JDS Goes to Wal-Mart and then to UK

Oracle and SUN 55 Comments
Sun is challenging Microsoft on a new front: the consumer market. Believing its Java Desktop System is "a more effective home and retail solution," the company is negotiating with major retailers Wal-Mart and Office Depot to include the desktop on consumer PCs. Elsewhere, Sun strikes software deal with the United Kingdom: Government to implement Java Desktop, application infrastructure in public sector.
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Future Computing, Part II: Unix vs. the world

Unix 22 Comments
A 20-year IT consulting veteran and author of "The Unix Guide to Defenestration" offers the second in a series of four articles that examine the state of computing as he imagines it will be five years from now. Last week's article was on Microsoft's vision for its future software. This week, he looks at where the Unix and open source alternative is likely to go and, next week, at the hardware both groups can expect to have available to run their software. The last of the series will look at the impact these changes are likely to have on the IT industry itself.
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Generating Database Server-Side Cross Tabulations

Databases 9 Comments
If you are a DBA or a database programmer, your manager may have asked you to prepare a breakdown of employees by location and department, or a breakdown of products by category and provider. If your boss is a techie, instead of a breakdown she might have mentioned a pivot table, or, if she likes to use "the right words," a cross-tabulation, Giuseppe Maxia writes. Elsewhere on OnLamp.com another article advises on "Quick and Dirty RDBMS Tuning".
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Tutorial: “Message Passing for Intertask Communication”

  Submitted by David Kalinsky General Development 8 Comments
"This online training lesson contains material taken from our introductory courses. This particular section presents the basic approaches to message passing for communication between concurrent tasks. In an actual training course, this section would be preceded by introductory sessions covering the fundamental definitions of embedded and real-time systems, as well as the fundamentals of multi-tasking (priority-based pre-emptive task scheduling)." Read it here.
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o3one: The Object Oriented Operating System

  Submitted by Alex OS News 12 Comments
o3one, is a VMS-like hobby operating system with some UNIX features currently in development. It includes VMS version control in the filesystem dfs, as well as both stream and "mailbox" style pipes. Development is currently headed towards an Alpha port, and a GUI is in development.
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Order Windows Services for UNIX 3.0 – Free

  Submitted by Gil Bates Unix 46 Comments
For a limited time, you can order the full version of Microsoft Services for UNIX 3.0—at no charge (see conditions). A $99 retail value, Windows Services for UNIX 3.0 provides an integrated environment in which to run applications for both Windows and UNIX on a single system. This offer is available only in the United States while supplies last, so act now (offer expires Dec. 31, 2003).
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DesktopX 2.0 Released

Graphics 13 Comments
DesktopX is a program that lets you design your own desktop by adding "objects" that can do pretty much anything you might imagine for it. Version 2.0 has just been released and it's a radical re-design that has focused on improving the functionality, performance, and memory use of it. If you don't have DesktopX, you can download it on its own here or get it as part of Object Desktop.
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The Status of Home Video Editing on Linux & Unix

Multimedia, AV 75 Comments
My husband and I are thinking of buying the Canon Optura Xi camcorder soon (in our opinion, the best DV camera at this range). Because I run so many OSes I always have 'embedded' in me this "thing" to only buy supported hardware by the major OSes. I am sure Optura's DV part will work fine with some Linux tools, but then what? How do I easily edit my... masterpiece and burn DVDs or VCDs via an integrated solution and send them to our families in Greece and France?
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CRUX 1.3 Released

Linux 10 Comments
Slackware-alike CRUX 1.3 was released (ISO image is 194 MB). Changes: USB 2.0 support added; USB storage support added; modules for most network cards added; new packages: opt/expat 1.95.7, opt/firebird 0.7, opt/fontconfig 2.2.1; removed packages: opt/mozilla (replaced by opt/firebird).
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Mono: Taking the Leap Without the .NET

  Submitted by Kenneth Mono 32 Comments
Earlier this year Novell purchased Ximian Software, the primary sponsor of the Mono Project. Novell is committed to providing support for open source development and specifically the Mono Project. There are plans for providing additional services around the Mono Project including support and consulting. Novell is also involved in providing resources for contributors by way of Novell Forge which will become the home for many Mono based projects and a community around Mono. Read the article here.
Update: On other C#/Mono news, the Qt# bindings project is almost on a halt, OSNews learned. Developers wanted to help out the one remaining developer, Marcus Urban.
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Applications You Can’t Live Without

OS News 173 Comments
I find myself using a number of OSes daily but for the OSes I use most, I have some favorite third party applications that I can't live without. Here are my application lists for Windows, Unix/Linux, Mac OS X and BeOS; applications I always download and install after a clean OS installation. Please tell us about your favorite third party apps you use on different OSes by using the provided comment section.
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