OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

SuSE Linux Pro Review at NewsForge

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-07 SuSE, openSUSE 19 Comments

"I love working with many distributions and always have two or three installed on my computer. In the end, SUSE meets my needs as a developer, consultant, and home user better than any other single distribution. I can run my home PC and a multinational corporation with the same code -- that is bang for your buck." Read more here.

Sun revokes FreeBSD’s Java License

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-07 FreeBSD 34 Comments

"The seemingly constant restructuring at Sun has made it difficult to find and retain consistent contacts in their licensing program. The latest blow to our efforts was the recent notification of Sun's desire to revoke and renegotiate the FreeBSD Foundation's SCSL license" says the FreeBSD Foundation. We hope that Sun will reconsider.

Solaris 10 Gets Ready to Roll

Submitted by Bascule 2005-01-07 Solaris 33 Comments

For some time now, Sun has been trying to push its way into non-proprietary Unix markets, and Solaris 10 is its crowning achievement. An abundance of innovative new features, mostly aimed at administrators rather than users, contributes further to Solaris 10's value proposition. An interesting balance of administrative features and support for new hardware implies Sun is trying hard to maintain its current niche, as well as move into server and workstation territories where Linux has encroached. Read more here.

Demo of Avalon 3D #

Submitted by Tudy 2005-01-07 Windows 48 Comments

Daniel is a software design engineer on the Avalon team and he's responsible for the 3D features of Avalon. Here he gives us a demo of Avalon 3D. Originally designed to only run on the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, Avalon is now supported on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. In fact, the demo here is done on XP.

Programming the cache on the PowerPC

Submitted by Mai 2005-01-07 Hardware 4 Comments

While many programs can obtain acceptable performance by simply letting the processor manage its own caching, programs with special requirements may obtain dramatically improved performance by giving the processor explicit instructions and manipulating the cache directly. More typically, boot firmware may need to flush and enable the cache.

Quick Review: ArosMax for Windows

Guest post by Paul Gallant 2005-01-06 Amiga & AROS 18 Comments

As stated on their website, "AROS is a portable and free desktop operating system aiming at being compatible with AmigaOS 3.1, while improving on it in many areas." ArosMax is a version of Aros that can be run from within a Windows environment for easy evaluation.

Gates taking a seat in your den

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-06 Microsoft 71 Comments

Bill Gates is coming to your living room, whether you like it or not. Read the interview here.

.NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP3; MS Anti-Spyware Beta

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-06 .NET 28 Comments

The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 1.0 SP3 Redistributable includes everything you need to run .NET Compact Framework applications, including the Common Language Runtime and the .NET Compact Framework class library. Elsewhere, Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software.

Gambas 1.0 Released

Submitted by Laurent Carlier 2005-01-06 General Development 16 Comments

With Gambas, you can quickly design your program GUI, access MySQL or PostgreSQL databases, pilot KDE applications with DCOP, translate your Basic program into many languages, create network applications easily, and so on...

WindowsXP x64 development info

Guest post by Brandon Sneed 2005-01-06 Windows 8 Comments

Since installing x64 and VS.NET 2005 Dec04 CTP, I've ported a few apps to 64bit. Its usually pretty easy. The hardest part I had was caused by a UNICODE define.

Graphical Scripting with Kommander

Submitted by Jonathan Riddell 2005-01-06 KDE 19 Comments

Kommander is a powerful but easy to learn development environment. "Graphical Scripting with Kommander" takes us through the creation of a graphical interface for Konstruct, a tool for downloading, configuring and installing KDE from source packages. The article also lists some of the exciting developments coming to Kommander in the near future.

Open Sourcing Netscape Servers and a New Document Viewer

Submitted by Rahul Sundaram 2005-01-06 General Development 9 Comments

Red Hat developer Christopher Blizzard, who maintains the Mozilla packages, has a rather extensive blog on the plans for Open Sourcing Netscape servers that Red Hat recently brought out from AOL. Another interesting Blog is on Evince, a new document viewer to replace GPDF and Gnome Ghostview by Redhat developer Bryan Clark.

New Opera Beta for Linux Now Available

David Adams 2005-01-06 Opera 10 Comments

Opera Software today released the much awaited beta version of its next browser for the Linux platform. The new version includes Fit-to-Window-Width, Fit-to-Paper-Width, improved RSS handling, Start Bar for easy access to main features, and automatic update checks, all presented in a simplified user interface.

One Benchmark Compares NetBSD 2.0 and FreeBSD 5.3

Submitted by Tim Hawkins 2005-01-06 Benchmarks 60 Comments

According to new benchmarks NetBSD's performance has increased. In this benchmark NetBSD surpassed FreeBSD in nearly every test.

Guardian: “Mad for Macs”

Submitted by Misty 2005-01-06 Editorial 46 Comments

Jason Walsh, in an editorial for The Guardian, wonders if the kind of fawning devotion that Mac users have for their computers could persist if the Mac were to achieve more widespread use. For example, fans of the ill-fated Cube and Newton are fanatical, but is it really cool to love an iPod, now that everybody has one? It's a timely question, with the spectre of a low cost mac on the horizon.

Microsoft Nixes Windows XP for Itanium

Submitted by Tudy 2005-01-06 Windows 21 Comments

Microsoft Corp. has pulled the plug on a version of Windows XP for Intel Corp.'s Itanium 2 processor. The move marks the end for Itanium 2 in Windows-based workstations and comes after major hardware vendors abandoned the 64-bit chip for use in workstations.

Understanding NetBSD 2.0’s New Technology

Submitted by fork 2005-01-06 NetBSD 3 Comments

NewsForge has published an interview with several prominent NetBSD developers: "NetBSD is widely known as the most portable operating system in the world. It currently supports 52 system architectures . . . To celebrate the release, we've asked several well-known NetBSD developers to comment on some of NetBSD 2.0's new features." Read the interview here.

Migration to Linux from Solaris

Submitted by Rahul Sundaram 2005-01-06 Rumors 53 Comments

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has been migrating its servers from Solaris to Linux over a period of time with about 30% completed now "When the Merc began considering its Linux deployment more than a year ago, Sun knew it wasn't in a strong position to compete. 'We didn't have a good answer for them,' acknowledges Glenn Weinberg, vice president of the operating platforms group at Sun."

ReactOS 0.2.5 Released

Submitted by Joseph Childrose 2005-01-06 ReactOS 17 Comments

New ReactOS release includes "huge improvements in general and networking and stability" and will be the last 0.2.x release. See the changelog.

Enterprise MySQL Beta Imminent

Submitted by Rahul Sundaram 2005-01-06 Databases 8 Comments

MySQL, at the end of January, is expected to release a beta version of its MySQL 5.0 open source database, which is to feature enterprise-level functionality such as stored procedures and triggers, according to a company representative.