OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Adelstein: Linux Drives Innovation

Submitted by Sam Hiser 2005-04-04 Linux 23 Comments

For the first time that we know of, Federal Computer Week magazine is reporting on open source software. This weekly, which gets onto the desks of all Federal IT managers, has hardly acknowledged in the past that alternative solutions exist.

Google: A Behind-the-Scenes Look

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-04 In the News 10 Comments

In this program from Oct 2004, Jeff Dean of Google describes some of these challenges, discusses applications Google has developed, and highlights systems they've built, including GFS, a large-scale distributed file system, and MapReduce, a library for automatic parallelization and distribution of large-scale computation. He also shares some interesting observations derived from Google's web data.

Linux fails in small business market

Guest post by Tom Sanders in California 2005-04-04 Linux 54 Comments

Linux is losing momentum among medium sized enterprises, according to a survey by Canadian research firm Info-Tech Research Group. After years of increased interest in the open source operating system, IT managers from medium sized businesses have come to a conclusion that open source is not for them. The findings point to a rift between large enterprises that are increasingly embracing open source and smaller businesses that opt for a Microsoft-centric world.

Linux 2.4.30 kernel is out

Submitted by anonymous 2005-04-04 Linux 20 Comments

Marcelo has announced the availability of the 2.4.30 kernel; no changes were made after 2.4.30-rc4. Since 2.4 is in deep maintenance mode, there is little in the way of new features in this release. It does contain a number of security updates and other important fixes, though.

Linspire and the Insider Program

Guest post by Michael Valentine 2005-04-04 Linspire 65 Comments

I signed up to become a Lindows Insider (now Linspire) back in February 2004, after giving Lindows 4.5 Developer Edition a try and walking away very impressed about how far Lindows had come. I was very hesitant plugging down $99.00 for something you could do free with most other Distros which I thought was beta testing and voicing your opinion, but figured I had nothing to lose since they offered a 100% Money Back Guarantee on the program.

Red Hat Linux 4.0 offers power, security

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-04 Red Hat 31 Comments

In a Clear Choice test of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, (tested RHEL 4.0 Advanced Server, Red Hat’s most robust Linux distribution), ComputerWorld found huge performance gains over previous editions, beefed up security options and vastly improved hardware detection mechanisms.

Businesses slow to move to SP2

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-04 Windows 38 Comments

Microsoft has urged businesses running Windows XP to upgrade their machines to take advantage of added security features, but only a quarter of XP corporate machines have been upgraded to Service Pack 2, according to a new study.

FreeBSD: ‘make’ for non-programmers

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-04 FreeBSD 18 Comments

"If you're a typical FreeBSD user, you don't have a background in C programming. Yet, if you've ever used make world to upgrade your operating system or issued a make install somewhere within your ports tree, you've compiled C code. This article covers some make basics so you have an idea what is happening behind the scenes. It also examines some of the options you have available when issuing make commands." Read it here.

64-bit Linux and BSD are maturing steadily

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-04 Hardware 19 Comments

"While the theoretical speed advantage and expanded resources of 64-bit computing are enticing to those in need of maximum performance, the road to a perfect AMD64 desktop, workstation or server machine is long and treacherous. What operating system will you use? Is there enough 64-bit software available? In this article we'll explore some of the advantages and pitfalls of going totally 64-bit in a 32-bit world." Read more at NewsForge.

Adobe Creative Suite 2 announced

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-04 Graphics 20 Comments

Adobe today announced the Adobe Creative Suite 2, which includes new versions of Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and GoLive.

WBEL: RHEL alternative almost ready to roll

Submitted by I know who 2005-04-04 Linux 13 Comments

A preview of WBEL4 (White Box Enterprise Linux) is currently available via BitTorrent. White Box nicely fills the niche between Fedora and RHEL. WBEL Sreenshots. WBEL FAQ.

Metafunctions in C++; Assignment and Initialization

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-03 General Development 15 Comments

This chapter looks at a practical example from science and engineering that can find applications in almost any numerical code. Along the way, you'll learn some important new concepts and get a taste of metaprogramming at a high level using the MPL. Also, this chapter explains the difference between assignment and initialization in C++ in simple terms, with examples to illustrate each.

Address Crosscutting Concerns in Aspect Oriented Development

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-03 General Development 5 Comments

The inability to keep crosscutting concerns separate can really get in the way of creating a clear and understandable system. Find out how to keep your aspect-oriented software from becoming a tangled mess in this sample chapter.

Introducing Nokia Developer Platforms

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-03 Wireless No Comments

The Nokia Developer Platforms allow developers to write scalable applications across a range of Nokia devices. This chapter covers the technologies from a bird's-eye view.

All about Eclipse Plug-ins

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-03 Java 2 Comments

This chapter provides an overview of how plug-ins function in Eclipse in the form of Frequently Asked Questions. Included are questions about the core concepts of the Eclipse kernel, including plug-ins, extension points, fragments.

Creating .NET Applications That Talk

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-03 .NET 4 Comments

Speech processing is an important technology for enhanced computing because it provides a natural and intuitive interface for the user. This chapter explains the Microsoft Speech Application SDK, shows you how to create, debug, and tune a speech application, and how to set up a telephony server.

Learn how to tailor your code for AltiVec

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-03 Hardware 12 Comments

Motorola AltiVec can dramatically improve the performance of many tasks, even tasks that you might initially think are too linear to get much advantage from parallelizing. This article looks at some real-world code that processors might spend a serious amount of time running, and shows how to tweak it to get extra performance.

New GNUstep libraries released (ApplicationKit and FoundationKit)

Guest post by Gürkan Sengün 2005-04-03 OpenStep, GNUstep 32 Comments

Regularly as always here are the new GNUstep GUI 0.9.5 libraries. GNUstep libraries can now installed much easier using the one startup tarball.

Symbian OS: Threads Programming

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-03 Wireless 4 Comments

This document explains the use of threads in Symbian OS. When using threads, synchronization and mutual exclusion must be considered in order to get thread interactions safe.

Mini-Editorial: The Missed Opportunity of Linux

Eugenia Loli 2005-04-02 Linux 112 Comments

The future is mobile. That much we know for sure. But it seems that the operating system world in this market is being rapidly taken over by --again-- Microsoft. The new smart phones are are using WinCE, Symbian or Palm. Linux has barely 1% of this new, smartphone market.