B-Free 0.0.20 Released

The B-Free project is a collaborative work aimed at creating a BTRON operating system from scratch, with free distribution. It is a preemptive multitasking operating system constructed through micro-kernel technology, which assumes 32-bit or higher CPUs. The BTRON operating system is a subset of the TRON project, which in turn, is a worldwide open Real Time Operating System (RTOS) specification.

Updated Java 1.3.1, SNAP Ethernet Gigabit Drivers for eCS, OS/2

IBM updated the Java Development Kit (javaintk) and the Run Time (javainrt) files which are distributed through Software Choice for OS2. These files are now available on the eComStation site. Two drivers were also updated, the SciTech SNAP SE 2.1.5, to include support for ATI Radeon 9000 Pro and the NVidia GeForce4 MX440 8X, and the OS/2 Gigabit Ethernet Fiber Adapter Driver, which provides support for select Intel PRO/1000 Fiber Ethernet controllers (82542 / 82543GC / 82544EI). Additionally, Serenity Systems announced the release of the eComStation 1.1 German Beta CD1. It is accesible for those who are registered Upgrade Protection customers.

McNealy: “Don’t Touch” Linux Without Legal Guarantees

Scott McNealy, the chairman, president and CEO of systems vendor Sun Microsystems, has dramatically warned companies of the legal dangers of using open source software such as the Linux operating system. Following on from SCO Group's threats to sue Linux users over its intellectual property claims, McNealy told an audience of UK businesses that they should steer clear of open source software unless their suppliers can offer insurance against such legal action.

Reflections on a Microsoft-funded anti-embedded-LInux Report

In this editorial, LinuxDevices.com founder Rick Lehrbaum offers his "reflections" on the recently published (Microsoft-funded) Embedded Market Forecasters (EMF) report which claims embedded development projects based on Microsoft's "Windows Embedded" operating system platforms (specifically, Windows CE .NET and Windows XP Embedded) are completed 43% faster and at 68% lower cost, on average, compared with similar projects using Embedded Linux.

Sun, SuSE Make Java/Linux Pact

Sun Microsystems Inc. and SuSE Linux A.G. have entered into a global alliance that calls for Sun to preinstall SuSE Linux's Enterprise Server 8 on its commodity x86 hardware systems, while SuSE becomes a Java 2 Standard Edition source licensee and will distribute Sun's Java Virtual Machine with all its Linux products, the two companies announced Thursday.

Libranet: TCO-friendly GNU/Linux

Libranet is a bit different than the other GNU/Linux distributions we are considering this time around. In an era when distributions are often judged by the glitz that their installer and customized desktop provides, Libranet has neither glitz nor much of a customized desktop. Read more at OfB.biz.

Graphics Conference Plays up Interaction; Sketch Recognition

Hay Young, a researcher at the Center for Media Arts at City University of Hong Kong, believes computing should be a full contact sport. Elsewhere, this article describes work being done at MIT on Multi-Domain Sketch Recognition software. The technology allows users to draw basic shapes, and then applies rules to determine what objects the shapes represent and how these objects should behave.

MenuetOS 0.74 Released

MenuetOS 0.74 is released and includes a Tiny email server, improved Http/Mp3 servers, Fasm 1.48, improved protection, skinning and font additions, Minesweeper and more. The OS is written in 100% assembly and is running off a floppy disk. However, developers are now adding support for a C library and they are looking for more developers to help with fixing the bugs and adding new features.

Benchmarks: Test of 6 Linux Fs; Panther Faster even on G3s

Here is a small benchmark test, testing various filesystems. Elsewhere, 10.3 Panther is tested on an iMac G3 600 Mhz and --except the reduced OpenGL performance (possibly because of changes in the QuartzExtreme that this iMac does not support with its ATi Rage Pro card)-- it is showing to be overall faster than 10.2 according to the XBench test suite. Update: More benchmarks. HP released new server speed-test results Wednesday that for the first time compare its version of Unix with Windows on the company's top-end Itanium server--and Unix came out ahead.

Editorial: Reconsidering Linux

Proclamations of Linux's commercial success are frequently punctuated with statements about how some analyst firm has found that sales have grown faster than has any operating system since 1999, or that Linux server shipments make it the second most popular operating system for servers. Read the editorial at C|Net News by Ian Murdock, Debian founder.