OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Solaris9 9/05 Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-09-03 Solaris 36 Comments

"Solaris 9 users and customers will be happy to know that 9/05 is out. Get it for both SPARC and X86. Sadly the Whats New docs for Solaris 9 don't include a per-update review of changes, however the customer notification mail states: "It supports the newer hardware models such as SPARC servers based on the UltraSPARCIV+ processor and the Galaxy x64 servers." So, the big news here boils down to multi-core support for Solaris 9."

Video Showing Haiku, Java for BeOS Running

Submitted by Anon 2005-09-03 Haiku 57 Comments

In this video (.torrent, Quicktime) "you will see great attempts at crashing the Haiku app_server, some commentary on the robustness of the code, and a staggering amount of threads for Java running on BeOS R5." Here is more about the video.

Localhost: an Internet-Wide Decentralized Filesystem

Submitted by Tom Jacobs 2005-09-03 Internet 16 Comments

"Localhost is a program that lets you access a shared, world-wide file system through your web browser. This file system is maintained in a fully decentralized way by all of the computers running Localhost. The program uses BitTorrent technology, and new distributed hashtable technology called Kademlia. Every user accesses the system from the same root folder. You can change any folder (including the root folder) by adding files and/or folders to it."

Office 12: Microsoft Pumps up Productivity Platform

Thom Holwerda 2005-09-03 Microsoft 50 Comments

While Office 12, Microsoft's next-generation desktop suite, is not expected to hit Beta 1 until later this fall, Microsoft officials are set to show off a number of its components at the company's annual Professional Developers Conference in mid-September. Recent developer conferences have focused almost exclusively on operating system and tools futures. But this year's will include dozens of tracks aimed at Office developers and users.

Adopting Universal Binaries on Mac OS X & More

Submitted by Eugenia 2005-09-03 Apple 19 Comments

The featured content section on Apple's Developer Connection has some interesting articles. First, "Learn about universal binaries, and how to get your applications ready for Intel-based Macintoshes." Secondly, "You need Xcode to build universal binaries. Read the latest on Apple's IDE." There are more articles, so feel free to look around.

Tux Magazine, a New Linux User Magazine

Andrew Youll 2005-09-03 Linux 26 Comments

This may not be news for the experienced Linux users here, but for those who are new to Linux, someone sent me a link to this new online Linux magazine geared towards new Linux users. The magazine is published by the same company as publishes the Linux Journal, it is well laid out and is free to subscribe to.

Beagle Desktop Search Reviewed

Submitted by sarumont 2005-09-03 OS News 108 Comments

An open-source alternative, Beagle provides fast indexing and searching of all your files. Kevin of the LinuxForums.org content development team has used it, abused it and reviewed it.

Spy on Signals and Slots in Qt

Submitted by Johan Thelin 2005-09-03 Qt 2 Comments

The Qt 4 Resource Center has added a new article to the collection. This time, it shows how to intercept signals and slots using a spying class. The article also shows how to implement a custom color-picker widget with support for both RGB and HSV.

Submitted by fylfot 2005-09-02 RISC OS 8 Comments

Simon Wilson has released the first public version of his 3D graphics driver for Iyonix users. The software library, ported from BeOS and compatible with the popular OpenGL interface, employs the Nvidia PCI graphics card used in the XScale powered Iyonix. OpenGL based applications built with Simon's port should enjoy hardware accelerated graphics, thanks to the modest GeForece 2 MX card which, until now, has been left unutilised under RISC OS.

Submitted by ghen 2005-09-02 FreeBSD 31 Comments

Matt Dillon has announced that the next release of DragonFly BSD will use NetBSD's pkgsrc as its official package management system, instead of "dfports" (FreeBSD's Ports with DragonFly overrides), which had already been abandoned by developers in favour of pkgsrc over the last few months. pkgsrc is a portable package management system, developed by NetBSD, and supports DragonFly officially since October 2004.

