OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Richard Stallman: “Free software is neither to the right nor to the left”

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-25 Open Source 58 Comments

RMS fights against private software and its social implications is a battle to the death. As he highlights in his speeches, the law created more problems for those who want to publish free software than to those who would like to unveil plans for an atomic bomb. This is what he stated at Zaragoza, during an event organised by Zaralinux and the Giunta citizens.

Suddenly, Things are Turning up NanoTech

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-25 Geek stuff 25 Comments

Scientists are wrestling with individual atoms to develop molecule-sized computers, tiny cancer-fighting robots that travel the bloodstream and stain-resistant trousers.

Apple Removes ‘Switch’ Ads

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-25 Apple 279 Comments

From the Mac news site MacMinute: It appears as though Apple has removed all of the "Switch" commercials from its web site. When trying to view the ads, which used to be available here, you are redirected to Apple's "Switching to Mac: Real Stories" page. In April, Apple removed the "Switch" tab graphic from the top of its web site navigation to make room for the "Music" tab, although all of the content remained at apple.com/switch. Several media outlets have recently claimed that the campaign was a failure, citing stagnant Apple market share numbers. Also, read our interview with a switcher here.

Multiple Linux 2.4 Kernel Vulnerabilities

Submitted by Rob 2003-07-25 Linux 41 Comments

Red Hat has released an updated advisory reporting the existence of multiple vulnerabilities in the Linux 2.4 kernel. Exploitation of these issues could expose sensitive information to local attackers, permit denial of service attacks or allow malicious local users to gain elevated privileges.

eCosCentric partners with SuperH; More Embedded News

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-24 Hardware No Comments

eCosCentric today announced their partnership with SuperH Inc to deliver the eCos real-time operating system and RedBoot firmware on SuperH RISC CPU cores. The partnership will extend the existing eCos coverage of SuperH embedded development boards to include the SH-4 MicroDev Platform. On other embedded CPU news, both QNX and MontaVista Linux said that will support the new Motorola MPC5200 CPU while Samsung says it has developed the world's fastest mobile CPU, which runs at a speed of 533MHz, and outpaces Intel's CPU. Get similar news on our sister site, NewMobileComputing.

Bill Gates: Longhorn ‘Big Bet’ For Company

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-24 Windows 94 Comments

Microsoft Corp. will spend about $6.8 billion on research and development in its new fiscal year, an increase of 8% from the previous 12 months, said Bill Gates. They will be moving more deeply into the model-based programming space, said company chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates.

Inside Panther: A Look at Preview and Font Book

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-24 macOS 34 Comments

This is the fifth installment of ThinkSecret's "Inside Panther" series, covering Mac OS X Version 10.3. Elsewhere, the iTunes Store puts the Apple company at forefront of digital media market.

Microsoft Forges Ahead With New Compiler Technology

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-24 Microsoft 72 Comments

Phoenix is the next generation .NET optimization framework which will be the basis for code generation for all future Microsoft optimizing compilers," such as Microsoft's Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual C# ones, according to a description of the Faculty Summit session on the technology. On other Microsoft news, check the FAQ for the Advanced Networking Pack for Windows XP and download it.

HP-UX Gets Key Features from Tru64

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-24 Unix 10 Comments

HP developers move some features from Compaq's version of Unix to its own HP-UX, an important part of the company's plan to eventually merge the two product lines. This was known to happen since Day 1 of the merger of HP-Compaq. Additionally, read our recent interview with an HP-UX engineer.

Updated Mandrake 9.1 Kernel not Safe; 9.2-b1 Announcement

Submitted by norbalin 2003-07-24 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 48 Comments

MandrakeSoft issued an urgent message for all 9.1 users to back out of the 24mdk kernel update and downgrade to 18mdk or 13mdk. A problem exists in all kernels (except kernel-secure) where newly created files are created mode 0666 (world writeable) on any filesystem other than XFS, including remote NFS mounts. A corrected kernel is to be released soon. Update: The official announcement of 9.2-b1 is out.

Microsoft to Tout Windows Server Sales; More Security Holes

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-24 Windows 45 Comments

The software giant plans to use an analyst meeting Thursday to tout, among other things, strong sales of its Windows Server 2003 operating system. At the same time, they issue another passel of warnings about security holes, including a "critical" flaw that affects most Windows PCs.

Direct X 9.0b Released

Submitted by Neo Gigs 2003-07-24 3D 11 Comments

Microsoft has released DirectX 9.0b enduser runtime via WindowsUpdate and the release fixes some security problems and performance improvements. Download here, bug fix for 9.0a, more information on both issues here and here, SDK here.

Small Business Dilemma: Open Source or Proprietary Software?

Guest post by Alex Chejlyk 2003-07-23 Editorial 68 Comments

Small business owners now have a software choice. Just a few years ago the only business choice was to either run legitimate or pirated versions of proprietary software. Open source is now in a position to challenge proprietary software on the business and home desktop.

Novell NetWare 6.5 Delivers Advanced Network Services for Business

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-23 Novell and Ximian 14 Comments

Novell today announced the August availability of Novell NetWare 6.5, advanced network services for business. NetWare 6.5 includes business continuity, open source, Web application services and "virtual office" capabilities to reduce network costs and complexity while giving users around-the-clock access to the tools they need to be productive.

Trolltech Releases Qt 3.2

Submitted by Anonymous 2003-07-23 Qt 31 Comments

Trolltech today announced the release of Qt, version 3.2. 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. The release of Qt 3.2 includes hundreds of enhancements and features that enable developers to build high-performance, low-maintenance multiplatform applications.

Computer History Museum: Get In Touch With History

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-23 Geek stuff 39 Comments

The mission of the newly re-opened Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View, California, is to preserve and present for posterity the artifacts and stories of the information age. As such, we wouldn't miss the opportunity to visit the museum last weekend, trying to be part and have a "feel" of how computers where like before the desktop home computers took off only two decades ago. Before that time, computers were much different, and I am sure that every geek on this planet would like to witness how they looked and felt like. Read more for the report and plenty of pictures from our visit.

LindowsOS 4.0 Reviewed at The Inquirer

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-23 Linspire 20 Comments

The Inquirer reviews LindowsOS 4.0 with its usual humor and sarcastic twist.

Red Hat Linux 10 Beta: First Look

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-23 Red Hat 33 Comments

"There aren't many major changes, just a bunch of minor tweaks. Most of these are welcome additions though. The one gripe I have is that Red Hat doesn't seem sure if they want to have this be a desktop for the average, not-very technical person (e.g., they hide the boot messages) or be one for the more advanced or technical user (e.g., Emacs is installed by default for a personal desktop)." Read the review at Linux-Universe. Screenshots are here.

New C++ Source Library With Altivec Optimization for Macs

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-23 General Development 6 Comments

Pixelglow Software announced the availability of macstl 0.1 -- a new C++ source library.

Mandrake Linux 9.2 Beta-1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-23 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 75 Comments

MandrakeSoft just released the first beta of Mandrake Linux 9.2. Download the three ISOs from here for now, until more mirrors get updated with the ISOs.