OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Microsoft Shows Off New Vista Features

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-18 Windows 80 Comments

In its first update to a new community-based preview program, Microsoft is showing off a number of new features for Windows Vista, including efforts to improve the web browser and make the operating system more resilient.

Original BeOS Developer Now at Trolltech

Submitted by Lisa Sheeran 2005-10-18 Qt 19 Comments

Benoit Schillings, co-creator of the Be operating system (first engineer employee in 1992, creator of the BeOS app_server among other things) and former CTO of Openwave, has been appointed to the newly created position of chief technology officer (CTO) at Trolltech. In the meantime, Trolltech has also joined the new mobile OSDL initiative.

Microsoft Bakes Windows AntiSpyware Into Vista

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-18 Windows 62 Comments

Microsoft has confirmed plans to bundle anti-spyware protection into Windows Vista, a move that is sure to raise eyebrows among competitors and possibly antitrust regulators. "The core Windows AntiSpyware functionality gets built in," said Greg Sullivan, lead Windows product manager. "For unmanaged environments, home and small business users, we want to provide base-level security services."

Video Editing on a RiscPC

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-18 OS News 2 Comments

"Living in New Zealand, RISC OS user Peter Noble uses his RiscPC and Videodesk to edit film and produce presentations and videos for friends and family. Here, he talks us through how he typically puts together a short video."

Submitted by Rehdon 2005-10-18 Windows 67 Comments

"In response to a question on the role of open source software in Africa, Gerald Ilukwe, the general manager of Microsoft Nigeria, said that cost is not important, even though he admitted that the average annual salary in the West African country is only US$160."

Tech Firms To Tackle Linux Desktop Standards

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-18 Linux 135 Comments

Adobe, IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Novell, RealNetworks and Red Hat are all backing the new Linux standards effort led by the Free Standards Group. The nonprofit organisation plans to marshal their resources to form standards for key components of Linux desktop software, including libraries, application runtime and install time. The group said Monday that it will encourage software developers to use its guidelines when building programs for Linux as part of its Linux Standard Base project.

KDE 3.5 Beta 2 Released Today

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-18 KDE 84 Comments

KDE 3.5 Beta 2 ~~will be released later today~~ has been released. The Klax live-CD has already been updated to ship with this new beta release. You can download this beta's source code yourself from the KDE download page. Updated by AS: Screenshots!

Haiku Boots from CD

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-18 Haiku 26 Comments

It has taken Axel Dorfler five days to get Haiku to boot from CD. "I successfully booted Haiku from CD-ROM from several machines today. It took a bit longer than I thought, as no emulator that I have access to seems to support multi-session CDs, and not every BIOS I have works by the book. Anyway, you could build you own bootable CD image with the "makehaikufloppy" script that's now in our top-level directory."

Microsoft Releases Code for Windows Server R2 RC1

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-18 Windows 13 Comments

Microsoft on Monday came closer to the final release of Windows Server 2003 R2, expected before the year's end, by making Release Candidate 1 available for download. The release of the RC1 code, which is available here, follows the release of RC0, in late August.

Sun Gives Unix Giants a Plus

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-18 Oracle and SUN 14 Comments

Sun on Monday began selling its highest-end Unix servers with new 1.5GHz UltraSPARC IV+ chips. Sun used its milestones and monster servers as fodder for bashing IBM, which recently began a Unix server upgrade. IBM has slotted the Power5+ chips into low-end systems but won't give higher-end servers the same boost until 2006. Even then, IBM isn't expected to have a system comparable in size to the E25K.

Intel Cuts PC Boot Time

Submitted by Dave 2005-10-18 Intel 18 Comments

Intel is showing off a future technology called Robson that could cut that annoying boot-up time. With Robson, a PC pulls data and applications off an add-in flash memory card and Intel software, rather than the PC's hard drive. Flash reacts more quickly than hard drives, thus cutting down the time it takes to launch an application. Potentially, notebook users could experience a longer battery life because the hard drive, which is spun by a motor, wouldn't have to work as hard.

Why Software Sucks (and What To Do About It)

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-17 Office 89 Comments

"No one makes bad software on purpose. No benevolent programmer has ever sat down, planning out weeks of work, with the intention of frustrating people and making them cry. Bad software, or bad anything, happens because making things is hard, making good things doubly so."

Interview: Bill Gates

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-17 Microsoft 197 Comments

The world's richest man talks about developing new drugs to combat AIDS, open-source software and why Microsoft's still cool after all these years. Gates: "We encourage everyone to develop in our environment. Free software's nothing new... There was an early browser, an early mail program. But as times moved on, it's been the commercial programs that get the support, get the richness."

Warpstock Europe 2005: Social Event

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-17 OS/2 10 Comments

As every OS/2 and eComStation user should know by now, Warpstock Europe 2005, will take place in the city of Dresden, Germany, from November 18th to 20th. OS/2 and eComStation users come to Warpstock Europe because of interesting presentations and because they can meet and talk to people that they only know by their eMail addresses. The Warpstock Europe 2005 event team has worked in both directions to make sure that every visitor will enjoy and benefit from Warpstock Europe.

Macromedia Opens Incubation ‘Labs’

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-17 Graphics 41 Comments

Macromedia on Monday opened the doors to a new incubation site that hosts unfinished technology and early software releases. The goal of Macromedia Labs is to involve developers in the creation of new products, enabling them to provide feedback that can shape the company's future moves. Specifically, Macromedia Labs will offer documentation, code samples and technical articles, along with community services such as forums and wikis.

Using Ruby Development Tools Plug-in for Eclipse

Submitted by anonymous 2005-10-17 General Development 20 Comments

Ruby is a single inheritance language, but it offers some advanced features that Java technology does not, such as closures (think anonymous inner classes on steroids) and mix-ins. This article introduces using the Ruby Development Tools plug-in for Eclipse, which allows Eclipse to become a first-rate Ruby development environment. Ruby developers who want to learn how to use the rich infrastructure of the Eclipse community to support their language will benefit, as will Java developers who are interested in using Ruby.

Microsoft Windows Vista Build 5231 Review

Eugenia Loli 2005-10-17 Windows 91 Comments

While Build 5232 was released today to testers, WinSuperSite continues its review of build 5231. "Windows Vista Build 5231 could have been horrible and I'd still be happy about it, because we're finally getting regular Windows Vista builds. That build 5231 is not horrible, and includes a number of exciting new features, is just the frosting on the cake. After a rough beginning and a particularly bad 2004-2005, Windows Vista is finally on track."

How Apple Does It

Submitted by Hakime Seddik 2005-10-17 Apple 88 Comments

"This is partly a story about a company called Apple Computer. It’s also partly a story about a fancy new iPod that plays videos as well as music and that could dramatically change the way people entertain themselves. But it’s mostly a story about new things and where they come from, about which there are a few popular misconceptions."

New Hopes From Sun’s Idea Factory

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-17 Oracle and SUN 48 Comments

While it's way too soon to say Sun is back on track, the return of Bechtolsheim, aggressive improvements in products and a healthy dose of humility among Sun's executives mean the troubled company and its investors have more cause for optimism than they've had in years.

Using an A3010 As Central Heating Controller

Thom Holwerda 2005-10-17 OS News 6 Comments

Many people rely on RISC OS and its software to look after their email and browse their favourite websites. But could you trust RISC OS to make sure you wake up to a warm shower every morning? Electronic engineer Dave Higton describes his RISC OS powered central heating system.