OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

‘High Risk’ Flaws Found in IE, Outlook

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-01 Internet Explorer 53 Comments

Microsoft engineers are investigating a pair of highly critical Windows product flaws reported by private security research outfit eEye Digital Security.

Camino 0.8.3 Released

Submitted by Matthew Smith 2005-04-01 Mozilla, Gecko 22 Comments

Mozilla has just released version 0.8.3 of its Camino browser for Mac OS X, which uses the Gecko browsing engine with a Cocoa user interface. Release notes here.

The Protothreads Library Version 1.1

Submitted by Adam Dunkels 2005-04-01 General Development 11 Comments

Protothreads are an extremely lightweight, stackless type of threads written in portable C code. Protothreads provide blocked waiting and sequential code execution on top of event-driven systems, without the overhead of full multithreading or per-thread stacks. They are designed for severely memory constrained systems, has a very low RAM overhead, and can be used with or without an underlying OS. New in version 1.1 is the PT_YIELD() operation that allows a protothread to yield the CPU.

Mono 1.1.6 Released

Submitted by Jon Davidson 2005-04-01 Mono 35 Comments

Mono 1.1.6 was released, release notes here.

Best practice XML importing to OpenOffice with XSLT

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-01 Office 2 Comments

When it comes to importing generic XML into OpenOffice, the user is on his own. This article offers a quick XSLT tool for this purpose and demonstrates the Calc import of records-oriented XML. In addition to learning a practical trick for working with Calc, you might also learn a few handy XSLT techniques for using dynamic criteria to transform XML.

One-on-one with Miguel de Icaza

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-01 Novell and Ximian 51 Comments

One of the highlights of Joe Barr's trip to Salt lake City last month for BrainShare 2005 was the opportunity to interview Miguel de Icaza, a mercurial star of the free software movement who has been responsible for hugely successful projects and also founded his own company with Nat Friedman that was later acquired by Novell.

Ark Linux 2005.1 SR1 Released

Submitted by val_parthen 2005-04-01 Linux 17 Comments

This is a bug fix release of Ark Linux 2005.1 and here is a mini-report on Ark.

Nessie – The Loch Ness Monster of Programming Languages

Guest post by Martin Bähr 2005-04-01 General Development 50 Comments

A new programming language has been sighted, it goes by the affectionate name "nessie" and it claims to be the loch ness monster of programming languages.

.NET Compact Framework Network Performance

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-31 .NET 1 Comment

At Mike Zintel's blog there is some fresh information about the past, present and future of the .NET Compact Framework and additionally some benchmarks on its speed.

Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” Gold

Submitted by Jason W Grzywna 2005-03-31 macOS 64 Comments

According to AppleInsider, build 8A428 has been declared gold master.

Running RISC OS Programs on Linux; Mobile plans leaked

Submitted by Ian Chamberlain 2005-03-31 RISC OS 14 Comments

After the disbanding of Acorn, an idea aired many times was the dream of getting RISC OS apps to run natively under Linux or other Unix-based operating systems. Peter Naulls contemplates the possibilities. Also, a large software corporation is exploring the possibility of using RISC OS in mobile appliances, a source has revealed. Yesterday, Drobe received videos and photos of the OS in action on mobile phone hardware, showing RISC OS booting up and running applications.

Installing Software: A GNU/Linux VS. MS Windows Comparison

Guest post by Kevin Russo 2005-03-31 General Development 267 Comments

I read a lot of reviews comparing GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows, and inevitably the topic of installing software comes up. Most reviews indicate that installing software in Windows is much easier than that of the desktop GNU/Linux world. I decided to do my own comparison based on my desktop usage to see the difference. The following are my results. Those of you that come from the Windows world may be a tad bit surprised at the ease in which software can be installed.

Stallman on the State of GNU/Linux

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-31 Open Source 163 Comments

RMS kindly agreed to be interviewed again by OFB's Timothy R. Butler on what he is up to, where the Foundation's popular GPL license is heading and his perspective concerning various changes in the GNU/Linux community since his last interview here.

Apple, Microsoft prepare for war with new systems

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-31 Rumors 71 Comments

After years of relative quiet, both Microsoft and Apple are frenetically working on major new upgrades to the base software that run the personal computers of tens of millions of business and consumer users. Microsoft is using the code name Longhorn to refer to its next upgrade to the Windows operating system. Apple, keeping the theme of naming its operating system software after big and fast cats, calls its next release Tiger.

Distro review: The four-1-1 on Linspire Five-0

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-31 Linspire 18 Comments

Linspire (formerly known as LindowsOS) has consistently made an attractive, easy-to-install and easy-to-use GNU/Linux distribution. Read the review at NewsForge.

Dueling Multicores: Intel and AMD Fight For the Future. Part 1

Submitted by Tudy 2005-03-31 Hardware 16 Comments

Intel and AMD have taken very different approaches towards achieving the next level of performance with their CPUs. In Part I TomsHardware explores the companies' plans for their upcoming multicore lines, the pros and cons of hyperthreading, and its relevance to multicore processing.

RISC OS Select on new hardware?

Submitted by Ian Chamberlain 2005-03-31 RISC OS 5 Comments

There are two main strands of RISC OS. Version 5 and Select. Many consider the latter to be the most feature rich version, and therefore preferable for desktop use. Interestingly, the Iyonix, currently the platform's fastest machine, uses RISC OS 5. Drobe looks at the exciting prospect of a new RISC OS Select machine.

Microsoft releases Windows Server 2003 update

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-31 Windows 25 Comments

Microsoft has wrapped up development on the first major update to its Windows Server 2003 operating system and released it for download, the company said Wednesday.

Another Linspire 5 Review

Submitted by Nate 2005-03-31 Linspire 26 Comments

Here is another review of Linspire 5 with some useful details in it.

The Sad Story of Secure Mobile Browsing

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-30 Wireless 27 Comments

As many of our readers know, I am a major proponent of mobile-friendly web design and browsing. Very few browsers in the mobile world are powerful enough to support modern w3c technologies (IE, NetFront, Opera & OpenWave) however they are good enough to do some basic browsing and even have SSL support. But especially in the case of IE (which is used a lot with PocketPCs & WinCE), Microsoft is still bundling a variant of IE 4.0.1 with WinCE. And we all know how insecure 4.0.1 is...