OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Cobalt Makes Meager Progress

David Adams 2005-03-07 Wireless 16 Comments

An eWeek article reports that "more than a year after PalmSource Inc. released its Palm OS Cobalt operating system, only one handset manufacturer has announced plans to bring a Cobalt-based device to market." This is despite the fact that version six of the PalmOS has been in developers' hands for more than a year. But even PalmSource's corporate sibling, PalmOne, has no Cobalt-based devices in sight.

FreeBSD Process Management

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-07 FreeBSD 10 Comments

This chapter explains process management in FreeBSD in detail, covering topics like context and thread switching, signals, and jails. Included are some exercises to help you put your new knowledge into practice.

MenuetOS 0.78 Released

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-07 OS News 19 Comments

MenuetOS 0.78 is released. Changes: New Panel and Menu system, new options for Windows, automatic memory detection, .ICO support, and faster rendering, updated JPEGVIEW application; Displays jpeg image as backgound, new launcher application; Startup applications, PCNET32 Ethernet Driver, it now works with VMWare, TCP/IP bug fixes to TCP retransmissions, window resizing/moving.

Intel Demos New Chips

David Adams 2005-03-06 Intel 24 Comments

According to a CRN article, Intel has "has made good on its vow last year to rewrite its product road map to focus on dual-core and multicore processors." In addition to imagining chips aimed at mobile, lightweight, and other boutique applications, the processor giant also (with MIcrosoft's backing) reiterated its commitment to move desktop processors to 64 bit with all possible haste.

WinFS To Be Available on Windows XP

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-06 Windows 53 Comments

Microsoft may not be willing to talk file-system futures, but it is working to back-port its future file-system technology to Windows XP.

Bounties for Gnome’s Optimization

Submitted by Ben Mauer 2005-03-06 Gnome 128 Comments

Novell and OSNews are sponsoring the memory reduction project led by Novell's Ben Mauer by providing bounties to developers to help to clean up bloat in GNOME and related programs. If you are a developer and you are interested in some extra cash or prizes by making Gnome more usable on machines with 128 MBs of RAM (very usual configuration in developing countries or even European businesses), please read here. Related post here.

Linux 2.6.x.y kernel releases for major stability and security fixes

Submitted by Rahul Sundaram 2005-03-05 Linux 43 Comments

Ongoing discussions on improving the kernel release structure and naming has caused the kernel developers to have a more fine grained release number for major fixes.

A first look at OpenOffice.org 2.0

Submitted by Rahul Sundaram 2005-03-05 Office 107 Comments

A quick look at what next major version of this popular open source office suite offers to end users.

Solaris Zones to replicate multi tiered development environments

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-05 Solaris 57 Comments

Zones are one of the many useful new features in Solaris 10, both for adminstrators and developers. This article gives an example of using zones to replicate a multi tiered environment for use in development.

Linux Reality Outstrips Linux Myth

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-05 Linux 54 Comments

Tipping points aren't made out of technical reality. They're made out of perceptual change. Thus, it was the legend of Torvalds, not the reality of his actions, that gave Linux the patina of political correctness needed for it to gain widespread public acceptance. Read the editorial here.

Forbes: Is Apple The New Microsoft?

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-04 Apple 169 Comments

"This potential threat to first amendment rights and Apple's crackdown on Web sites that, in general, love the company and its products, do nothing to bolster Apple's image. In fact, the company's success of late has yielded accusations of bullying and potentially unlawful business tactics, not to mention complaints that songs purchased from its iTunes music service, the dominant digital music store, don't work with music players other than its own. To some, that might sound like its neighbor to the north," says Forbes.

NetBSD and Xen

Submitted by Jan Schaumann 2005-03-04 NetBSD 16 Comments

The NetBSD Foundation has published a press release reporting on the benefits of the NetBSD/xen port, initially committed by Christian Limpach as previously reported. Since then, much progress has been made, and the NetBSD Project is now using NetBSD/xen internally. See the press release for further details.

AmigaOS4 Pre-release review by DatorMagazin

Mike Bouma 2005-03-04 Amiga & AROS 70 Comments

AmigaWorld.net is hosting a translated OS4 pre-release review from the latest issue of the popular Swedish computer magazine DatorMagazin. Also Michael "The Terminator" Rozeboom has written an article for IntuitionBase.com within which he tries to explain why the PPC platform is currently a good choice for AmigaOS4.

Wireless USB set to kill off Bluetooth?

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-04 Intel 27 Comments

The wireless USB protocol will be completed by the end of March and the access controller specification should be approved by the end of the year. Wireless USB is designed to be used at ranges of less than 10 metres and will allow peak data speeds of 480Mbps. Also, Intel has unveiled its first proposals for 802.11s, a new mesh wireless networking standard.

Open Source advocacy the right way

Submitted by Jono Bacon 2005-03-04 Open Source 78 Comments

With a rapid succession of people moving towards Open Source, advocacy and evangelism is increasingly important in helping organizations to move over. The O'Reilly Network have started publishing a series of articles about Open Source by Jono Bacon that teaches how to approach advocacy sensibly and more productively. Read the first article here.

Interview with Adam Dunkels

Guest post by netzstaub 2005-03-04 OS News 13 Comments

I have interviewed the author of the fascinating software Contiki OS, lwIP, uIP and protothreads, and asked him questions about the software itself, the way he develops on embedded platforms, as well as his interests in sensor networks and opensource.