OSDL has been running performance tests with hackbench to measure the improvement of the scheduler, compared to Linux 2.4.18. A write-up of these results with graphical plots is posted here.
FreeBSD's Scott Long says that new set of sparc64 5.2-BETA ISO images are available and should be getting out to the mirrors over the night. This should fix the data corruption that existed in the previous set. The MD5 sums for the new set are attached.
Apple on Friday seeded its Select and Premier Apple Developer Connection members with the latest builds of Mac OS X 10.3.2 Panther Server and Client. Both seeds carry build number 7D18 and weigh in at 52.8 and 35.7MB, respectively.
IBM won a tactical victory Friday in a legal battle with SCO Group when a judge ordered SCO to show within 30 days the Linux software to which it believes it has rights and to point out where it believes IBM is infringing.
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.
"For years, it has seemed that the GNU/Linux desktop was right on the cusp of being ready for the mainstream desktop out of the box. Recent distributions, such as Mandrake Linux 9.2, bring the desktop to the mainstream, but something is still lacking: complete unity."Read more at OfB.biz. Update: On other Ximian news, the first release of Dashboard is coming along soon.
December 15 will be D-day for a number of Microsoft's established products, which the company is removing from its sales channels as a result of its legal settlement with Sun over Java.
S&P's Jonathan Rudy sees the giant as a powerful long-term play. Other software picks: Sybase, ADP, and Network Associates. Read the interview at BusinessWeek.
In a followup to his original interview, Jeremy Hogan discusses some of the reasons Red Hat had for EOL'ing RHL, future licensing options for RHEL (including free devel copies), the most common Fedora misconception, his take on UserLinux and more.
"IBM will begin delivering volume quantities of its new 90-nanometer (nm) based PowerPC 970 G5 to Apple Computer next month, sources confirmed last evening"claims AppleInsider. Elsewhere, Apple plans to beef up the Software Update mechanism built into Mac OS X, sources said to ThinkSecret.
Sun Microsystems Inc. has just rolled out its first Linux-based desktop software and is working to secure deals with governments and businesses to deploy it, but the company isn't targeting Microsoft Corp., a Sun executive said Thursday. "First and foremost, the objective of the Java Desktop System (JDS) isn't to go after Microsoft," said Peder Ulander, Sun's director of marketing for Desktop Solutions.
This article by a technical marketing engineer in Intel's Software Solutions Group introduces Intel's Mobile Application Architecture Guide, which was created to help application developers understand the issues that are arising through the growing proliferation of wireless mobile computing devices. According to Intel, users expect the same functionality from applications running on their mobile devices whether they are offline or connected to a network.
Jonathan S. Shapiro, architect of the EROS persistant operating system announced that he would be putting the project on hold for at least a year. This followed a series of emails describing the mistakes he felt that EROS had made: 1, 2, 3, as well as an email describing what he thought it had done right.
The Idea Basket has published a review of Panther targeted towards Switchers: "Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" finally fulfills the promise of the OS X product line by giving users a fast, stable, and easy-to-use environment in which to get their work and play done as quickly and efficiently as possible -- and still have fun to boot. Panther contains some of the most innovative and state-of-the-art technology available in any mainstream OS."
"When I mentioned to a friend that I was going to install Debian on a system so I could learn more about Linux, he suggested I try the Gentoo distribution."Read the review at LinuxJournal.
"I consider myself part of the open-source community. The (Linux) community has to recognize that it can't have it both ways. Linux cannot be a hobbyist's toy and be the leading operating platform in the industry at the same time. Those two things are incongruent. For Linux to become a credible part of the enterprise, it has to go through the standard evolution and maturing process" and "Linux on the desktop is definitely an area where hype is ahead of reality by orders of magnitude. There's a sexiness around the idea of taking on Microsoft", vice president in charge of Hewlett-Packard's Linux strategy, Martin Fink says to News.com in a very interesting and seemingly honest interview.
"While the next major revision for DirectX is not expected until Longhorn’s launch, Microsoft’s DirectX group has been briefing developers on what’s in store for “DirectX Next” with presentations at Microsoft Meltdown and other developer conferences. Recently, this presentation was made available to the public via Microsoft’s Developer Network. The intent of this article is to give a more thorough treatment of the features listed for inclusion with DirectX Next and hence explore the types of capabilities that DirectX Next may be offering."Read the article at Beyond3D.
