Panther Server Part II: A look at the Server Admin tool

In the previous version of Apple Mac OS X Server (10.2), service parameters were managed through a GUI tool called Server Settings, while log files for each of those services were read using a tool called Server Status. For the latest X Server release, Version 10.3, or Panther, the functionality of both of those tools, plus a bit more, has been combined into a single utility called Server Admin. Here is a look at the new GUI, with screenshots and explanations of what I believe are the best new features.

The Big freedesktop.org Interview

Today we are very happy to publish a very interesting Q&A with major freedesktop.org members: the founder Havoc Pennington (also of Debian, Gnome and Red Hat fame), Waldo Bastian (of SuSE & KDE fame), Keith Packard and Jim Gettys (of X/XFree86/fontconfig/w3c fame) and David Zeuthen, a new member who's taking over the ambitious HAL project. In the article, we discuss about general freedesktop.org goals, status and issues, the role of KDE/Qt in the road to interoperability with Gnome/GTK+, HAL (with new screenshots), the new X Server aiming to replace XFree86 and we even have an exclusive preliminary screenshot of a version of Mac OS X's Exposé window management feature for this new X Server! This is one article not to be missed if you are into Unix/Linux desktop!

AROS Status Update

A new status update from the AROS team is available at aros.org. Other than information about the latest happenings in the AROS development realm, you can find a couple of new screenshots showing off some of the new features.

Home Users Leap to Linux

When the operating system on Matthew P. Frye's home computer crashed and died a year ago, he had two choices: spend hundreds of dollars to rebuild his desktop using Microsoft programs, or try the less expensive alternative of switching to the Linux computer operating system. Frye chose Linux. It took the senior systems programmer at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, N.C., three months and $39 to download Linux desktop applications to replace those he used in Windows. Read the story at Triangle.com.

Debian GNU/Linux 3.0r2 Released

This is the second update of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (codename 'woody') which mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with a few corrections of serious bugs. Those who frequently update from security.debian.org won't have to update many packages and most updates from security.debian.org are included in this update. Please note that this update does not produce a new version of Debian 3.0 but only adds a few updated packages to it. There is no need to throw away 3.0 CDs but only to update against ftp.debian.org after an installation to incorporate those late changes.

Red Carpet Daemon 2.0 and Open Carpet Announced

Ximian's Joe Shaw writes: "We announced the release of rcd 2.0 and the open-carpet stuff. We did a lot of work over the past five months to get Red Carpet into a state where we can try to push it as the premier software management infrastructure and then try to get it integrated generically into GNOME. I am really excited about this release since it opens up a huge amount of open source software to our users who previously needed to turn to some other solution. Our daemon architecture makes it easy for others to write applications which tie into the packaging system, so I hope projects like NARC (Nautilus-Red Carpet integration) pick up again and see some adoption. The Open Carpet software is a first step toward making Red Carpet services easy to set up. I'd like to work toward getting those big Apt repositories to also set up RC services, so we'll see." More info here.

OSX: Maintenance Tips; Scripting; Rendezvous Picture Transfer

Get at MacDevCenter some maintanance tips for OSX. Mac OS X As an administrator, when you think of automating tasks, you naturally think of scripting. James Reynolds shows you how to apply a variety of scripting languages to automate your workflow on Mac OS X. Elsewhere, you can show others on a Rendezvous network pictures directly from your camera using the new Image Capture app in Panther.

GNOME Bounty Hunt; Nat Friedman’s Summit Slides Show Future

The GNOME Foundation announced the launch of the first-ever open source desktop integration bounty hunt. The aim of the contest is to recruit new developers and to more tightly integrate the various projects that make up the desktop into a more coherent, and complete user experience. The contest consists of a number of small, concrete projects, each of which has a cash bounty associated with it. Complete the hack, enter the contest, and collect a prize. Also of great interest are Nat's slides shown at the Gnome Summit in NY showing a bright future for Gnome and the Unix/Linux desktop.