OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Interview: MEPIS Founder Warren Woodford

Submitted by D Seymour 2005-08-29 Linux 14 Comments

"In this interview, Warren explains the secret to his distro's rapid and widespread proliferation. Give desktop customers what they want: a simple, reliable set of applications that are easy to acquire, install, and use. Give it away for free. Always."

Review: QEMU 0.7.1

Submitted by Flavio Villanustre 2005-08-29 OS News 15 Comments

Here is a review of QEMU, a "generic and open source processor emulator which achieves a good emulation speed by using dynamic translation": "In sum, if you have emulation or virtualization needs, before you think of any commercial products, give QEMU a try. While it may not be as feature rich as some commercial alternatives, it’s stable, fast and free. And the convenience of having the source code available is a real plus."

Ubuntu Founder Discusses Linux

Submitted by Nate Behlendorff 2005-08-29 Ubuntu 76 Comments

In this short interview, Ubuntu Linux founder and space tourist Mark Shuttleworth discusses the intended users of Ubuntu, why he chose to base it on Debian, and what the future holds for Linux on the desktop. Ubuntu is growing rapidly - and Shuttleworth is the man at the controls.

Submitted by Rahul 2005-08-29 Linux 21 Comments

Linus has released 2.6.13 after a longer testing period and committed to improving the release cycle by merging in the major changes within the first two weeks for 2.6.14 and above as discussed before in kernel summit recently.

Crafting Java Code With Test-Driven Development

Submitted by Eugenia 2005-08-29 General Development No Comments

This article will teach you how to define and test for parameters within the Java environment by creating a simple system for for tracking course enrollment.

Syllable 0.5.7 Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-28 Syllable, AtheOS 21 Comments

Syllable 0.5.7 has been released. You can read the changelog here, and the download locations are here. "The biggest change in this release: everything has been recompiled against the new libc, and we have broken binary compatability through the removal of all the old libgui/libatheos/libsyllable versions. There are also some new drivers, new GUI classes, new bug fixes, and no doubt, new bugs."

Who Is the Unix Leader Today?

Submitted by ajam 2005-08-28 Unix 80 Comments

This seems to be a sensitive question for some people, particularly at Sun Microsystems. While IBM stated this week they had increased their market share over last year's, Sun also had its own press release this week claiming that it is the number one Unix platform server vendor in the world, in both revenue and unit shipments. It turns out they are both right.

Linux Kernel Update Improves Event Monitoring

Submitted by ajam 2005-08-28 Linux 66 Comments

The next stable update of the Linux kernel will bring advances in file system event monitoring, the Xtensa architecture, and a set of system calls that allows users to load another kernel from the currently executing Linux kernel. While the 2.6.13 –rc are currently being tested, the stable version is expected to be released in the next few weeks.

Finding Unresolved Plug-in Dependencies in Eclipse

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-28 General Development 7 Comments

Trying to locate an unresolved plug-in dependency can be strenuous and time-consuming. Almost every plug-in depends on a bunch of other plug-ins, and those plug-ins, in turn, may depend on many more. This article shows you how to resolve plug-in dependencies more quickly by automating their discovery.

Submitted by skx2 2005-08-28 Internet 3 Comments

The Debian administration website has a nice introduction to using CFEngine for managing a whole LAN in three parts. The first part introduces the engine, the second part explains what you can do using CFEngine, and the final part describes how to setup a client-server setup to allow a whole LAN to be managed centrally.

Stallman: “Linux’ Trademark Doesn’t Matter”

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-27 Open Source 176 Comments

Richard Stallman, chair of the Free Software Foundation, said on Thursday that the Linux trademark fracas in Australia has distracted attention away from the real issue - that of freedom to distribute and change software.

First Debian/kFreeBSD Live-CD Appears

Submitted by Robert Millan 2005-08-27 Debian 61 Comments

The first Live-CD based on Debian GNU/kFreeBSD has appeared. Its name is Ging (for Ging Is Not Ging) and it includes a GNOME 2.10 desktop, Abiword, and a complete toolchain with gcc 4.0.

MorphOS Now Supports 3D and More, More News.

Submitted by Raffaele 2005-08-27 Morphos 28 Comments

After two years of active development, we are proud to announce the immediate availability of the free MorphOS 3D Update pack. This pack brings Warp3D and OpenGL(R) API compatibility to a whole new range of hardware including 3dfx Voodoo and ATI Radeon.

Fox in Microsoft’s Tool-Suite Coop

Submitted by ajam 2005-08-27 Windows 71 Comments

Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference is expected to be a coming out party of sorts for the next version of Visual Studio, code-named Orcas. Primary among the new features in and new direction for Orcas will be advances in how the toolset handles data, sources said. Data becomes "cool" in Orcas, said a source familiar with Microsoft's strategy for Orcas.

Michal Zalewski on The Wire

Submitted by anonymous 2005-08-27 Rumors 4 Comments

Recently the eccentric security researcher Michal Zalewski published his first book, entitled Silence on the Wire: A Field Guide to Passive Reconnaissance and Indirect Attacks. Because the book is everything except a security manual, ONLamp's Federico Biancuzzi chose to interview Michal and learn more about his curious approach to information security. Among other things, they discussed the need for randomness, how a hacker mind works, unconventional uses for search engines such as Google, and applying AI to security tools.

Apple Safari Vulnerable to Animated GIF

Submitted by David Forshe 2005-08-27 Apple 60 Comments

A bug in Apple's Safari leaves it vulnerable to crashing from an animated image. All webkit apps are vulnerable, even rss readers. This comes after Internet Explorer and Firefox had vulnerabilities due to pictures. Why is it that images cause browsers so many problems?

SkyOS Code Ransom Started

Submitted by Matt Turner 2005-08-26 SkyOS 171 Comments

After a great deal of interest from the community, we have decided to officially open the "SkyOS Code Ransom". In a nutshell, the SkyOS Code Ransom is a system to encourage developers to port various software packages to SkyOS, as well as a way to reward them for their efforts. Depending on how successful and how much interest there is in the "SkyOS Code Ransom", we may expand this feature of the website a great deal more in the future.

Submitted by Valour 2005-08-26 Gentoo 12 Comments

"Version 1.2 is the third official release of the Gentoo-based VidaLinux OS (VLOS). The changes and enhancements to this edition are significant, but not good enough to save this conceptually astute operating system from failure. VidaLinux 1.2 is nice to play with, but don't expect a comfortable, complete desktop experience a la SUSE or Mandriva." Linux.com has the details. My Take: Tested VLOS the other day, and while it may be not be perfect yet, it's definitely on the way to being an attractive and usable system.

Nifty Utilities to Hack Mac OS X Tiger

Submitted by Jeremy 2005-08-26 macOS 23 Comments

An excerpt fom the book "Nifty Utilities to Hack Mac OS X Tiger" has an overview of OS X apps like TinkerTool, Carbon Copy Cloner, BatChmod, Memory stick, and others, that help you tweak apps like Safari, adjust and monitor memory status, bring the world of Unix file ownership and permissions over to the Mac, and more.

What Is the X Window System

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-26 Wayland 56 Comments

The X Window System (commonly referred to as X or X11) is a network-transparent graphical windowing system based on a client/server model. Primarily used on Unix and Unix-like systems such as Linux, versions of X are also available for many other operating systems. Although it was developed in 1984, X is not only still viable but also is in fact the standard environment for Unix windowing systems. This article thoroughly discusses X.