OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

NetBSD 2.0-RC1 Third Party Builds Available

Submitted by daniel olsson 2004-09-27 NetBSD 30 Comments

Some NetBSD 2.0-RC1 builds for those how wants to try this RC1 for the i386 and sparc64. These are unofficial builds without extra patches, made by a NetBSD enthusiast/developer. UPDATE: Jan Schaumann of NetBSD writes:

PalmSource to unveil smart-phone software

Submitted by Ryan 2004-09-27 Wireless 7 Comments

PalmSource will go after the emerging smart-phone market with its latest operating system, looking to grow beyond its core handheld business. As expected, the market-share leader in handheld operating systems plans to announce on Tuesday the Cobalt 6.1, its first product specifically aimed at smart phones, at a developer conference in Munich.

Solaris vs Linux Blog Wars; OOo XML Format for ISO Standard?

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-27 Oracle and SUN 21 Comments

Solaris Kernel Developer Eric Schrock is bloging more about the Solaris vs. Linux issue and linux kernel moneky Greg is answering on his blog. More here. Elsewhere, Sun is looking into making OOo's XML format an ISO standard and at license options toward opening the Java source code; here are more thoughts on those, by engineer JBQ.

Reverse Migration: From Linux to Windows

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-27 Rumors 44 Comments

The number of enterprises migrating from Windows to Linux is a growing concern for Microsoft. But it's not a one-way street. Some companies-unhappy with their open-source experience-are making the switch back to Windows.

Apple’s G5 Power Mac versus Pentium 4, Dual Xeon, and Dual Athlon

Submitted by Richard Levangie 2004-09-27 Benchmarks 63 Comments

BareFeats is continuing their benchmark articles for the fastest workstation/desktop machines around.

Allchin To OEMs: Create Computing Experiences

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-27 Microsoft 6 Comments

Microsoft's Windows platform chief Jim Allchin last week told 50 top-tier OEMs to think more like custom-system builders. During Microsoft's annual OEM executive summit at company headquarters in Redmond, Wash., Allchin, group vice president of platforms, advised the vendors to shift development resources into creating computing "experiences" through which they can differentiate their offerings, rather than beating each other up mainly on price and spewing out product specs.

Review: Linux-based HP Thin Client With XFce 4

Guest post by Olivier Fourdan 2004-09-27 Xfce 44 Comments

This summer, in the beginning of August, HP has released a new Linux based thin client. Unlike the other models from the "t5000" line of HP thin clients which use Microsoft Windows CE as their embedded operating system, the "t5515" is based on the Linux operating system. This is also, to my knowledged, the first device that is using Xfce for its graphical user interface.

Preview: Ubuntu Linux 4.10

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-27 Ubuntu 56 Comments

ExtremeTech previews the Ubuntu Linux distro. We will be featuring two reviews of Ubuntu this week. Update: Another Ubuntu review.

Unununium gets its 0.1 official release

Submitted by Jacques Mony 2004-09-27 OS News 37 Comments

Unununium Operating Engine got its 0.1 official release on Sunday. This release boots with a minimal shell and... a python interpreter! You can download a floppy image or an ISO from the official website.

FreeBSD 5.3-BETA6 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-26 FreeBSD 61 Comments

FreeBSD announced the availability of FreeBSD 5.3-BETA6. This is the sixth BETA of the 5.3 release cycle and includes fixes and enhancements. There are five known critical issues in this release.

Two Linuxes for Newcomers

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-26 Linux 40 Comments

Xandros Desktop and Lycoris Desktop/LX want to power your next PC. Are they up to the task?

Syllable 0.5.4 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-26 Syllable, AtheOS 31 Comments

The long awaited Syllable 0.5.4 is now available. This release includes a completly new Desktop and Registrar server which adds important functionality to Syllable.

GNUstep 0.9.4, Lesstif 0.93.96 and Fox Toolkit Releases

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-26 OpenStep, GNUstep 38 Comments

Gnustep features a rearranged printing kit, LessTif now supports wheel mice and it builds as Motif 2.1 clone, while Fox had a recent development release too (1.3.12). Some of Fox's flagship applications include Xfe, ReZound & Goggles which look great in AA (screenshot). Elsewhere, gtk2-perl released a bug fix package of the GladeXML module while the Gnome developers are now discussing the possibility of adding Python (pygtk, part of Gnome Bindings) to the core Gnome release.

Mac OS X Tiger due in January?

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-26 macOS 32 Comments

Apple is hinting that the immediate availability of Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) could be announced at the Macworld Expo San Francisco show.

.NET Samples for Visual FoxPro Developers

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-26 .NET 11 Comments

This download contains different projects and source files which are designed to show how how some common Visual FoxPro functionally is created in Visual Basic .NET. Many of these samples are directly or indirectly based on existing Visual FoxPro 8.0 Solution Samples for comparison reference. Each project is self-contained and can be run independently of any other.

Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.6 to developers

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-26 macOS 22 Comments

While preparing to unleash Tiger in the first half of 2005, Apple is simultaneously working on an update to its Panther operating system that will offer improved web browsing and disc recording.

What happened to Great Out of the Box Experience?

Guest post by Karsten Schneider 2004-09-25 Windows 137 Comments

Windows XP SP2 is 99% great, but the 1% that isn't turns a gift into a bomb. If Microsoft wants to win hearts and pocketbooks, then the product teams need to relearn how to treat customers with respect. With minimal effort, Microsoft could show paying customers that they are valued partners, rather than adversaries. Karsten Schneider writes about his experience with SP2, and his ideas of what it would take to turn a rock into rocks!

Cross platform development: Building RISC OS Programs on Windows

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-25 RISC OS 9 Comments

Perhaps surprising, and certainly not obvious to many people, is that it's been possible to develop RISC OS programs under Windows for a long time. Historically, ARM's SDK environment was able to generate RISC OS binaries, although that support was removed some time ago. More recently (but has still been true for a number of years), it's been possible to build RISC OS programs using GCCSDK under Cygwin - although bugs in the version of the compiler packaged with it did make that problematic earlier this year.

ASP.NET with Portable.net

Submitted by t3rmin4t0r 2004-09-25 .NET 16 Comments

There's a brief news item in getdotgnu.com on how to get ASP.NET working on DotGNU Portable.net . ASP.NET forms and Sessions also seem to be working fine. This also works on an Ipaq handhelds as well - like PocketASP did. The Amiga port is also underway. This should also work on OpenBSD (after turning off stack protectors in gcc for GC support).

eWEEK: GNOME, KDE Aim at Windows

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-25 Wayland 58 Comments

KDE and GNOME, the open-source software projects that together form the face of most Linux installations, have undergone revisions that boost their usability and enterprise readiness - advances that build the case for Linux as a viable alternative to Windows on mainstream corporate desktops.