OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

The GNU/Fiwix Operating System

Guest post by Jordi Sanfeliu 2003-10-16 OS News 27 Comments

The GNU/Fiwix project began during the summer of 1997. In fact, even before than I had running around my head the idea to design and implement a new UNIX-like operating system. But it was not until 1997 that it started to become a reality.

SkyOS Integrates Preference Panels

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-16 SkyOS 18 Comments

All applications which were used to configure settings like graphic, audio, themes, network, devices, keyboard etc. on SkyOS were rewritten as DLLs and are accessible through one application now: the System manager. Check here for two screenshots too.

Remembering Multics

Submitted by Kelly McNeill 2003-10-16 OS News 9 Comments

Individuals who know what "Multics" is, raise your hand. Now, all individuals who know what a "Multician" is, raise the other hand. (Now lower your hands. Your coworkers are going to think you're a psychopath staring at your computer with your hands above your head.) For those without hands up, Multics is a historic 1965-2002-era operating system, which had a dramatic influence on computers as we know them today. osViews editorial contributor Kelly McNeill, authored an insightful and educational piece about the historic Multics operating system.

AmigaOne Review and Videos

Mike Bouma 2003-10-16 Amiga & AROS 11 Comments

AmigaOS4 beta-tester Elwood has written an AmigaOne review which includes some videos, including one of the alpha version of AmigaOS4 booting on his AmigaOne. Also NeRP recently uploaded a screenshot. And here is Amiga CTO's 21st Q&A session.

Bounty Hunters Search for Proprietary Code

Submitted by proclus 2003-10-16 BSD & Darwin 9 Comments

Find non-free code at GNU-Darwin, and get a reward from RMS. In preparation for this initiative, the team has greatly improved the software freedom status and GPL compliance of the newest free OS including the ports system, packages, on-line, and hard media offerings. It appears that the FSF wants GNU-Darwin to stay free. As always, many thanks to them, especially RMS, D. E. Evans, Eben Moglen, etc. It feels great to do the right thing, and that GNU-Darwin is finally inside the free software circle. There is also a longer article about this at Advogato.

Microsoft Communications Protocol Licensing

Submitted by OffTangent 2003-10-16 Microsoft 15 Comments

The Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP) makes available by license over 100 proprietary protocols that enable your server software to interoperate and communicate with Microsoft desktop client operating systems.

Introduction to Wings OS

Submitted by Mihai 2003-10-16 OS News 13 Comments

Learn about Wings OS. It's a 16bit multitasking unix-like (QNX-like) OS written for the C64 and Scpu.

Preview: What to Expect from Mac OS X Panther 10.3

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-15 macOS 155 Comments

I was able to try out and preview Mac OS X Panther 10.3 for the past few months after WWDC and for the last few days I am running a latest version. So, what to expect from Mac OS X when it comes out on the evening of October 24th? Come in and have a look in this preview article. Update: screenshots removed at request of Apple.

Microsoft Warns of 4 New Windows Flaws

Submitted by Matt Piechota 2003-10-15 Privacy, Security 63 Comments

Microsoft Corp. warned consumers Wednesday about four critical new flaws in its popular Windows software as the company shifted to monthly alerts for serious problems that could let hackers break into computers. In the meantime, Windows XP SP2 is to be getting backported security enhancements from the Longhorn codeline.

SkyOS: Don’t Miss the Chance to Innovate

Submitted by Jared White 2003-10-15 SkyOS 56 Comments

September 16, 2003 marked the dawn of a new era for SkyOS. After the UI design contest poll was closed and the SkyOS design team and lead developer cast their votes, a winner was chosen: a very forward-looking and professional design dubbed Wind UI.

The Most Popular Operating System in the World

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-15 OS News 13 Comments

ITRON, the first in a series of open-source specifications for the TRON architecture, answered a pressing need for Japan's electronics firms, which traditionally have written their own software for embedded systems. Read the article at LinuxInsider.

Arch Linux: A Better Distribution

Guest post by Ben Mazer 2003-10-15 Linux 44 Comments

A few months ago I was a Slackware Junkie. I loved it, and laughed at those who used 'more automatic' distributions (ok, I didn't actually laugh). Then Arch Linux 0.5 came out and I was very intrigued by it. I was getting tired of having to compile updated packages myself.

Microsoft Adds New Flavors of Server OS

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-15 Windows 1 Comment

Microsoft said Wednesday that it has made available a test version of its Windows Server 2003 operating system that runs on 64-bit chips from AMD.

Bill Gates: ‘Longhorn is Going to be Late’

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-15 Windows 69 Comments

Bill Gates yesterday confirmed that there is no official release date yet for the next version of Windows, named Longhorn. "Longhorn could be 2005 or 2006," Gates told a small group of journalists yesterday at the TechNet/MSDN seminar in The Hague. "This release is going to be driven by technology, not by a release date. Which probably means it is going to be late." In the meantime, tThe second Windows XP service pack will include a number of changes designed to allay security fears.

New NetBSD Core Team Announced

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-15 NetBSD 5 Comments

NetBSD's Alistair Crooks announced the appointment of a new NetBSD core team.

A Bevy of Browser Releases

Adam Scheinberg 2003-10-15 Mozilla, Gecko 56 Comments

Many users submitted the news of the myriad Mozilla releases, including Mozilla 1.5, Firebird 0.7, and Thunderbird 0.3. In other news, Opera 7.21 for Windows, Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD was released this week as well. Update: Epiphany 1.0.3 is out too.