OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Part IV & Final Corporate Desktop Linux – The Hard Truth

Submitted by Steve Mallett 2005-03-02 Linux 28 Comments

W. McDonald Buck, retired CTO of World Bank, finishes his four part essay on the subject of why Corporate Desktop Linux is an unrealistic goal in the short term for Linux advocates. "The hard truth is that the benefits that are most important to individual technical people are simply not important to those lacking technical skills. When you couple this with the relatively meager hard dollar cost savings, the prospect of some extra costs of migration, and the large risks of such a move, is it any wonder few corporate customers are making the transition?"

WashingtonPost: XFce Looks Good Without Overhead

Submitted by Claudio 2005-03-02 Xfce 27 Comments

The WashingtonPost has an interesting article on the matter, but registration required.

The ups and downs of life with Linus

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-02 Linux 52 Comments

He may be the saint of the Linux community, but it sounds like Linus Torvalds - with his secret security fixes - could still be a challenge to work with.

IBM OS/2 Strategy for 2005

Submitted by OS2World.com NewsMaster 2005-03-01 OS/2 42 Comments

IBM published the OS/2 strategy for 2005 and has also relased the Fixpack 5 (XR_C005) for OS/2 Warp Server for e-business 4.52 (a.k.a Convenience Pack 2).

From NeXT to X

Submitted by Thomas 2005-03-01 macOS 48 Comments

With the beginning of 1996, Apple realized that with the next generation PC's running Windows NT to be released within the decade, they would need a new, modern operating system to run on their machines. Most in the industry were certain that Apple would choose Be, whose operating system, BeOS, already ran on Apple's newest computers. Read the (updated) article here.

Solaris Express 02/05 Released

Submitted by fintanr 2005-03-01 Oracle and SUN 18 Comments

The latest version of Solaris Express has been released, Alan Hargreaves and Torrey McMahon have blogged about some of the new features. Download it from here. More info here.

SideTrack: Adding a New (Scrolling) Dimension to Mac OS X

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-01 macOS 30 Comments

Recently Apple added the ability to scroll with your trackpad on the new series of Powerbooks. However, most Mac OS X users were already able to do just that and much more by using the SideTrack utility which works on most iBook and Powerbook models.

How secure is your computer?

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-01 Privacy, Security 76 Comments

A Windows computer without the latest security patches is in big trouble. That's the conclusion from a "honey pot" experiment conducted by StillSecure, a Louisville network security firm. StillSecure attached six computers - loaded with different versions of the Windows, Linux and Apple's Macintosh operating systems - earlier this month to the Internet without anti-virus software. The results show the Internet is a very rough place.

Gnome 2.12 to Include the ClearLooks Theme as Default?

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-28 Gnome 205 Comments

Red Hat engineers announced today that the very popular ClearLooks theme engine will probably be the default theme for the Gnome 2.12. The theme was developed by Richard Stellingwerff helped out by Daniel "Spark" Borgmann, others, and with some help from myself on the usability side. This was a much needed refresh of the Gnome default desktop (old theme, new theme screenshots). Hopefully, a more usable variant of the Winter-Bold window manager theme (get matching colors, on-mouse-overs, don't get so greyed out when unfocused, buttons better vertically centered etc) will make it in as the companion of ClearLooks on Gnome instead of the currently bundled (and not as sexy) Industrial. Update: Elsewhere, GTK+ 2.6.3 was released, with bug fixes mainly for the Win32 platform.

SkyOS GI3D: Screensavers and Translucent Rendering

Submitted by Kelly Rush 2005-02-28 SkyOS 48 Comments

GI3D, the native SkyOS 2D/3D Hardware acceleration interface, has allowed for an much requested feature in SkyOS: screensavers. The entire screensaver framework is plugin-based, and even supports OpenGL screensavers. Additionally, GI3D brings to SkyOS translucent windows and full alpha blending.

Review of Xandros 3.0.1 OCE

Guest post by Richard White 2005-02-28 Oracle and SUN 24 Comments

To begin this review, I visited Xandros download page, snagged the public torrent, downloaded the ISO, and burned myself a copy of Xandros 3.0.1 OCE. Credit goes to Xandros for having a professional website that's easy to negotiate and for offering instructions to help new users of all platforms perform this task.

My Workstation OS: Mac OS X

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-28 macOS 45 Comments

"My work involves administering Unix Web servers and a mix of office desktops, along with developing the applications we run on them. I use Mac OS X to do it because it is something like a superset of those other popular OS choices. While much of the software I deploy is free, both as in speech and as in beer, I'm willing to open my wallet for OS X." Read the article at NewsForge.

Linux Threat Posed by Microsoft and Sun: In Your Dreams

Submitted by Tom Alterstein 2005-02-28 Linux 51 Comments

Writers and analysts love to sensationalize OS Wars. But Linux keeps building momentum.

From Gui-Hater to OS X

Guest post by Mary Stamper 2005-02-28 macOS 68 Comments

I’m sure that everyone has heard the old saying, "Mac for Productivity, Unix for Development, and Windows for Solitaire". My experience has shown me that at least for my needs, the Mac is not only for productivity, but for development as well. Windows? Well, some things never change.

.NET: Understanding Ownership

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-28 .NET No Comments

One of the most important components of ACL-based security in Windows is unfortunately also one of the most subtle and overlooked: ownership. Learn about ownership and its importance to security in this sample chapter.

Core Java: Collections Framework and Algorithms

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-28 Java 6 Comments

This sample book chapter shows how Java technology can help you accomplish the traditional data structuring needed for serious programming, and introduces you to the fundamental data structures that the standard Java library supplies.

Open source XML editors examined

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-28 General Development 52 Comments

The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) provides a flexible and efficient way to store, transmit, and express data. The open source community has produced an impressive lineup of XML editing utilities. In this article Ryan Paul takes a look at some of the most useful.

OneStat: Mozilla browsers at 8.45% of usage share

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-27 Mozilla, Gecko 44 Comments

OneStat today reported that Mozilla's browsers have a total global usage share of 8.45%. The total usage share of Mozilla increased more than 1 percent since Novermber 2004. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the global browser market with a global usage share of 87,28% which is 1.62% less as at the end of November 2004. Please note that OneStat seems to measure Mozilla's and Firefox's usage as one browser (however it differentiates Netscape and other Gecko browsers).

Syllable Conference (SYL-CON1) Took Place

Submitted by the_viking 2005-02-27 Syllable, AtheOS 11 Comments

The Syllable team recently held a confrence discussing future of Syllable and previewing some stuff they'd been working on.

Jef Raskin (1944-2005)

Submitted by Thomas 2005-02-27 Apple 42 Comments

Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh, died yesterday at 61. He headed the project from 1978 up to 1982, when he was forced out of Apple. Since then, he worked on several different products to introduce 'humane computing', but is still best known for his contributions to the Macintosh. Read his story here.