OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing - Page 1598

Original Mac Veteran Leads Sun Desktop Charge

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-09 Oracle and SUN 32 Comments

"Sun's Desktop strategy - "Project Madhatter" - is taking shape and it dominated questions from the floor at an analyst session in San Francisco today. In charge of Madhatter is Curtis Sasaki - Sun's VP of Desktop Software - who was at Apple at the launch of the original Macintosh in 1984, led the IIGS project and then followed Steve Jobs to NeXT where he spent several years. More from Curtis in a moment. Read the story at TheRegister.

When Good Interfaces Go Crufty

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 Graphics 42 Comments

"In Vernor Vinge’s sci-fi novel A fire upon the deep, he presents the idea of “software archeology”. Vinge’s future has software engineers spending large amounts of time digging through layers of decades-old code in a computer system — like layers of dirt and rubbish in real-world archeology — to find out how, or why, something works." Good stuff over there from UI designer Matthew "mpt" Thomas.

Updates for BlueEyedOS and Cosmoe

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 Haiku 29 Comments

BlueEyedOS has made some progress in the past few months, and here are two brand new screenshots showing the progress. In the meantime, the DirectFB-based Cosmoe 0.6 is expected to be released around Christmas, but Bill Hayden has already released a developer release. Update: More BeOS-related news today: Unconfirmed rumors want OpenBeOS to have been renamed to "Walter Operating System", while OpenBFS 1.0 Beta3 is posted for testing.

Poll: Is MacOSX Slow?

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 macOS 124 Comments

Slashdoters discuss today the possibility of people finding MacOSX slow in general (regardless of hardware) or not. What do you think, is the whole MacOSX 10.2.x experience slower than other modern operating systems, generally speaking? Let's allow users to vote and decide over this!

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 Windows 2 Comments

PowerToys are additional programs that developers work on after a product has been released to manufacturing. They'll add fun and functionality to your Tablet PC experience. Microsoft also released the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC. In the meantime, ZDNet published a 3-page article regarding Tablet PC: "What will it do for you"?

It’s Official: No Longhorn Server On Tap

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 Windows 15 Comments

"Microsoft has decided to skip a Windows server release to coincide with the Longhorn client and instead jump directly to Blackcomb, company officials confirmed Friday. Until recently, Microsoft has been talking up plans to synchronize its Windows server and client releases, starting with the next major version of Windows, code-named Longhorn." Read the report at eWeek.

Of TCPA, Palladium and Werner von Braun

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 Privacy, Security 8 Comments

"Palladium is not secure Windows. Not exactly. Nor is it a standalone OS. Not exactly. Manferdelli presents it as a sort of parallel OS that is securely ringfenced from Windows, but which doesn't run all the time, and which actually you wouldn't want to run all the time. It works like this..." Read the rest of the article at TheRegister.

Microsoft’s New Open Source Mess

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 Microsoft 35 Comments

"What a mess. Less than a week after a court-approved deal ends the antitrust case, Microsoft's back in the spotlight. The latest Halloween memo portrays your company as utterly obsessed with the open-source software movement but utterly confused about how best to proceed. I can only imagine the state of confusion. Microsoft has tried to persuade developers and users for the last four years that there's no there there--and to no avail." Read the editorial at ZDNet. In the meantime, Business 2.0 posted a story called "Fighting Microsoft the Open-Source Way": Apple, IBM, and Sun have opened up their software code to the public in their battle against Redmond. It just might work. And here is another, interesting, editorial about the DOJ settlement. Update: Another one at PCWorld.com.

Nvidia Releases OpenGL Graphics Drivers for FreeBSD

Submitted by HmJ 2002-11-08 FreeBSD 15 Comments

This is an initial FreeBSD beta driver for 2D and OpenGL for FreeBSD. It requires FreeBSD -STABLE, version 4.7 or later. It can run single threaded aplications even in linux compatability mode.

Lycoris Desktop/LX Build 61 Development Release

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-08 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 3 Comments

"New in build 61: branded hwprobe; removed "unverified" from rlsysinfo; minor khelpcenter update; changed kicker clock applet type to plain, without date; minor mozilla update; upgraded NVidia drivers and rebuilt additional kernel modules; made printk default to level 6; fixed minor adduser bug; added more sdx1 and sdx4 entries; removed rmmod -a from crontab; added change the system password entry in control center; upgraded ghostscript to espgw 7.05.4, less to build 378, libdvdcss to 1.2.3, modutils to 2.4.21, PCMCIA to 3.2.1, util-linux to 2.11x and finished the unattended installer." Download the ISO of Lycoris and report some bugs.

