Submitted by Upgrade Cycle
2003-02-09
Apple
"
It's possible to mistake Apple Computer's new 12-inch PowerBook G4 for its own manual -- the foam envelope that protects the laptop in the box is only a little longer and wider than the plastic pouch for the documentation. About 11 inches wide, 85/8 inches deep and less than a quarter-inch thick, this PowerBook is the smallest laptop Apple has ever built, and at 4.6 pounds it's almost its lightest." Read the
pretty good review at WashingtonPost. Expect my review this week too.
Submitted by Scott Luhan
2003-02-09
Wayland
The
XDarwin project announces that a hardware-accelerated version 4.3 is on the horizon which contains significant font integration functionality with Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar.
From the cool department or from the scare-your-little-brother one: "
A University of Tokyo professor claims he and his research team have developed a system that can make you 'invisible.' Engineering Professor Susumu Tachi is in the early stages of technology that he says will eventually enable camouflaged objects to be virtually transparent by wearing an optical device."
This late December 2002 article
compares PalmOS and the PocketPC operating systems and their applications, in the ease of use department. Adding Qtopia-under-Linux to the mix, which PDA have you found to be the easiest to use?
SuSE Linux 8.0 earned positive marks from us last summer for its strong feature set and low occurrence of bugs; will SuSE Linux 8.1 be able to keep up with its older sibling and win the Penguin Shootout?
Find out all of that and more at OfB.biz.
PalmSource, the operating system subsidiary of handheld company Palm,
cut 18 percent of its work force this week. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company laid off employees from all divisions within the company, according to Gabi Schindler, PalmSource's senior vice president of marketing. Schindler declined to comment on the specific number of employees let go but OSNews learned that some ex-Be engineers were also among the unlucky ones.
According to Brian Stevens, Red Hat's director of engineering, version 2.4 is limited to 2 terabytes of storage, but the 2.6 Linux kernel will push the envelope much farther.
Read the article at NewsFactor.
A
short review of the newly released
Vector Linux 3.2 was posted at MadPenguin.
File systems need to change. Current file systems are horribly out-of-touch with the realities of what users need to effectively find, organize, and modify their vast quantities of files. Unfortunately, no major consumer OS vendor (Microsoft, Apple, various Linux distos, etc.) has had the foresight, the will, and most of all, the cajones to implement anything more elaborate than a small departure from the standard hierarchical name-space which we all grew up on and should rightfully deplore. Worst of all, the best suggestions for changing the current entrenched standard are incredibly toothless, incredibly feeble.
"
Redhat released version 8.1 Beta 2 on January 20, 2003 and I have been running it since January 25th. In fact, the SpeedyLinux web site has been running on it for over a week. Based on this beta, I believe that Redhat 8.1 will be an excellent distribution due to its easy installation, comprehensive hardware detection, anticipated stability, high level of maturity, comprehensive documentation, and support options." SpeedyLinux
previews Red Hat 8.1b2. The author
previewed Yoper a few days ago too.
Submitted by James
2003-02-07
FreeBSD
This article describes the efforts at "FreeBSD From Scratch": a fully automated installation of a customized FreeBSD system compiled from source, including compilation of all your favorite ports and configured to match your idea of the perfect system. If you think
make world is a wonderful concept, "FreeBSD From Scratch" extends it to
make universe.
This article, describes the visions in BSD security features and how to build a secure OS.
The eighth issue of the Lycoris Community Newsletter
is now available. Included in this issue is an extended look at the all-new Lycoris GamePak and an interview with Brian Masinick, one of Lycoris' Product Support Services personnel, as well as all the latest Lycoris press articles and news.
Submitted by Anders Jensen-Urstad
2003-02-07
Unix
Over at
Unix.se they've published an
interview with Dennis Ritchie (inventor of C, co-creator of Unix).
This is a little different OpenBeOS newsletter than normal. All three of the articles are opinion pieces and they are all on very related topics. "
What about the OpenBeOS community?" "
Yet Another Rallying Cry (maybe?)", "
Press, PR, Progress and Purse". Additionally, Xentronix
announced that they stopped work on their audio editing application, SampleStudio. They collect donations via Paypal, and after they reach the amount of $250 USD, they will open source the application (one of the top-25 apps ever written for BeOS). Check a screenshot
here, taken from my BeOS installation.
Some programmers see the advantage of combining Python and Objective-C in the same environment, believing that a bridge between the two languages provides tremendous power and advantages to either language. For the Objective-C developer, access to Python provides a rapid application-development solution that's far more efficient than one requiring a compiler. For the Python developer, transparent access to Objective-C would allow the developer's scripts to leverage the full power and elegance of the MacOSX environment.
In this article, Bill Bumgarner shows you how to bring these worlds together.
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
today delivered on its redoubled commitment to the UNIX platform, extending the full benefits of the
Solaris Operating System, to x86-based servers with the Solaris 9 x86 Platform Edition. Non-commercial usage is available at no charge, while commercial pricing starts at US $99; attractive OEM pricing is also available. Source code for Solaris will now be available.
The Free and Open Source Software Developers' Meeting is
this weekend in Brussels, and they're published several more interviews with event contributors:
Harald
Welte about netfilter/iptables,
Solar Designer about Openwall GNU/*/Linux,
Yoann Vandoorselaere about Prelude IDS,
Thomas Vander Stichele about GStreamer, and
Damien Sandras about GnomeMeeting.
MandrakeSoft
today announced the immediate release of Mandrake Corporate Server 2.1, a Linux solution that provides large accounts with critical business server functions, plus MandrakeSoft's famous "user friendly" touch. The Corporate Server includes MandrakeClustering tools. The new Corporate Server offers all the tools needed to create a full-featured enterprise network, complete with the latest up-to-date software and
security updates.