OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Getting freedesktop.org to the Next Level; XFCE 4.0-RC2 Available

Submitted by The Matt 2003-07-21 Xfce 35 Comments

Havoc Pennington outlined recently the steps required to bring the freedesktop.org effort --to unite the specs/protocols of the X11-based DEs for better interoperability-- closer to its goal. Read more of the discussion in their list. On other X11 news, XFCE 4.0-RC2 was released for testing. UPDATE: Here is a screenshot of XFCE 4-RC2 running on Red Hat Linux "Severn" beta.

SCO Registers UNIX Copyrights and Offers UNIX License

Submitted by Joseph Childrose 2003-07-21 SCO 135 Comments

U.S. Copyright Office officially begins assignment of UNIX copyrights to SCO and the company is to provide UNIX License to commercial Linux end users. Press release, C|Net article. Here is also an inteview with McBride, SCO CEO at C|Net.

PowerPC 970 Redux: Dialogue and Addendum

Submitted by kenny 2003-07-21 IBM 22 Comments

John "Hannibal" Stokes has interviewed Pete Sandon, the PowerPC 970's main designer, and David Edelsohn, a compiler writer from IBM, and clarified several points about the 970 regarding group formation, vector issue queues and performance, and more.

Best Practices for Programming in C

Submitted by irish 2003-07-21 General Development 35 Comments

Although the C language has been around for close to 30 years, its appeal has not yet worn off. It continues to attract a large number of people who must develop new skills for writing new applications, or for porting or maintaining existing applications. This article has been written with the needs of the developer in mind, and offers suggestions that may help them in their job.

Coursey: Why I Want a Pentium Mac

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-21 Apple 123 Comments

ZDNet's David Coursey, now a switcher, writes an editorial about the need Apple has to create a cheap Intel box with OSX in it, as a way to tone up its PPC sales and grandually switch x86 users, more than switch PPC users to Intel. OSNews featured a similar editorial recently, but suggesting a G3 CPU.

A Look at Intel’s Past, Present, and Future

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-21 Intel 7 Comments

With 35 years of success under its belt, Intel needs to figure out how to diversify & create new markets.

VMware Broadens Server Software

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-21 OS News 3 Comments

The company, whose software lets an Intel server run several operating systems simultaneously, releases new software that supports a much wider variety of computers.

LinuxInstall.org 1.4 Released

Submitted by Thomas Chung 2003-07-21 Linux 12 Comments

LinuxInstall.org 1.4 was released today, a distribution built for Linux newbies and those who like a clean pre-configured install by default. Screenshots can be found here, read on for the release notes.

Apple Worldwide Market Share Declines Year Over Year

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-21 Apple 130 Comments

As reported at the Mac news site Macminute: "Apple captured 2.3 percent of the worldwide market share in the second quarter of 2003, down from 2.7 percent a year ago, but slightly up from the 2 percent it had in the first quarter, according to research firm IDC."

Red Hat Linux 9.0.93 Release Notes Available

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-21 Red Hat 41 Comments

DistroWatch published the release notes of Red Hat Linux "Severn" 9.0.93. The beta is scheduled to be released early this week, so make sure you keep checking the FTP mirrors of Red Hat. "Don't expect too much new, however, as the beta release appears to be more of a consolidation release of Red Hat Linux 9, rather than a release full of cutting edge features" DistroWatch notes. We also spotted Severn's ability to get into graphics mode just right after the kernel is loaded. Update: The RHL site is up.

Qt Ported on DirectFB

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-21 Qt 23 Comments

The first, very-alpha, release of the Qt library on DirectFB is now available for testing. A lot of things still have to be implemented, so please don't expect to be able to run Konqueror on DirectFB (yet). More info and screenshots at the Dot.

Installing Windows Server 2003

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-21 Windows 29 Comments

Explore all the possibilities for your installation of Windows Server 2003. You will get all of the helpful tips you need to complete a successful installation or upgrade.

Java 2 for NetBSD/i386 Binaries Available

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-21 NetBSD 4 Comments

Todd Verling says that binaries for JDK 1.2.2 and 1.3.1 for NetBSD are now available. You'll find binary packages from pkgsrc-wip, as well as Sun-style JDK images, including standalone JRE and debug JDK symbols. Another relevant story about it, here.

Q&A with Amiga CTO – Session 15

Mike Bouma 2003-07-20 Amiga & AROS 34 Comments

Fleecy Moss has answered 10 new Amiga community questions addressing various topics at the AmigaWorld.net portal. Amiga Inc also opened a new community exchange homepage. Here people can contribute various software and art of which some will be selected by the community to be included on the AmigaOS4 CD.

SkyEye-v0.3.0 Released

Submitted by chenyu 2003-07-20 Hardware 6 Comments

SkyEye is an ARM simulator. Now the newest Skyeye Ver 0.3.0 Beta was released. It can simuate these ARM based CPUs & boards:StrongARM SA1100/SA1110, Atmel AT91, Cirrus Logic EP7312. uC/OS-ii(ucos-ii), uClinux 2.4.x, armlinux 2.4.x OSes can run on skyeye.

Linux Ranks No2 on Microsoft Risk List; Munich Linux to Run VMWare

Submitted by N. James & D. Gojsevic 2003-07-20 Rumors 70 Comments

In a teleconference to go over the Redmond, Wash.-based developer's fourth quarter and fiscal 2003 results on Thursday, CFO John Connors detailed the five biggest risks to his company's business. "The general economic environment is risk and driver No. 1," he said. "Linux and non-commercial software is risk No. 2." Elsewhere, Gartner says that 80% of the Linux desktops to be deployed in Munich, will be also running VMWare and Windows because of some applications.

Red Hat to Abandon Retail Channel

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-19 Red Hat 58 Comments

Red Hat, the leading American distributor of Linux, is abandoning the retail channel, the company is expected to announce Monday. The company's next major release, codenamed "Cambridge," will not be provided in boxed, retail form, according to company communications with employees and developers, which have been made available to Linux and Main.

SCO Readies new Linux Licensing Program

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-19 SCO 106 Comments

The SCO Group is preparing a new Linux licensing program that it claims will allow users of the open-source operating system to run Linux without fear of litigation. The program will be announced "within the next month or so," according to SCO spokesman Blake Stowell, but on Monday the company will announce what he calls a "precursor" to this program in a press conference with SCO Chief Executive Officer Darl McBride and SCO's high-profile attorney David Boies, of the firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner.

Judge OKs $1.1 Billion Microsoft deal

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-19 Legal 26 Comments

A California judge on Friday gave preliminary approval to a landmark settlement under which Microsoft will pay $1.1 billion to settle a class-action suit that claimed it overcharged consumers for Windows.

IBM’s New G5 Microchip Plant Not Measuring Up

Guest post by MacWorld UK 2003-07-18 IBM 133 Comments

IBM's new $3 billion microprocessor factory in New York – where G5 processors are reportedly manufactured – is losing money, the company announced this week. Reuters reports that production problems are affecting the plant.