OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

SuSE 9.0 Professional Reviewed

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-23 SuSE, openSUSE 39 Comments

"SUSE unwraps a must-have desktop distribution for power-hungry power users wanting more than the latest and greatest in 32 bits." Read the review at Open Mag.

Wasabi Systems & BSDmall to Collaborate on NetBSD CD Distribution

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-23 NetBSD 12 Comments

BSDmall and Wasabi Systems today announced a collaboration to support the NetBSD user community by publishing regular distributions of the open source NetBSD operating system, beginning with the long-anticipated NetBSD 2.0 due early next year.

Review: Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-22 Linux 30 Comments

My first experience with Linux on a PPC machine was Pegasos PPC and Debian. Last weekend I upgraded my Cube G4 450 Mhz and with a blazingly fast 120 GB 7200 RPM WD drive (for just $58!) to replace the default (and extremely slow) 20 GB Maxtor IDE drive. In this vast drive space, there is enough room for more than one operating system, so I decided to install Yellow Dog Linux 3.0 (and then upgrade to 3.0.1 via APT) as an addition to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Read more for my impressions of YDL 3.0.1 and check some screenshots too.

Microsoft Opens Windows Source Code to Its MVPs

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-22 Windows 109 Comments

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday will announce that it is giving its Most Valued Professionals access to the more than 100 million aggregate lines of Windows source code, which includes all versions, service packs and betas of the Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 products.

New G4 iBooks, Updated eMacs Released

Submitted by mac guy 2003-10-22 Apple 100 Comments

It looks like the G3's days are over, as Apple announced today new iBooks and eMacs with a range of enhancements, including G4 processors. The new machines also sport Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, and slot-loading combo drives. All models ship with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). The 12" iBook gets a 800Mhz G4 while the 14" models get a choice of 933Mhz or 1Ghz. The eMac is 1 Ghz.

Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) 1.4.2_02 Released

Submitted by Deniz Kaan Çopur 2003-10-22 Java 15 Comments

Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) 1.4.2_02, containing many bug fixes on all the supported platforms, is released. Check out the release notes and download.

NYT: Apple Supercomputer Update

Submitted by Ikshaar 2003-10-22 Apple 8 Comments

The New York Times has an update on the progress of the Mac G5-based supercomputer at Virginia Tech University. The cluster, made up of 1,100 G5s with 2,200 processors has been successfuly tested in recent days, but final performance numbers will not be released until next month at a supercomputer industry event. Update: Even more news about it.

Desktop Supercomputing in a PCI Card

Submitted by Aneil Mallavarapu 2003-10-22 Hardware 26 Comments

Wired has an interesting story on a PCI card from ClearSpeed technologies which contains "a processor capable of performing 25 billion floating-point operations per second, or 25 gigaflops. ordinary desktop PC outfitted with six PCI cards, each containing four of the chips, would perform at about 600 gigaflops (or more than half a teraflop)." Such a PC would qualify as one of the 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world, but only cost about $25,000.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3: Red Hat Overhauls Flagship Linux

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-22 Red Hat 50 Comments

Dominant Linux seller Red Hat will begin offering the newest incarnation of its product for business customers on Wednesday, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, a version that opens several new markets for the company. Read the rest of the report at News.com and "read more" for the full press release.

Microsoft To Unwrap Longhorn Code

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-22 Windows 35 Comments

The new OS, still a couple of years away, will change the way developers write business applications.

Deficiencies in Resolving Dependencies Limit Linux’s Appeal

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-22 Linux 86 Comments

"Utilities like urpmi, up2date, apt4rpm and OpenPKG may be a step in the right direction, especially if they become widely adopted. Until we have a universal tool for resolving application dependencies, we can't expect casual users to be able to install their own applications." Read the article at NewsForge.

XServe G5 Claimed on Apple’s XGrid Mailing List

Submitted by Kelly McNeill 2003-10-21 Apple 14 Comments

Ever since Apple introduced G5's towers, many have asked if the company would eventually release an XServe based on the fast new processor. Although Apple hasn't said anything officially, it would appear that the company made them available to select individuals for testing purposes. A support message posted on the new XGrid mailing list is very telling. A brief osViews post has all the details.

Microsoft Launches Exchange Server 2003 Worldwide

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-21 Internet 34 Comments

Today, Microsoft Corp. launched Exchange Server 2003, the next edition of its messaging and collaboration server, as part of the Microsoft Office System. Novell also issued a press release stating that Novell's Ximian Connector for Microsoft Exchange enables users of Ximian Evolution groupware suite on Linux and UNIX desktops to function as full Microsoft Exchange 2000/2003 clients.

Review: Mandrake Linux 9.2

Guest post by James Smyth 2003-10-21 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 87 Comments

MandrakeSoft has recently released the latest version of their desktop operating system. Mandrake Linux 9.2 Download Edition is available on their web site across three ISO files for the Club members. The first disk is about 650megs and the following two are ~700.

SGI and Linux Accelerate Research Efforts at NASA Ames

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-21 SGI and IRIX 29 Comments

SGI today announced that large-scale SGI Altix 3000 systems have once again generated breakthrough performance results on demanding scientific applications. Recent achievements include attaining record levels of sustained performance and scalability on a 256-processor global shared-memory SGI Altix 3000 system, the largest such system ever to run on the Linux operating system.

Ballmer: Raising Microsoft’s Security Game

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-21 Privacy, Security 51 Comments

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Tuesday defended his company's efforts to secure its software and fend off open-source rivals.

WinServer 2k3 & SQL Server 2k on Itanium: Impressive but incomplete

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-21 Windows 16 Comments

The InfoWorld Test Center evaluates the performance of Microsoft's new 64-bit platform, assesses its usefulness for IT today, and reveals what's in store for tomorrow.

New Office Opens its Doors

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-21 Office 30 Comments

But is anyone ready to move in? Migration to Office System--the latest version of Microsoft's widely used Office package--is expected to be slow, given the software's complexity. Still, backers from SAP to the U.S. Postal Service are ready for the housewarming.

Fedora Core Test 3 Review

Guest post by Jason Parker 2003-10-20 Fedora Core 96 Comments

Fedora Test 3, is, most certainly, as the name says, a test. In my experience there are a few problems and a few bugs that would keep me from recommending it as an everyday desktop replacement, but nonetheless, Fedora is an Operating System (distro) worth watching out.

OpenBeOS Status Report; More BeOS/Zeta News

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-20 Zeta 31 Comments

In the new OpenBeOS newsletter Michael Phipps is giving a good status report, explaining the status of each kit. However, what we don't learn yet is how far we are from an alpha public release. In the meantime, the Beunited Java team announced that they now have a complete coomand line version (1.4.2.) running, while 3Sat TV channel will present Yellowtab Zeta on TV today. Additionally, the people at BeOS Max said that the last version of their distribution will be 3.1, because they don't want to be an obstacle on Zeta's commercial success.