OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

DotGNU Portable.net 0.6.6 Released

Submitted by t3rmin4t0r 2004-05-29 .NET 49 Comments

DotGNU Portable.net 0.6.6 has been released . Read the announcement here. It's been 2 months since the last release , threading has been rewritten twice , timers redone once , binary/SOAP serialization and lots of stuff done in Windows.Forms . This release includes Portable Studio IDE, MyXaml, Photo Tool (wx.NET), KDE DCOP Support, MDI and FileDialogs, Gtk-Sharp, Svg Rendering, XHTML Rendering .

A Roundup of Fedora Reviews

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-29 Fedora Core 39 Comments

Fedora Core has been out for almost 2 weeks and the first reviews, both good and bad, start trickling in.

Subversion: The new-generation CVS

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-29 General Development 26 Comments

Software development is an iterative process that benefits from coordination between developers and with historical archives. To facilitate such practices, developers can turn to special versioning software. In this article we will explore Subversion, one of the most recently released version control suites. Read the article at DevChannel.

Tablet OS Makes Progress

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-29 Windows 11 Comments

Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005—the first major upgrade to the Tablet PC operating system—provides enough enhancements to entice some new converts. The update also will tide over current fans and developers until the release of a "Longhorn" version for Tablet PCs—or whatever Microsoft has planned for the Tablet operating system on the company's long and often-winding product road map.

Interface Burdens and Mac Usability

Eugenia Loli 2004-05-29 Apple 56 Comments

The Mac's commitment to standardization doesn't just have the effect of knowing what the main controls do in a rental car. It removes the need to focus on the interface from the process of learning to use the application. In other words, that Windows interface barrier is completely missing in the Apple world because the Mac OS transparently hosts the applications without imposing itself on the user's attention. Read the article here.

Linux: Is Swap Necessary?

Submitted by --_==Josh==_-- 2004-05-29 Linux 47 Comments

Following recent discussions about tuning swapiness and dynamically allocating swap as needed, a new discussion ensued on the lkml questioning the need for swap altogether when a system has "sufficient" ram.

What Sun Really Wants to Sell in the x86 Market

Submitted by --_==Josh==_-- 2004-05-29 Oracle and SUN 106 Comments

Channel Zone Editor Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols thinks he's finally figured out what Sun really wants to sell on the x86 platform—and it's not Linux.

Put Scopes to work for your J2EE apps

Submitted by Shellie 2004-05-29 Java 2 Comments

Many enterprise Java technology developers build their own object management infrastructures to improve application performance. However, traditional object pools encounter problems in applications that run across distributed JVMs on multiple physical machines. This article presents an object management framework that uses the concept of scopes to handle distributed systems with ease.

An Interview with Matt Asay of Novell

Submitted by Chuck Talk 2004-05-28 Novell and Ximian 30 Comments

OrangeCrate has an interview with Matt Asay, Director of Novell's Linux Business Office. He talks about Linux strategy, the GPL, partnerships, and Linux on the desktop.

OSNews Pricegrabber Updated

David Adams 2004-05-28 OS News 14 Comments

We've made some updates to the Pricegrabber menu (at the lower left hand side of the site). For your convenience, we've updated some of the products there, and added some new gadgets. It's a great way to compare prices, and if you use osnews.pricegrabber.com when you buy (or even just research), you support OSNews. Bookmark it! If anyone has any ideas for products or categories that should be added to the list, let us know.

Contiki Brings the Web to the Apple ][

Submitted by Adam Dunkels 2004-05-28 Apple 20 Comments

The Contiki operating system is an open source, Internet-enabled, operating system designed for tiny systems and runs on a variety systems ranging from the Commodore 64 and the Atari Jaguar to small embedded micro-controllers. Oliver Schmidt and Glenn Jones now bring the Internet and the web to the classic Apple ][e surfing the web is available (9 megabytes, DivX encoded).

Kurumin 3.0 Released

Submitted by William da Rocha 2004-05-28 Linux 32 Comments

The Brazilian Linux distribution Kurumin has just released version 3.0 final. I don't know much more, because my Portuguese isn't so good. Download locations, ChangeLog, and plenty of other information is available here, along with plenty of other useful information, I'm certain.

Directfb 3D Window Management

David Adams 2004-05-28 3D 37 Comments

There's a new screenshot over at directfb.org that shows the new TextureTriangles() method using existing windows as the texture. Every change in the original window is immediately visible in the transformed presentation.

The Python Enterprise Application Kit

David Adams 2004-05-28 General Development 5 Comments

PEAK is a Python framework for rapidly developing and reusing application components. While Python itself is already a very high-level language, PEAK provides even higher abstractions, largely through the clever use of metaclasses and other advanced Python techniques. In many ways, PEAK does for Python what J2EE does for the Java™ language.

Novell Australia: Ready for Desktop Linux

Submitted by Saverio 2004-05-28 Novell and Ximian 47 Comments

Novell is embarking on an "eat your own dog food" project in which it will eventually migrate all of its 6000 employees worldwide to SuSE Linux (and drop MS Office for OpenOffice). The company's Australian employees will be the advance guard. Many of them have already been using OpenOffice for some time, and the transition has been relatively smooth. According to the article, "Using a custom set of technologies which read Windows users preferences into SuSE after a dual-boot installation, the average desktop can be migrated in less than an hour."

Better Way to FindBugs

Submitted by Frank 2004-05-28 Java 12 Comments

Interesting tool for Java developers:Static analysis tools promise to find existing bugs in your code without requiring much effort on the part of the developer. Of course, if you've been programming for long, you know those promises don't always pan out. Even so, good static analysis tools are a valuable addition to your toolbox. In this first of a two-part series, Senior Software Engineer Chris Grindstaff looks at how FindBugs can help improve the quality of your code and eliminate bugs lying in wait.

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Linux-Powered “Emotional Lamp”

David Adams 2004-05-28 Humor 15 Comments

The Emotional Lamp is a WiFi-connected device that can be programmed to respond to real-world events by emanating sequences of gentle color. It can be programmed to respond to various data, such as the health of your stock portfolio or the business of the morning commute. Cost: 790 Euro (about $937). "It's very cool to do a telnet to a lamp!" according to the article.

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Collaborative Development: Software and Drugs

Submitted by Wilbur Pan 2004-05-28 Editorial 28 Comments

Open source licensing has been known to be controversial here at OSNews. Simplistic characterizations (Communism, Virus, Utopia) abound which do nothing to argue the philosophy on its merits. A medical researcher notes that there is a parallel with open source development in one of our most important (and most capitalistic) industries: pharmaceutical research.

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Is the Netscape Browser Being Reborn or Just Stabilized?

Submitted by Tudy Parghel 2004-05-28 Mozilla, Gecko 35 Comments

AOL is planning to release an updated Netscape Navigator as early as June, but whether one of the Web's original browsers will make a comeback remains uncertain.

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Linux Servers Up, Unix Down: Survey

Submitted by Tudy Parghel 2004-05-28 In the News 38 Comments

A new survey of server unit growth and revenue shows that last quarter 1.6 million new servers were put into action, demonstrating that the server sector of the IT economy is growing strong. Linux servers showed the most growth, while Windows servers generated the most revenue. Unix servers showed a decline. Mainframe installations also grew. Our Take: As always these numbers are based on documented sales sales of commercial products, so they should be taken with a grain of salt, as they exclude FreeBSD and Linux servers based on freely-distributed software. Nevertheless, it looks like commercial Unix is in decline, while Linux and Windows move up.

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