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SkyOS 4.0a Released

SkyOS 4.0a has now been released. This release supports USB. USB mice/keyboard, HUB's, card readers, harddisks and digital cameras should all work once they are plugged in. SkyOS 4.0a also includes a lot of kernel and application bugfixes. For more infomation, go to the SkyOS website.

G5 Will Ship with OS X 10.2.7

It's been known for a while that the new Apple G5 machines would come out before the next major release of OS X, Panther, would be ready. It's confirmed today, though, that Apple will be releasing a new version of OS X with the G5, a version that has been "optimized to take advantage of the 64-bit technology in the Power Mac G5." "The kernel has been updated to take advantage of memory expansion and the vector libraries and math libraries have been optimized," said an Apple executive. "Any application that does dynamic linking to those libraries will get an automatic benefit without having to recompile."

Syllable 0.4.5 is Released

Syllable 0.4.5 is out! You can see the changelog here. This release is the last of the Syllable 0.4 releases, and comes after over a year of development. Development will now begin on Syllable 0.5, which we hope will bring great improvements and increased stability to Syllable.

Linux will Have 20% Desktop Marketshare by 2008?

One of the world's largest IT companies is declaring that the Linux desktop will capture 20% of the market for desktop computers in large enterprises within 5 years. Siemens Business Systems has done some extensive real-world testing with the Ximian desktop and application suite, running on either SuSE or Red Hat Linux and found that it's ready enough to start taking some real share away from Microsoft Windows and Office.

XFree86 forked into Xouvert

Xouvert is the open, innovative X server that brings tomorrow's technology to your desktop today It looks like they intend to keep everything public and out in the open. They will also be using some advanced development software as well. See the web site to learn more.

OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 for Mac OS X

FYI, I came across this message today:All, OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 is ready for download. It incorporates some bugfixes and significantly advances the development of the Mac OS X port. OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 is the first version to support building out of the box on Mac OS X.OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC3 is functionally equivalent to the final version, which is coming soon. What we want you to do is download this and try to find the bugs. That is important. We need people to run this under all sorts of circumstances.Download from here

nVidia Drivers for FreeBSD

It came to my attention today that there has been a new release of nVidia detonator drivers for FreeBSD. Apparently released on 1st July, the first I heard of them was when I randomly checked the nVidia website today. The new drivers support 4.8 onwards, including -RELEASE -STABLE and -CURRENT branches. The drivers support the most recent hardware including the FX based cards.

When Technology Fails You

Most of the people in the United States and Canada should know about the crippling power outage that hit eastern North America yesterday, leaving New York, Toronto, Detroit, and other cities dark all afternoon and into the evening. When the outage hit, it was sometimes low-tech (or no-tech) devices that were the most useful, as trains stopped and mobile phone networks didn't work or became overloaded. Pay phones (now rare), pagers, and flashlights were the useful tech tools, and thousands were forced to walk home.

MS Slashes Prices for Thai “Peoples PC”

In order to participate in Thailand's "Peoples PC" project (in which the goverment hopes to provide 1 million low-cost PCs for the population), Microsoft has cut their price for Windows and Office together to as low as $36 -- 10% of what they sometimes charge for Office alone! They also are dropping their controversial product activation requirements for this project. Previously, the Peoples PC project was based exclusively on Linux. My take: Watch for falling margins at MS as big customers realize, in the wake of Munich and Thailand, that threats of migration to Linux can win BIG price breaks from MS...