OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Study: SuSE Leads in Linux Improvements

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-15 SuSE, openSUSE 26 Comments

Linux has improved significantly in the last two years, a new study released Thursday has found, with a version from SuSE edging out that of rival Red Hat in the businesses features race. However, Unix still outpaces the Linux operating system in some areas, the study says.

Use the /proc Filesystem to Get a Handle on your System

Submitted by Frank 2003-05-15 Linux 15 Comments

The /proc filesystem is one of Linux's great features, and this article gives you a thorough grounding in some of its most useful aspects. With it, you can administer many details of the operating system without ever having to shut down and reboot the machine, which is a boon for those who need to keep their systems as available as possible.

Rocklyte Systems Releases New Commercial OS: Athenyx 2003

Submitted by Paul Manias 2003-05-15 Linux 54 Comments

Rocklyte Systems announced the first public release of its commercial operating system technology after five years of development. "Athenyx 2003" is an operating system distribution combining the Rocklyte technology (not based on XFree86), SciTech's SNAP graphics technology and the Linux kernel, into a desktop platform. Designed for multimedia use and general productivity, Athenyx 2003 includes these features. Coming soon: Internet dial-up support from the desktop interface, fully functional web browser, an X11 server for backwards compatibility with X11 programs. The OS costs $40 USD.

How Microsoft Warded Off Rival

Submitted by PJM 2003-05-15 Microsoft 32 Comments

"Last summer, Orlando Ayala, then in charge of worldwide sales at Microsoft, sent an e-mail message titled 'Microsoft Confidential' to senior managers laying out a company strategy to dissuade governments across the globe from choosing cheaper alternatives to the ubiquitous Windows software systems.

Citrix for Those with the Money, Mandrake for the Rest

Submitted by Yama 2003-05-15 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 9 Comments

PCLinuxOnline reviews how to employ Mandrake Linux as a terminal server. This is a free alternative to Windows-based Citrix software. It allows you to extend the life of older computers by turning them into terminals running from a centralised server.

Darwin 6.6 Source Code Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-15 BSD & Darwin 50 Comments

Apple announced the availability of the Darwin 6.6 source code, corresponding to Mac OS X 10.2.6.

Deploying Apache Tomcat on FreeBSD

Guest post by Tony Arcieri 2003-05-15 Internet 22 Comments

When you think of platforms upon which you would deploy a Java Application Server, FreeBSD probably isn't the first one that comes to mind. However, I hope to show in this tutorial how easy it is to deploy Apache Tomcat on a FreeBSD system, complete with a native build of the JDK.

SCO Suspends Distribution of Linux Pending IP Clarification

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-14 SCO 94 Comments

SCO is now turning (again) the tables regarding their Linux policy: SCO suspends sales of its Linux distro, alerts customers that Linux is an unauthorized derivative of UNIX and that legal liability may extend to commercial users. SCO reaffirms commitment to SCOx, SCO's growth strategy through Web services. Additionally, eCommerceTimes feature an editorial: 'SCO: Put Up or Shut Up'. Update: Read on for two more updates on the subject.

IBM Trims Power4, Adds AltiVec; ArsTechnica Analysis

Submitted by Ralf Hasemann 2003-05-14 IBM 31 Comments

In this Microprocessor Report PDF excerpt, the PowerPC 970 is reviewed by outside industry experts who conclude that "IBM has created an impressive and affordable PowerPC chip for smaller servers, graphics workstations and desktop computers". Also, ArsTechnica posted the second part of their PPC 970 series of articles, "Inside the PowerPC 970, Part II: The Execution Core".

GCC 3.3 Released; Squeak 3.5 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-14 General Development 18 Comments

The team released the new major version of their multi-platform compiler suite, GCC 3.3.
Update: In other development news, Squeak 3.5, an open, highly-portable Smalltalk-80 implementation whose virtual machine is written entirely in Smalltalk, is released.

What Will It Take To Put Apple Back on Top?

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-14 Apple 58 Comments

There is a possibility that Apple could reshape itself as a consumer entertainment company, according to Gordon Haff, an analyst with Illuminata. In fact, he said doing so would be a smart move. Also, Apple announced that it has sold over 2 million songs in the first 16 days of the iTunes Music Store.

Visual Studio .Net Makes Compelling Gains

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-14 General Development 24 Comments

The most powerful synergy in Microsoft Corp.'s technology portfolio is between its powerful platform services and its reasonably priced, highly capable tools. Wooing developers with seductive ease of use, Microsoft's tools then pave a path of least resistance toward the adoption of each new wave of Windows features. Read the review of Visual Studio.NET at eWeek.

NTFS Support for OpenBSD

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-14 OpenBSD 9 Comments

Julien Bordet has ported code from NetBSD to support NTFS4 and NTFS5 in OpenBSD-current. He has heavily tested read accesses to his Windows 2000 partition, and that has worked fine. Julien says that there is an existing port, but his port is new and adds NTFS5 support.

The Web Browser’s Unfinished Basement

Submitted by Yama 2003-05-14 Internet 16 Comments

E-Commerce Times builds upon the 'Web browser as an operating system' notion, recommending that Web browsers focus on reliability rather than features.

RISC OS Here and Now: Wakefield Show Presentation Report

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-14 RISC OS 10 Comments

Mark Stephens reports on the Wakefield show theatre presentations given by the RISC OS' leading developers. Four companies demonstrated what they've been up to and suggest what's to come, providing an insight into perhaps where RISC OS is now heading.

Red Hat’s Tiemann: Architectural Vision Must be 20/20

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-13 Red Hat 20 Comments

"Bad architecture and the proprietary lock-in has frozen out innovation," Tiemann, Red Hat CTO, said. "That makes it difficult to bring new ideas to market. The open-source platform with open-source standards has liberated the playing field." Tiemann urged chief information officers to approach their planning from this perspective, and he provided more detail in this interview at SearchEnterpriseLinux.

Borland Unveils .NET Tools, JBuilder 9

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-13 General Development 20 Comments

Borland Software last week unveiled the latest update of its flagship Java IDE, JBuilder 9, and disclosed plans for an upcoming line of development tools for the .NET Framework. Version 9 of Borland's venerable JBuilder development environment adds Web services support enhancements and a new integrated solution for developing mobile and wireless applications to run on many devices.

More to SciTech SNAP than X

Submitted by Andrew 2003-05-13 Hardware 22 Comments

Andrew Bloo from SciTech Software sent us in a clarification to our yesterday's story: "The SciTech SNAP drivers are not actually XFree86 specific at all, but rather the XFree86 driver is just a small module that interfaces to SciTech SNAP. Once SciTech SNAP is installed on the system, developers can actually code directly to the SciTech SNAP API's via the SDK, and bypass X entirely.

Carving up Apple

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-13 Apple 71 Comments

Deal.com has an analysis of the Apple situation and they suggest a restructuring of the company, even if that might mean break up into smaller companies a'la Palm/PalmSource.

Has Microsoft Delivered Trustworthy Computing in Server 2003?

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-13 Privacy, Security 37 Comments

A fundamental constituent of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative is "Reliability. The customer can depend on the product to fulfil its functions." No-one wants to be a guinea pig and, after all, Microsoft hardly have a track record of designing secure platforms. Not entirely true. Recent accreditation to CM-EAL4 puts Windows 2000 on a security par with most hardened versions of Unix.