OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Torvalds Slams EU Patent Proposal

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-23 Linux 42 Comments

Linus Torvalds and two other European software luminaries have thrown their weight behind a campaign to block software patents from being legitimized in Europe, ahead of a critical European Competitiveness Council decision later this week.

OpenBSD Widens Its Scope

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-23 OpenBSD 13 Comments

Already well-regarded as a security-focused network OS, OpenBSD stands to further upgrade its reputation with ver. 3.6, which combines enhanced services with wider hardware support. OpenBSD 3.6, which was released last month, will be a good fit for companies that wish to put services at the network edge, such as firewalls & VPNs, with more flexibility than appliance-based options could provide.

Sun has published source code for its ‘Mustang’ Project

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-23 Java 15 Comments

The software and server company published very early versions of the source code of the Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) 6.0 on its Web site so Java programmers could better see and participate in its development, said Graham Hamilton, a Sun vice-president. Java 6 is due in the first half of 2006, Hamilton said.

Linux sees a Window in enterprise apps market

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-23 Linux No Comments

A report has predicted that more than one in seven ERP servers will be running the open-source operating system by 2007. Companies running ERP systems are increasingly choosing the Linux operating system, rather than Windows or Unix, according to a report published on Friday.

Introducing McOS Re 0.4.2f

Submitted by Paul McLauren 2004-11-23 OS News 10 Comments

The next version of McOS Re is now avaiable. McOS Re 0.4.2f has been released in two StuffIt archives: "Boot" (for users) and "Build" (for devs). The project's website is now featuring FAQ and Progress pages. Please note that this project is still not at "pactical use" stage, it's more at "demo" stage.

Fedora Core 3: Pace of Development

Guest post by Christian Paratschek 2004-11-23 Fedora Core 47 Comments

For this article, I chose to take a slightly different approach than the standard "Linux distribution review". As I have written not just one, but two reviews of Fedora Core 2 for this site, I want to base my review of Fedora Core 3 on my experiences with its direct predecessor. Update: FC3 shots here.

A comparison of Linux alternatives for hard real-time

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-23 Linux 12 Comments

This study compares the real-time capabilities of various Linux kernels. It was part of a project to upgrade the control software in water-wave generators at research institutions around the world. The results of the study were used by Akamina for the selection of a new RTOS for the control system upgrade of Canada's largest hydraulics and coastal engineering laboratory, the National Research Council Canadian Hydraulics Centre in Ottawa.

Microsoft to fix ‘download warning’ flaw

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-23 Internet Explorer 18 Comments

Microsoft has said it will take "appropriate action" to fix a problem in Internet Explorer and Windows XP SP2 that allows a malicious Web site to bypass the browser's warnings when downloading potentially harmful content.

FreeVMS 0.1.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-23 OS News 20 Comments

FreeVMS is an OpenVMS-like operating system which can run on several architectures like i386, PPC, Alpha, and many others. CONFIG_VMS can now execute on ODS-2. GRUB with ODS-2 support was added, and diskimage builder was updated accordingly. The kernel can also be booted from ODS-2. Partition support for both ODS-2 and Ext2 was improved. Directory creation functionality for ODS-2 was implemented. In CONFIG_VMS, a partition related bug with RMS Ext2 read and write was fixed. A problem in which Init set 000000.dir fat ffbyte to length when it should be 0 was fixed.

Test drive Solaris 10 for free

Submitted by Hernan Di Pietro 2004-11-23 Solaris 61 Comments

You can try the new Solaris 10 Online on SPARC or Opteron/x86 platform at freely (registration req.)

Debian-Installer RC 2 Available

Submitted by W. da Rocha Lima 2004-11-23 Debian 27 Comments

This second Debian-Installer release candidate is expected to be the final release of the installer for Debian 3.1 (sarge). Limited changes have been made to the installer since the pre-rc2 release last month. but there are a few: Support for LVM volumes on software RAID, Experimental support for installing with the 2.6 kernel on the hppa architecture, Lots of improvements to the installation manual.

Language Oriented Programming: The Next Programming Paradigm

Submitted by Lumbergh 2004-11-23 Java 45 Comments

JetBrains IDEA developer, Sergey Dmitriev, talks future programming paradigms and the problems with today's programming models.

What Linspire Has Going For It

Guest post by Andrew Davis 2004-11-22 Linspire 106 Comments

I admit that I'm a geek. I use Linux. I use Solaris. I use FreeBSD. At times, I use Windows. And without a doubt, I download and try almost every Linux distribution when they come out. Over the last few years, I've tried all of the RedHat/Fedora releases, 2 different Lindows/Linspire releases, Mandrake, Gentoo, Xandros, Suse, Ubuntu, and the list goes on.

Mozilla Firefox Browser Blazes Across the Globe

Submitted by Rahul Sundaram 2004-11-22 Mozilla, Gecko 29 Comments

Blake Ross started working on building "a better" browser while other kids were just getting hooked on instant messenger. He worked on the earlier versions of Netscape at the age of 14 and eventually interned for the company following his freshman year of high school.

GPL 3 to Take on IP, Patents

Submitted by Kick The Donkey 2004-11-22 Open Source 45 Comments

With a relatively hostile environment that has pitted proprietary software against open source as a backdrop, the Free Software Foundation, the steward of the GNU General Public License, is working on the first revamp to the license in 13 years.

Alternative Development Systems for the Mac

Submitted by Carlos Camacho 2004-11-22 macOS 24 Comments

Programmers new to the Mac platform, as well as newbie Mac coders often ask (or complain) about available development tools.

Into the World of Damn Small Linux

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-22 Linux 31 Comments

Damn Small Linux 0.8.4 was released recently. Now, the Siag Office word processor and spreadsheet are included, there were adjustments to smbclient GUI; adjustments to the control panel for backup and more. We talked to John Andrews, founder of the DSL distribution last week and he opened up to us with enthusiasm on the project's future. UPDATE: Many screenshots of DSL.

Analyst: 12 percent of iPod owners will Switch to Mac

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-22 Apple 98 Comments

A survey of 200 iPod users in the United States showed that 6 percent of former PC users bought a Mac after buying an iPod. Another 7 percent said they intend to buy a Mac within the next 12 months.

Plan 9-style File System for Linux/BSD

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-22 General Development 25 Comments

Client and server implementations of the 9P and 9P2000 distributed file system protocols for Unix-based operating systems. Download the latest from here.

Mozilla global usage share to 7.35% according to OneStat

Eugenia Loli 2004-11-22 Internet 45 Comments

OneStat.com today reported that Mozilla's browsers have a total global usage share of 7.35 percent. The new Mozilla's Firefox has a total usage share of 4.58. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the global browser market with a global usage share of 88,90 percent which is 5 percent less as at the end of May.