OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Poll: Most Promising Generic Linux Distro?

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-09 Linux 124 Comments

We all know the big Linux players: RHEL/Fedora, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian, Slackware, Gentoo, Ubuntu, Linspire, Xandros, Lycoris, YDL, TurboLinux etc. But what about these still-small but promising distros? Come in and vote for which one you think is the most promising of all.

Longhorn and the Linux long-game

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-09 Rumors 59 Comments

The next instalment of Windows will act as the cornerstone in MS’ ongoing battle with IBM & Linux.

What is Avalon: next-gen display system explained

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-09 Windows 67 Comments

Avalon is the new rendering and compositing technology that Microsoft is developing primarily for Longhorn (Microsoft's next release of Windows) that is available in beta form on Windows XP.

Gnome 2.10 Released

Submitted by Mark Dillavou 2005-03-09 Gnome 87 Comments

Gnome 2.10 has been released. "It includes a number of interesting new features and hundreds of bug fixes" along with a video player and a CD-ripping utility.

Interview: Jim Curtin, CEO of Win4Lin

Submitted by Chuck Talk 2005-03-09 Original OSNews Interviews 6 Comments

Orange Crate has an interview with Jim Curtin, CEO of Win4Lin, a company that makes software that allows users to run Windows from within Linux. The company recently restructured, and they have big plans to "play a lead role in un-coupling applications from operating systems and hardware dependencies" and "make end user computing as cost-efficient, stable and secure as possible."

Puppy: A Linux Live-CD that Saves Back to CD

Submitted by Barry Kauler 2005-03-09 Linux 17 Comments

As far as I am aware, this is a world first, a live-CD that saves back to the CD at the end of the session. So how does it work? "Boot the PC with the multi-session CD inserted in the CD-burner drive -- thus, Puppy automatically knows which drive is the CD-burner, in case you have more than one CD/DVD drive. Then you use Puppy in the normal way. At shutdown, all the changed files in your home directory are saved back to CD. That's it. Next time you boot, all the personal files are restored."

Hardware-based Acceleration for Physics Simulations – the Future?

Submitted by Kaya Memisoglu 2005-03-09 Games 32 Comments

A company called AGEIA is working on Physics Processing Unit, a chip similar to the GPUs found on graphics card but with its sole purpose to offload phyiscs calculations found in most modern games from the CPU onto their new PPU. Read more for some thoughts on this development from Kaya Memisoglu.

SuSE 9.3 Today

Submitted by Matthias Toth 2005-03-09 SuSE, openSUSE 53 Comments

Novell is releasing SuSE Linux Professional 9.3 today. It includes the new desktop search utilty Beagle, and support for the iPod.

The Least Privilege Model in the Solaris 10 OS

Submitted by fintanr 2005-03-09 Privacy, Security 14 Comments

The Least Privilege Model in Solaris 10 allows for finegrained management of process and user privileges within Solaris 10. Amy Rich has written a nice introduction for Sun's bigadmin website.

Microsoft MVPs Revolt

Submitted by Ad Killer 2005-03-09 General Development 62 Comments

Over 100 Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) have signed an online petition that demands Redmond resume development and support of "classic" Visual Basic, a-k-a VB6. The MVPs are calling for all VB developers and IT leaders to review and consider signing the petition.

Linus Torvalds Switches to a Mac

Submitted by Joey 2005-03-09 Apple 39 Comments

Now that we've got your attention, no, Linus has not quit using Linux. He had an opportunity to get a free Dual G5 Apple, and he decided that, after all his years working on x86, the PowerPC architecture has a future, and deserves some attention. Torvalds' added justification for his switch is that he's a "technology whore."

A Perfect X

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-09 macOS 32 Comments

Revenge is sweet for Apple, now savoring the rise of Mac OS X and Xserve in the lab, but this is still the planting. A difficult growing season lies ahead.

The Ten Worst Engineering Pitfalls

Guest post by Keith F. Kelly 2005-03-09 General Development 50 Comments

I've been a professional software engineer for close to ten years. Based on my experience, I recently attempted to enumerate the ten worst engineering "traps" most developers seem (for whatever reason) prone to fall into. Here's the list I came up with. It should be noted that wherever two of these come into conflict, the item close to the top of the list wins.

CherryOS Now Available

Submitted by Marc Martin 2005-03-09 macOS 81 Comments

CherryOS is available for trial and download. Requires a 1.6 Ghz PC or more and at least 256 MBs of available RAM.

IBM releases 2005 Software Evaluation Kit for Linux and Windows

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-09 IBM 14 Comments

This is the easiest way to get all of the fresh releases of IBM middleware for Linux. Take a look at what you get:

Understanding Usability

Guest post by Richard Spindler 2005-03-08 Graphics 126 Comments

Since usability seems to be a major topic on the OSNews forums, I think time has come to clarify some common misconceptions. Usability is not about selecting the fanciest Theme from kde-look.org, it's not about 'Reading the F*** Manual', it's not about having all application share the same looks, it's not about nice front-ends to obscure command line programs, it's not about newbie-friendliness, it's not about apt-get install foobar and it's not about setup.exe.

Tiger vs. Longhorn

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-08 Rumors 83 Comments

Wondering if you should stay Windows or make a switch? Read on to learn about what's coming up for Microsoft's Longhorn and Apple's Tiger.

Review: Mandrake Corporate Desktop

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-08 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 9 Comments

The corporate desktop GNU/Linux distribution is a relatively new invention, having begun with SUSE/Novell Desktop, then followed by Sun's Java Desktop System and Red Hat Desktop. But with much less fanfare, Mandrakesoft released a Corporate Desktop product last January.

OpenBSD’s “Out of the Box” Wireless Support

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-08 OpenBSD 18 Comments

KernelTrap has spoken with OpenBSD creator Theo de Raadt and several other OpenBSD developers regarding their recent efforts to add comprehensive wireless hardware support to OpenBSD. The article takes an in depth look at several of the dozen new drivers found in the upcoming OpenBSD 3.7 release, exploring the stories behind their development.

Pod2Go: The Ultimate iPod Sync Application

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-08 macOS 19 Comments

Who said that the iPod can only be used as a music player? Pod2Go is here to transform your iPod from a mere music player and file storage gadget to a (sort of) PDA.