OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

New Wi-Fi standard takes the slow road

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-20 Internet 17 Comments

The process to establish the next-generation Wi-Fi standard, which promises to quadruple transmission speeds, has stalled as members of the working group developing the standard failed to pass the main proposal onto the next stage.

PC-BSD 0.7 released

Submitted by JaY 2005-05-19 PC-BSD 74 Comments

PCBSD 0.7 was released. This release is built from the FreeBSD 5.4 core, and fixes many bugs from earlier versions, as well as updating the package manager/creator.

The Java Look-and-Feel Debate

Guest post by Andy Roberts 2005-05-19 Java 88 Comments

Java Swing comes with "pluggable look-and-feel technology", which essentially boils down to the fact that interfaces can be "skinned" (although this is simplifying a tad) and is therefore, extremely flexible. By default, Java ships with a cross-platform look-and-feel (LAF), which means your apps can look consistent across all platforms, or LAFs that mimic the look of a specific platform, say Windows, for example. However, one of the chief complaints of Java desktop applications is its "look". It basically stems from two issues:

OpenBSD 3.7 has been released

Submitted by Marcin Wilk 2005-05-19 OpenBSD 33 Comments

Stable OpenBSD 3.7 has been released. On this site there is release announcement. Changes are noticed here. Many people are downloading files, so use nearest mirror if You can from this list .

Haiku app_server/Interface Kit Progress

Submitted by Kian Duffy 2005-05-19 Haiku 31 Comments

HaikuNews has a screenshot of a test app running on the Haiku app_server (under R5, but does run under Haiku itself the same) using alpha blending and a number of interface kit widgets - buttons, radio buttons, text boxes, and textfields.

Solaris Containers and Zones

Submitted by Robert Escue 2005-05-19 Solaris 6 Comments

A new Sun BluePrints article discusses the differences between Containers and Zones, and how to get the most out of them. The pdf file is located here.

Netscape 8 Released

Submitted by Ryan 2005-05-19 Mozilla, Gecko 45 Comments

Netscape has launched the new and improved Netscape 8 today. The new browser is based on the FireFox 1.0.3 code and includes extra features and enhancements. It includes the best of FireFox with a clean Netscape interface.

What BitMover Got Wrong

Submitted by Shlomi Fish 2005-05-19 Editorial 62 Comments

"What BitMover Got Wrong" over at The Better-SCM site analyzes the wrong state of mind that guided BitMover, BitKeeper's parent company in the long, eventful and sad history of its gratis product.

Apple Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger Review

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-19 macOS 70 Comments

TrustedReviews published a review of OSX 10.4 Tiger, with screenshots.

LLVM 1.5 Released

Submitted by Reid Spencer 2005-05-18 General Development 10 Comments

The sixth major release of the LLVM compiler infrastructure was released today by the University of Illinois CS department. LLVM provides a comprehensive set of libraries and tools for building optimizing compilers with bytecode, JIT, and static compilation. For more information on LLVM, please visit the LLVM web site.

Microsoft to flash Windows ID cards

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-18 Windows 19 Comments

Microsoft is getting ready to provide an early peek at new Windows software that aims to help consumers deal with the plethora of Internet logins. Also, more on Windows XP "Eiger", the lean Windows client.

Opera and Firefox: A side-by-side review

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-18 Rumors 68 Comments

"Opera Software recently released version 8.00 of its eponymous Web browser. I decided to see how the new version of the popular commercial browser compares to the open source Mozilla Firefox 1.0. I found both Firefox and Opera are capable browsers, and though they are very different, they each has much to offer any user." Read more at NewsForge.

Geronimo! Part 1: The J2EE 1.4 engine that could

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-18 Java 7 Comments

Java-based open source development has come a long way since the early days of developers sharing GUI libraries. Geronimo is a large-scale project attempting to create a certified J2EE 1.4 server based on existing open source components. Take a tour through the Geronimo maze with Sing Li as your guide. Gluecode Software CTO and principal Geronimo contributor Jeremy Boynes shares his perspective on Geronimo and go here to learn how to use the new Eclipse plug-in for Apache Geronimo.

Ubuntu Linux 5.10 Colony 1 Released

Submitted by Jeff 2005-05-18 Ubuntu 43 Comments

The first development release of Ubuntu Linux 5.10, code name "Breezy Badger", is now available for testing. Colony CD 1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Breezy development cycle, as images that are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD-build or installer bugs, while representing very current snapshots of Breezy. Screenshots are available. If you're interested in following changes as we further develop Breezy, have a look at the breezy-changes list. Bug reports should go here.

Visopsys 0.55 Released

Submitted by Andy McLaughlin 2005-05-18 OS News 8 Comments

Visopsys is an alternative operating system for PC compatible computers. Version 0.55 was released today. It is a maintenance and bugfix release that makes things a bit 'snappier' and more reliable, with some additional capabilities including installation support for all FAT filesystems, baseline PCI driver support, and a better organised device infrastructure. In addition, GUI window layout and resizing has been reimplemented and generally fixed. You can get it here.

Windows Media Center OS to Work with Xbox 360

Submitted by Ryan 2005-05-18 Windows 16 Comments

Microsoft's next game console - the Xbox 360 - will integrate with the companies Windows XP Media Center 2005 operating system. This feature will allow consumers to view HD video and utilize the new Xbox's power for local processing. Microsoft has stated that this integration will have much higher performance than the original Media Center Extender that was offered last year for the first-gen Xbox. You can read the story here.

PalmOne LifeDrive Unveiled

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-18 Wireless 36 Comments

palmOne, Inc. today introduced the LifeDrive mobile manager. Designed for people with a significant volume of digital information, the LifeDrive mobile manager offers 4GB of hard-drive storage, a large 320x480 high-resolution color screen, and wireless access through built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technologies. Reviews here, here, here and here.

Music Video Clip from the ’90s Features NeXTSTEP

Eugenia Loli 2005-05-18 macOS 53 Comments

Long after no NeXT hardware will function anymore, future generations will be able to have a 'live' peek at the NeXTSTEP OS (as opposed to still screenshots) via Madonna's Rain video clip from 1993. I noticed it by watching the video on my Pocket PC and had to share it with you. Check in for screengrabs.

KDE Developer clarifies KHTML/Webcore relationship

Guest post by Bryan Feeney 2005-05-17 KDE 41 Comments

In an effort to stem the tide of misinformation that has swirled around this topic since the initial blog post was picked up several weeks ago, Kurt Pfeifle has authored an 18 point article , which clarifies the KHTML/Webcore relationship in hopes that the confusion will stop. Comments on this story on dot.kde.org indicate that a lot of work is going on behind the scenes; it is not being mentioned in public (such as through blogs) due to the amount of flaming the topic has caused thus far.

Gentoo’s Portage to be ported to Windows Services for UNIX

Submitted by Matt Kubilus 2005-05-17 Gentoo 51 Comments

A group of Windows programmers is working on porting Gentoo's Portage over to Windows SFU. If you don't know already, Windows Services for UNIX is a full POSIX subsystem for Windows, enabling it to compile and run almost any software that will compile on BSD, Solaris, HP/UX, and Linux. Details to "emerge" soon.