A Skype Review

Rumors 46 Comments
I love Skype. The concept is nothing new, it is an Internet Telephony application: years have passed with people talking to each other for free over the Internet, and it has always been considered cool. However traditional telephones are on everyone's desk today as they were three decades ago, despite that most of these desks now feature PCs connected with fat pipes to the Web.
Read More

Cherry OS lets PCs emulate Macs

  Submitted by Pee Drinker macOS 61 Comments
Maui, Hawaii-based MXS announced Tuesday the release of Cherry OS, an emulator that lets PCs run Mac OS X. The virtual machine emulated by Cherry OS sports full network capabilities and has complete access to the host computer's hardware resources -- hard drive, CPU, RAM, FireWire, USB, PCI, PCMCIA bus, Ethernet networking and modem. It purportedly runs at about 80 percent of the performance of the host CPU, according to the developer.
Read More

Mandrake Community 10.1 Reviewed!

  Submitted by sarumont Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 87 Comments
Mandrake Community Edition is the bleeding edge of the Mandrake development cycle. This is the release where the good folks over at Mandrake put the final test on new features and squash all the bugs they can before the final release. The ISOs are available through MandrakeClub for download before anyone else gets to see it. So is it worth your hard-earned cash to join the club? Is 10.1 going to be worth the upgrade? Find out in this review, fresh off the presses at LinuxForumsDOTorg. OSDir is also featuring a slideshow of Mandrake 10.1 screenshots.
Read More

Java Performance Myths Set Straight

Java 45 Comments
Urban legends are kind of like mind viruses; even though we know they are probably not true, we often can't resist the urge to retell them (and thus infect other gullible "hosts") because they make for such good storytelling. Most urban legends have some basis in fact, which only makes them harder to stamp out. Unfortunately, many pointers and tips about Java performance tuning are a lot like urban legends -- someone, somewhere, passes on a "tip" that has (or had) some basis in fact, but through its continued retelling, has lost what truth it once contained.
Read More

Perforce 2004.2 Released

General Development 2 Comments
This Perforce release adds new mid-submit and post-submit triggers to supplement the existing pre-submit triggers. Three types of "spec" trigger are executed when users create, read, or modify Perforce "specs" (clients, branches, labels, etc.). Indirect integration is now the default, and "p4 integrate" may now select a common-ancestor for the merge that is not a revision of the source- or target-file. Filepaths containing "@#%" can be added to the repository. Smarter merge logic reduces the number of conflicts in merges.
Read More

Introduction to Rubyx Linux

Linux 39 Comments
Rubyx is an advanced, source based distro that stands out from the crowd thanks to some unusual and innovative features. It is also exceptionally lean and mean, and it goes like a rocket! I am a big fan of Rubyx and in this article I will attempt to show you why.
Read More

C# Design Patterns: Adapter

.NET 5 Comments
The great adaptability of C# is one of its assets, but coding for a wide variety of platforms can be overwhelming. This chapter by Steven John Metsker will help you adapt your code to different situations with ease. Also, Jim Mischel talks about the System.IO.Path class, which makes working with path names very easy. Also, learn how to use Visual Studio's tools to throw and catch, elegantly and easily.
Read More

Microsoft Notebook: Gates preps to pitch ‘XP Reloaded’?

Windows 9 Comments
Nearly three years have passed since Microsoft Corp. released the last full version of Windows, the Redmond company's most important and profitable product. But when Bill Gates takes the stage tomorrow morning at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he won't be launching a new generation of the flagship operating system. He'll be looking to stir up some new interest in the existing one.
Read More