OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Bill Gates: ‘Everything’ Impacted by Security Concerns

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 Windows 34 Comments

Microsoft on Tuesday showed off a forthcoming update to Windows designed to make the OS more secure and proposed a caller ID-like system for e-mail that could help curtail the growing spam problem.

Lycoris Desktop/LX Personal Review at Linux.com

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 6 Comments

Lycoris Desktop/LX Update 3, released last September, is a Linux distro aimed primarily at home user desktops. Lycoris has been widely heralded for its user-friendliness. If newbies can handle some manual configuration, they may be happy with it, but it won't satisfy more experienced users, says Linux.com.

SkyOS Gets Window Grouping, More Languages

Submitted by Kelly Rush 2004-02-24 SkyOS 33 Comments

The SkyOS Team has added window grouping to SkyOS. This decision came as a response to applications cluttering the taskbar. Similar applications will now only appear once on the taskbar, and a drop-down menu is used to access the individual instances of the applications. A screenshot of window grouping can be found at the SkyOS Website. Additionally, 10 languages are now available for most parts of SkyOS. If you are interested in translating SkyOS to a language, visit the SkyOS forums.

Review: CodeTek VirtualDesktop Pro 3.0

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 macOS 39 Comments

One of the features geeks really miss on OSX's Unix environment are the virtual screens. Apple tried to address this need with the introduction of the excellent Expose, but all things fair, Expose doesn't do the same thing. CodeTek is the main company which has addressed this need on Mac OS X for two years now. Recently, they released their third major version of VirtualDesktop in two flavors, Pro & Lite.

Symbian Releases Real-time, one-chip OS

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 Wireless 1 Comment

Version 8.0 of the Symbian OS now has real-time capabilities, allowing phone vendors to build one-chip phones. At present, the most popular smart phone platforms, such as Texas Instruments' OMAP, typically feature two processors: one to handle the radio communications and one to handle the data operating system that the user sees.

Windows XP SP2 Beta Build 2082 Released to Testers

Submitted by Gsurface 2004-02-24 Windows 20 Comments

Microsoft has released another build to Windows XP SP2 labeled 2082. Many new features are included, most notable are the new security enhancements. Read more here.

Benchmark: Linux 2.6 and Hyper-Threading

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 Benchmarks 26 Comments

"Anyone who's ever set out to perform Linux benchmarks quickly realizes the difficulties involved in such an undertaking, not only with the availability of quality benchmarks (or lack thereof), but also in the way the test system(s) are configured. Most of the Linux benchmarks that I see on hardware review sites are simple things like kernel compiles or povray... maybe a game benchmark or two." 2CPU.com gets serious over Linux benchmarking on the web.

A Week with Slackware 9.1

Submitted by g0troot 2004-02-24 Slackware, Slax 22 Comments

This is the third installment of LinuxBeginner's "A week with" series, this time testing Slackware. The author liked the stability and "just works as promised with no extra promises" Slackware mentality.

Microsoft Windows Media Player for Linux?

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 Multimedia, AV 57 Comments

ActiveWin reports that on page 19 of Microsoft's PDF response to Real's allegations: "Microsoft has developed standalone applications called "Windows Media Player" for use with the Apple Macintosh and Linux operating systems". Update: More info.

Certified Xandros Linux Laptops Available

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 Oracle and SUN 21 Comments

Xandros teams with LinuxCertified to provide pre-installed Linux laptops with full-spectrum connectivity and universal file sharing. The LC2210 Mobile Laptop with 14" XGA TFT LCD and LC2410 Linux Laptop with a 15" XGA TFT LCD are both being offered at the introductory price of $1399 in North America.

Building Java, .Net Apps Sans Coding

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 General Development 14 Comments

A small but growing software company is rolling out a major upgrade that lets developers build standards-based Java and .Net applications with no coding. Kinzan Inc. this week will release Kinzan Studio & Server 4.0, a development and deployment environment that lets developers build enterprise applications through an assembly model by simply linking components in a drag-and-drop format.

Microsoft places bet on Whitehorse

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-24 Microsoft 3 Comments

Microsoft this year will seek to distance itself from Java rivals with tools designed to streamline how Windows-based business software is built and used.

SPARC Optimizations With GCC

Guest post by Tony Bourke 2004-02-23 Benchmarks 22 Comments

In continuing with my articles exploring the my SPARC-based Sun Ultra 5, I'm going to cover the topic of compiler optimizations on the SPARC platform. While many are familiar with GCC compiler optimizations for the x86 platform, there are naturally differences for GCC on SPARC, and some platform-specific issues to keep in mind.

Zeta 1.0-RC1 Preview at Beta10

Submitted by Dick Lewis 2004-02-23 Zeta 24 Comments

"The other day something happened that left me a little speechless. A friend of mine brought over a copy of Yellowtab's Zeta OS RC1." Read the review at Beta10, but please note that they are reviewing an older version of Zeta, RC1, while RC2+more_patches are already available. Yesterday OSNews featured shots of ZintrO, YellowTAB's newest work, and ZetaNews has some info as well on this.

Apple’s OSX to Include Voice Navigation & Embedded Applications?

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-23 macOS 35 Comments

"Apple is about to show off just how innovative it can really be. Without giving it all away, we’ve decided it would be great to goose the Mac faithful a bit with a peek into what will most assuredly be the biggest advance in OS X’s short history." Read the (unconfirmed) report at MacNet2. In the meantime, Apple released a new Panther security update.

IT Investor’s Journal: How Novell is becoming a true Linux play

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-23 Novell and Ximian 20 Comments

"During the next two to three years, I quite like the prospects for appreciation in Novell’s stock price, but I'd be inclined to stay on the sidelines for the next few months before thinking about starting a position. While I expect Red Hat to remain the sector leader, its dominant position will be eroded as strong competitors such as Novell/SUSE enter and consolidate in the space. It's still early, and Novell’s transition will take time as management reconciles its various challenges and opportunities." Read the article at ITManagersJournal.

Chips to Ease OSes’ Security Nightmares: Buffer Overflows

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-23 Privacy, Security 31 Comments

AMD's Athlon-64 (for PCs) and Opteron (for servers) will protect against buffer overflows when used with a new version of Windows XP. Intel plans similar features on next generation Pentium chips.

Is Linux Kernel 2.6 Primed for the Enterprise?

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-23 Linux 23 Comments

"Linux Kernel 2.6 has been in stable release for months now, which is like dog's years in kernel time. Kernel releases are exciting times for Linux geeks, because it's just plain fun to be able to replace the kernel on a system, or have several different kernels installed, and choose among them as the whim strikes. Oh yes, you want to gain improved performance and functionality, too." Read the article at ITManagement.

Dividing C++ Programs into Multiple Threads

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-23 General Development No Comments

Threads can be thought of as lightweight processes, offering many of the advantages of processes without the communication requirements that separate processes require. Threads provide a means to divide the main flow of control into multiple, concurrently executing flows of control. This sample chapter will teach you how to "think multitasking" -- and improve your apps in the process.

Introducing the Rhapsody Project

Submitted by Luigi Masi 2004-02-23 Apple 56 Comments

"Our main goal is to complete the Rhapsody OS and make it an OS that people would like to use. We aim for end users and hope to bring them what Apple has brought their customers for the past 20 years - the simplicity and style which Mac OS has." Check out the project here.