OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

The More Processors, the Better

Submitted by anonymous 2005-10-20 Hardware 8 Comments

Achieve a level of high reliability in a microprocessor system by adding a second identical processor to a system to monitor and verify the system processor operation - also known as the lockstep processor technique. This tip demonstrates the integrated lockstep facility in the PowerPC 750GX processor.

Introducing the OSNews Meta Blog

Adam Scheinberg 2005-10-20 OS News 23 Comments

Today, we roll out the OSNews Meta Blog. We are trying something new. Whereas OSNews proper is moderated and logged, the OSNews Meta Blog is here solely to discuss the site, without bombing an unrelated news thread. It's unmoderated, anonymous, and, perhaps best of all.... XHTML compliant. For details, please visit this post.

SUSE Linux 10.1 Alpha 2 Released

Submitted by netpython 2005-10-20 SuSE, openSUSE 22 Comments

SUSE Linux 10.1 Alpha 2 is ready for testing. Improvements and updates over alpha 1 include KDE 3.5 Beta 2, GNOME 2.11.1 (according to the announcement that is; 2.12.1 is more likely), smartpm, and OpenOffice.org 2.0 RC3. This alpha is available for x86, x86-64 (AMD64/EM64T), and PowerPC. Download locations, including torrents, are listed in the release announcement.

OpenOffice.org 2.0 Released to Servers

Submitted by Witek Wasilewski 2005-10-20 Office 56 Comments

OpenOffice.org 2.0 has been silently released to servers. It can be found here. OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. Update: Here's an interview with OOo's community manager, Louis Suarez-Potts.

Microsoft: No Plans To Seek Open-Source Licensing Approval

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-20 Microsoft 9 Comments

While Microsoft has no current plan to apply for Open Source Initiative approval of the new licenses that will govern its Shared Source projects going forward, the software maker has not ruled this out as a possibility going forward.

Debian Trademark Dispute

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-20 Debian 19 Comments

Lacking permission from the Debian project to call itself Debian anything, the Debian Common Core Alliance has agreed to change its name to the recursive DCC Alliance. Ian Murdock responds to the matter.

Haiku on PowerPC Hardware Offer

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-20 Haiku 20 Comments

Here is a very serious offer from Andrew Edward McCall for any PowerPC programmers out there. He is offering a Laptop to anyone that can port Haiku to the PowerPC platform. "Haiku on PowerPC isn't going anywhere, this is due to me being unable to patch gcc and not having enough time to work on it. If anyone has time and experience and would like to work on porting Haiku to the PowerPC architechture, but needs equipment, I will send them out a Apple 'Wallstreet' PowerBook G3 to work on for free."

Ubuntu 5.10 Server Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-20 Ubuntu 16 Comments

"The Ubuntu team is proud to announce Ubuntu 5.10 Server, the first release of Ubuntu designed especially for server environments. Like the standard desktop Ubuntu, it occupies a single CD. However, it is distinguished by the following features: Includes server-oriented kernels with out-of-the-box automatic support for multiprocessor systems; Includes a wide variety of popular server applications such as apache, mysql, postgresql, php, zope, openldap, bind, samba, and more." Download: Europe|UK|other.

Interview: Eben Moglen

Submitted by Nate 2005-10-20 Open Source No Comments

Eben Moglen, the general counsel for the Free Software foundation, discusses issues surrounding the GPL 3 licence in this mini-interview. Moglen also talks about his feelings on the Creative Commons licence set, and how the kernel developers may approach the new GPL.

Firefox Sees 100 Millionth Download

Submitted by Fellington 2005-10-20 Mozilla, Gecko 15 Comments

Just shy of Firefox's first birthday party, the Mozilla Foundation celebrated the 100 millionth download of its Web browser Wednesday. "This is a great milestone. Our massive, worldwide community of grassroots marketers and users - not to mention the developers - have helped to put out a product that's really kicking butt," said Asa Dotzler, the Mozilla liaison to the SpreadFirefox community.

