OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Open Source’s Time of Truth

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-25 Open Source 41 Comments

Intellectual-property expert Richard Wilder says the liability issues raised by SCO's Linux lawsuit will force distributors and developers to rethink assumptions about open-source software, IP rights and customer protection. Elsewhere, TheInquirer explains what OSS is.

Yellow Dog Linux to Support G5

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-25 Linux 5 Comments

Terra Soft said today that its Yellow Dog Linux will soon include support for 64-bit processing on the Power Mac G5. As an Apple Authorized Reseller, TerraSoft is receiving pre-orders for the new Macs.

Mandrake Goes For High Performance Clustering

Submitted by Timothy R. Butler 2003-06-25 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 8 Comments

At the International Supercomputer Conference 2003 today, MandrakeSoft announced its latest entry to the company's growing portfolio of middle-to-high end server products. MandrakeClustering is a high performance clustering distribution for IA-32 and AMD64 (Opteron) architectures. IA-64 support should come in September, the company reported. Read about the announcement at OfB.biz and here..

Better Java Garbage Collection with IBM’s JDK 1.4.0; More Java News

Submitted by Frank 2003-06-25 Java 16 Comments

This article discusses incremental compaction, a new feature in the memory management component of IBM JDK 1.4.0. Incremental compaction is a way of spreading compaction work across different garbage collection cycles, thereby reducing pause times. Elsewhere, industry leaders discuss Java status Quo. Also, Eclipse SDK 2.1 leverages Java’s strengths, but beware of too much expansion, InfoWorld says.

Become an OSNews Member

David Adams 2003-06-24 OS News 149 Comments

In various discussions that we've had with readers about advertising, many people have suggested that we devise some more direct way for regular OSNews readers to support the site. (This is usually amid complaints about online advertising in general or about some specific ad method that we're trying out) I personally don't like the idea of soliciting donations, because I want people to get something in return for their monetary support. What we've come up with is an OSNews membership program. For a yearly fee of $20, you will be able to show your support of OSNews and receive the following benefits:

Apple on WWDC: Innovation or Catch Up?

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-24 Apple 212 Comments

I was present at Apple's WWDC yesterday and witnessed one of the historical moments in Apple's history, the introduction of their 64-bit platform. Am I impressed? The answer is complicated. I was happy to see Apple moving on and deliver. But I would have expected nothing less from a 4 billion tech company who had the need to catch up with the "other" platform, the 32-bit PC. You all heard by now what's new in yesterday's press releases and news coverings. But here is a wrap up of the first day of the conference and a commentary on what Apple really announced yesterday, underneath its surrounding distortion field.

Mozilla 1.4 RC3 is Available

Submitted by Neo Gigs 2003-06-24 Mozilla, Gecko 20 Comments

A new release candidate of Mozilla 1.4 is out, RC3.

Novell Sets out Linux Roadmap

Submitted by Mike Weight 2003-06-24 Linux 28 Comments

Novell will launch a bundle of its network services running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server later this year. And in 2004, the entire services stack from Netware will be running on Linux, the company said, as revealed this April by vnunet.com, VNUnet reports.

LindowsOS 4.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-24 Linspire 43 Comments

DistroWatch reports: "It seems that LindowsOS 4.0 has arrived. While the official product launch won't happen until Tuesday, the Lindows.com web site has come back to life, ready to sell us their latest and greatest. The information on the product page and also in a recent edition of Michael's Minutes will take some serious research before we can present it in a clear and concise way, but basically, the cheapest available product is LindowsOS 4.0 for US$49.95 for digital delivery. This is a 2-CD product (installation CD + live LindowsCD)." Update: The first review of LindowsOS 4 is at TuxReports. Update 2: ExtremeTech posted another LindowsOS 4 review.

Linux’s New Popularity May Hurt Apple More than Microsoft

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-24 Linux 75 Comments

In the latest of his legendary keynote stage shows, Steve Jobs kicked off Apple's WWDC this morning in San Francisco by showing off the company's speedy new aluminum G5 desktop Mac.

