OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Screenshots from freedesktop.org’s New X Server

Submitted by John 2003-11-11 Wayland 107 Comments

The new X Server developed under the sponsorship of freedesktop.org is aiming at replacing XFree86. Some code will be re-used but the core will be rewritten by Keith Packard and others. The new X server features full support for transparency, and has window-level image compositing among other things. Check out the screenshots (one more added, now there are four shots).

Desktop Linux Consortium Conference debuts

Submitted by Waldo Bastian 2003-11-11 Linux 9 Comments

Many sites reported on the Desktop Linux Consortium Conference that took place yesterday and here is a round up: NewsForge article, Dot.KDE.org's and Infoworld's. In the context of Linux on the desktop, SuSE CEO Richard Seibt confirms ongoing support for KDE.

Yellow Dog Linux, Gentoo Linux Get Preliminary G5 Support

Submitted by MacCritic 2003-11-11 Linux 15 Comments

Terra Soft Solutions, Inc., leading developer of integrated PowerPC Linux solutions with Yellow Dog Linux, today announced preliminary support for Apple's Power Mac G5. The Gentoo guys also released a Live CD with 2.6 kernel and some support for the G5 too.

Panther: One Week Later

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-11 macOS 24 Comments

"Mac OS X 10.3, better known as Panther, was released by Apple a little over two weeks ago. I've been using it for over a week now on my iBook and I'd like to share some of my thoughts about the changes that Panther brings to the table." Read the review here.

From Linux to OS X

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-11 Rumors 12 Comments

This edition's education article focuses on the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, which may be the largest deployment of laptops in the world. Two elements that make this an extraordinary deployment is the fact that the laptops have been distributed to 7th and 8th grade students and that they are iBook laptops running OS X. Read it here.

The Open Code Market

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-11 Open Source 7 Comments

"The Open Code Market (OCM) is both an open market for code, as well as a market for open code. However, it aims mainly to become a free market for software, as well as a market for Free Software. The OCM introduces into the Free/Open Source movement an economic incentive, to help align the priorities of Free/Open Source developers with those of the end users." Read the article here.

VectorLinux 4.0 Download Edition Review

Submitted by LPH 2003-11-11 Linux 11 Comments

Tux Reports has published a review of VectorLinux 4.0 Download Edition. There is also a link to an interview with the originator of the project.

Fiasco 1.1 Microkernel Released

Submitted by Udo Steinberg 2003-11-11 OS News 13 Comments

The Fiasco Team is pleased to announce version 1.1 of the Fiasco L4 microkernel developed at the University of Technology, Dresden and released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

User Linux: Yet Another Rendition of Linux

Submitted by UglyKidBill 2003-11-11 Linux 46 Comments

One of the founders of the open-source software initiative, Bruce Perens, is planning to release a new version of Linux to challenge Red Hat's enterprise version of the operating system, and fill the hole left in the consumer market since Red Hat announced it would no longer sell a consumer version in retail stores.

ETH Win Aos Oberon System Updated

Submitted by Byron Servies 2003-11-11 OS News 3 Comments

The Active Objects version of the Oberon operating system running under windows was updated today to version alpha 1.5. AOS Oberon is a descendant of the Oberon system designed by Niklaus Wirth and Jürg Gutknecht in the late 1980's. Enhancements to the AOS system include multitasking and MP aware objects.

Roadshow article – A new TCP/IP stack for AmigaOS

Mike Bouma 2003-11-11 Amiga & AROS 4 Comments

Amiga Inc has published an extensive CAM article regarding Roadshow, AmigaOS4's default TCP/IP stack. Also an AmigaOS4 screenshot from the latest CAM issue has been made available to show that Hyperion's 3D API "Warp3D" is now running natively on the AmigaOne. And here are some latest AmigaOS4 pictures from a French Amiga event.

Build a grid application with Python, Part 2: Communication

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-11 General Development 1 Comment

Grid components need to talk to each other. The distributor needs to talk to the grid providers, the providers need to talk back, and clients and management tools need to talk to the distributor and providers. Providers may need to talk to each other, or they may need to look up information from another machine to determine information or status information from the grid. In this tutorial the author looks at ways to handle communication in a Python grid framework, from the basics of the TCP/IP system to the simplified, externally managed e-mail solution.

KDE to Use KConfig XT as its Configuration Framework

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-11 KDE 38 Comments

KDE 3.2 will introduce an improved configuration framework, known as KConfig XT. This new framework extends, not deprecates, the current KDE configuration API. But if Gnome and KDE continue to have a different API for configuration, how easy freedesktop.org's goal would be to uniform the backends of the two popular DEs? We spoke to freedesktop.org's founder, Havoc Pennington, and here is what he replied after having a quick look at the new KDE API: UPDATE: Read on for KDE/SuSE's Waldo Bastian reply too:

Libranet 2.8.1 Impressions

Guest post by David Barker 2003-11-11 Debian 32 Comments

I'm always looking at different and new Linux distribution's now and then, trying to finally find one that is good enough to overthrow windows on my PC. But all the distributions seem to have a weakness, Mandrake is rpm based, Debian makes it hard to set some things up and Gentoo requires a lot of work and time compiling. And so I decided to try out Libranet.

First Official Debian-installer beta Available

Submitted by Syntaxis 2003-11-11 Debian 48 Comments

The first official beta of the new Debian installer was released on November the 9th. New goodies include, but are by no means limited to: automatic hardware detection, support for LVM, and support for the non-Linux ports such as Debian-HURD and Debian-*BSD.

Sun Seeks to Gain from HP Stumble

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-11 Unix 10 Comments

Hewlett-Packard delays one Unix server improvement and backs away from another, and Sun Microsystems responds with a promotion to try to lure customers affected by the situation. Read the story at News.com.

Lycoris Replies to the Community over GPL Misunderstanding

Submitted by Daniel Andre 2003-11-10 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 56 Comments

In reply to an open letter by community member "why", Lycoris founder and CTO, Joseph Cheek admits that they misunderstood the GPL, and promises to have the source for the evaluation edition available soon. Rus also apologized for the lack of an announcement regarding Lycoris' new policy. Update: Read on for an official response from Lycoris:

Mac OS X 10.3.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-10 macOS 21 Comments

The 10.3.1 Update via Software Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for the following applications, services and technologies: FileVault, Printing, WebDav, and FireWire 800 drives. This update also includes the latest Security Updates.

Designing GUI Apps with Windows Forms; Intermediate C# Skills

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-10 .NET 22 Comments

Learn to use the rich set of controls in the .NET Compact Framework, including the DataGrid control, the TreeView, and other advanced Windows controls. This sample chapter discusses reference types, the object-oriented features of C#, and exception handling.

Ars Technica Posts Panther Review

Eugenia Loli 2003-11-10 macOS 51 Comments

Read ArsTechnica's thorough review of Mac OS X Panther 10.3 here.