OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

February Syllable Development Newsletter

Submitted by M Saunders 2005-03-23 Syllable, AtheOS 2 Comments

Better late than never, the February edition of the Syllable Development Newsletter is now available, covering progress made over the last month. Highlights include coverage of the Syl-Con meetup, Glibc/GCC work, various updates, and more.

Linspire 5.0 review

Submitted by Erik Almqvist 2005-03-23 Linspire 25 Comments

Here's an enthusiastic review of Linspire 5.0. Afterwards, head over to OSDir for the screenshots.

HOWTO: Creating Images Of Your Linux System With SystemImager

Submitted by Falko Timme 2005-03-23 General Development 8 Comments

Falko Timme wrote a tutorial describing how to create images of your Linux system with SystemImager. SystemImager lets you create images of your installations. So you can make a backup of your systems, clone your systems (if you have to maintain more than one machine with exactly the same software), or even distribute your software over the internet. To do so, you need an image server (should have enough disk space to store your images) and a so-called golden client (i.e., your "perfect system" of which you want to make an image).

The Chronicles of a Futile Battle: Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD

Submitted by Michael S 2005-03-23 Multimedia, AV 16 Comments

While DVD technology was initially much-needed and impressive, it quickly showed its limitations, as demand for higher-resolution movies and more bonus features (and, of course, the use of DVD for data storage) quickly outstripped DVD's data capacity. Some new technologies are on the horizon, and in true tech industry fashion, there is more than one incompatible contender for the spot.

EU Sleuths think Microsoft Sabotaged Windows

David Adams 2005-03-23 Legal 68 Comments

A report in today’s Wall Street Journal suggests Microsoft has fiddled with the registry in its stripped-down Windows offerings and the result is that video clips embedded into Microsoft Word documents don’t run properly, for example. The Journal quotes Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for European antitrust chief Neelie Kroes, as saying: 'The commission is still in the process of assessing ... whether Microsoft is complying properly with the requirement to offer a fully functioning version of Windows without Media Player.'

Businesses Behaving Badly

David Adams 2005-03-23 Editorial 11 Comments

This article looks at user reactions to common problems with user interfaces and corporate policies, and how these reactions can make some common business decisions counterproductive. When it comes to inconveniencing your customers, and sometimes even offending them, are some sales tactics worth it in the long run?

Looking Glass Tutorial

Submitted by John Kale 2005-03-23 Java 12 Comments

Project Looking Glass is a 3D windowing and visualization system for Sun's Java Desktop System. There is currently a proof of concept demo available, and if you're interested in trying it out, here's a quick tutorial.

Windows Mobile 2005 (aka Magneto) Leaks Out

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-23 Windows 10 Comments

Many screenshots and info for the leaked, upcoming, Windows Mobile 2005.

The Apple Motion Sensor As A Human Interface Device

Submitted by Hakime 2005-03-23 Apple 13 Comments

"I described the working of the Apple Motion Sensor (AMS), a feature of the PowerBook line of computers, in previous document called The PowerBook Sudden Motion Sensor". As I noted earlier, my original reason for investigating the AMS was to fabricate some interesting programming examples for my forthcoming book on Mac OS X internals. The discussion of the AMS generated a substantial amount of interest — perhaps more than I had expected. It is quite interesting to observe how one's fantasy is tickled by abnormal ways of doing the normal." Read more here.

‘DVD Jon’ reopens iTunes back door

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-23 In the News 79 Comments

A group of underground programmers has posted code online they say will reopen a back door in Apple Computer's iTunes store, allowing Linux computer users to purchase music free of copy protection. The release comes just a day after Apple blocked a previous version of the program, called PyMusique.

Longhorn Roadmap Update: New Unseen-Before Screenshots

Submitted by Eric 2005-03-22 Windows 114 Comments

Paul Thurrott has updated his "Road to Longhorn" article with new, never seen before screenshots of Longhorn. Some interesting new approaches to usability and UI can be seen there.

Linux lags Windows in new security report

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-22 Privacy, Security 64 Comments

A report released today indicates Windows Server 2003 may actually be more secure than its most popular Linux competitor when it comes to vulnerabilities and the time it takes to patch them.

Firebird SQL Server 2.0 Alpha-01 Release

Submitted by Juarez Rudsatz 2005-03-22 Databases 24 Comments

This alpha release contains a large number of new features, including derived tables, support for Execute Block, increased table sizes, new improved index code (the 252-byte index length limit is no longer applicable), expression indices, numerous optimiser improvements, enhanced security features, support for on-line incremental backups along with many other improvements & bug fixes.

LUFS – An Answer to the Problems of Desktop Virtual Filesystems

Guest post by Matthew T. Atkinson 2005-03-22 General Development 38 Comments

Though great advances in Linux Desktop usability have been made in recent years, one rather large area of difficulty still exists, posing some serious issues on the ease-of-use front. There is, however, a little-known solution to these problems...

Java Plug-ins for browsers on OS/2

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-22 OS/2 9 Comments

This article provides an introduction to Java Plug-ins and describes the configuration details of Java Plug-ins from different flavors of Java Runtime Environment (JRE), such as Runtime Environment for IBM OS/2 Warp Developer Kit, Java 2 Technology Edition, Version 1.3.1 and InnoTek OS/2 Kit for Java 1.4.2, Runtime, for the Web browsers viz. IBM Web Browser (IWB) and Netscape Communicator; available on the OS/2 Operating System.

Visopsys 0.54 Released

Eugenia Loli 2005-03-22 OS News 11 Comments

Visopsys is an alternative operating system for PC compatible computers. This is a maintenance release, with numerous small improvements and bugfixes including some general back- porting from the 0.6 development branch. In addition, IDE disk-to-disk operations have been improved so that they can happen in parallel, the kernel hardware drivers have been given a new interrupt handing interface, and there is some improved efficiency in a performance-critical section of the multitasker.