OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Finding the Missing Link in Linux-Windows Compatibility

Submitted by Jerome Gotangco 2004-04-26 In the News 47 Comments

In a small seminar room of the De La Salle University (DLSU)in the Philippines, Caslon Chua, chief software architect of SpecOps made a demonstration of the "bridge" software "David". More at inq7.net.

Miguel de Icaza on Longhorn

Adam Scheinberg 2004-04-25 Linux 111 Comments

In Miguel de Icaza's latest blog entry the Mono project leader discusses the threat Longhorn's new technologies and frameworks pose to Linux and open source. He also directs uses to this recent USENET post about the goals of Mozilla, which is a very interesting read.

SkyOS Gets an ISS

Submitted by Robert Szeleney 2004-04-25 SkyOS 17 Comments

ISS (Integrated sound system) has been implemented into SkyOS. The ISS is a very well integrated sound system which makes it very easy to access the audio multimedia services of SkyOS, though providing a very powerful interface.

Unofficial Win98 SE Service Pack

Submitted by Karl vom Dorff 2004-04-25 Windows 33 Comments

Majorgeeks.com has posted a link to an unofficial independent release of a Service Pack for Windows 98SE. While it does introduce some fixes and additional support, it is important to note that this is not official software.

Computer Loyalty

Submitted by Claudio 2004-04-25 In the News 37 Comments

"People tend to develop strong ties to a specific computer, even if it means waiting to use their favourite machine, say researchers. A team at Pennsylvania State University found that people were drawn to a PC because of their tendency to assign human attributes to machines." Read the article here.

Data Access Performance in ADO.NET

Submitted by Frank 2004-04-25 .NET 2 Comments

This article introduces some of the basic data-access performance issues to consider while developing database applications using ADO.NET. It shows you how to analyze network load, load on the database server, un-optimized SQL, opening and closing a connection, fetching a result set, blob access, and metadata retrieval. It then provides suggestions for improving database application performance.

DVD Forums Adopts Windows Media

Submitted by Claudio 2004-04-25 Windows 14 Comments

"The battle to create and own a proprietary industry standard generates rapid improvements in price and performance, at least until somebody emerges totally dominant. If fact, even after a monopolist emerges, there is still considerable pressure to innovate, because unless you can induce your installed base to upgrade frequently, you have a hard time continuing to grow." More at streamingmedia.com.

Little Hoopla Over New Java Spec

David Adams 2004-04-24 Java 13 Comments

J2EE 1.4, Sun's new Java Specification, will undoubtedly be widely adopted by the makers of Java-based software, but though Sun's attempts to hype it have not been as successful as in the past. Aside from the fact that the software industry just isn't as exuberant as it once was, many vendors are already "ahead of the spec" and have implemented functionality that customers demanded without waiting for Sun and Java to blaze the trail.

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.