Comparison: Mac OS X and Linux on G5

Thom Holwerda 2005-09-02 Rumors 121 Comments

"We will shed more light on the whole Apple versus x86 PC, IBM G5 versus Intel CPU discussion by showing you what the G5 is capable of when running Linux. This gives us insight on the strength and weakness of Mac OS X, as we compare Linux and Mac OS X on the same machine."

Microsoft Nixes SFU, Integrates SFU with Server 2003 R2

Submitted by ajam 2005-09-02 Windows 38 Comments

Microsoft plans to build more Unix features into future versions of its Windows Server operating system and cease work on its separate Services For Unix product. Microsoft plans to include some of those features in Windows Server 2003 R2, an update to the server OS due at the end of this year. At the same time, the company said it is not planning any further releases of the standalone Services For Unix product. DiStasio, a director in the Windows Server unit, said the plan is to build Unix tools into releases beyond R2 as well, but he did not rule out that there might be some tools offered separate from the OS.

OpenGEM ‘Project Liberation’ Beta 3 Released

Submitted by Shane Coughlan 2005-09-02 OS News 16 Comments

"There is a new member of the OpenGEM family. We'd like to introduce Project Liberation, based on the software behind OpenGEM Experimental. Project Liberation is a whole new type of OpenGEM, and it's such a leap forward it'll blow your socks off. Project Liberation has a new 3D interface, with a neat modern pointer set, a beautiful new default system font, and cool new icons." Beta 3 has just been released. Download it here.

Microsoft Claims Success to Secure Coding

Submitted by Danny 2005-09-02 Microsoft 14 Comments

Microsoft's program to ensure that developers build secure code is showing early signs of success, according to a senior executive from the company. The Security Development Lifecycle program is one of the results of Microsoft's announcement outlining concentration on security and secure development.

Submitted by kaiwai 2005-09-02 Java 9 Comments

Sun Microsystems has quietly open-sourced its web user interface building tool: JavaServer Faces 1.2. Sun released the source code last week under the company's CDDL.

EDE 1.0.4 Released

Submitted by anonymous 2005-09-01 Desktop environments 51 Comments

EDE 1.0.4 is a new version of EDE (Equinox Desktop Environment) which brings full FreeBSD support, various bugfixes and new features. The Equinox Desktop Environment is a small desktop environment, built to be simple, to have a familiar look and feel and to be reasonably fast.

Microsoft Holding Its Ground on Office for Linux

Thom Holwerda 2005-09-01 Microsoft 114 Comments

Some prominent figures in the Linux community believe that as enterprises increase their use of Linux on the desktop, Microsoft will be forced to consider offering a version of Office for Linux. "When the market share gets to a certain point, Microsoft will, just as it did with Apple in the past, make Office available on Linux," CEO Stuart Cohen of OSDL said in an interview. My take: Mr. Cohen is forgetting two important things: Excel was first released for the Mac (1985) and Word wasn't popular until MS ported it from DOS to Mac (1985).

Windows Vista Self-Guided Tour

Thom Holwerda 2005-09-01 Windows 26 Comments

Microsoft TechNet has published a high-level introduction to some of the new features and capabilities of the next release of Windows focusing on security, deployment, desktop management, end-user productivity and mobility.

Introduction to the Xen Virtual Machine

Thom Holwerda 2005-09-01 OS News 28 Comments

This article is intended mainly for developers who are new to Xen and who want to know more about it. The Xen VMM (virtual machine monitor) is an open-source project that is being developed in the computer laboratory of the University of Cambridge, UK. It enables us to create many virtual machines, each of which runs an instance of an operating system. These guest operating systems can be a patched Linux kernel, version 2.4 or 2.6, or a patched NetBSD/FreeBSD kernel.

Submitted by Tyr. 2005-09-01 In the News 33 Comments

Two research reports sponsored by IBM argue that Linux is less expensive to buy and operate than Windows or Unix. The first paper claims Linux is 40% less expensive than a comparable x86-based Windows server and 54% less than a comparable Sparc-based Solaris server. The second that using Linux has "Second Stage Benefits" such as attracting IT workers, among whome open source is increasingly popular.