OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

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.

PHP 5 Release Sparks Up PHP-GTK 2.0

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 GTK+ 16 Comments

Since the release of PHP5 a lot of interest has reverberated down through the whole PHP community. In particular, there's a call for a PHP-GTK 2.0 which will utilize GTK2 and will have an entire rewrite of it from the ground up to make use of new features.

GUI now too complex — Longhorn designer

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Graphics 72 Comments

The classic graphical user interface was well suited to an early Macintosh with 128kB of RAM that ran a few applications and about 50 files, "but it doesn’t scale", says usability design specialist Don Norman. With those few tasks the GUI was a boon. "You didn’t have to remember anything, because you could see everything. Now making everything visible doesn’t work. The space gets too crowded." As a logical consequence of this, the all-purpose computer should become obsolete, he says.

Yellow Dog Linux v4.0 devel update: 2004 07/13

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Linux 16 Comments

TerraSoft share with us where they stand with Yellow Dog Linux v4.0 development and an overview of the development process so you may understand the complexity of this effort and perhaps further appreciate the pending v4.0 release.

Digital music creation with RISC OS

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 RISC OS 5 Comments

Producing digital music with RISC OS is still possible, says artist Antius, who this month told drobe.co.uk that he's finished recording his latest album, in which RISC OS played a considerable part. Conceived under the hEgelian diAlectics project, the album is due to be mastered at Eevolute, although no specific release date can be given.

Combined Mono 1.0, GTK# 1.0, GTK+, XSP Windows Installer

Submitted by Daniel Morgan 2004-07-22 Mono 14 Comments

A Windows Installer that includes Mono 1.0, GTK# 1.0, gtk+ 2.24, and XSP is now available. XSP is Mono web server that serves ASP.NET web pages. No support for Apache on Windows due to mod_mono uses unix sockets. However, a future release of Mono, XSP, and mod_mono will support Apache on Windows via TCP/IP sockets.

Integrating Windows and Linux Desktops

Eugenia Loli 2004-07-22 Internet 6 Comments

IT departments charged with integrating Linux clients among the Windows desktops they're running can make life easier by administering Linux user accounts with Microsoft Corp.'s Active Directory. Samba, the open-source project for providing Windows-compatible file and print services, makes this possible, but it doesn't make it easy.