OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Rapid Application Development using PyQt and Eric3

Submitted by Roberto Alsina 2004-01-10 General Development 31 Comments

Roberto Alsina writes: "Tired of long, carefully crafted tutorials trying to show you the quickest way to write a program? Here I take another approach. I just went and did a program (and the tutorial) while checking the clock." And so here you have it: the app, the tutorial, and the timeline.

The Future of Linux is Proprietary

Guest post by D.D. Chamberlain 2004-01-09 Editorial 66 Comments

Linux can be made profitable and it can be made so without going the enterprise route or by relying on the traditional services an support model-- as long as technology companies are willing to sell the operating system on their own highly optimized and performance enhanced proprietary hardware.

Linux Kernel 2.6.1 Released

Submitted by Hugo & Marcel 2004-01-09 Linux 29 Comments

Linus Torvalds released the final 2.6.1 Linux kernel. This release has a lot of changes since 2.6.0, many things have been merged from the -mm tree. This release includes a patch for the mremap() vulnerability.

Novell Would Eclipse Sun

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-09 Novell and Ximian 19 Comments

Here is part 2 and part 3 of the AlwaysOn interviews of Miguel and Nat from Ximian and Chris Stone, Novell CEO. To find out more about why Novell made such a sudden change in direction, and what their plans are for the future, IBM talked to Chris Stone.

Sun May Change Linux Desktop Platform

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-09 Oracle and SUN 39 Comments

Long-term strategy overhaul may alter SuSE relationship: "I guess we're a little bit disappointed with SuSE's performance in the marketplace," said Schwartz. Asked if Sun would revive its own Sun Linux distribution that it discontinued last year, Schwartz said, "That's an interesting question."

Windows 98 Support Shifts to CD

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-09 Windows 13 Comments

When Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 98 support next Friday, it will offer a free CD designed to help users "make the most" of the aging operating system, without any further assistance from the software giant.

GNOME Platform Bindings 2.5.2 released

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-09 Gnome 4 Comments

Here is another scheduled release of the GNOME Platform Bindings, which provide a GNOME development platform for programming languages other than C, in the style of those languages.

The 20 Macs That Mattered Most

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-09 Apple 14 Comments

This month is the 20th anniversary of Apple Computer's Macintosh. To mark the occasion, Wired News is running several stories this week about the groundbreaking machine, the people who created it and the Mac's impact on computing and culture in general.

DragonFly Year-End summary for 2003

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-09 BSD & Darwin 11 Comments

DragonFly BSD was announced in July of this year, with Matt Dillon the originator and main weightlifter of this project. Development has been proceeding at a good clip, with a first release expected in 2004. Here's some data on the amount of activity in the DragonFly source, as of the end of December 2003.

Integrating KDE in GNOME Applications

Submitted by anonymous 2004-01-09 KDE 74 Comments

KDE project is planning on announcing QtGTK library which was written by one of its core developers. The library integrates Qt event loop with GNOME. Thanks to that whole KDE framework can be used from any GTK+ application just like it would be a native part of it. The library itself is already available here. There seems to be also a tutorial on how to use it here. Reportedly Gimp already works with it.

Nine Language Performance Round-up: Benchmarking Math & File I/O

Guest post by Christopher W. Cowell-Shah 2004-01-08 General Development 166 Comments

This article discusses a small-scale benchmark test run on nine modern computer languages or variants: Java 1.3.1, Java 1.4.2, C compiled with gcc 3.3.1, Python 2.3.2, Python compiled with Psyco 1.1.1, and the four languages supported by Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET 2003 development environment: Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, and Visual J#. The benchmark tests arithmetic and trigonometric functions using a variety of data types, and also tests simple file I/O. All tests took place on a Pentium 4-based computer running Windows XP. Update: Delphi version of the benchmark here.

Open Magazine: Can Xandros simplify Linux use?

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-08 Oracle and SUN 35 Comments

Xandros does Linux sans Tux, but the big question remains: Does being fast, easy, and astonishingly elegant buy it success on a down and dirty desktop? Asks Open Magazine.

XFce 4.0.3 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-08 Xfce 13 Comments

Xfce is an easy-to-use and easy-to-configure environment for X11 based on GTK2. In 4.0.3 a leak in the window manager was fixed, so upgrading is highly recommended. Various file manager bugs were fixed. Translation updates were made. Support for the KDE system tray was added.

A Microsoft-Friendlier Macworld

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-08 Apple 68 Comments

While light on Gates-baiting at this year's confab, Steve Jobs still gets his digs in: "Microsoft is copying us again, and it's fun!"

Linux: 2.6.1-Rc3 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-08 Linux 26 Comments

Linus Torvalds has released Linux Kernel 2.6.1-rc3. This release includes mostly small bug fixes.

DAMNSmallLinux Review

Guest post by Walter Kruse 2004-01-08 Linux 41 Comments

It seems that I am in some sort of retro-mode. As Linux on the desktop is getting bigger and better, with more apps, more sleek looks (Galaxy, Keramik and Blue Curve for example) and more idiot proof, I am going onto simpler, more condensed stuff. The big distributions are nice, but I really do not need all the applications that come with them all the time.

NetBSD allows cross-build of src/x11

Submitted by Jan Schaumann 2004-01-08 NetBSD 4 Comments

NetBSD's Luke Mewburn announced today that it is now possible to cross-build XFree86 4.x on NetBSD-current using the "build.sh" framework, taking advantage of such features as: cross compilation, read-only source tree, unprivileged builds. You can find more details about the build.sh framework in Luke Mewburn and Matthew Green's paper and presentation on the topic at BSDCon 2003.

Windows Server 2003 for 64-Bit Extended Systems

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-08 Windows 19 Comments

Windows Server 2003 for 64-Bit Extended Systems provides high performance for both 32-bit and 64-bit applications on the same system. The underlying architecture is based on 64-bit extensions to the industry-standard x86 instruction set, allowing today's 32-bit applications to run natively on 64-bit extended processors such as AMD Opteron. At the same time, new 64-bit applications are executed in 64-bit mode, which processes more data per clock cycle, allows greater access to memory, and speeds numeric calculations. Read the newly published information here.

Gates Unveils Innovative New Products and Services at CES

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-08 Microsoft 46 Comments

Gates' keynote address features new Media Center technologies, MSN Services and smart watches for MSN Direct; Gates highlights growing role of software in consumer electronics. Here is the web siet for the newly announced Media Center Devices.

Porting Windows CE .NET to the Xbox

Eugenia Loli 2004-01-08 Windows 11 Comments

Members of the "xbox-windows project" recently announced that Windows CE .NET is now booting on the Xbox. "Currently, we have a partial BSP for CE .NET 4.20, and working PCI, USB, Display, and Mouse drivers. Most of the "important" parts of the BSP are done, however some features are still lacking or bug ridden. We also have a simple, preliminary bootloader based on xbeboot from the xbox-linux project. With these in place, CE loads and runs properly, but is not yet very useful." WindowsForDevices contacted the project's originator, who prefers to be known by the pseudonym "Artifex", to gain insight into the project's origins, goals, and plans for the future. The result is this interview.