Sun has backed up an announcement that its Solaris server operating system will have an open source flavour by making a similar promise for its Java technology.
The first Pocket PC with Windows Mobile 2003 is out, and Brighthand's Ed Hardy brings us his impressions of the new version of Microsoft's handheld operating system.
It's all Waterloo-Maple's fault, really: if they had maintained a version of their computer algebra system for the Amiga, I wouldn't have found it necessary to switch to Mac. Or maybe it's Commodore's fault for mismanaging themselves into oblivion; I don't know. Either way, I became painfully aware three years ago that my little Amiga would no longer satisfy my computing needs. I needed a new home computer.
Do you need open-source legal protection any more than you need meteor insurance? Advocate Bruce Perens predicts a widespread attack on open source from proprietary software vendors.
A new white paper positioning the IBM J2EE Middleware Platform vs. the Microsoft .NET Platform is now available and reflects IBM's overall marketing plan to aggressively combat Microsoft. While it will be useful to many, its primary target is CEOs, CFOs, and other high-level decision makers at ISV companies who are focused on the mid-market and looking to make a platform/partnering choice in the next 12 months. The outcome of the J2EE vs. .NET decision by ISVs is critical to IBM's ongoing success and relevance in the midmarket arena, traditionally a Microsoft stronghold.
The performance of computer hardware typically increases monotonically with time. Even if the same could be said of software, the rate at which software performance improves is usually very slow compared to that of hardware. In fact, many might opine that there is plenty of software whose performance has deteriorated consistently with time. Moreover, it is rather difficult to establish an objective performance metric for software as complex as an operating system: a "faster OS" is a very subjective, context dependent phrase. Read the article at KernelThread.
I worked for Microsoft for eight years. I'm a long time Windows loyalist. And, I admit - I mocked Apple's switch ads and Macintosh users in general - even as recently as a few months ago. But gradually, I grew tired of Windows' many problems and began to notice, even envy Apple products..." Read his blog here.
Here's a kind of an application that is sorely missing from a stock Gnome installation and not many Gnome users know about: Gnome-PPP, a front-end to the wvDial, a modem/ISDN dial-up software. Read more for some quick info on the app and a screenshot.
QNX Software Systemsreleased today the QNX Momentics development suite v6.3. In the coming weeks, there will be a 30-day QNX Momentics Professional Edition evaluation available for download.
During the majority of my time working with computers, Windows was the operating system of choice. Reason being, it's all I've known. In 2002, I took a college course titled "Linux Administration" which entitled me to a few cd-roms of Redhat 7.x. While this course was nothing more than a few extra credits for me, I fell in love with Linux and went through the entire textbook a week into the class. It was a nice feeling to use something "different" than what I was used to.
A recent thread on the OpenBSD project's misc@ mailing list discussed why OpenBSD has chosen to stick to a purely monolithic kernel, instead of trying to optimize performance by using kernel modules. As described in the OpenBSD FAQ, the OpenBSD team only supports the GENERIC kernel that is provided with the distribution. Numerous reasons were provided, including security, the ability to fully test, and simplicity.
Ingo Molnar announced the availablity of support for AMD's NX, or "no execute" bit for the x86 architecture. Originally introduced by AMD with their Athlon 64 and Opteron processors and marketed as Enhanced Virus Protection, Ingo notes that support for this new bit was also announced by Intel, Transmeta and VIA.
Sony's decision to cut back its PDA business isn't a huge surprise. The popularity of the personal digital assistant has been steadily eroded by smart phones, digital cameras, music players and other devices that can provide many PDA functions. Check out the article portal here.
From Slashdot: Waimea 0.5.0 was released after about a year from the developer disappearing. It turns out he was just working on getting the OpenGL backend for Cairo completed. Waimea is the first window manager that uses Cairo for rendering.
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger will include tighter integration with Apple's internet services and sport a refreshed Finder interface, according to reports that cannot be positively confirmed, but are believed to reflect accurate information on the latest builds of the OS.
Professor Fulvio Peruggi illustrious member of Amiga community in Naples, Italy, wrote a long review on his Pegasos II G4 machine: what means Amiga philosophy, usage of Pegasos, compatibility of programs, productivity, multimedia, office applications, Mac emulation, MorphOS and more.
I had to reread Bulia's email three times. It was one of those nigh-mythical events that you read happens in Open Source projects, but never see in person. Yet, amazingly, here it was, and I knew Fred's patch would instantly double Inkscape's utility.
