OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

MIcrosoft: Linux = Threat Pictographs

Submitted by Aquiles Cohen 2003-08-30 Humor 63 Comments

On Microsoft's Protect Your PC page, there are some graphical representations of firewalls and virus protection, and the icon that they're using to represent external threats is a familiar-looking curly-cue that Debian GNU/Linux fans might recognize. Coincidence?

Get An MIT Education For Free

David Adams 2003-08-30 In the News 23 Comments

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has made the bold step of offering most of its course information available, at no charge, on the internet for free. Anyone who wants to can now have access to an education (if not a degree) from one of the top schools in the world. The project is called OpenCourseWare and there are more details in a Wired article and at the OpenCourseWare web site.

Lindows: A Real Linux Desktop Alternative to Windows

Guest post by Robert Trembath 2003-08-30 Linspire 84 Comments

As a system administrator, I have used Windows on the desktop since 2.0 and used to run Windows XP at home for my family. I use Linux and Windows servers at work and prefer (Red Hat) Linux for its security, stability and usefulness in a company with a diminishing IT budget. More than a year ago I started experimenting with Linux as a desktop solution and after installing and using more than 7 different distros along with many various versions of those distros, I found a distro that is doing everything its suppose to do, right out of the box. I'm talking about the pleasantly suprising Lindows 4.0.

My Wormy Weekend

David Adams 2003-08-30 Bugs & Viruses 41 Comments

I checked my email this morning. The tally: 80 spams, 65 emails asking me to "See the attached file for details," and 6 legitimate emails. This worm thing is getting ridiculous. Has anyone else noticed a big spike today?

Behind the Scenes: Microsoft’s Server Dominance

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-30 Rumors 25 Comments

Once Linux overtakes Unix, as Aberdeen analyst Bill Claybrook predicts, Linux and Windows "will be duking it out for everything." There will be "unbelievable competition between Windows and Linux" in areas like back-end database servers, he says.

OpenBSD: improper kernel bounds check; OS Fingerprinting in Firewall

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-30 OpenBSD 7 Comments

OpenBSD's Todd Miller reports that an improper bounds check in the semget(2) system call can allow a local user to cause a kernel panic. No privilege escalation is possible, the attack simply runs the kernel out of memory. The bug was introduced in OpenBSD 3.3, previous versions of OpenBSD are unaffected. Earlier, Mike Frantzen has committed "Passive operating system fingerprinting" to PF which exposes the source host's OS to the filter language.

PostgreSQL, Inc Releases Replication Product under BSD License

Submitted by Alexandr Kovalenko 2003-08-30 Databases 6 Comments

In keeping with their policy of releasing all commercial products as BSD licensed open source within two years of development, PostgreSQL, Inc. has released a robust, scalable replication solution for PostgreSQL under the BSD license. The article quotes an statement from the company which says:

Gentoo Goes BSD

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-30 Gentoo 18 Comments

"I would really like to be able to play with OpenBSD's PF, or FreeBSD's jail, but I'm rather fond of Gentoo and portage. Right now anybody wanting to play with portage on a BSD has a lot of work to do before getting started, since we don't have stage-1 tarballs. I still don't have a stage-1, but this text and attendent files comprises a small start along the road to generating one." Read the instructions here.

HowTo Upgrade To The 2.6 Kernel

Submitted by Jeremy Andrews 2003-08-30 Linux 8 Comments

KernelTrap has a new story showing how to upgrade your GNU/Linux OS from the 2.4 stable kernel to the latest 2.6.0-test4 development kernel. Included among the the eight detailed steps are a number of screen shots.

SkyOS Goes OpenGL for its Display Driver

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-29 SkyOS 47 Comments

SkyOS, the popular hobby OS, now supports OpenGL for its normal 2D operations and also freeform windows are supported. SkyGI windows can have a per pixel window shape now.

