Desktop 10. "I was snooping around for details about Novell Linux Desktop 10 and stumbled upon an internal Novell Desktop Design wiki. Most of the pages were unavailable without logging in but I found a few pics by going through their 'Recent Changes' page." So, are they for real? My take: Whether these are real shots of NLD 10, or just 'mere' mockups, they in any case show that Novell is willing to differentiate itself from its competitors. Which is a good thing.

Submitted by DigitalDame 2005-12-03 Office 30 Comments

"Office has enough irritations and 'secret' functions to fill a dozen thick books. For this story, we've selected some of the most notorious problems and the most useful tricks that we've discovered in our years of wrestling - or dancing - with the suite."

Installing SUSE Linux 10.0 on a Laptop

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-03 SuSE, openSUSE 33 Comments

"All in all, SUSE Linux 10.0 OSS is the best Linux system I've used. It's easy to install and has a large selection of both desktop and server software. It has been extremely stable during my use. It is clearly an excellent choice for Linux beginners, with its fine documentation, easy installation, and comprehensive graphical configuration tools, while also offering software selection and powerful tools for the experienced user."

Red Hat’s New CTO Talks Government

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-03 Red Hat 20 Comments

As if his promotion to chief technology officer weren't demanding enough, Red Hat's Brian Stevens must also lead a revolution of sorts. After all, open source is changing government, and Red Hat shoulders a good deal of that direction. Stevens sat down with GovernmentVAR senior editor Jill Aitoro to discuss what's next for open source in government including Red Hat's work on SELinux in partnership with NSA and open standards.

Apache 2.2 Released

Submitted by Witek Wasilewski 2005-12-03 Internet 14 Comments

Apache HTTP server 2.2.0 has been released. This version of Apache is a major release and the start of a new stable branch. New features include Smart Filtering, Improved Caching, AJP Proxy, Proxy Load Balancing, Graceful Shutdown support, Large File Support, the Event MPM, and refactored Authentication/Authorization.

Apple’s New Media Experience Coming Soon?

Submitted by Anonymous 2005-12-03 Apple 29 Comments

Is Apple planning to unveil a robust new content distribution system in January at Macworld Expo alongside its revamped media-savvy Mac mini? apparantly Think Secret believes they are going to do just that. The new content system and related media deals, which will include feature-length content, expanded televisions offerings, and more, will further cement Apple's increasing lead in digital media delivery.Apple's new technology will deliver content such that it never actually resides on the user's hard drive. Content purchased will be automatically made available on a user's iDisk, which Front Row 2.0 will tap into.

ToothMote 0.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-03 Wireless 4 Comments

ToothMote is an application to control Linux computers using a BlueTooth-enabled cell phone. It provides a basis for communicating with a connected cell phone, and then uses a plugin architecture to easily expand the amount of functionality it provides. Other similar applications are Salling Clicker for Mac OS X and Bluemote for Linux.

Film Documents Software Creation, the Fun Way

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-03 Multimedia, AV 10 Comments

When Lerone Wilson saw the ad for a director interested in doing a film on software development, he was skeptical, to say the least. Wilson's resulting "Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks," the story of intern programmers at New York-based Fog Creek Software creating a product from scratch to shipping, is now finished, one of the first films to delve wholly into the life and culture of coding.

Submitted by carbon-12 2005-12-03 Gnome 43 Comments

This edition covers: writing custom widgets using GTK+ 2.8, a closer look at GnomeMeeting, and includes an interview discussing the a recent 5,000 Gnome desktop deployment.

autopackage: Towards a Universal Package Manager

Eugenia Loli 2005-12-03 General Development 74 Comments

Linux.com has an article about autopackage, the universal Linux package installer.

Microsoft Touts Vista’s Restart Manager Feature

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-02 Windows 148 Comments

Microsoft is working on a significant new feature for Windows Vista, known as Restart Manager, which is designed to update parts of the operating system or applications without having to reboot the entire machine. "If a part of an application, or the operating system itself, needs to updated, the Installer will call the Restart Manager, which looks to see if it can clear that part of the system so that it can be updated. If it can do that, it does, and that happens without a reboot." And here & here are some more shots of Vista build 5259.

Spotlight, Wireless, RAW Enhancements Due in Mac OS X 10.4.4

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-02 macOS 26 Comments

Improvements to Spotlight searches, AirPort, Bluetooth, and RAW camera support are a few enhancements Apple reportedly has planned for an early winter release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update, a routine maintenance update to the Mac OS X Tiger operating system.

Novell Earnings Report Shows Linux Gains

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-02 Novell and Ximian 42 Comments

Novell's Linux investments are finally showing results as its Linux revenue of $61 million (EUR 52 million) jumped 418 percent from last year's fourth quarter. Novell announced its fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal year financial results, which ended October 31, 2005, on Thursday.

Fedora Directory Server 1.0 Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-02 Fedora Core 41 Comments

"We are pleased to announce the release of Fedora Directory Server 1.0! This version fulfills the promise to open all of the directory server source code that we made almost 1 year ago - 12/8/2004 - the date at which Red Hat acquired the code. Here are some Screenshots."

Hewlett-Packard Donates Blade Cluster to FreeBSD

Submitted by Jeremy C. Reed 2005-12-02 FreeBSD 14 Comments

The FreeBSD Foundation received a donation of a blade system from Hewlett-Packard for use as a third-party software build cluster. This 20-node HP BladeSystem cluster triples the speed of the build process for i386 packages.

How to Get People To Work for Free

Submitted by Dave Guard 2005-12-02 Open Source 8 Comments

"As time marches on and our lives become more complicated, it seems we have less and less time to devote to that free software project we started back in our idealistic youth. Rather than abandoning a good project due to lack of time, consider seeking out the assistance of other members of the free software community. With a few simple steps you can make it easy to find volunteers to help you complete your project."

The Scala Programming Language v1.4.0.3 Released

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-02 General Development 43 Comments

Scala is a modern multi-paradigm programming language running on top of a Java VM or .NET runtime. Recently version 1.4.0.3 has been released. Scala smoothly integrates features of object-oriented and functional languages. In Scala, every value is an object and the language supports OOP for instance via subclassing , traits, and mixins. Scala is also a functional language in the sense that every function is a value. The language supports anonymous, higher-order and nested functions as well as currying. There is also integrated support for pattern matching, parametric polymorphism, etc.