OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Sun burns Solaris and Linux staffers

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-18 Solaris 74 Comments

Sun Microsystems has sent some of its operating system staff packing as it finishes up a long period of layoffs. Sources have informed The Register that a larger number of staffers in Sun's operating platforms group have been shown the door.

Improving the User Experience for Desktop Sysadmins – Sabayon

Submitted by Seth 2005-02-18 Gnome 52 Comments

Sabayon is GNOME's first major design targeted at improving the user experience for people who administer GNOME systems, and hopefully the start of an initiative toward designing for this important group of users.

Slackware 10.1 Review

Guest post by Matthew Trow 2005-02-17 Slackware, Slax 40 Comments

I was quite excited about the release of Slackware 10.1, the same way I was excited about 10.0 and versions before that. As a self confessed 'Linux Desktop Dabbler', to date, I've found Slackware my favourite Linux flavour to Dabble with.

Boo 0.5 released

Submitted by Sylvester Boots 2005-02-17 .NET 39 Comments

Boo is a new object oriented .NET language, heavily inspired by Python's syntax, that supports static typing for speed and duck typing for dynamic late-binding, python-style coding; there is full type-inference and closure supoprt, also.

Win4Lin Delivers Windows 2000, XP on Linux

Submitted by Don Hoover 2005-02-17 In the News 29 Comments

Win4Lin delivers Windows 2000 and Windows XP on Linux; Win4Lin Pro becomes flagship product for running windows applications on Linux.

Study finds Windows more secure than Linux

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-17 Privacy, Security 78 Comments

Believe it or not, a Windows Web server is more secure than a similarly set-up Linux server, according to a study presented yesterday by two Florida researchers. The researchers, appearing at the RSA Conference of computer-security professionals, discussed the findings in an event, "Security Showdown: Windows vs. Linux." One of them, a Linux fan, runs an open-source server at home; the other is a Microsoft enthusiast. They wanted to cut through the near-religious arguments about which system is better from a security standpoint.

Mono 1.1.4 and 1.0.6 Release

Submitted by Diego Dompe 2005-02-17 Mono 22 Comments

Today the Mono project release news versions of the stable and developer's branches. Now there are encouraging devs to switch to the 1.1.4 release over the 1.0.6. The OS X Mono framework now includes a functional Cocoa#. On Linux the number of dependencies was reduced. New Managed WinForms are now installed by default.

While Switching to Mac Will Improve Security, It Isn’t for Everybody

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-17 Apple 101 Comments

"Over the past year, I have advised readers who are fed up with the plague of viruses and spyware on Windows PCs that one way out of the mess is to switch to Apple Computer's Macintosh. There has yet to be a report of a successful, real-world virus for the Mac's current operating system, and there is little or no known spyware for the Mac." says Mossberg.

Nat Friedman interview on The Linux Link Tech Show

Submitted by Patrick Davila 2005-02-17 Novell and Ximian 10 Comments

Nat Friedman discusses Hula and other linux issues on the latest episode of The Linux Link Tech Show: episode 71.

Should the TCO of RISC OS be higher

Submitted by Peter Naulls 2005-02-17 RISC OS 4 Comments

On drobe.co.uk, Chris Williams again investigates the role of RISC OS and RISC OS machines in the real world. At stake is traditional claim of platform fans that running a RISC OS system is cheaper than other systems - something that may have been true during the 90s, but perhaps now has the platfom at a disadvantage. Decide for yourself in Chris' article.

A Look at the Resco World

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-17 Wireless 12 Comments

If you own a Pocket PC, you gotta be using one of the Resco applications. Resco has become synonymous with high-quality utitilies for primarily the Mobile Windows platform (while some of their products are available for PalmOS and Symbian). We take a look at their Media Suite for PPC, File Explorer and PhotoViewer for PalmOS 4/5 and the Guardians 2D game for PPC (with screenshots).

Mikey C’s MicroA1 Review

Mike Bouma 2005-02-17 Amiga & AROS 24 Comments

Michael Carrillo has written a small first impressions review and report after being voted AmigaWorld.net's 'Moderator Of The Year' and winning a new MicroA1. However for more in depth pre-release information turn to the recent Ars Technica review. And for Amiga users who need to use Windows but don't want to leave their Amiga environment there's a new Remote Desktop client available (Screenshot).

25 Million Firefox users

Submitted by Swaroop C H 2005-02-17 Mozilla, Gecko 80 Comments

Its all over the blogosphere: 25,105,560 downloads in just 99 days! Even Scoble's congratulated the project: "In just a few months your app has become one of the most used Windows applications in the world. My hat's off to you!"

Mandrake Linux 10.2-b1-PPC; PowerPC support for Red Hat Linux

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-17 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 9 Comments

This is the first beta release of Mandrakelinux 10.2 for PowerPC. Also, Red Hat's next product for Linux enthusiasts is slated to support two significant new features, the first for IBM's Power processor and the second for software that lets the same computer run multiple operating systems simultaneously.

Researchers: Digital encryption standard flawed

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-17 Privacy, Security 11 Comments

An encryption standard widely used in digitally signing documents and programs has a flaw in it that could allow for the creation of forgeries, sources said Wednesday.

Microsoft to give developers a new look at Longhorn

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-17 Windows 20 Comments

Microsoft plans in April to offer developers an updated test version of Longhorn, along with more details on what's in store with the next major update to Windows.

KDE 3.4-b2 Preview

Guest post by Joshua Keel 2005-02-16 KDE 100 Comments

KDE 3.4 is currently in the beta2 stage, and preparations are being made for the final release. I thought it would be nice to give people some advance information on new features in KDE 3.4, so I have written this beta2 preview.

Announcing the Winners of the OSNews Book Giveaway

David Adams 2005-02-16 OS News 5 Comments

The results are in! The winners of the giveaway are: In the "new member" category: Pascal Hos. In the "existing members" category: Robert Kerby and Jeremy Messenger. In the "commenters" category: Rayiner Hashem and "therandthem." If you are one of these winners, and you haven't received an email from us yet, contact us right away. Thanks to all the new members who signed up in the past two weeks. We'll try to have more giveaways soon!

Maya 6.5 to be final upgrade release for IRIX

Guest post by Swami Gattas 2005-02-16 SGI and IRIX 22 Comments

CGChannel.com reports the immediate release of Maya 6.5, an award winning professional grade 3D Suite and a major part of the IRIX culture. Of interest is that this release marks the final release of the once SGI-owned software for Irix. It is sad to see the OS lose support as SGI has shifted focus to Linux.

NoGravity Game Open Sourced

Eugenia Loli 2005-02-16 Games 22 Comments

One of the most prolific games of the BeOS platform was SpaceGirl (later renamed to "No Gravity"). The game is now being ported to Windows and Mac OS X (using DX and, software GL and GL) and also it has been fully open sourced. Hopefully, we will see a Linux/Unix and a PocketPC port soon (for the 2700G Intel accelerator found on Dell or other VGA-capable PDAs, e.g. the VGA Zaurus).