OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Graphics Conference Plays up Interaction; Sketch Recognition

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-31 Graphics 5 Comments

Hay Young, a researcher at the Center for Media Arts at City University of Hong Kong, believes computing should be a full contact sport. Elsewhere, this article describes work being done at MIT on Multi-Domain Sketch Recognition software. The technology allows users to draw basic shapes, and then applies rules to determine what objects the shapes represent and how these objects should behave.

MenuetOS 0.74 Released

Submitted by Jarek Pelczar 2003-07-30 OS News 27 Comments

MenuetOS 0.74 is released and includes a Tiny email server, improved Http/Mp3 servers, Fasm 1.48, improved protection, skinning and font additions, Minesweeper and more. The OS is written in 100% assembly and is running off a floppy disk. However, developers are now adding support for a C library and they are looking for more developers to help with fixing the bugs and adding new features.

Benchmarks: Test of 6 Linux Fs; Panther Faster even on G3s

Submitted by Prognathous 2003-07-30 Benchmarks 58 Comments

Here is a small benchmark test, testing various filesystems. Elsewhere, 10.3 Panther is tested on an iMac G3 600 Mhz and --except the reduced OpenGL performance (possibly because of changes in the QuartzExtreme that this iMac does not support with its ATi Rage Pro card)-- it is showing to be overall faster than 10.2 according to the XBench test suite. Update: More benchmarks. HP released new server speed-test results Wednesday that for the first time compare its version of Unix with Windows on the company's top-end Itanium server--and Unix came out ahead.

Interview with Brian Kernighan, co-creator of AWK and AMPL

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-30 General Development 18 Comments

Aleksey Dolya interviews Brian Kernighan, one of the creators of the AWK and AMPL languages and someone who has seen the birth of UNIX and C.

IBM Prepares Linux Barrage

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-30 IBM 22 Comments

LinuxWorld preview: IBM on Wednesday will announce a new server; a DB2 Linux integrated clustering environment; extended Linux support for the Lotus client and server; as well as three key Tivoli offerings.

The Future of XML Documents and Relational Databases

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-30 Databases 5 Comments

As new species of XML docs are emerging, vendors are unveiling increased RDBMS support for XML.

Editorial: Reconsidering Linux

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-30 Linux 69 Comments

Proclamations of Linux's commercial success are frequently punctuated with statements about how some analyst firm has found that sales have grown faster than has any operating system since 1999, or that Linux server shipments make it the second most popular operating system for servers. Read the editorial at C|Net News by Ian Murdock, Debian founder.

Mini Review: Griffin Technology’s USB iMic

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-30 Multimedia, AV 24 Comments

I am a happy G4 450MHz Cube user and I use it even more these days since I got the freebie iSight camera at WWDC last month. Now, picture this: The sound coming out of my speakers is often heard to the other chatter's speakers! I obviously needed a way to cancel the sound of my speakers, and the best way to do this would be to use headphones or use a special headset with a mic that cancels the general noise. Gotcha! The Cube doesn't have audio jacks at all. Enter Griffin Technology's iMic.

Embedded and PC OS µnOS 0.98 Released

Submitted by Michael Haunreiter 2003-07-30 OS News 10 Comments

miray Software released the latest version of its embedded and PC operating system µnOS. Besides a number of runtime enhancements of the system core the new version 0.98 contains a vastly improved window server, an all-new intelligent console interface and new system utilities. A dedicated internet platform for developers and interested users will be launched by miray in the near future.

Python 2.3 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-30 General Development 32 Comments

Python 2.3 has just been released. Changes, Release Notes and Highlights for more info.

Astaro Integrated Security Solution Fueled by Open Source Linux

Submitted by Jill 2003-07-30 Linux 5 Comments

Fueled by lean IT budgets that demand results and a successful round of VC funding, Astaro is experiencing demand from small and large businesses that want an integrated solution for security with no vendor lock-in. DesktopLinux.com recently caught up with Astaro CEO Jan Hichert to discover that the company is not only developing Linux-only solutions, but has embraced open source practices, philosophy, and is even considering offering an OS-development fund.

USB 2 on YellowTAB’s Zeta Underway

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-29 Zeta 52 Comments

YellowTAB announced today that their forthcoming Zeta OS will have full support for all three kinds of USB (on both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 speeds): OHCI, EHCI and UHCI. BeOS 5 and Dano OSes from Be, Inc. only had limited USB 1.1 support, mostly working best with Intel chipsets. Additionally, the company announced that they internally moved to Perforce from CVS.

PostgreSQL 7.3.4 Now Available For Download

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-29 Databases 2 Comments

In order to address a potentially serious (although rare) server startup failure that was recently reported, PostgreSQL version 7.3.4 was released. This release is critical for users of PostgreSQL version 7.3.3, and highly recommended for all other PostgreSQL users. This release, as with all minor releases, does not require a dump/reload to be upgraded.

Sun Announces Solaris 9 Update 4; Integration of GNOME 2.0

Submitted by Bascule 2003-07-29 Oracle and SUN 25 Comments

Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the Solaris 9 8/03 Operating System for the SPARC and x86 platforms. The fourth update to the Solaris 9 Operating System, Solaris 9 8/03 features the integration of GNOME 2.0. Update: Sun releases Solaris 10 preview.

NeTraverse Releases Newest Version of Win4Lin Terminal Server

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-29 In the News 9 Comments

NeTraverse, today, announced the immediate availability of Win4Lin Terminal Server 2.5, based on the award-winning Win4Lin technology. Win4Lin Terminal Server allows an organization to dramatically lower costs by hosting and managing their Windows desktop sessions on low-cost, reliable and secure Linux servers. Read more for the rest of the press release.

KDE 3.1.3 Released

Submitted by C. Graham & C. Drane 2003-07-29 KDE 41 Comments

The KDE Project announced KDE 3.1.3 today. It's the third maintenance release of the successful KDE 3.1.x series and ships with many bugfixes and improved translations. KDE 3.1.3 also contains a fix for a possible http authentication leak in the http referrer header. Info, changelog.

Microsoft Prepares for Yukon, Longhorn

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-29 Microsoft 17 Comments

Microsoft on Tuesday announced plans for new development tools, as the company continues to lay the groundwork for its next major database and operating system software releases.

Sun’s Linux: Not Dead After All

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-29 Oracle and SUN 24 Comments

Although Sun Microsystems Inc. discontinued sales several months ago of its customized Linux distribution, the company hasn't entirely abandoned its do-it-yourself Linux strategy: In its forthcoming bundle of desktop software, code-named Mad Hatter, the included Linux OS will be Sun's own.

Introduction to the DirectX 9 High Level Shading Language

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-29 3D 10 Comments

In an excerpt from the forthcoming book ShaderX2 - Introduction and Tutorials with DirectX 9, Craig Peeper and Jason Mitchell present a detailed introduction to the Microsoft DirectX High Level Shading Language, including a number of example shaders and optimization strategies.

SuSE Linux Desktop Review

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-29 SuSE, openSUSE 18 Comments

"To investigate SuSE’s Linux Desktop, which is based on the company’s Linux Enterprise Server technology, we ran it alongside a number of Windows systems in a ‘live’ editorial production environment for around two weeks. The idea was to see how well this business-oriented operating system/application software bundle worked for a moderately technical user working in a Windows-dominated world." Read the review at ZDNet.