Panther 7B49, 10.2.7, Xcode, Server Seeded

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-29 macOS 10 Comments

Throughout the week, Apple has made number of software seeds to developers and testers. On Monday, Apple seeded build 6R50 of Mac OS X 10.2.7; on Tuesday, build 7B49 of Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" as well as Xcode; on Wednesday, build 6R50 of Mac OS X Server 10.2.7.

No Plans to Sue Linux Companies, says SCO

Submitted by Alexandr Kovalenko 2003-08-29 SCO 48 Comments

The SCO Group said today it had never planned to sue any Linux companies, had no concrete plans to sue anyone and also no current plans to take a commercial Linux customer to court. The company was responding to questions routed through its PR people in Sydney. Full story at TheAge.

Tussle at the Teller Machine

Submitted by Zaphrod 2003-08-29 OS/2 64 Comments

IBM is pushing Linux as the upgrade path for current users of IBM's venerable OS/2, but most customers of OS/2 computing, especially branch banking, are looking towards a Windows migration.

Java2 SDK, v1.4.2_01 for Windows, Linux, and Solaris, Released

Submitted by Deniz Kaan Çopur 2003-08-29 Java 15 Comments

This is mainly a bugfix release, but contains a very important new piece: Java Update feature is installed when the J2RE is installed, and it can automatically update your computer with the latest J2RE release. It also contains new java logo. Read the release notes and download .

Blaming Microsoft for Hacker Attacks

Submitted by Ricky K. Yamauchi, Jr. 2003-08-29 Privacy, Security 104 Comments

"Some think the software maker is at fault for the latest viruses. But you can't blame a target. "Let's all just beat the hell out of Microsoft. It unleashed the worms!" Well, that's what some people think, if the e-mails (uninfected) I got during the past week are any indication." says Wrastler for CNN Money. "So why doesn't Microsoft make its software more secure? They're trying, company officials say. But they also argue that like any other company, there's only so much Microsoft can do to prevent a crime if a criminal truly wants to commit it." a Statesman article says. In the meantime, the FBI has identified a teenager as the author of Blaster and plans to arrest him early Friday, a U.S. official confirmed.

Sun Launches Hardware Compatibly List (HCL) Program

Submitted by Jessica Bookach 2003-08-28 Solaris 40 Comments

Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced significantly expanded hardware support for the Solaris Operating System (OS) x86 Platform Edition. Sun's goal is to ensure that the Solaris OS x86 is available on the widest range of x86 systems by adding 100 new third-party systems and 100 new components to its Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) delivering more value, choice and flexibility to customers. Read on for the rest of the press release.

Linux vs. Windows: Choice vs. Usability

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-28 Rumors 111 Comments

One of the major roadblocks for Unix was the lack of one single standardized platform for applications. Linux seems to be following along the same line, although on a different parallel. To compete head-to-head with Microsoft, Linux advocates should standardize the platform, A. Russell Jones says.

Opera 7.20 beta for Windows Released

Submitted by jeff 2003-08-28 Opera 45 Comments

Opera Software today released Opera 7.20 for Windows Beta. Opera's engineers have fine-tuned version 7's development branch for maximum performance.

IBM XL beta compilers for Mac; Apple XServe/OSX-Server Review

Submitted by Tobias M. Johansen 2003-08-28 Apple 97 Comments

On the 25th IBM released beta compilers for Mac OSX, there is both a c/c++ and a fortran compiler, these compilers is for use with the G5/PPC970 processor. Elsewhere, on a TechNewsWorld review it is stated that "while decidedly Apple, Xserve puts to shame many of the Linux distributions available by tying together the diverse number of applications that are needed to administer an equivalent Linux server into a simple, GUI-driven interface."

Trolltech Releases Qt 3.2.1

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-28 Qt 11 Comments

Trolltech today announced the release of Qt, version 3.2.1 Qt, Trolltech's C++ multiplatform application framework, is the industry-leading C++ tool used to create applications that run natively on Windows, Linux/Unix and Mac OS X, all from the same codebase. Here is a report on the future of Qt, on 4.0.