Torvalds Speaks Out on SCO, Linux

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-24 Linux 19 Comments

Linus Torvalds, the founder and lead developer of the Linux open-source operating system, has some strong views about the legal dispute between The SCO Group and IBM, which he shared with eWEEK Senior Editor Peter Galli in an e-mail exchange last week.

OpenOffice.org GM for Mac OS X Released

Submitted by Mat 2003-06-24 Office 13 Comments

After two years of work, OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X (X11) is ready for download by all Mac OS X users. With anti-aliased fonts, to name but one feature, this Golden Master satisfies the needs of professionals and individuals wanting a free, complete, and open-source office suite able to operate in an office environment alongside Windows, Linux, and Solaris machines. Elsewhere, AbiWord 2.0 Beta 1 was released.

Microsoft Corp. Turns Focus on Privacy

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-24 Microsoft 10 Comments

Since Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates sent a memo 18 months ago urging the company to focus on making its software trustworthy, the company has devoted developers and money to security in its software products. But Microsoft has given short shrift to a second concern outlined in the so-called "Trustworthy Computing" memo - protecting privacy - except when forced by the government. With the hiring of a new privacy chief, the software company is hoping to improve its privacy record and keep government regulators at bay.

KSE Progress on FreeBSD SMP Environment

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-24 FreeBSD 14 Comments

This is a significant milestone to be shared with everyone! Khairil Yusof reports that libkse is now running quite well on his FreeBSD 5.1+ current based SMP system. He has tested a bunch of apps on his system, taking the approach of enabling kse one app at a time. Read more at FreeBSDForums.

Panther Details on Apple’s Web Site

Submitted by Bascule 2003-06-23 macOS 20 Comments

Apple has published details of new Panther features on their web site. Read more for the highlights:

Apple Announces G5: Rumors Were True

David Adams 2003-06-23 Apple 225 Comments

The specs for the G5 machines that were accidentally posted at the Apple store a few days ago were correct. Steve Jobs just announced G5 Powermacs at the WWDC conference. He's calling it the "world's fastest personal computer." They just finished doing a demo in which a Dual 2 GHz G5 vastly outperforms a High-end Dual Xeon. Read more for preliminary specs. Prices will be $2000-3000. Oh, and the Panther OSX update was announced, but we already knew about that.

US Government Loves Linux

David Adams 2003-06-23 Linux 21 Comments

Linux and other open source software has been widely used by government technologists for years in an unsanctioned way, but a recent Department of Defense memo officially puts open source software on the "approved" list. Government research contractor MITRE recently published a study that found that OSS was in wide use in the government, and warned that if it were to be forbidden, the costs and security fallout would be considerable. See this Forbes.com story for more.

Lycoris “TV” Commercials

Guest post by tim1980 2003-06-23 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 40 Comments

A Lycoris community member named "jmcqk6" has created two unofficial "television" commercials. One is in QuickTime and the other in Flash. They can be seen here.

Microsoft unleashes new handheld OS

parrotjoe 2003-06-23 Windows 20 Comments

Today was a big day for Microsoft's mobile devices software strategy. The company: (1) rolled out Pocket PC 2003 (and renamed it); (2) unveiled a new "Windows Mobile" branding strategy; and (3) launched a collaboration with three leading high-speed wireless service providers to provide easier access to more than 3,500 Wi-Fi wireless "hot spots" by Windows-powered PDAs throughout the US. All this (and more) is covered in this "special report" at WindowsForDevices.com (including a detailed list of enhancements in Pocket PC 2003).

VMWare Workstation 4.0 Review

Guest post by Roberto Dohnert 2003-06-23 OS News 53 Comments

If you have a mixed network like I do sometimes you have to compromise. At my job we run Windows, Linux and a sole Mac (Graphics dept.) and lets face it, when you do consulting work and if you design and develop custom applications you have to be able to develop for your clients platform and as much as I hate it, it's a Windows world. Before I used to have 2 workstations, one Windows and one Linux, or I had to dual boot. In the past, virtual machines have been lacking. Either they were too slow or lacking a certain pizazz to get the job done. Enter VMWare Workstation 4.