Stallman: Disk, I/O Issues Delay GNU OS

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-07 OS News 40 Comments

"The release of a production version of the free GNU operating system (OS) has been delayed beyond the end of the year, as the current development version of the system does not support large disk partitions and high speed serial I/O (input-output), according to Richard Stallman, president of the Boston-based Free Software Foundation (FSF)." Read about Hurd at LinuxWorld.au.

Mandrake Linux 9.0 Packs Now Available

Submitted by Gael Duval 2002-11-07 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 20 Comments

MandrakeSoft today announced the availability of boxed versions of Mandrake Linux 9.0 -- the latest evolution of its popular operating system designed for both home and professional computing. Customers are provided with three packaged versions from which to choose: the Mandrake Linux PowerPack and Standard editions are designed for individual users, and the ProSuite Edition is created for small and medium-sized enterprises. Mandrake Linux 9.0 packs are available through a number of retail outlets worldwide and online.

Operating Systems Are Irrelevant

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-07 OS News 37 Comments

First seen the submission at Slashdot: "David Gelernter (Yale Professor of Computer Science, and Unabomber target) has a story in the NY Times which states, (1) Operating systems are relics of the past, (2) We should be able to access data anytime/anywhere, by (3) seeing a stream of 3D documents(?), so (4) he's written such software, and (5) that's all you should care about so it doesn't matter that it runs under windows. This is a fantastic (definition: based on fantasy : not real (?)) vision of the future by a premier technologist."

MS Palladium: A Must or a Menace?

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-07 Privacy, Security 25 Comments

"At the USENIX Security Conference held here recently, Microsoft developers touted the company's upcoming Palladium architecture as technology that would enhance privacy, stymie piracy and increase a corporation's control over its computers." Read it at ZDNews.

Microsoft a Problem for Software Rivals

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-07 Microsoft 11 Comments

"The software industry has two problems as it looks to jump-start Web services -- expected to be the next big thing in business computing -- the economy is weak and Microsoft is strong. So, when executives and chief technology officers gathered in Monterey, California on Wednesday for Merrill Lynch's Shaping Software 2002 conference, conversation centered on Microsoft Corp. -- the industry's 800-pound gorilla -- and still-slumping corporate spending." Read it at Reuters.

Amiga Hardware Now for Sale; OS4 not Quite Ready Yet Though

Submitted by Sven 2002-11-07 Amiga & AROS 14 Comments

"If you like using your Amiga and the Amiga OS then you will be amazed by the AmigaOne and OS4. Now - at last - you can buy the first new all-new Amiga to be delivered for a generation" Read about it at EyeTech.

Microsoft Officially Launches the TabletPC

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-06 Microsoft 41 Comments

Microsoft has high hopes for its new specialized operating system for pen-based computing. But a crop of new gadgets based on the OS may have trouble attracting buyers. Read reports at C|Net and eWeek.

Why Apple Keeps Clicking and OS X in the Enterprise

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-06 Apple 65 Comments

"Once again, the buzz says its end is nigh. Too bad Jobs & Co. is too busy satisfying consumers to go along with the doomsayers". Read the article at BusinessWeek. "Until recently, very few users and essentially no enterprises would give any thought to Apple as a server vendor. Small wonder, since Apple hadn't been trying to compete seriously in the server market. Things have changed." Read the article at ZDNews. Also, Apple Computer on Wednesday updated its entire portable line, most notably adding its first PowerBook capable of burning DVDs and a faster iBook.

Introduction to OpenBSD Networking

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-06 OpenBSD 5 Comments

"In today's Internet-centric computing world, networking components are a paramount feature of any system worth its salt. Easily falling into that category, OpenBSD contains strong network code and configuration interfaces which, with a little research and learning, can be put to powerful use. This series of articles aims to illustrate that with practical examples and direct application to real-world situations." Read the article at OnLamp. In the meantime, patch 001 for OpenBSD 3.2 was posted.

Halloween VII: Survey Says…

Submitted by Joseph Childrose 2002-11-06 Microsoft 7 Comments

"The document reproduced below was presented at a Microsoft internal Linux Strategic Review held at the Microsoft offices in Berlin during Sept. 2002. I received it on 5 November 2002." ESR's review for OpenSource.org.