OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

A Method to the Buy-Out Madness?

Andrew Youll 2005-07-24 Windows 35 Comments

In recent months, Microsoft has purchased numerous security companies. Is this a sign that Microsoft has decided to try and secure its Operating Systems from out side threats? Or just trying to increase its revenue through an ever growing portfolio of products?

10 Reasons Why a Resurgent Mac Is Great for Linux

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-24 Linux 77 Comments

There have been many recent pieces written about how a resurgent Mac is a threat to Linux. This particularly hit fever pitch when Apple decided to jump ship to Intel CPUs. The notion that the Mac is either a short or long-term threat to Linux is wrong for a number of different reasons. 10 in fact.

Why FreeBSD; Guide to PC-BSD

Submitted by anonymous 2005-07-24 FreeBSD 30 Comments

The FreeBSD operating system is the unknown giant among free operating systems. Starting out from the 386BSD project, it is an extremely fast UNIX-like operating system mostly for the Intel chip and its clones. In many ways, FreeBSD has always been the operating system that GNU/Linux-based operating systems should have been. It runs on out-of-date Intel machines and 64-bit AMD chips, and it serves terabytes of files a day on some of the largest file servers on earth. Elsewhere, here is a guide to PC-BSD.

Visopsys 0.56 Released

Submitted by Andy McLaughlin 2005-07-24 OS News 25 Comments

Visopsys is an alternative OS for PC-compatibles. Version 0.56 is a maintenance and bugfix release, with important fixes to eliminate potential boot problems, faulty EXT2/3 mounts, and problems with the detection of secondary hard disks. Important multitasker improvements related to process initialization have also been back-ported from the 0.6 development branch. Download page and changelog.

Sun Plans to Make All Its Software Free

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-23 Oracle and SUN 76 Comments

Sun Microsystems president and COO Jonathan Schwartz on Thursday cited the company's plans to eventually offer all of its software for free as a way to build communities around its technologies.

USB Devices Can Crack Operating Systems

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-23 Privacy, Security 47 Comments

Vulnerabilities in USB drivers for Windows could allow an attacker to take control of locked workstations using a specially programmed Universal Serial Bus device, according to an executive from SPI Dynamics, which discovered the security hole. However, SPI tested attacks on Windows systems, but any operating system that is USB-compliant is probably vulnerable.

Submitted by Tyr. 2005-07-23 Amiga & AROS 45 Comments

20 years ago on July 23rd the Commodore Amiga was unveiled at the Lincoln Centre in New York. For the launch Commodore had hired Andy Warhol & Debbie Harry (lead singer of Blondie) to demonstrate the Amiga's graphics capabilities. Despite many dificulties the Amiga is still around today both as a company and as a community.

Windows Vista, Server and IE 7 Betas to Arrive in Sync

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-23 Windows 27 Comments

Microsoft confirmed that it will deliver the beta 1 version of Longhorn Server on August 3, along with the beta 1 release Internet Explorer 7. They'll be available along with the beta 1 version of Windows Vista, the next-generation Windows formerly known as Longhorn, which Microsoft announced friday morning.

Mozilla 1.7.10 Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-23 Mozilla, Gecko 15 Comments

Mozilla 1.7.10 (release notes), a security update to the Mozilla Application Suite, is now available for download. There was no Mozilla 1.7.9 release: it was cancelled after it was discovered that changes in the equivalent 1.0.5 releases of Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird caused some problems.

Build a Wireless ISP on Linux

Submitted by anonymous 2005-07-23 Internet 6 Comments

Setting up a wireless Internet Service provider (WISP) for your office or neighborhood doesn't have to be a taxing or expensive ordeal. If you build your network from easy-to-buy equipment and use Linux, you can use the power of shell scripts to make network management easy. This article gives you the tips and scripts you need.

Unix and Linux Podcasting Guide

Submitted by Noel 2005-07-23 Multimedia, AV 4 Comments

The guide to podcasting for Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X users describes what podcasting is, what a podcasting client does, lists some available clients, and provides information on how to create a podcast under Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X. The guide also discusses what content is available as podcasts and gives some suggestions on finding feeds.

Solaris Express 7/2005 Released

Submitted by Daniel Price 2005-07-22 Solaris 50 Comments

Solaris Express 7/2005 (a.k.a. Nevada Build 17) was posted today, providing MESA support, observability enhancements, and roughly 500 bug fixes. You can obtain a free download. An overview of new features is also available.

Submitted by Bascule 2005-07-22 Oracle and SUN 29 Comments

Technewsworld postulates that Gateway would be a prime takeover target for Sun Microsystems. Sun's competence on the desktop, they argue, would be greatly improved, as well as their ability to manage at an executive level.

Submitted by Nicholas Blachford 2005-07-22 Hardware 45 Comments

6 months ago N. Blachford wrote an article based on the 2002 Cell processor patent application. Since that original document, the Cell evolved considerably in both hardware and software. This new version has been rewritten to cover those changes. New sections have also been added to cover Cell software development and the design of the architecture.

Apple – the World’s Most Innovative Company

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-22 Apple 89 Comments

Apple is the world's most innovative company, according to BusinessWeek. A stunning 24.84 per cent of 940 senior business executives from across the planet who voted chose to recognise Apple as the world's most innovative company.

Microsoft Explains Windows Vista Name

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-22 Windows 87 Comments

With the announcement of Longhorn's official name, Microsoft has left many users asking: why Windows Vista? Company representatives told BetaNews that Microsoft felt the new version of Windows "deserved a name that was more representative of what it specifically brings to customers."

Sun Says it Will Help Develop Opteron

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-22 Hardware 23 Comments

It's only a matter of time before Sun Microsystems starts helping AMD enhance the Opteron chip, at least according to Sun. David Yen, executive vice president of the scalable systems group at Sun, said that the collaboration between the two will lead to cooperative efforts on AMD's flagship processor.

Trouble Rolls Into Win2K Town

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-22 Windows 19 Comments

Some third-party applications are encountering problems introduced by the cumulative Windows 2000 Update Rollup that Microsoft introduced in late June.

SWT and JFace, Part I/II: a Gentle Introduction

Submitted by anonymous 2005-07-22 Java No Comments

In part I of this series, you get introduced to Eclipse, the Eclipse SWT, and the JFace GUI tool kits to construct Eclipse and stand-alone rich GUIs. also introduced the basic label, text, and button GUI controls, and the composite, group, and shell container types. Part 2 shows you how to create simple Standard Widget Toolkit applications using Java technology, Eclipse, and the SWT and JFace libraries.

Linux and Audio Production: Simplicity Required

Submitted by Jono Bacon 2005-07-22 Linux 21 Comments

This article discusses audio production on Linux. The author identifies two problems: integration and usability. "I am convinced the the problems discussed here have readily available solutions, but I think opening some dialog with the providers of different parts of the stack needs to happen to allow the solution to develop."