OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Techniques for dealing with complex and unfamiliar Java code

Submitted by Frank 2004-03-15 Java 3 Comments

If you've ever inherited and then had to maintain a Java-based legacy application, then this article is for you. The author shows you how to use aspect-oriented programming (AOP) to gain an unprecedented view into the inner workings of even the most opaque of legacy applications.

Ten Years Old: Apple’s Power Mac Line

Submitted by C/C 2004-03-15 Apple 50 Comments

The Register takes a look back at that day a decade ago when Apple's announcement of a RISC-based Macintosh, the "Power Mac" really shook things up. The PowerPC was going to trounce the aging X86 architecture, and herald in a new era of fast computing. Problem is, Intel had a few tricks up its sleeve too. Apple's real achievement, though, was making the transition to a new architecture relatively painless.

Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit 3.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-15 Windows 8 Comments

The Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) version 3.0 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 contains the tools and documentation you need to design, deploy, and support applications on these platforms. Tools include the latest versions of the Microsoft Windows Application Compatibility Analyzer that simplifies application inventory and compatibility testing, the Windows Application Verifier that assists developers and testers in locating common compatibility issues during the development cycle, and the Compatibility Administrator that provides access to the necessary compatibility fixes to support legacy applications in Windows.

Whitepaper: “Queueing Calculations for Real-Time OS Users”

Submitted by David Kalinsky 2004-03-15 OS News 4 Comments

This technical whitepaper by veteran real-time instructor David Kalinsky examines the queueing calculations that should be done as part of the design of application software for embedded systems using a real-time operating system. These calculations serve to properly configure message queues, linked lists, ring buffers, memory pools and partitions. Both capacity and queueing time issues are discussed, with emphasis on practical examples rather than mathematical proofs.

Microsoft Effort to Share Code Reaches Milestone

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-15 Windows 26 Comments

Today, Microsoft is announcing (free reg. req.) that its shared-source program has one million licensed participants, from lone software developers to large corporations. The milestone, said Jason Matusow, manager of the shared-source initiative at Microsoft, shows that the company has responded to the demands of its customers.

Regulators Meet on Proposal to Brand Microsoft a Monopolist

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-15 Legal 34 Comments

The European Commission is expected (free reg. req.) to declare Microsoft an abusive monopolist, impose a fine of $100 million to $1 billion and order the company to make fundamental changes to the way it sells software in Europe. Such a ruling would be a significant setback for Microsoft after it overcame its most serious legal challenge by settling a sweeping antitrust case in the USA in 2001.

Understanding the Solaris Flash Install and Live Upgrade Features

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-15 Solaris 3 Comments

Janice Winsor details the two new installation configurations of the Solaris 9 release.

S2 ‘mystery man’ Anderer Speaks on MS, SCO, and Licensing

Submitted by so_lazy 2004-03-14 Legal 22 Comments

"I do not think any company except a few of the largest companies can offer any reasonable insulation to their customers from these types of judgments. You would need a market cap of more than a couple billion to just survive in the OS space." A very interesting read from S2's CEO about the legal side of OSes today. And it seems he is not far off the truth at all.

Some Reasons Why I Prefer Gnome over KDE

Submitted by Ronny Klein 2004-03-14 Gnome 149 Comments

Rony Klein explains a few of the reasons why he prefers Gnome over KDE, an article accompanied by screenshots illustrating his case.

BeOS Memory Limitation Work-around Achieved

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-14 Haiku 36 Comments

The well-known limitation of BeOS to crash when too much memory is installed is now hacked around by some people in the community. The first patch, patches the kernel to "think" that only 64 MB is installed in the machine. We would advise the team to make multiple hack packages for 64, 128, 256, 384, 512, 640 and 768 MBs of RAM (the right amount is different for each user because it depends on the MBs the graphics card reports to the PCI level, not just how much RAM and gfx RAM is actually installed). This hack is for BeOS 5.x systems.

QNX 6 NTFS Driver v0.50 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-14 QNX 2 Comments

A. Domo has released a new version of his NTFS driver for QNX. The new version runs as a daemon.

New MirOS snapshot featuring XFree86 4.4, Ada, Pascal

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-14 BSD & Darwin 4 Comments

MirOS announced the release of a new snapshot of MirOS BSD #7-current. Read more.

AbiWord and GIMP Ports for SkyOS Finalizing

Submitted by Robert Szeleney 2004-03-14 SkyOS 26 Comments

AbiWord 2.0.2 and GIMP 2.0-pre3 are available for SkyOS. SkyOS 5.0-beta4 will include AbiWord and GIMP as GTK ports as well as a few other GTK applications like a Calender, Notepad etc. In other news, a new binary PE handler (faster program loading/linking) has been implemented as well as SkyGI performance improvements.

InnoTek GCC for OS/2 Beta 4 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-14 OS/2 4 Comments

InnoTek GCC for OS/2 is a commercial distribution of the GNU C/C++ compiler suite and associated utilities for the IBM OS/2 platform. InnoTek maintains an OS/2 platform port of the GNU C/C++ compiler suite and provides comprehensive support for the compiler environment to enterprise customers. Read more at eComStation's web site.

Why Good Ideas Fail, Part II

Submitted by Usman Latif 2004-03-14 Editorial 34 Comments

The software industry is very fearful of open source software, but this fear is irrational. The software industry can quite easily combat OSS as similar challenges have been met successfully in other industries. Part II of "Why Good Ideas Fail" discusses the future evolution of the software industry, and the implications of this evolution for innovative ideas.

MySQL Addresses Open-Source License Problem

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-14 Databases 37 Comments

MySQL has taken a step to mend a rift in the open-source world by updating a controversial licensing provision that had broken a close tie between the MySQL database and another software package.

Firefox Browser: Easy, Fun, Fast, Safe, Free

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-13 Mozilla, Gecko 75 Comments

Houston Chronicle reviews the Firefox browser and for the most part it gets a glorious review.

Technoids Issue 5 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-13 Haiku 17 Comments

The PDF online magazine Technoids issued v5 with a number of articles including an interview with BeOS MAX 3.1 people, 20 years of Macintosh and a review of the latest Zeta (all in German).

Interview with Matthew Dillon of DragonFly BSD

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-13 Original OSNews Interviews 26 Comments

Today we feature a very interesting interview with well known *BSD hacker Matthew Dillon over his latest project, DragonFly BSD (also known for his Linux kernel contributions, Amiga C compiler hacking back in the day and the Backplane distributed database). Matthew discusses DragonFly's status, goals, the overall BSD platform, innovation, and more. Update: Added one more question at the end of the Q&A.

GNU Screen: an Introduction and Beginner’s Tutorial

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-13 Unix 39 Comments

Most modern Unix-based operating systems (e.g. Linux, MacOS X, and BSD) come with a little console-mode utility called GNU Screen. It's a powerful tool in the hands of the console warrior, a veritable Swiss Army knife of text-mode human-computer interaction.