OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

DotGNU Portable.NET 0.6.4 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-13 .NET 9 Comments

DotGNU's Portable.Net is a portable suite of tools (including a C# compiler, assembler, and runtime engine). In this release, the C to IL bytecode compiler is now in good shape, and many bugs were fixed in System.Windows.Forms and System.Xml.

ekkoBSD 1.0 BETA 2 for Sparc-64 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-13 BSD & Darwin 8 Comments

ekkoBSD.org has announced the latest beta release of the ekkoBSD Operating System to the public today.This release supports the Sparc 64bit Platform.

Sun should Open Source Unprofitable Parts of Java

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-13 Java 14 Comments

Even if Sun prefers to retain control over a stragic asset like Java, it should take a hard look at the components of Java that are related to platform-breadth and market-reach rather than to profitability, and slough these off to small, reactive Open Source efforts. javax.swing.text.html would be a good component to start the experiment with, says Rick Jelliffe. Check out the comments on that page too.

GNOME 2.6 Desktop & Developer Platform Beta-2 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-12 Gnome 32 Comments

Download the second beta of Gnome 2.6, while you can read the announcement and changelog here.

An Analysis of Sun’s Linux and Opteron Strategy

Submitted by Bascule 2004-03-12 Oracle and SUN 17 Comments

If HP and IBM can't make money selling the same or lesser boxes for more, what reason is there to believe that Sun can? Scott McNealy used to describe x86 retailing as adding bruises to bananas, but now he's doing it. Read the article at LinuxInsider.

A Plea for Relief from Microsoft’s Escalating Anti-Competitive Tactics

Submitted by Dave 2004-03-12 Microsoft 90 Comments

David Mohring has written an open letter to antitrust, competition, consumer and trade practice monitoring agency officials worldwide, asking for relief from Microsoft's anti-competitive tactics.

NetBSD Packages Collection on Interix

Guest post by Jan Schaumann & Daniel de Kok 2004-03-12 NetBSD 5 Comments

Preliminary support for Interix, a UNIX-like environment for Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, and 2003, has been added to NetBSD's Packages Collection. The support is still new and incomplete, but it is now possible to bootstrap pkgsrc and install simple packages. Interix is part of Microsoft's Windows Services for UNIX package. See Todd Vierling's email to the tech-pkg mailing list for more information.

Homemade Embedded BSD Systems

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-12 OpenBSD 4 Comments

The OpenBSD Journal reports that Michael Lucas has written a new piece about OpenBSD on the OnLamp BSD site. This article, Homemade Embedded BSD Systems, covers installing OpenBSD on the Soekris system, but this could apply to any system which uses a CF device to boot. As usual, some great tips to get you started.

Mandrake Linux 10 Community Edition: The Potential is Now Obvious

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-12 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 180 Comments

I have completely skipped Mandrake Linux 9.2 because previous versions of Mandrake Linux were not exactly that "glamorous". However, I wanted to try out the new Linux kernel 2.6.x on my new Linare PC and so I decided to give Mandrake 10.0 Community Edition a spin. Here are some quick thoughts on it on how MandrakeSoft has earned back my trust with this release. Update: MadPenguin reviews it too. UPDATE 2: More bugs, more bugs. I have changed the rating of the software because as much as I keep using it, I find more and more and more bugs all over the place. MandrakeSoft should REALLY sit down and think hard about their QA department (I have already emailed them about it).

Will Mono Become the Preferred Platform for Linux Development?

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-12 Mono 100 Comments

The Mono project has a clear goal: to become the first-choice platform for Linux software development. Considering that Mono is an implementation of Microsoft's .NET framework, that goal might sound particularly audacious to many Linux fans, says Edd Dumbill. In the meantime it was announced today that the SPARC port of the Mono JIT engine has been completed.

My Linux Desktop Odyssey, 2004

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-12 Linux 17 Comments

Michael C. Barnes updates his in-depth review of Linux desktop operating systems. In this exclusive article at DesktopLinux.com, Barnes examines how far the Linux distributions have come over the past year, updating his popular first article and evaluating the current versions of leading Desktop Linux desktop options including Ark Linux, ELX Linux, Lycoris, MEPIS, Vector Linux, Xandros, as well as Live CDs including Puppy Linux and Flonix.

Seth Nickell on Usability Testing

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-12 Graphics 8 Comments

"If you don't have oodles of usability people, up front design by a good designer provides a lot more bang for buck than using that same designer to do usability tests" says Red Hat's Seth Nickell.

The Future of Computing Part 7: Conscious Machines?

Guest post by Nicholas Blachford 2004-03-11 Editorial 50 Comments

Conscious, Emotional machines, will we ever see them? How far can technology go and can technology be applied to us? In this final part I wonder into the realm of Science Fiction. Then, to conclude the series I come back down to Earth to speculate on the features we'll see in any radical new platform that appears. Update: Never let it be said I ignore my errors, in the interests of clarity and with apologies to Extreme Programmers I have revised Part 1.

Review of Mandrake 10.0 Community Edition

Submitted by aRTee 2004-03-11 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 31 Comments

After the installation and configuration articles, Tips4Free offers a full review of Mandrake 10.

MyXaml – Open Source XAML-like Parser for .NET

Submitted by Marc Clifton 2004-03-11 .NET 8 Comments

MyXaml is an open source development effort bringing XML markup parsing to the .NET Framework and third party object models. The concept is similar to Longhorn's markup (code-named XAML).

SCO’s Suit: A Match Made in Redmond?

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-11 Legal 37 Comments

Just as the legal battle over Linux was about to become even more expensive, Microsoft suggested that a hedge fund invest in the outfit. Read the report at BusinessWeek and at News.com.

What Linux can learn from Windows

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-11 Linux 32 Comments

In three months, Microsoft users will finally reap benefits from the company's new focus on security. The release of the second major update to Windows XP answers many long-standing design criticisms of its operating system. What does this mean for Linux?

Introduction to MIR-OS

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-11 OS News 43 Comments

MIR-OS is a 32-bit multi-tasking GPL Operating System for the i386+ developed completely from scratch by a group of programmers in India. Some of the OS's features include full software multi-tasking, Memory Management (slab allocator), Modularized kernel (ELF module support), Semaphores, FAT12 filesystem, VESA graphics and many other features. Currently the OS is in version 0.0.4.

Linux Kernel 2.6.4 Released

Submitted by Bryan Sappington 2004-03-11 Linux 47 Comments

Linux kernel 2.6.4 has been released. Get it from a mirror or read the changelog.

eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 SP3 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-11 General Development 4 Comments

eMbedded VC++ 4.0 SP3 merges the functionality of eMbedded VC++ 4.0 SP1 and eMbedded VC++ 4.0 SP2 and enables development using a single development machine to target Windows CE 4.0, 4.10 or 4.20 Platforms. eVC4 SP3 installation includes previously released QFEs for eMbedded VC++ 4.0. After you install this, you might also wanna get the Pocket PC 2003 emulator and the Smartphone emulator which run on top of eMbedded VC++ 4.0.