OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Programming Languages: The Early Years

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-06 General Development 16 Comments

Only after learning what is under the hood can your programming skills blossom; so, look at how computers first worked and how they have evolved through the years. Read the article at InformIT.

Introduction to ISOS

Guest post by Wilhem Meignan 2003-05-06 OS News 5 Comments

I am writing to let you know that I have created a derivative work from JaysOS, the 'Toy OS' for Gameboy advance of which you have talked here. It is called ISOS and runs on ARM's Evaluator-7T evaluation boards which feature the same processor has the Gameboy Advance.

eComStation 1.1 Entry: Minimal Evolution Over Previous Version

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-05 OS/2 91 Comments

eComStation 1.1 is finally available for purchase one and a half years after the release of eCS 1.0. What's new in this release and is it really worth $200? Read on to find out.

Mac OS X and PowerPC 970 Benchmarks

Submitted by anonymous teller 2003-05-05 Apple 117 Comments

Macbidouille.com offers some benchmarks of the PPC 970 platform running MacOSX in 32bit mode, against a P4 at 3 GHz and a dual G4 1.42 GHz. Keep in mind that OSNews can't confirm the validity of the benchmarks as there is no official word from Apple or IBM (the article also doesn't give information about the exact hardware configuration used for both platforms).

Michael Robertson of Lindows Responds at Slashdot

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-05 Linspire 26 Comments

At the Slashdot Q&A, Michael Robertson of Lindows.com responds to a variety of questions regarding Linux and Lindows.

2.6 Kernel to Push the Envelope

Submitted by tvrg 2003-05-05 Linux 38 Comments

The Linux 2.6 production kernel promises to be the most advanced open-source platform developed to date, according to computer scientists who have been putting the 2.5 development kernel through its paces. Read the article at eWeek.

Chips Could Crunch at Light Speed

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-05 Hardware 10 Comments

Researchers at IBM have used carbon molecules to emit light, a breakthrough that could replace silicon as the foundation of chips and lead to faster computers and telecommunication equipment. The focus of the research team was ultratiny, tube-shaped carbon molecules, or nanotubes, that are more than 50,000 times thinner than an average human hair, according to a statement from IBM this week.

SuSE: SCO Poses No Legal Threat

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-05 SuSE, openSUSE 31 Comments

An agreement with SCO Group protects Linux seller SuSE from legal action stemming from SCO's accusation that Unix software was copied into Linux, SuSE said. "We have a joint development agreement with them, which includes appropriate cross-licensing arrangements," said SuSE spokesman Joe Eckert on Friday. "Our lawyers feel that covers us from any actions that SCO may take."

Fleecy Clears Up Amiga OS4 Ownership Rumours

Mike Bouma 2003-05-04 Amiga & AROS 78 Comments

Within last week's Q&A session Amiga's CTO already cleared up the strategic reasoning behind transferring the AmigaOS4 ownership to Hyperion. Within this week's Q&A Fleecy clear's up some more misconceptions regarding Amiga's influence on the AmigaOS4 development. Other questions relate to the AmigaDE, future hardware and software development for AmigaOS4.

Linux’s Perfect Storm: Is Wall Street ready for Linux?

Guest post by Mike Bouma 2003-05-04 Linux 28 Comments

Robert McMillan has written a feature article regarding Linux storming into the financial computing industry. Robert expects that 2003 will be Linux' make or break year regarding financial applications.

Review of the Pegasos System at GFX-BASE

Submitted by narr 2003-05-04 Morphos 12 Comments

At GFX-BASE a short review by Stefan Blixth of the Pegasos (BetaTester-II) and MorphOS has been released. He also provided GFX-BASE with some exclusive photos taken by Anders Ericsson at the AmiGBG-show that was held in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Breadbox Obtains Worldwide Exclusive Geos Rights

Submitted by Frank S. Fischer 2003-05-04 OS News 24 Comments

From the press release: Under the terms of an amended licensing agreement with Geoworks of Emeryville, California, effective April 1, 2003, Breadbox Computer Company, LLC of Port Richey, Florida, has obtained the worldwide exclusive and perpetual rights to the patented Geos operating system for all hardware platforms.

The BeOS Toolkit for Win32

Submitted by David 2003-05-04 Haiku 28 Comments

A Belgian developer has ported parts of the OpenBeOS/BeOS toolkit and API to Windows. This is not the first time something like this is being done, but possibly it is the most advanced of the efforts. This is also similar to what the B.E.O.S. team does, trying to port the BeOS API to Linux. Update: Xentronix project leader seems to have stop developing BeOS apps and the Sequel OS, citting personal reasons.

Interview with George Staikos Regarding the future of KDE

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-04 KDE 45 Comments

LinMagau.org features an interesting interview with George Staikos, of KDE fame.

Exec Shield Overflow Protection

Submitted by Jeremy Andrews 2003-05-03 Linux 37 Comments

Ingo Molnar has announced a new kernel-based security feature for Linux/x86 called "Exec Shield". He describes the patch, which is against the 2.4.20-rc1 kernel, as, "The exec-shield feature provides protection against stack, buffer or function pointer overflows, and against other types of exploits that rely on overwriting data structures and/or putting code into those structures. The patch also makes it harder to pass in and execute the so-called 'shell-code' of exploits. The patch works transparently, ie. no application recompilation is necessary."

Linux Gazette May 2003, Issue 90 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-02 Linux 29 Comments

The 90th issue of Linux Gazette is out and it includes articles like "Software development for a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 Linux PDA", "The CUPS printing system" and "Programming with User Mode Linux".

Symbian Launches Symbian OS v7.0s

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-02 Wireless 12 Comments

Symbian Ltd announced the launch of the latest version of Symbian OS. Symbian OS is licensed by the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers including Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. The new version is sporting enhanced networking capabilities, support for Java MIDP 2.0, a multimedia framework and new language variants.

Longhorn Alpha Preview 3: Build 4015

Submitted by IsPaulGoodName? 2003-05-02 Windows 91 Comments

"With Windows Server 2003 behind us, it's time to turn our attention to the more exciting world of desktop computing, where Microsoft is slowly plowing through pre-beta milestones of Longhorn, it's follow-up to Windows XP. Due in late 2004 or early 2005, Windows Longhorn will offer sweeping changes over its predecessors and be the most significant release of Microsoft's desktop operating system since Windows 95. For developers, consumers, and business users alike, Longhorn is going to be huge." Read the article at WinSuperSite.

GinGin64: A Technology Preview for the AMD64 Platform

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-02 Red Hat 9 Comments

Red Hat announced the availability of our AMD64 technology preview. This preview is for those who are interested in early access to a Red Hat distribution for the AMD64 platform.

Slap the Credits everywhere!

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-02 Open Source 26 Comments

"Free software is ego-propelled. People don't get paid, they get famous. Yet we as a community do far too little to prominently credit the names of the authors. I propose we change that by adopting a few simple practices." Read the editorial at NewsForge by Hans Reiser. In Greece, we have a saying: "Many hated money, but no one hated glory..."