OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Apple seeds Mac OS X 10.3.4 build 7H56

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-14 macOS 10 Comments

Apple Computer seeded its developers this week with a new build of Mac OS X 10.3.4 Panther, labeled Mac OS X 10.3.4 build 7H56.

File Alteration Monitoring Techniques under Linux

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-14 Linux 30 Comments

In a multi-user, multi-process operating system, files are continually being created, modified, and deleted, often by apparently unrelated processes. This means that any software that needs to keep aware of what is happening in a filesystem needs to employ a file monitoring technique. Monitoring, in this sense, means keeping a watch over a set of files, waiting for any of them to change. Read the article at DevChannel.

Get Started with Slackware

Submitted by Adam Patterson 2004-05-14 Slackware, Slax 33 Comments

Here are two articles introducing Slackware to new users: a Slackware installation guide and a "quick and dirty guide to packages". Update: One more article: "Slackware Linux with pkgsrc Packages".

Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-14 .NET 6 Comments

Join MSDN TV for a glimpse at the newest release from the patterns & practices team. In this episode they discuss memory management, COM Interop and the Dispose pattern.

Opinions on the Open Source Economy Model

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-14 Open Source 51 Comments

.NET developer John Carroll wrote two articles on F/OSS claiming that the proprietary model is what drives the economy (article 1, article 2) while Rebecca Reid wrote her own piece "Open-source development models fall flat". What these articles don't discuss is the "fully open standards" model, which is a model Sun Microsystems is particularly fond of, and in a way it falls in between of "closed" and "open". Here's a reply from Sun engineer Glynn Foster to the second article.

First Look at Linare Professional

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-14 Linux 62 Comments

OSNews will feature a review of the upcoming Linare Professional edition next month. For this new version Linare has developed a new KDE theme along with other updates to their distro. Screenshots.

On Scripting Languages

Guest post by Ritesh Kumar 2004-05-13 General Development 84 Comments

In recent years "scripting languages" are becoming a path which is a must go for rapid application development. The open source community has seen many scripting language implementations. Some really popular and good ones available are perl and python.

Interview with Mike Hearn of Wine and Autopackage Fame

Submitted by BV 2004-05-13 Linux 6 Comments

WineHQ has an interview with Mike Hearn, the Wine and Autopackage developer (and also frequent OSNews reader). You can read 12 more interviews with Wine developers in their archives.

Longhorn Goes to Pieces

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-13 Windows 19 Comments

Bill Gates' dream of an end-to-end search tool for corporate networks remains just that: a dream, at least until the end of the decade, says News.com.

Implementing Linux emulation on NetBSD

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-13 NetBSD 22 Comments

NetBSD's Linux emulation doesn't run a Linux kernel on a virtual machine; it runs Linux binaries on a NetBSD kernel. Linux emulation let you run plenty of useful programs that won't run natively under NetBSD, such as Sun's 1.4 Java Runtime Environment and JDK. Read the rest of the article here.

SuSE Linux 9.1 Professional for x86 and AMD64

Submitted by Jem Matzan 2004-05-13 SuSE, openSUSE 29 Comments

Here's a review of SuSE 9.1 Professional. The review includes several screenshots and covers the new software included with 9.1 and a performance comparison between the x86 and the AMD64 editions.

Kernel Maintainer: Linux 2.6 Delivering on its Promise

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-13 Linux 17 Comments

Andrew Morton, 2.6 kernel maintainer, can be forgiven if he's a little blasÉ about this week's maintenance 2.6.6 release. Morton, who said he's handling a fraction of the kernel changes these days, is mucking his way through a heavy load of more than 140 a week. "This is a large volume of changes, a much higher rate of changes than earlier kernels," Morton told SearchEnterpriseLinux.com Wednesday afternoon. "We've just got our processes sorted out better now." Read his interview here.

Interview with Element Computer executives

Submitted by Jason Prince 2004-05-13 Linux 6 Comments

DesktopOS.com has interviewed Mike Hjorleiffsson, President of Element Computer, and Jason Spisak, Element’s Vice President Marketing (and former Lycoris employee). The interview is focused on ION, Element's new Xandros-based operating system.

EU Software Patent Legislation: a real threat for Linux and OpenSource

Submitted by dave_sn 2004-05-13 Legal 27 Comments

"Mandrakesoft would like to alert all users and the software community at large about a recent clandestine attack by proprietary interests through covert adoption of EU Software Patent Legislation. In direct contravention of the recent vote by the European Parliament to curtail Software Patents, the Irish Presidency of the European Union has surreptitiously reinstated unlimited software patent language into the text of a statement to be adopted by the European Council of Ministers on Monday, May 17, without further debate!" Read the article here.

Microsoft Releases WTL Source Code

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-13 Windows 42 Comments

The software giant announced plans to release the Windows Template Library (WTL) project on SourceForge under an externally created open-source license. The WTL is a lightweight windowing C++ (define) template library that allows the creation of simple Windows GUI interfaces on Windows apps.

An Open Dialogue with Russ Castronovo, Sun Microsystems

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-13 Oracle and SUN 22 Comments

OrangeCrate's Chuck Talk talks to Russ Castronovo, in charge of Global Communications for Sun Microsystems about a lot of Sun-Linux issues.

Pleasantly Surprised with Knoppix Linux

Guest post by Joel Pomales 2004-05-12 Linux 79 Comments

I've been trying Linux on and off for a couple of years. My first experience with Linux was with a version of Slackware (can't remember) way back in 1996. At the time the installation was so daunting that I gave up all together. For a little background I consider myself a proficient computer user.

Microsoft Outlines Windows Server Roadmap

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-12 Windows 9 Comments

NeoWin has posted the roadmap for Windows Server versions. Notice in the screenshot the "Virtual Server", which probably will include an integrated runtime engine to run multiple Windows on the same machine (for similar purposes to what IBM does with Linux). Update: Neowin removed the story but the roadmap image is still up (for now). To view the image you need to manually copy/paste its URL to your browser's address bar. Direct linking won't work. Update 2: The story is back up.

SysAdmin to SysAdmin: Linux is the Unix reference implementation

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-12 Linux 32 Comments

"When you quit picking on Windows and start picking on Unix vendors for not being "Linuxy" enough, you've become a true zealot. However, if you consider administration, education, software development, and the labor market (at least in the U.S.), the notion of Linux being the de facto standard Unix starts to look a little less goofy." Read the rest of the article at Linux.com.

Microsoft delays Virtual PC 7 for Macs

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-12 Microsoft 22 Comments

Microsoft has delayed until later this year the release of Virtual PC 7, the latest version of a program that allows Windows software to run on the Macintosh.