OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

AMD Opteron on the Attack; SuSE and Mandrake 64-bit Releases

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-22 AMD 22 Comments

TomsHardware has an extensive benchmark of the AMD Opteron system, Extremetech has a long analysis of the CPU itself, while NewsForge reviews SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.0 on AMD Opteron hardware. Read more for the Mandrake press release about their 64-bit version of Linux for the Opteron.

Why Linux Sucks as a Desktop OS

Submitted by Frank Rizzo 2003-04-22 Linux 80 Comments

vbRad.com has an article detailing how modular nature of Linux is causing it to have difficulties penetrating the home desktop market. "Bottom line. Most of these problems can be traced to lack of integration between components in Linux. Until there is some integration Linux is unlikely to gain a foothold in the desktop market" the author concludes.

CodeWeavers Review: Photoshop under Linux

Submitted by Jeremy Newman 2003-04-22 Linux 34 Comments

CodeWeavers has released CrossOver Office 2.0.0. This new version adds support for Photoshop 7.0 (other versions of Photoshop work as well), Word XP, Excel XP, and PowerPoint XP. Photoshop even has support for tablets under Linux. There is now a trial version of CrossOver Office available for download. DesktopLinux.com previews the upcoming CrossOver Office 2.0 release from CodeWeavers that introduces support for Adobe Photoshop, among other featured enhancements. Embedded Linux support engineer, and former Adobe test engineer, Cal Erickson gives the new release extensive testing.

Apple Readies New Online Music Service

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-22 Multimedia, AV 44 Comments

Apple is readying to launch an online service that will cut straight to the core of digital music distribution, winning the praise of some record executives who see it is as a weapon against online piracy. Apple's new service will feature songs from all five major record labels, link with its iTunes music software and allow for easy downloading to the iPod, Apples popular digital music player, people familiar with the matter said.

Underwater View Real-Time Simulation

Guest post by Dmitry Abrosimov 2003-04-21 Graphics 14 Comments

The paper discusses various aspects of the waved water surface and underwater bottom video representation simulation and also expands on the math models and algorithms of the following related tasks: waved water surface simulation; calculation of reflected and refracted rays directions in 3-D space; underwater caustics (extra illuminated areas) forming; refractive distortion of the bottom view account; reflected skylight addition.

C# Programming Language Future Features

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-21 .NET 31 Comments

The Microsoft Corporation is in the process of developing the next major version of the C# language. This article contains information regarding four key new features, including generics, iterators, anonymous methods, and partial types.

Next Mac OS X Puts User at the Center

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-21 macOS 50 Comments

Apple Computer Inc. is planning to put the user at the center of its next major release of Mac OS X. According to sources, that's the umbrella term the Cupertino, Calif., Mac maker is applying to an arsenal of innovative new features in store for Mac OS X 10.3, a k a "Panther," reportedly due to ship in September. They said User at the Center features will make it simpler for individual users to personalize their computing experience and to move seamlessly among Macs and other devices.

Trusted Debian 1.0 Released

Submitted by Bascule & Peter Busser 2003-04-21 Debian 17 Comments

Trusted Debian has released 1.0 of their distribution. Trusted Debian provides a Linux environment with features like RSBAC for access control and PaX to provide overflow checking. And a demonstration can be found here.

Windows Faces New Competition: Itself

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-21 Windows 18 Comments

In the past year, Microsoft appears to have done just what it asked a court not to make it do: fragment Windows. Our Take: I believe that this article doesn't have all its facts right and it is just an overreaction. Windows currently has three big families (XP, Server and embedded -- code-wise makes sense to be different as they serve different purposes), but the sub-versions for these families are not all that different, hence there is no real fragmentation, but merely, customization (with compatibility tightly kept firm) in order to have different price ranges and attract more customers.

