ZD Net Asks: Does Intel Still Matter?

Intel 55 Comments
Intel's recent announcement that it will start shipping motherboards with built-in 802.11b sparked an interesting question in a ZD Net article: is this a sign that Intel has realized that most people don't need faster processors? If demand for 3 and 4 GHz processors is going to be mild, then the logical step for Intel is to move into other areas, like building more stuff onto the motherboard.
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PCMCIA Working on Smaller, Cheaper, Faster Card Standard

Hardware 6 Comments
The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association is working on a replacement for its PC Card/Cardbus form factor. In addition to being smaller, faster, and cheaper, the PCMCIA is working with other standards bodies to assure that the new format is compatible with USB 2.0 and PCI Express serial input/output technologies. The new standard is primarily for laptops, but this article in PC World mentions that it is also being intended for desktop use.
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How to Avoid the Almost Certain End of Sun Microsystems

Oracle and SUN 50 Comments
"Sun did not invent the engineering workstation, but they certainly perfected it. But where are workstations today? Gone, for the most part. Sun's workstation business is about the same size as SGI's, which is to say small. Sun is now a server company, but that won't last long either under the onslaught of Linux. Cheap Intel and AMD hardware running Linux is going to kill Sun unless the company does something so stop it, which they aren't." Cringely editorializes on Sun's future.
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Mini-Report on Red Hat Phoebe 8.0.94 (8.1-Beta 3)

Red Hat 150 Comments
Red Hat is the undisputed commercial leader when it comes to Linux distros. A few years ago more distros were sharing the Linux market/userbase, but these days Red Hat has overcome its competitors in impressions, sales and popularity. Popularity doesn't always mean quality though (look at Windows9x for example), so after our world's first review of Red Hat 8.0 a few months ago, I wanted to check out the new product, Red Hat 8.1, destined to be released sometime in the next one or two months. I downloaded and installed the third beta of 8.1, codenamed Phoebe, and gave it a whirl. We will be featuring a full review when the final version becomes available, but here is a preliminary report on the current status, accompanied by three screenshots. Update: Added one more screenshot.
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New ‘Topdown’ UVM in NetBSD-Current

  Submitted by Jan Schaumann NetBSD 17 Comments
Andrew Brown has committed changes to -current implementing a new 'topdown' uvm. With these changes, the areas for heap growth and mmap(2)'ed allocations, which used to be separate, are now one and the same, allowing either one to grow much larger than before. As an example, on i386 it is now possible to mmap(2) over 2GB of memory.
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LindowsOS Steals the Show at First Desktop Linux Summit

Linspire 25 Comments
Attendees of the Desktop Linux Summit have spent the past two days reveling in the growing number of games, PCs, software applications, and peripherals that are now compatible with the underdog operating system. Designed to spread the word about Linux on the desktop and to teach the almost 550 attendees about the open-source operating system, the show also served as a platform for new product announcements, including several from the show's host, Lindows.com. Read the report at PCWorld.
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Microsoft Fires Back at Sun in Java Case

Legal 16 Comments
"Microsoft went on the offensive Friday in the antitrust case brought against it by Sun Microsystems, accusing its bitter rival of violating California law through 'unfair competition.' In a court filing, the software giant asked a judge for attorney's fees and damages to cover what it characterized as Sun's unlawful violation of a settlement inked in an earlier lawsuit over the Java programming language." Read more at News.com.
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