OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Gnome 2.4 for Mac OS X Underway

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-30 Gnome 43 Comments

The Fink project already features KDE 3.1.1, but Tony Arnold is working on bringing Gnome 2.4 (2.3.x for now) under X11 for Mac OS X, via Fink. Screenshot. So far, older Gnome 1.4 is available via Fink.

Poll: Let’s Evaluate Open Source’s Jewels

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-30 Rumors 131 Comments

Thursday here, a slow evening. Time for a new poll. This poll might require you to think a bit extra: it asks you to vote not for your favorite application, but which OSS application, in your opinion, has achieved high standards, performance, features and ease of use when compared to the best of breed of the closed source world. Read more for more explanation and voting.

News Pot-Pouri Around the Web

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-30 In the News 28 Comments

"Is this the end of Netscape? So much for Netscape 8.0" C|net says. Where does that leave the Mozilla project? After Apple and Microsoft, Real and Amazon get into online music business. IBM launches Lotus admin Kit resources for Win/Linux/Mac. How-to animation in SDL. 3D UI for Windows Desktops. Revolution 2.0 development tool released. New Gnumeric screenshot. Review of Poseidon USB, a USB stack for Amiga/MorphOS, plus a benchmark of AmigaONE against Pegasos and AthlonXP.

TwoOStwo for Windows v2.1 RC1 Available

Submitted by Tony Zelenoff 2003-05-29 OS News 29 Comments

TwoOStwo virtual machine for Windows NT/2000/XP enables running multiple operating systems (OS/2, Red Hat 6 and WinNT) and its applications simultaneously with the primary Windows NT/2000/XP operating system on a single PC.

Tux Goes to College

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-29 Linux 7 Comments

In an era when mature Linux distributions abound, do you need a special one just for college? Robert Kennedy College in Delémont, Switzerland, thinks so. The school's CollegeLinux 2.3 , a single-CD Linux distribution, is a power tool for educational organizations. Read the review at NewsForge and our recent interview with professor David Costa here.

SCO’s Chris Sontag on Linux, Unix and Brewing Legal Fights

Submitted by Sharon Machlis 2003-05-29 SCO 59 Comments

In an interview with Computerworld reporter Patrick Thibodeau, SCO's Chris Sontag, a senior vice president and general manager of SCOsource Division, the group within SCO in charge of enforcing the company's intellectual property, discussed the company's position. It is discussed the Linux kernel issue, Novell's reasons and why Microsoft licensed the Unix IP. Update: More SCO news.

Microsoft Creates New Group to Clean its Coding Act

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-29 Privacy, Security 27 Comments

Microsoft is expanding its security business unit with a group that will establish new software development processes and create tools for its programmers so that future Microsoft products will have fewer security flaws, a Microsoft executive said.

OpenBFS 1.0 Beta 6 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-29 Haiku 43 Comments

The OpenBFS team is proud to announce that a new version of OpenBFS (Beta 6) is available for download. This new version features a fix for the dreaded "Vnode already exists with a different cookie" problem, a fix for live queries, a fix for searching on non-indexed attributes and lots of other small corrections and additions. BeOSJournal features a mini-interview with BGA. Update: Here are part 2 and part 3 of David Reid's editorials.

SCO Threatens Torvalds

Submitted by Owen Anderson 2003-05-28 SCO 122 Comments

In a statement today, SCO seems to have threatened to sue Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux, if more companies don't start licensing UNIX. (Note: Look at the very last paragraph.)

When you Shouldn’t be Using Linux

Submitted by Carl Simard 2003-05-28 Linux 107 Comments

Many articles already explain why you should use Linux and describes its advantages. However, for a potential new user, it's also important to know the other side: what are the disadvantages of Linux? This short article by Carl Simard tries to present this other side so that new users can evaluate much better if Linux is for them to try or if they should forget about it.

New version of OpenDarwin, v6.6.1

Submitted by Ricardo Azevedo 2003-05-28 BSD & Darwin 15 Comments

OpenDarwin 6.6.1 is announced, available immediately for both ppc and x86 architectures. OpenDarwin 6.6.1 is based on the Darwin 6.6 (which corresponds to Mac OS X 10.2.6) source release and licensed under the APSL. It includes additions and modifications from the OpenDarwin CVS Repository.

Is Oracle about to Get Netscaped?

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-28 Databases 26 Comments

Ellison faces pressure from both sides of the database market -- IBM on top, and Microsoft below. A little more than a year ago, Gartner Group principal analyst Colleen Graham issued a study that showed IBM taking the lead over Oracle for the first time in the cutthroat corporate-database market.

Microsoft Loses City of Munich Deal to Linux

Submitted by michael 2003-05-28 Rumors 67 Comments

In what is being called "one of the largest desktop migrations to Linux ever seen", Microsoft seems to have lost a major account worth "tens of millions of euros" when the city of Munich said on Wednesday it would switch 14,000 computers from Microsoft's Windows operating system to Linux.

Novell Challenges SCO Position, Reiterates Support for Linux

Submitted by Yves R. Crevecoeur 2003-05-28 Novell and Ximian 69 Comments

In what Bruce Perens is describing as answering "the call of the open source community," Novell, makers of the popular NOS NetWare, has delivered a letter to SCO challenging their rights to UNIX System V. "Novell has just won the hearts and minds of developers and corporations alike," Perens continued. Read the article and the letter at Yahoo. Update: SCO's response.

PostgreSQL 7.3.3 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-28 Databases 31 Comments

As the PostgreSQL developers continue to move forward on the upcoming v7.4 release, several bug fixes have been tag'd as being safe to back-patch into the v7.3.x branch, so there is 7.3.3. Click here for a recent interview with the PostgreSQL team.

What’s Wrong with C++ Templates?

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-28 General Development 25 Comments

If you've read 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and its sequels, you probably remember the Vogons, the incredibly ugly, disgusting, and bad-tempered aliens charged with destroying Earth to clear the path for an intergalactic highway.

Microsoft Pulls Windows XP Update

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-28 Windows 45 Comments

The software giant says it withdrew a security update for Windows XP after discovering that it switched off Net connections for some of the 600,000 users who downloaded and installed it. Update: Microsoft explains what got wrong.

Bug Fixes and Upgrades in the Upcoming Java 1.4.2

Submitted by Kim Pedersen 2003-05-28 Java 18 Comments

Information and pictures of the new Swing on Java 1.4.2. Elsewhere, this article examines some of these urban performance legends and 'sets the record straight' regarding Java's performance.

Interview With Anticipatory Scheduler Author, Nick Piggin

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-28 Linux 2 Comments

KernelTrap has an interview with Nick Piggin, a college student living in Canberra Australia who has been working on an anticipatory I/O scheduler for the Linux kernel.

Windows Server 2003 as a Workstation: Great, But Not Unconditionally

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-27 Windows 127 Comments

I don't need a server. Our FreeBSD home server runs unstoppably for years, asking nothing in return. However, my curiosity about OSes drove me on ordering the free evaluation version of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, the latest Microsoft's OS offering. Naturally, there is a lot of marketing hype surrounding the product, but this time, I am really happy to witness that most of the hype is for real.