OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing - Page 1582

A Newbie Tackles Red Hat 8.0 on a Laptop

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-20 Red Hat 40 Comments

"Well Red Hat came out with 8.0 and I was cautioned about trying out a new release and that maybe I should wait for 8.1 to come out. I was going to follow that advice but I got tired of my sound not working so I decided it's either going to be Red Hat 8.0 or back to Windows XP, but one way or the other my sound was going to work." Read the full article at Linux Orbit.

Windows 2000 SP4 Beta Leaked

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Windows 18 Comments

Adek wrote in to tell us about the leaked Windows 2000 SP4. The file weighs in at a about 136 MB. The preview release of the SP4 beta will run for approximately 1 month, according to WinBeta, who first reported on the release. More, including the download, can be found at techconnect.com.

Mandrake in Financial Crisis?

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 49 Comments

Jackson was one of many who wrote to tell us about an e-mail from MandrakeSoft, makers of the popular Linux-Mandrake desktop Linux distribution. The press release can be read online or here at OSNews.com. Update: An interview with Gael Duval at ofb.biz.

DirectX 9.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-20 3D 39 Comments

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX 9.0 includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX 9.0 APIs.Update: SDK download listing.

The Consequences of Open Source Arrogance

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-20 Open Source 144 Comments

"The Open Source community's answer is to ignore Microsoft's incredible technological lead - because it is proprietary and not a standard - and instead focusses on their own cool thing and self-gratifying cool features, because they think they can do better (which is where the ignorance combined with ego comes in)." Join the discussion at Advogato.

Suse Linux 8.1 Professional Review

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-20 SuSE, openSUSE 19 Comments

"Over the last ten years, SuSE's distribution has matured into a polished product for the professional user. It is the fine detail which sets this distribution apart from the rest -- the little touches that make the system easier, and more enjoyable to use. 10 years ago, few dreamt that SuSE, and Linux, would be where they are today -- so, with that in mind, SuSE can look forward to the next ten years with a solid product base on which to build." Read the review at LinuxFormat.co.uk.

Distrowatch Takes on Slackware

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Slackware, Slax 21 Comments

CRM wrote in to tell us that the folks at Distrowatch have tried Slackware on for size. The review can be found in its entirety here. Conclusions are not surprising: impressive, stable distro, but if you like bells and whistles, stay away.

Showdown: The Penguins Prepare for a Shootout

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Oracle and SUN 10 Comments

Timothy R. Butler writes "The goal is tough, the reviewers tougher, and while the lineup of contenders are all worthy the award, only one will receive it. In this report, Open for Business' Timothy R. Butler grills Xandros in the first of a multi-part series to find out which vendor has created the best GNU/Linux distribution in town. Read the full story at ofb.biz."

Apple Releases Jaguar Update

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Apple 15 Comments

SkeeterMac was the first to report that Apple released OS X version 10.2.3 today. According to the spec page, this Jaguar update includes OpenGL 1.4 and a whole slew of other enhancements. Details available in this Apple KB article.

The Penguin Takes Flight

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Mono 51 Comments

After creating a program that makes Linux as easy to use as Windows, Miguel de Icaza is trying to make it just as simple to produce open-source versions of thousands of new Windows applications. So why isn't Microsoft worried? Read the article at Business2.0.

Apple Girds for Sync Push

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Apple 28 Comments

The Mac maker would love to corner the hot market for software that syncs up PCs with cell phones and other gadgets. But then there's Microsoft--and its pesky bundling habit. Read the article at ZDNews.

Sponsorships Double for Desktop Linux Summit

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Linux No Comments

The Desktop Linux Summit today announced that it has doubled the number of sponsors for the highly-anticipated Desktop Linux Summit to be held in San Diego, CA on February 20 and 21, 2003. Linux Professional Institute (LPI), Microtel Computer Systems, NeTraverse, Nova Computech, Inc., OpenOffice.org, StepUp Computing, the Kompany, Transgaming Technologies and Xandros now join Codeweavers, Hewlett Packard, Lindows.com, Lycoris, MandrakeSoft, Sun, SuSE and Ximian as Desktop Linux Summit Sponsors.

IBM Releases IP Security Validator for Linux

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-19 IBM No Comments

Frank wrote in to tell us "IBM has released IP Security Validator, which enables independent evaluation of VPN configurations and quick/autonomous reaction to problems. An offline mode even allows the offline evaluation of traffic that was captured into a file with other tools such as tcpdump or pcapture. This way, traffic collected from non-Linux network nodes can be evaluated on a Linux machine." The site goes on to say that among the features, it "reports the results on the standard output in words." Finally, not only can I compete with my friends who use all Windows 2000 networks, I can read the results without a man page!

Troll Tech (QT) Releases Beta of Scripting Language (QSA)

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-19 Qt 15 Comments

dave linenberg wrote "Troll Tech last night released a beta of QSA, which stands for QT Scripting Language for Applications (download here). As a business apps developer for a major financial institution's trading floor, I know the traders will love this. Hopefully, with QSA, I can get rid of Excel, and give the traders Spreadsheet widgets, with the flexibility of "VBA-like" scriptability to boot!"

GNU-Darwin Drops PPC Support

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 BSD & Darwin 36 Comments

GNU-Darwin will no longer 'support or distribute any software which links to proprietary libraries, and that includes Cocoa, Carbon, CoreAudio, etc.' They will also be putting PPC collections into 'maintenance mode' and moving all operations to x86. Read the story at MacSlash.

Review of Mandrake Linux at UnixReview

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 3 Comments

"Mandrake Linux has always been looked at as a desktop Linux. While Red Hat may be the star of the corporate server world, Mandrake's star rests firmly with the legion of Linux users who have abandoned the Windows world for their desktop needs. For Mandrake users, there hasn't been any question of whether Linux is ready for the desktop Mandrake is, has been, and continues to be. The loyalty and enthusiasm of the Mandrake community speaks volumes. It is with this knowledge that I embark on my review of Mandrake 9.0." Read the review at UnixReview. In the meantime, MandrakeSoft explains some non-free software they are favoring currently.

Interview with VectorLinux Developer Robert S. Lange

Submitted by Tony Brijeski 2002-12-19 Linux 1 Comment

There is an interview up at TinyMinds.org with the developer of the Slackware-based Linux distribution called VectorLinux. VectorLinux works great on both old and new hardware and yet it is very up-to-date in terms of software versions.

YellowTAB Zeta Reaches Beta 3

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Zeta 98 Comments

BeOSJournal.org reports that YellowTab's Zeta has reached Beta 3, and is on testers hands. According to Bernd, project leader, later this week a new beta will be ready. This version has many fixes and improvements over the previous version.

Arch Linux 0.4 (Dragon) Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Linux 1 Comment

The project is pleased to present Arch 0.4 to the public for general consumption. The ChangeLog and package list are at their usual locations.

Beunited.org Announces Talks With Gobe

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-19 Haiku 20 Comments

As previously reported, over $10,000 dollars has been pledged to open source Gobe Productive. Today Beunited.org has announced that conversations with Gobe have begun. Beunited.org thanked everyone for their donations and requested that the community be patient while the disscussions are going on.