OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

BeOSJournal Reviews Zeta RC1

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-26 Zeta 42 Comments

BeOSJournal.org posted a review of YellowTAB's Zeta 1.0-RC-1 with many images (however the review does not state if it was the Service Pack 2 of the RC-1 that was tested, which has many USB and other fixes). Note to Mac readers: If under OSX you can't read the folder after you uncompress the zip file, change the folder's access attributes from the "Get Info" panel.

Inside the Linux 2.6 Scheduler

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-26 Linux 14 Comments

Linux.Ars features a detailed description of one of the most important parts of the newly-released Linux 2.6 kernel: the scheduler. The new scheduler features several improvements over that in 2.4; they will not only explain the improvements, but also describe how the scheduler works and why these improvements are important.

RISC OS Gets Package Management

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-26 RISC OS 18 Comments

Graham Shaw has released RiscPkg, a RISC OS package manager. The idea behind package management is relatively simple, but it can hide suprisingly complex details in its aim to ensure a system has the latest versions of software, along with making sure dependent programs are installed, and downloading these easily with an automated installation system.

AmigaOS 4.0 Developer Pre-release CD Announced

Submitted by Duke 2003-12-25 Amiga & AROS 35 Comments

Hyperion Entertainment and the OS 4.0 development team announced that OS4 development has now sufficiently advanced for a comprehensive Developer Pre-release of Amiga OS 4.0 to be distributed to all current AmigaOne owners shortly after the New Year.

MacOS X: User Friendlier Security for Unix

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-25 macOS 30 Comments

"One of the problems of computer security in practice is providing an easy mechanism for the user of a system to take advantage of the security features present in an operating system. A system may have significant security features, but absent an interface that allows the user to easily make use of those features the effective security of the system may be low." Read the interesting PDF article at Sans.org.

Roadmap for FreeBSD 5.3

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-25 FreeBSD 100 Comments

FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Scott Long has outlined future plans for FreeBSD 5.3 now that FreeBSD 5.2-RC2 is getting close to release quality.

Steve Jobs, Apple, and the Limits of Innovation

Submitted by Claudio 2003-12-24 Apple 107 Comments

The battle over digital music is just another verse in Apple's sad song: This astonishingly imaginative company keeps getting muscled out of markets it creates. So what does Apple have to tell us about innovation?

Linux: Debating devfs and udev

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-24 Linux 32 Comments

A recent posting to the lkml suggested that the udev project has unfairly hijacked the devfs project, leading into yet another lengthy discussion comparing udev to devfs, and questioning why the latter has been deprecated. Linux devfs was written by Richard Gooch and merged into the 2.3.46 kernel in February of 2000.

Reflecting On Linux Security In 2003

Submitted by LogError 2003-12-24 Privacy, Security 20 Comments

This has been indeed an interesting year for Linux security. The point of this article is to offer a view on what I believe to be some of the most interesting happenings in 2003. The Linux experts that offer their view on 2003 are Bob Toxen (one of the 162 recognized developers of Berkeley UNIX and author of "Real World Linux Security") and Marcel Gagne (President of Salmar Consulting, Inc. and author of "Linux System Administration - A User's Guide" and "Moving to Linux").

AfterStep 2.0 beta 3 released

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-24 Desktop environments 4 Comments

This AfterStep release fixes numerous bugs and cleans up build system. In addition new WinTabs module had been added, althou it still remains undocumented and experimetal, but in future it will allow combining similar applications, such as text editors, terms, etc, into single window with tabs.

Introducing Lorma Linux 4.0

Guest post by Manish Bansal 2003-12-24 Linux 41 Comments

Lorma linux 4.0 is the first distribution to be based on Fedora Core, outside of Redhat, that is. It is one of those new breed of single-CD distros that try to include only the best-of-breed applications.

HAL 0.2 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-24 General Development 6 Comments

HAL is a hardware abstraction layer aiming to provide a live list of devices present in the system at any point in time. Version 0.2 was just released. Read more about it in our recent interview with its author.

A Look into the Viruses that Caused Havoc in 2003

Submitted by LogError 2003-12-24 Bugs & Viruses 18 Comments

Discover the malicious code that infected millions machines worldwide with insightful comments from people such as Mikko H. Hypponen (Director of Anti-Virus Research, F-Secure Corporation) and Graham Cluley (Senior Technology Consultant, Sophos).

Apple Planning Upgrade to eMac Line?

Submitted by Steve L. 2003-12-24 Apple 20 Comments

New eMacs must be about to arrive. In the Special Deals web page, part of the online Apple Store used to liquidate refurbished and older products, the current eMac configuration is listed as "Previous Generation eMacs." These units are the higher end Superdrive equipped models and are not currently discounted. It should be noted that these eMacs are listed as new and unopened.

Linux Desktop Distro Shootout Part IV: LindowsOS 4.5

Guest post by Barry Smith 2003-12-23 Linspire 57 Comments

So far this series has checked out Lindows 4.0, Libranet 2.8.1 and MEPIS 2003.10. Meanwhile both Lindows.com and Xandros have been busy little beavers and spat out new versions of their software, each on the same day. Since I am trying to find the best bang for my buck in a Debian based commercial distro, and since I am already a registered user of LindowsOS, I felt compelled to download a free copy of Lindows 4.5 to have a second look at this thing.

FreeBSD 5.2-RC2 Released

Submitted by Matthew Baulch 2003-12-23 FreeBSD 29 Comments

The latest of the FreeBSD 5.2-RCx series has been released. FreeBSD 5.2-RC2 fixes a showstopper filesystem bug that could occur when using soft-updates. Get it now from the main ftp server or try one of the mirrors. Promptly report any bugs you find as this is likely to be the last release candidate.

The Long Road to Yukon

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-23 Databases 7 Comments

For months, Microsoft watchers have voiced concerns that delays in the company's introduction of its Yukon database software could derail other products, including a new version of Windows, Longhorn.

Pegasos II – System Starts Shipping

Submitted by oGALAXYo 2003-12-23 Morphos 41 Comments

According to MorphOS-News the Pegasos-II System starts shipping to the end users.

New G5 chips, but no 64-bit OS X for at least two years

Submitted by Ed Holden 2003-12-23 Apple 25 Comments

According to MacWorld UK, quoting a report from Forbes, we'll be seeing some notably faster G5 chips this summer. And contrary to popular belief there is a G5 Powerbook on the horizon as well - possibly as early as January. But it will be at least two years before a 64-bit version of OS X hits shelves, according to analyst Peter Glaskowsk.

Apple Issues Patch for Mac OS X hole

Eugenia Loli 2003-12-23 macOS 6 Comments

Apple Computer has issued a security update that, among other fixes, closes a hole in Mac OS X that could have allowed hackers to take control of a computer under particular circumstances.