OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

A Developer’s Perspective on WinFS: Part 2

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-24 Windows 11 Comments

WinFS makes searching and manipulating WinFS objects very straightforward. Learn how to specify a very simple syntax for most cases, but also how the WinFS API supports a rich search syntax to perform complicated searches.

A Year With Lycoris Desktop/LX

Guest post by pelly 2004-07-23 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 38 Comments

Has is really been a year? How the time flew by... In July 2003 I took a gamble that's paid off like I never imagined it would. In early 2003, I came across Lycoris and Desktop/LX.

PearPC Gets Altivec Support

Submitted by sinisterguy 2004-07-23 OS News 78 Comments

Yesterday, on pearpc.net, it was anounced that PearPC has experimental altivec support. Among other things Altivec theoretically improves OS and application speed due to the ability to handle floating point math operations. The builds can be downloaded here.

Tracing multithreaded applications using CTrace

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-23 General Development 5 Comments

This article details the use of an open-source multithreaded trace/debug library called CTrace. It also presents a method of remotely tracing a running application by using the SSH protocol.

Trolltech & KDE Free Announce Amended Agreement

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-23 Qt 58 Comments

The revised Agreement continues to honour the original purposes of the Foundation. In particular, should Trolltech ever discontinue making regular releases of the Qt Free Edition for any reason - including a buyout or merger of Trolltech or the liquidation of Trolltech - the Qt Free Edition will be released under the BSD license and optionally under one or more other Open Source Licenses.

One User’s Experience with Linux In Regards to Windows

Guest post by Kristofer Jarl 2004-07-23 Rumors 188 Comments

The smell of newly purchased stuff... So, there I was, Hauppauge WinTV board in hand, Mandrake 10 installed and ready to rock! Little did I expect that it would come to this. But first things first.

Writing Cross-Platform Mobile Applications Using Crossfire

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-23 Wireless 7 Comments

A new product from AppForge, known as Crossfire, can leverage on your familiarity with VB.NET (or Visual Basic 6) and write cross-platform mobile applications supporting a wide variety of devices. What that means to a developer is that you now do not need to use the proprietary SDK for each device platform -- you simply maintain one code base and it can then be deployed to multiple platforms.

Developer Spotlight: Richard Stallman

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-23 Open Source 43 Comments

Richard Stallman is the founder of the GNU project and the Free Software Foundation. Builder AU recently caught up with RMS about his achievements, the Free Software movement and his concerns with the US-Australian Free Trade Agreement. He will be in Australia on October 5 to speak at the Builder Conference in Sydney.

5 Percent of all PCs in 2004 shipped with Linux

Submitted by itfacts.biz 2004-07-23 Linux 65 Comments

Gartner will officially announce figures that show Linux has shipped on 5% of all PCs worldwide in 2004. It expects that figure to grow to 7.5% by 2008, but is quick to point out that this is not necessarily a representative figure of the number of Linux PCs being used. The company estimates that perhaps 2% of all PCs shipped worldwide this year will actually be used with Linux, with that figure growing to 3.5% by 2008. Not every PC that ships with a version of Linux continues to run with that, noted Gartner.

Virtual PC 7 expected in October

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Microsoft 30 Comments

An e-mail sent to MacMinute by Microsoft notes that: "As you may know, Virtual PC 7 ships with Windows XP both in a box by itself as well as in the Office 2004 for Mac Professional Edition. We are waiting for the release of Windows XP SP2 in order to offer the most recent, most secure version of Windows XP to our Virtual PC for Mac customers."

IceWM – The Cool Window Manager

Guest post by Rahul Gaitonde 2004-07-22 Desktop environments 67 Comments

IceWM is a lightweight window manager for UNIX-like systems. Although widely used, it is often underrated - there is hardly any IceWM-related content on the Internet. This article is my attempt to share my experiences as a longtime IceWM user. It contains tips and tricks, usage scenarios, and makes use of examples whenever possible to better demonstrate IceWM's features and capabilities. Finally, the article is meant for those with some familiarity with UNIX, but who are new to IceWM.

KDE 3.3 Beta 2 Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2004-07-22 KDE 47 Comments

The KDE Project announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.3 Beta 2. The focus of this release, code-named Kollege, is to fix bugs in the run-up to aKademy in late August. More here and here.

OpenBSD 3.5 Review

Submitted by Jem Matzan 2004-07-22 OpenBSD 20 Comments

The OpenBSD Project released OpenBSD 3.5 exactly on schedule on May 1, adding support for new functions and devices in the kernel and updating the base system. While it may not be the most versatile operating system in the world, OpenBSD shines when it comes to security, providing a default installation that doesn't have to be locked down and partially disabled before using it. Here's also another article on how to setup OpenBSD.

The Long View on Longhorn

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Windows 18 Comments

In its first preview at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference last year, Windows XP successor Longhorn was shown running a 20-year-old copy of Visicalc. Ancient DOS software won't be the lone occupant of the Longhorn compatibility box. Win32, the Web, and even WinForms -- the .Net era's first GUI framework -- are all legacy APIs from Longhorn's perspective. Their replacements, Microsoft says, will jointly deliver "the best of Windows and the best of the Web."

Comparing Linux and AIX

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Unix 17 Comments

Linux can learn valuable lessons from its elder cousins in the enterprise, the proprietary Unixes from the likes of IBM, Sun, and HP. Those operating systems, in turn, can learn some lessons from Linux. Comparing the features of the more enterprise-ready Linux distros with AIX, one of the leading proprietary Unixes, helps identify some.

Windows takes on multiple roles

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Windows 25 Comments

"Many people note that 2007/8 is so far away that without an excellent crystal ball, nobody could predict what the update will contain. But one thing I reckon for certain about Longhorn is that it will be able to run Linux software." Read the article at VNUNet.

Using Swing/AWT with GCJ on Mac OS X

Submitted by John M. Gabriele 2004-07-22 Java 5 Comments

This article is the 2nd in a 2-part series of articles on getting up and running with GCJ on Mac OS X 10.3.4 ("Panther"). The first article addressed getting a recent GCJ release built and installed on OS X (with no Swing/AWT support), along with some rationale on why you'd want to do such a thing. This article deals with building and installing a Swing/AWT-enabled GCC straight from cvs.

Longhorn Security: Real Or Just Bull?

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Windows 16 Comments

Several new security-promoting technologies are to be built into Longhorn. These include an ability to periodically check user's systems against new security fixes in a centralized patch database, and to institute far more stringent access controls and permission levels. Read the article here.

Mono: Post 1.0 Plans and Development Update

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Mono 5 Comments

Miguel de Icaza posted a list of areas that we are working on for the Mono 1.2 release. Mono 1.0 has been fairly stable, they will likely issue a bug fix release in the next couple of weeks.

Quick Book Review: Learning Python

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Office 42 Comments

"Learning Python, Second Edition" was published only a few months ago by O'Reilly. We take a quick look at this promising book.