OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

64-bit Linux: Ready for prime time?

Submitted by Wee Jin Goh 2003-08-02 Linux 24 Comments

With the arrival of the AMD Opteron and Intel Itanium, commodity servers built on these processors have joined proprietary RISC systems from IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and others in the 64-bit landscape. With prices starting at just over $2,000, Opteron and Itanium systems — running Linux or Windows — are already carving out a niche in high-performance computing clusters, where they are used to run compute-intensive scientific- and financial-modeling applications. Eventually they will replace their 32-bit forebears in corporate datacenters, and clusters of them may even challenge 64-bit Unix systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. More at Infoworld.

Microsoft Site Brought Down by DDoS

Guest post by Beryllium 2003-08-02 Privacy, Security 88 Comments

For over an hour today, the Microsoft website was brought offline. Reports indicate that it was a standard Denial of Service attack, rather than an exploit in their hosting platform itself (Windows Server 2003, at last check). However, there is a certain likelyhood that the launch-points for this attack were themselves exploited Windows-based computers. The Department of Homeland Security today issued an unprecedented second warning regaring recent Windows exploits. Is this an isolated incident, or is it an ominous indication of pending cyber attacks on popular internet sites?

LinuxTag Show Report with Pictures

Guest post by Nicholas Blachford 2003-08-01 Linux 20 Comments

LinuxTag, Europe's largest Linux show was held from the 10th to the 13th of July 2003 in Karlsruhe Kongresszentrum, Germany. Myself and a colleague (Debian developer Sven Luther) were there for 3 of those days. The organisers took to the free software philosophy with some enthusiasm, the entrance is free but the downloadable ticket is supplied with LaTex source code! Then again this is the same organisation which, knowing German law didn't allow you to threaten legal action without proof told SCO to put up or shut up, SCO promptly shut up.

Guess What? Microsoft Won

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-01 Microsoft 138 Comments

CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says the "end of Microsoft as we know it" crowd must face the post-antitrust reality that the company is confident and stronger than ever.

Interview with Asa Dotzler of Mozilla

Submitted by jeremy 2003-08-01 Mozilla, Gecko 24 Comments

In an interview with LinuxQuestions.org Asa discusses the formation of the the Mozilla Foundation, the direction Mozilla is headed, Microsoft's decision to no longer offer IE as a standalone product, acceptance of the browser as a client interface to applications and more. Additionally, Mozilla 1.5A, Mozilla Thunderbird 0.1 and Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 were released recently.

XPde Team Releases XPde 0.4.0

Submitted by José León Serna 2003-08-01 Desktop environments 65 Comments

The XPde Team released XPde 0.4.0, a major upgrade to the XPde desktop environment and window manager. Check out the announcement, view the screenshots or read the detailed ChangeLog. Go to the downloads section to get the binaries and sources.

VectorLinux-4.0-rc1 Available

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-01 Linux 9 Comments

The VectorLinux project released 4.0-RC1, more information is available here.

Technoids Interviews Axel Dörfler, OpenBFS Creator

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-01 Haiku 25 Comments

The online German magazine Technoids features a long and interesting interview with Axel Dörfler, OpenBFS developer of the OpenBeOS project. The magazine can be downloaded in PDF format and it is in German language as of now (some translations are planned, hopefully english too). Update: In another interview, at BeOSJournal, Nathan discusses his personal life, loves and hates, and getting in shape so as not to end up like some programmers.

MSDN TV: 64-bit Common Language Runtime and the .NET Framework

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-01 .NET 15 Comments

The next release of the .NET Framework will include both 32- and 64-bit native support. Christopher Brown discusses how developers writing managed code today will be able to easily port and, in many cases, just copy existing applications to this new environment.

HP Taps Mandrake for Desktops

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-01 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 26 Comments

"For a Linux distribution, the soul is the Linux kernel, the brains are the GNU system services, and the look is a function of the desktop manager. So what differentiates one distribution from another? It’s about "feel" and that's no mean matter. For Mandrake the feel is overwhelmingly one of high security for business." Read the article at Open Mag.

B-Free 0.0.20 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-01 OS News 5 Comments

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

Eugenia Loli 2003-08-01 OS/2 3 Comments

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.

The Future of OOP UIs is Coming Soon: DesktopX 2

Guest post by Brad Wardell 2003-07-31 Graphics 64 Comments

After over a year of work, we're almost ready with DesktopX 2. We even have a public beta of it now here. Here is a Windows media video with DesktopX 2 in action. I've also written an article for the OSNews readers about DesktopX 2.

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

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-31 Legal 129 Comments

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.

Microsoft Gives 12 Governments a Peek

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-31 Windows 18 Comments

Microsoft said Thursday it has now let a dozen national governments see its Windows source code in its battle to win lucrative public-sector contracts and to muffle mounting hype over rival OS, Linux.

Learn about JNode

Submitted by Valentin Chira 2003-07-31 Java 36 Comments

JNode is a java-based OS. Learn more about it and check out shots, here.

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

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-31 Windows 11 Comments

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

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-31 Java 10 Comments

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.

Benchmarking Linux

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-31 Linux 2 Comments

Choosing the benchmark tests for this year's Ultimate Linux Box becomes a project unto itself.

Lycoris Update 3-RC0 Available

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-31 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 37 Comments

The Lycoris Development Team is hard at work finishing Desktop/LX Update 3. Release candidate 0 is now available and all users can use the Update Wizard to update their systems to build 119 or install anew. Desktop/LX now can read/write Windows shares. Download the 613 MB ISO from here.