OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

TiVo’s New Product, New Challenges

David Adams 2004-04-24 Hardware 23 Comments

TiVo finally launched its High Definition-capable unit. Designed by TiVo for DirecTV, it sports a 250 GB Hard drive and four tuners for $999. But neat new products aside, TiVo faces some daunting challenges. It has not made inroads with cable companies, many of whom have commissioned cheap TiVo knock-offs from companies like Scientific Atlanta. Many owner of these off-brand DVRs don't even know that they aren't TiVos, and, having never used the real thing, don't know the difference.

More Info on Gaim-vv

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-24 Gnome 29 Comments

Continuing yesterday's Gnome story where we mentioned the webcam/voice project for Gaim, Tim Ringenbach wrote us in with more info and a preliminary screenshot from their project, gaim-vv.

SUSE LINUX 9.1 LiveCD Available

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-24 SuSE, openSUSE 49 Comments

SUSE LINUX 9.1 is now released and available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. If you live elsewhere, you can get the first taste of the new SUSE by downloading the SUSE LiveCD (formerly known as SUSE Live-Eval). Read more at DistroWatch.

MESA Port Coming to Syllable and More

Submitted by Rick Caudill 2004-04-24 Syllable, AtheOS 13 Comments

Jamie Clarkson released a screenshot of his work on a Mesa3d port to Syllable. In other news: Syllable 0.5.3 is slated to come out the 1st or 2nd in May. This release has many new features including: a updated Radeon driver, a VMWare driver, a new ATA driver, new Yamaha DS-XG drivers, new install scripts, and a whole lot more. This release also contains a humongus number of patches by the whole Syllable team for GCC 3.x. More info here.

Unit Testing with OCUnit

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-24 macOS 2 Comments

In this article, Jim Menard is going to describe testing frameworks and walk through the process of adding unit tests to CheckbooX.

Application Suggestions for Gnome 3.0

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-24 Gnome 120 Comments

Gnome 3.0 is a long way off still and I have already written a wishlist for Gnome, however this time around I thought I write some specific feature requests for the next major Gnome release (coming in more than a year from now). These are applications that I would like to see included by default on Gnome 3.0 for a more full and integrated experience.

What’s new with IBM’s Linux Clustering technology

Submitted by Frank 2004-04-24 IBM 7 Comments

Much has happened since the days when the first Beowulf cluster was deployed, but while cost still matters, today technology is the differentiator that helps keep costs in check. To get an update on IBM clustering technology, the industry and what customers are doing with clusters take a look at this interview with Dave Turek, Vice President, IBM's Deep Computing.

Security in Longhorn: Focus on Least Privilege

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-24 Windows 29 Comments

A least privileged environment is going to significantly increase the security of the "Longhorn" Windows platform. Get started today by writing managed code, first of all, and when building desktop applications, make them LUA (Logical Unit Application programming interface) compliant.

Conformance to ISO Standards for C++ for VS.NET 2003

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-24 General Development 14 Comments

Partial template specialization is a vital technique for writing rich and useful collections. It can serve a useful purpose in many C++ programs, and is just one of the many new areas of standards conformance in Visual C++ .NET 2003. This article demonstrates how Visual C++ can be used to incorporate the .NET Framework into C++ applications.

Micro-Shells: The Next-Gen in Windows Explorer Customization?

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-23 Graphics 19 Comments

One place Stardock sees things moving in the future, especially as Longhorn nears and Windows XP becomes more widespread, is the concept of Micro-Shells, says Brad Wardell of Stardock. In the old days, programs tried to replace the entire shell (explorer). Micro-Shells instead extend pieces of the shell. Stardock is particularly interested in extending in the future is the folder views.

BayStar Wants SCO Group to Focus Solely on IP Enforcement

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-23 SCO 30 Comments

And where everyone thought that BayStar pulled out their investment off SCO because they didn't like the bad press and any SCO involvement, it seems to be the exact opposite: they want to see even more IP enforcement from SCO! "It's questionable whether SCO Group should continue in the (Unix) market," BayStar's spokesman Bob McGrath said. "We're looking for the best return we can, and we think the focus should be on IP licensing (and enforcement)."

Linux Backers Foresee Desktop Gains

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-23 Linux 44 Comments

Linux may be entrenched in the data center, but it will need some sprucing up before the upstart operating system grabs a significant spot on the desktop PC, says News.com. Elsewhere, Mandrake sees good demand for desktop Linux.

Microsoft Stands Firm in the ‘great Linux debate’

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-23 Microsoft 31 Comments

The software giant ventured into hostile territory on Wednesday to argue its case during a live debate over the future of the Linux desktop.

Why Windows Won’t Always Dominate

Submitted by Claudio 2004-04-23 OS News 27 Comments

New devices will shrink Microsoft's OS market share, researcher predicts.

Developing Struts with Easy Struts for Eclipse

Submitted by Frank 2004-04-23 General Development 10 Comments

This article shows you how to develop a Struts application in the Eclipse IDE, with the help of the Easy Struts plug-in. You'll get an introduction to Easy Struts, installation and configuration steps, and instructions on building a basic Struts application through a progressive example. Different ways of enhancing the Struts application -- such as connecting to a database, modularizing the application, internationalizing and localizing content, handling exceptions, and creating custom plug-ins -- are also covered. Finally, you will learn how to deploy your Struts application on the Tomcat Web server.

Mini-Editorial: How Apple Stole SGI’s Hollywood Business

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-23 Apple 144 Comments

Last Sunday Apple released a number of a new multimedia software -- Shake 3.5, Final Cut Pro HD, DVD Studio Pro 3 and a new application, titled Motion. Apple starts making a big name in Hollywood and many creative studios are now opting for Apple's products to do the main editing. Once upon a time, all this market belonged to SGI. In less than 2 years, Apple has managed to overturn this market into its advantage.

FreeBSD 4.10-RC1 Released

Submitted by Matthew Baulch 2004-04-23 FreeBSD 15 Comments

The first release candidate of the next version of FreeBSD's STABLE branch, FreeBSD 4.10-RC1 has been released. It contains many changes including bugfixes and backported features from the development branch such as enhanced USB support. Get it from a mirror before using the master server. Testers should get their hands on this now as the final release is expected in a couple of weeks.

Highlights of the WinFS Data Access API

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-23 Windows 2 Comments

Mike Deem provides a quick look at the basic concepts of the WinFS data access API: objects based on schemas, powerful query support and support for WinFS concepts such as relationships.

Biztalk Mapper 2004 vs MapForce 2004

Guest post by David Handlos 2004-04-22 General Development 7 Comments

I spend a great deal of time with XML data transfers, and use XSLT on a regular basis to transform, conform, or calculate the XML into formats that I can use. Originally, I used the mapping tool within Microsoft's BizTalk Server 2002 for complex XSLT. Although it had limitations, the tool presented everything in a visual manner that made editing quick and much less painful.

Sun’s Second Java Desktop System Slated for May Release

Submitted by Claudio 2004-04-22 Oracle and SUN 33 Comments

Curtis Sasaki, Sun's vice president of desktop solutions, told eWEEK in an interview Wednesday, ahead of the summit, that among the key advances in version 2.0 are management capabilities that allow enterprises to fine-tune and remotely set up the desktop. Also, Sun has exceeded its own expectations by signing 21 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for several products the company offers as alternatives to Microsoft Corp. desktop software, Sun announced Thursday at the Desktop Linux Summit in San Diego. TheRegister has a story about JDS as well. Also, MSNBC has a review of JDS 1.0.