OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

GooOS, the Google Operating System

Guest post by fuad sawari 2004-04-15 In the News 31 Comments

Great post about what Google is up to by Rich Skrenta. He argues that Google is building a huge computer with a custom operating system that everyone on earth can have an account on. His last few paragraphs are so much more perceptive than anything that's been written about Google by anyone; Skrenta nails the company exactly.

Elegant Code with Anonymous Methods, Iterators, and Partial Classes

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-15 General Development 37 Comments

Fans of the C# language will find much to like in Visual C# 2005. Visual Studio 2005 brings a wealth of exciting new features to Visual C# 2005, such as generics, iterators, partial classes, and anonymous methods. While generics is the most talked-about and anticipated feature, especially among C++ developers who are familiar with templates, the other new features are important additions to your Microsoft .NET development arsenal as well. Read more here.

Apple Pushes Feds Toward Broader Open-Source Use

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-15 Apple 27 Comments

Apple Computer Inc. is seeking Common Criteria evaluation of Mac OS X, which could open government doors wider to open-source software. Apple wants a Common Criteria Evaluated Assurance Level 3, which "costs big bucks," said John Hurley, Apple’s security policy architect. "It's a pain in the neck to spend that money." Elsewhere, C|Net has two more Apple-related articles here and here.

Conectiva Linux 9 – The Latin American Distribution You Should Know

Guest post by Jason Prince 2004-04-15 Linux 35 Comments

Conectiva Linux, developed by Brazilian vendor Conectiva S.A., is the most popular distribution in South America, so it’s quite surprising that there aren’t more reviews of their products online. This is really quite surprising – while you may not have heard much about Conectiva Linux itself, you almost certainly know quite a lot about three of their most important contributions to the open source community – the Conectiva Crystal icon set, apt-rpm, and Synaptic.

Get Linspire 4.5 (build 4.5.393) for Free

Submitted by Alejandro Del Villar 2004-04-15 Linspire 56 Comments

As part of the Lindows-to-Linspire name change promotion, a new ISO image of Linspire 4.5 has been made available for free download, DistroWatch reports.

iPods Outsell Macs for First Time; Jobs: ‘We Feel Great’

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-15 Apple 111 Comments

For the first time, Apple sold more iPods in a quarter than it did Macs--and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is happy about it, MacMinute reports. "We feel great," Jobs told the New York Times. "We sold a lot of Macs, but we've sold more iPods in the quarter than all the Macs put together."

GNOME Platform Bindings 2.6.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-15 Gnome 17 Comments

API/ABI-stable bindings for the GNOME 2.6 Development Platform, for C++, Java, and Perl are now released. That means you can seriously consider those programming languages (and others) when developing GNOME-based applications, and you can be confident that your applications will not break when future versions of these bindings are released. OSNews hopes that the Python and GTK# bindings will become part of this great set in the near future too.

Casper: The Tracker-based Removable Media Manager for BeOS

Guest post by Henrik Petersson 2004-04-14 Haiku 25 Comments

I created the Casper project because I needed a way to organize my growing collection of CD-R/RWs which holds a lot of music and images, but there was no such solution available for my OS of choice, the BeOS.

Athene 3.4 – Now X11 Compatible

Submitted by Paul Manias 2004-04-14 OS News 31 Comments

Athene 3.4 is now available for download. The major new feature is backwards compatibility with X11 programs. This is achieved by running a rootless X11 server, the same technique employed by Mac OS X & QNX. The need for a separate window manager has also been eliminated by merging the window management functionality into the server itself. Screenshots demonstrating all this are here and here.

An Email Interview with James Gosling

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-14 Java 14 Comments

OrangeCrate presented an email interview with James Gosling of Sun Microsystems. Mr. Gosling answered some tough questions and refute some of the analysts’ propositions as to what exactly the Sun Microsystems and Microsoft settlement means for the future of Linux.

‘Aspire Swatter 2004’ Competition Winner Announced

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-14 Gifts, Contests 6 Comments

And our winner for the $3000 prize worth of the Aspire Swatter (Enterprise Edition with 25 client licenses) competition is Amit Bahree and his soon-to-be-published article "Exception Management in .NET". Amit won amidst 6 more submissions. Congratulations Amit!

Microsoft Extends MS Java’s Shelf Life

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-14 Java 11 Comments

Microsoft gives its Java virtual machine technology a three-year reprieve in the wake of its antitrust settlement with Sun Microsystems. But don't expect any new MSJVM enhancements. On other Java news, NetBeans IDE 3.6, which includes two-tier J2EE 1.4 support, became generally available today. NetBeans is a pure Java, open source development environment for Windows, *nix and MacOSX.

MySQL takes Cue from the Master

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-14 Databases 19 Comments

A Swedish upstart is challenging Microsoft in the database arena by making use of the same low-end assault tactics that the software giant employed to gain a foothold. MySQL also released clustering software today.

Opera 7.50 Preview 4 Available

Submitted by Carlos RF Vendramini 2004-04-14 Opera 34 Comments

Opera software releases today the new Opera 7.50 preview version for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris (*nix), Mac OS X and Windows. Elsewhere, OmniGroup recently released OmniWeb 5.0b5 for testing.

Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official Available

Submitted by Bjørn Jørgensen 2004-04-14 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 46 Comments

Mandrake Linux 10.0 is now available to club members and in packaged sets. According to the press release, "Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official offers the most advanced Linux features currently available. 10.0 Official provides increased performance with Linux kernel 2.6, an enhanced desktop experience with KDE 3.2, GNOME 2.4 and Mandrakegalaxy II, unbeatable hardware recognition, and support for Serial ATA, USB2 and IEEE 1394." The Mandrakelinux 10.0 Official FTP tree will be released this week, and public ISO images will be released later.

Linux Kernel 2.4.26 Released

Submitted by jeff 2004-04-14 Linux 47 Comments

Linux kernel 2.4.26 was released today. You download it from kernel.org or from one of the mirrors.

LindowsOS Renamed

Submitted by ealm 2004-04-14 Linspire 59 Comments

According to the latest press release, Lindows, Inc. has changed the name of LindowsOS to "Linspire." Although rumors suggested that the name change was only for use abroad, the press release suggests that the name change is both permanent and all encompassing.

Introduction to Linux Audio

Guest post by Filippo Pappalardo 2004-04-14 Multimedia, AV 81 Comments

I wanted to write something about the great progress being carried on linux as OS of choice for a professional Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) since a long time. With the inclusion of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) into the 2.6 kernels, time has come to extend my experiences to all of you.

James Gosling on Sun/Microsoft Settlement and Java Patent Issue

Submitted by anonymous 2004-04-14 Java 44 Comments

James Gosling of Java fame answers recent charges against Sun. Even more interesting, he has directly addressed Miguel de Icaza's assertion that Java is just as encumbered as .Net by pointing out that Sun has offered a patent grant to anyone who wishes to implement the Java specification. Update: Havoc Pennington of freedesktop.org/Red Hat/Gnome fame replies to Gosling.

Fundamental Issues with Open Source Software Development

Eugenia Loli 2004-04-14 Open Source 39 Comments

Despite the growing success of the Open Source movement, most of the general public continues to feel that Open Source software is inaccessible to them. This paper discusses five fundamental problems with the current Open Source software development trend, explores why these issues are holding the movement back, and offers solutions that might help overcome these problems.