The 3G/2.5G Controversy: GSM vs. CDMA

David Adams 2003-04-21 Wireless 6 Comments

Over at NewMobileComputing, we've got a new article that explores the various methods that wireless telecom firms are offering for high speed packet-based data services. There's been some controversy over whether the CDMA2000 1x networks are really "3G" or are "2.5G" like GPRS. This article explores the controversy, and tries to get to the bottom of what constitutes a true 3G network.

Tech Preview of YellowTAB’s Zeta in Japan

Submitted by Issy 2003-04-21 Zeta 36 Comments

The YellowTAB guys are in Japan to present Zeta to the Japanese audience, so there are two videos in mpeg4 format to view.

Get to Know the K42 Project

Submitted by Christopher Schafer 2003-04-21 OS News 4 Comments

The K42 group is developing a new high performance, open source, general-purpose operating system kernel for cache-coherent multiprocessors. They are targeting next generation servers ranging from small-scale multiprocessors that we expect will become ubiquitous, to very large-scale non-symmetric multiprocessors that are becoming increasingly important in both commercial and technical environments.

Interview with the PostgreSQL Team

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-21 Original OSNews Interviews 45 Comments

PostgreSQL is a robust, next-generation, Object-Relational DBMS (ORDBMS), derived from the Berkeley Postgres database management system. "PostgreSQL is one of the best-managed open source projects out there" a friend-in-the-know told me about 2 years ago, so today we feature a mini-interview with five members of the PostgreSQL team about their plans on the popular DB.

SuSE First With Linux Server OS for Opteron

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-21 SuSE, openSUSE 14 Comments

SuSE Linux A.G. has beaten enterprise competitor Red Hat Inc. to the draw and on Monday will announce the availability of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 for AMD 64, the first enterprise-ready Linux server OS for the new AMD Opteron CPU to be launched at an event in New York Monday.

A Windows User Spends a Week with a Mac

Submitted by Robert Renling 2003-04-21 Apple 55 Comments

Steven Garrity, graphics designer at ActsofVolition writes: "I've been conducting a user interface experiment with myself as the subject. A long-time Windows user and armchair graphical user interface critic, I have spent a week working in Mac OS X. What follows is my review of the experience."

Opera is Spyware? Dodgy Goings on Backstage

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-21 Opera 51 Comments

"I was Running Opera on a nephew's system, specifically ver 7.03 US - the adware version. I didn't mind ignoring the ads too much, and even occasionally clicked on a few to feed the clikthru hungry bannerati. Lo and behold, without entering any voluntary location data, and always entering such info in a dodgy fashion when it was a "required field", the banner ads started getting personal, or at least - local, advertising businesses very close by. It seemed as if the browser might be feeding back URL lists, or perhaps, gasp, form field content, or XML. Naw... I thought - not Opera. I like those folks, and have recommended it to so many." Read the article at The Inquirer.

The 64-Bit Question

Eugenia Loli 2003-04-21 Windows 10 Comments

The introduction of Windows Server 2003 may well be a watershed for business computing, but uptake may be slow.

Learn about the Conquest File System

Submitted by teller 2003-04-21 General Development 4 Comments

Conquest is a new filesystem which uses memory to store all metadata, small files (currently based on a size threshold), executables, and shared libraries, leaving only the content of large files on disk.

Slackware: Myths and Cliches — Another Newbie’s Point of View

Guest post by Mikhail Zotov 2003-04-21 Slackware, Slax 88 Comments

For three months now, I have been a Slackware user. I am also an OSNews reader. Being so, I see that there are a lot of myths about Slackware. Some of them seem to be misleading. I'd like to comment on a number of them basing on my (not so long) experience using Slackware.

Application Development on Linux Power

Submitted by Frank 2003-04-21 Linux No Comments

Deploying and developing your application on Linux for the IBM pSeries and iSeries POWER platforms is similar to deploying and developing on other Linux systems. In this article the similarities and differences that you need to be aware of for the Linux POWER systems are discussed.