VMWare Releases Freeware VMWare Player

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-20 OS News 54 Comments

VMWare released today the VMWare Player, a freely downloadable tool that 'plays' virtual machines (it just doesn't let you create any). This can prove a very important tool for OS makers who would like to demo their OS to new users, users who don't want to burn live CDs and also keep the OS makers safe from any hardware incompatibilities in the user's machine (as the OS would run inside VMWare Player, the compatibility is always guaranteed). VMWare already posted a demo for their VMWare Player, a 200 MB 'Browser Appliance' based on Ubuntu.

Two Articles on Open Source Versus Commercial Software

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-20 Rumors 49 Comments

Although open source software comes with lofty (and sometime altruistic) ambitions, some developers worry that the model just doesn't present a practical plan for the future of the software industry. Shawn Shell argues that proprietary software is here to stay — for a lot of good reasons. Why should you bother with looking at open source software though? Isn't it safer to stick with Microsoft and the other big corporate software designers? David Chisnall helps us to distinguish between proprietary (sometimes referred to as "predatory") software and its open source counterparts.

Multicast ASR: The Fastest Way to Manage Mac OS X Deployments

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-20 macOS 11 Comments

Think installing Mac OS X and a suite of applications, documents, and settings on a single Mac takes all day? Imagine doing it on ten or a hundred or a thousand Macs! Fortunately, tools like Apple Software Restore and NetInstall have allowed administrators to do it a little bit faster, and now Apple has provided an even more amazing tool that gives administrators the ability to roll out hundreds of custom Mac OS X installs in a couple of hours!

Conventional Software Testing on an Extreme Programming Team

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-20 General Development 4 Comments

For a conventional software tester, an Extreme Programming project may be an intimidating challenge. Testers often find that they're not welcome on XP projects, but Jonathan Kohl shares how skilled testing can overcome such difficulties. Jonathan discusses lessons he learned from working on two different XP project teams, only one of which initially welcomed his testing and feedback.

Ballmer: Trusting Vista, Battling Google; Vista Review

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-19 Windows 62 Comments

Steve Ballmer wants you to know one thing: He never throws chairs. Elsewhere, here is a mini-review of the Windows Vista Build 5231, discussing interface, WMP, tabbed browsing and more.

Two First Looks at SUSE 10.0

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-19 SuSE, openSUSE 14 Comments

The recent release of Novell SUSE Linux 10.0 has elicited strikingly different reactions from a pair of reviewers -- Alan Canton, president of a software consulting company, who is experiencing SUSE for the first time; and eWEEK.com columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, a seasoned SUSE user.

Submitted by GhePeU 2005-10-19 Wayland 66 Comments

"We are pleased to announce the availability of the first full release candidate for the upcoming X.Org Foundation release of X11R6.9 and X11R7. This release marks the completion of the development cycle for the modular source tree. We have tagged both the monolithic and modular trees and have prepared tarballs for you to test. We have updated the schedule on the release plan page."

Apple Launches Dual-Core PowerMacs, New PowerBooks, Aperture

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-19 Apple 105 Comments

During yet another press event, Apple introduced new PowerMacs and PowerBooks as well as a new photo application called Aperture. The fastest new PowerMac holds two dual-core G5 processors at 2.5Ghz each, while the two lower-end models have one dual-core G5 at 2.0 or 2.3Ghz. The dual-core G5s have 1MB L2 cache per core. The 15" and 17" PowerBooks now have 1440x960 and 1680x1050 resolutions. Aperture is post-production photo software built for professional photographers.

Everybody’s Guide to OpenDocument

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-19 Office 16 Comments

A lot of misinformation about the OpenDocument digital format has started to appear in the mainstream media and interest groups. Answers to many questions on the topic already have appeared, but they are written by techies for techies. This article is different, however. You can print out this one and pass it on to everyone, regardless of their computer skill level.

Mozillarization of OpenOffice.org

Submitted by Wilf Codran 2005-10-19 Office 46 Comments

"We sat here watching Ben Goodger doing a talk about Firefox at EuroOSCON, it got me thinking about this concept of taking a huge and bloated project (such as Netscape) and cutting it down to the core and releasing a spin-off project such as Firefox. With all of the recent discussion and email I have been receiving triggered from Opening the potential of OpenOffice.org, it makes sense if this process was drilled into OpenOffice.org." In addition, OpenOffice is nearing the 50 million downloads.