OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Widget Wars: The battle for your Windows desktop

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-04 Graphics 30 Comments

This Fall the widget wars will move into high gear. The battle for the desktop is about to begin. And with Longhorn's XAML technology lurking in the distance (and Apple's Dashboard), widgets are likely to deliver a whole new era of desktop customization. Read the article here, by the CEO of Stardock, Brad Wardell.

Summary of network changes in FreeBSD 5.3

Submitted by Jan-Oliver Neumann 2004-09-04 FreeBSD 11 Comments

André Oppermann has held a presentation on new things and changes in the 5.3-FreeBSD Network Stack at the SUNCON 04 in Zurich yesterday. His very informative summary is available here. The original announcement can be found here.

FreeBSD UFS2 Snapshots Management Environment

Guest post by Ralf S. Engelschall 2004-09-04 FreeBSD 3 Comments

OnTap WAFL's .snapshot feature is such easy to use since years while on FreeBSD UFS2 the unprivileged users were not able to as easily use snapshots for retrieving old stages of their files. To solve this I've implemented a little snapshot management environment for FreeBSD around mount(8), mdconfig(8), amd(8) and cron(8) which provides a similar environment than what people are used to from WAFL. A summary article and proof of concept implementation is available.

Apple, Microsoft Partners Find Common Ground

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-04 macOS 79 Comments

Forget the new iMacs and iPods. Apple is leaving a lot of dough on the table by not pushing its Mac OSX software aggressively into corporations running Windows. So says Technology Execution Network Corp., a Microsoft solution provider and Apple Authorized Dealer based in Needham, Mass., which says the latest versions of the Unix-based Macintosh OSX operating system code-named "Panther" significantly enhances the ability for the Mac client and server to integrate with Microsoft's Active Directory and Windows server environment.

A week with Slax Linux 4.1.4

Submitted by Barney Mattthews 2004-09-03 Slackware, Slax 18 Comments

"The first thing that caught my eye about the Distrowatch announcement on the release of Slax 4.1.4 was that it included KDE 3.3 which had only been out a few weeks. I wanted to try out KDE 3.3 and a live CD like Slax is a great way to do it, so I went over to the Slax website to download the ISO." Read more here.

Microsoft: Linux may mean Windows price cuts, fewer sales

Submitted by science_monkey 2004-09-03 Microsoft 57 Comments

Microsoft has filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warning that 2005 could be challenging, as Linux continues to steal business and PC sales remain sluggish. Elsewhere, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer touted his company's vision for a bright future, while casting doubt on alternatives to his company's Windows operating system, in particular Linux when addressing a gathering of software industry leaders.

Review of Mozilla’s Sunbird Stand-Alone Calendar Application

Submitted by Steve Mallett 2004-09-03 Mozilla, Gecko 23 Comments

Mozilla Sunbird is the latest stand-alone application from the Mozilla foundation that follows in the footsteps of now revered browser Firefox and email client Thunderbird. OSDir reviews their first public release, version 0.2.

Install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 on a JS20 blade server

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-03 SuSE, openSUSE No Comments

This article describes the steps of a basic installation of Linux on an IBM eServer BladeCenter JS20 blade server, starting with the BladeCenter Management Module and ending with the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.

Which Browsers Do Techies Use?

Guest post by Chris Cowell-Shah 2004-09-03 Internet 103 Comments

This is a report of a very simple and unscientific effort to determine which browsers are used by tech-savvy power users. Why would anyone care? Idle curiosity, mostly. And because it might be interesting to see if the recent spate of well-publicized security problems with Windows and Internet Explorer have had any effect on browser choice among alpha geeks.

A Big Mac and a Side of Plug-Ins; Other Development Mac Articles

Eugenia Loli 2004-09-02 macOS 10 Comments

Instead of reducing the number of plug-in formats, Mac OS X has added one more to the mix. Furthermore, many Windows-based developers have not found the AU format easy to develop for, and the rollout of AU plug-ins has been slow. Finally, as with other plug-in formats, not all AU plug-ins function equally well in all host applications. Read the article here. Also, make sure you read MacDevCenter, as it contains a number of interesting Mac development articles lately.

The Placebo Effect: XP SP2

Submitted by Jon Cooper 2004-09-02 Windows 92 Comments

"We evaluated the security features of Windows XP SP2 on a test machine, following a clean install of XP Pro with no configuration changes and no third-party software or drivers installed. We installed XP with the NTFS file system, choosing all of the factory defaults, then patched it with each recommended security update including SP-1 (required), before installing SP2." Read the rest at TheRegister.

Athene 2004 reviewed

Submitted by Jem Matzan 2004-09-02 OS News 19 Comments

Rocklyte Systems' Athene operating environment is at once fascinating and frustrating. It's a custom GNU/Linux distribution optimized for i686 machines that employs a proprietary graphics toolkit and video drivers, which means it's visually impressive and extremely speedy. Athene is by far the most unique and technologically advanced GNU/Linux derivative to date, but it needs some better administrative features and it doesn't come with much software. Linux.com has the full review.

Overview: Where Does SkyOS Fit?

Submitted by Thom Holwerda 2004-09-02 SkyOS 122 Comments

"SkyOS is aimed at the desktop user, the SkyOS team has always stated that SkyOS 5.0 is aimed at the desktop user, but what is a desktop user? In my opinion a desktop user is someone who doesn’t know how the kernel interacts with the graphical interface or how the kernel loads modules. The average desktop user is just that... Average." Read the rest of this editoral here.

Red Hat Enterprise 3 Update 3 Released to RHN

Submitted by cranch 2004-09-02 Red Hat 9 Comments

Redhat Network Account users appear to now have access to the Enterprise 3 Update 3 release. Updates appear to only be available through the up2date feature. ISO's are not listed on the RHN Download site at this time.

Why you Shouldn’t Write your Own Kernel Anymore

Guest post by Emmanuel Marty 2004-09-02 OS News 125 Comments

As a programmer and manager of embedded software products for a living, I think that operating system programming is so much fun that it will eventually be outlawed. I've previously published two articles on OSNews, So, you want to write an operating system and Climbing the kernel mountain, and tried to summarize my experience in designing operating system kernels as well as technical traps that can be easily avoided.

Java J2SE 5.0 Release Candidate

Submitted by Cetixx 2004-09-02 Java 32 Comments

Sun released Java J2SE 5.0 Release Candidate 1, while NetBeans was releasing v4.0b today.

The Mandrake Mystery

Submitted by NewsFactor 2004-09-02 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 47 Comments

Purchasing decisions today are "based upon business metrics -- not how good the technology is," says Dan Kusnetzky of IDC. "If the business decision maker is unaware of a company or its products, the products won't be considered. If the products aren't considered, they certainly won't be selected." So, if Mandrakelinux is so user-friendly and powerful, why is it not a household word -- even compared to other Linux flavors? In a word: marketing. There is a widespread, if not universally shared, perception that Mandrakesoft's marketing efforts are far less sophisticated then its technical attributes.