Sun’s Vikas Deolaliker Reflects on Opteron/Win2k3 Launches

Original OSNews Interviews 32 Comments
Today, we feature a mini Q&A with Vikas Deolaliker, Group Product Manager of the Competitive Strategy Group at Sun Microsystems. We discuss a number of issues that arise on Sun's stategy in light of the recent releases of the AMD Opteron and Microsoft Windows Server 2003. We also get a taste of Sun's position on the limited hardware support of Sun Solaris 9 on x86.
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Tim Sweeney 64-bit Interview

  Submitted by Sagres Games 16 Comments
Epic's Tim Sweeney has been advocating AMD's 64-bit platform since its official unveiling at Comdex last November. With this in mind, Firingsquad decided to ask Tim about Epic's 64-bit UT2K3 port, Epic's 64-bit plans for their next generation Unreal engine, and his thoughts on the Opteron architecture.
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Online Music Service Signals New Direction for Apple Computer

Apple 23 Comments
Jobs has a new direction. While the 48-year-old chief executive's roots are in the arcane programming codes of Silicon Valley, Jobs is today increasingly fashioning himself as a digital entertainment impresario. Over the past two years, he has turned Apple into a producer of entertainment technology for digital photos, movies and music, culminating in Monday's unveiling of the online music service. Read the news here, here, here or here. "Faster Than the Speed of Software: The record labels have a new idea for selling music online. The only catch: This time, they are ahead of the technology needed for it to happen" Los Angeles Times report.
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Microsoft Research Focusing on Search Interfaces

Graphics 40 Comments
Found a couple interesting links over at NooFace, a site dedicated to user interfaces. First, Microsoft Research is plugging away at one of the growing dilemmas in computing: so much data, so little time. XTend is a next generation product which uses a powerful Relational File System to deliver the world's first "Save With" oriented interface. And speaking of Knowledge Management (where XTend can be useful), you can read this recent interview over at TheIdeaBasket with the CEO of YellowPen, Inc.
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IntelliJ IDEA 3.0.4 for Java Released

Java 13 Comments
IntelliJ IDEA is a Java IDE packed with leading-edge development features which include: industry setting refactoring support, intelligent code editing assistance, a wide range of J2EE development features for rapid web-application and other enterprise development, a powerful Code Inspection tool, integrated CVS, VSS and StarTeam support, an Open API for third-party plug-in support, and a mountain of other productivity features that make Java development a pleasure. Version 3.0.4 was released recently for Mac OS X, Windows, Solaris/Unix and Linux.
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XPde 0.3.5 Released; InterfaceWM, XFCE and XWin.org News

  Submitted by Joseph Childrose Xfce 23 Comments
XPde 0.3.5 has been released, which according to the site is a major upgrade to the XPde desktop environment and window manager. We reported on the (Pascal-written) XPde before (shots). On other X11 news, InterfaceWM 0.2.4 was recently released, XFCE 4 is getting closer to release (screenshots and one more), while the XWin.org team had another conference call last week.
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Longhorn M5 4015 and Mac OS X Panther 10.3 Screenshots

Graphics 67 Comments
Unfortunately, these days people seem to not be able to keep... any 'secret'. Longhorn 4015 has leaked and Neowin has aquired some tailor-made screenshots showing off a few of the new features taking shape in what is becoming known as Milestone 5. Also, Apple-X.net claims to have the first leaked screenshots of of MacOSX Panther 10.3, clearly showing the "piles". UPDATE: Gsurface writes: "A quick look at what's new in the new 4015 build. To my surprise, it was actually an upgrade rather than the full version. Luckily, I still had my Longhorn 4008 installed on my D:\ drive. Continue to read with tons of screenshots here."
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The Business Case for Windows Server 2003, Part 1 and 2

Windows 1 Comment
Tom Bittman, lead Windows Server analyst at Gartner, told the E-Commerce Times that for some entities whose server requirements are simple, the improvements Microsoft has included in the new release might be overkill. Although Microsoft's new release can provide good ROI, most businesses cannot justify the upgrade without tying it to a routine hardware refresh. Enterprises typically replace their hardware every three to four years.
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What Next for .NET?

.NET 3 Comments
Microsoft's .NET strategy and framework have done more to raise the industry's awareness of Web services and XML (extensible markup language) than any product or public relations campaign. They also saved Microsoft's keister just as enterprises were beginning to realize the company's previous Web platforms were not going to work as advertised, and the mood was turning sour. Read the article at NewsFactor.
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Billboard Offers Details on Apple’s Digital Music Service

Apple 38 Comments
Billboard is the latest to report on Apple's digital music service, today posting an article that further describes the service. According to Billboard, the service is an "a la carte" download store that is built into iTunes. No subscription will be required for the service, and tracks will retail for an average of 99 cents. Once purchased, songs are automatically transferred to your iTunes library and synched to an iPod (if available). The content can also be burned to CD. Read more here, here and here.
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