Mac OS X to Get Journaling

The journaled file system, which will run atop the Mac's traditional HFS file scheme, will be switched off by default; users will be able to switch it on via the command line, sources said. They reported that while "Elvis" runs in the background, enabling Journaling FS will slow current system performance by 10 percent to 15 percent. Read the full report at eWeek.

Robertson’s Open Letter to Ballmer

"Yes, after two anti-trust violations you're obligated to offer equitable pricing to the largest computer builders for the Microsoft Windows XP software, but what Microsoft does now is use MDF (market development funds) to pressure the behavior you want from many OEMs. You give computer companies a price break on Microsoft software in the form of a rebate for every computer they've sold. This program is disguised as a "marketing" program but OEMs only qualify if they agree to terms such as not working with competitor's products." Read Lindows' Michael Robertson open letter to Steve Ballmer.

Java: A Developer’s Perspective

"This will come as no surprise to many of you, but I have been somewhat lost and wandering in the desert these past few months. Five years of involvement in many of the major issues related to Java had left me questioning whether the ideas I believe in, ideas that many of us share in common, could make a meaningful difference. This summer has been a sabbatical that I didn't know I needed, and the long pondering of the core issues has helped me refocus and reorder my priorities." Read the article at JavaLobby (free reg. required).

TinyOS 1.0 Released

TinyOS is a component-based runtime environment designed to provide support for deeply embedded systems which require concurrency intensive operations while constrained by minimal hardware resources. For example, originally designed for the Smart Dust hardware platform, our scheduler fits in under 200 bytes of program memory.

Ballmer on Linux, Licensing and .Net

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows what it's like to be in the hot seat. The company he leads has been under fire for a controversial new licensing programme that raised prices considerably for some customers. A high-profile initiative to deliver web services is on the rocks. And the threat from the open-source Linux operating system is stronger than ever. Read the interview at Silicon.com.

IBM Server Chip Seen Slimmed Down for Apple Macs

IBM announced on Monday a microchip for personal computers that will crunch data in chunks twice as big as the current standard and is expected (but not confirmed yet) by industry watchers to be used by Apple. Apple was not available to comment, and IBM declined to comment on which computer makers would use the chip, but its plans would mark a change for the industry, which has emphasized the importance of the speed of a chip rather than its ability to handle heavy workloads. Read the report. Update: Read another report at ZDNews.

Syllable 0.4.2 Released

On Syllable 0.4.2 there are new GUI classes, public message ports, kernel fixes, a new POSIX threads library, Daryl's new preference apps. For a full list of changes, look here, and you can download 0.4.2 here. Installation notes here. Now that Syllable 0.4.2 has fixed a bug which has previously caused Samba to fail, it means that Samba now compiles and runs. A basic precompiled binary can now be downloaded, which you can install and use once you've upgraded to 0.4.2.

SkyOS Gets GNU, OBOS a Media Kit, Menuet, Syllable, Triangle News

There is more to OS life than just Mac, Unix and Windows. Robert Szeleney did some good work for the past few weeks, porting Quake I and II to SkyOS, GCC and binutiles and developing a text programmer's editor to help him further develop the OS on a self-hosted environment. In the meantime, Marcus Overhagen continues to develop for OpenBeOS a MediaKit clone off the original BeOS, while MenuetOS gets lots of advancements in networking lately, same as TriangleOS does (expect a new version and a kernel re-write too for this new OS). Additionally, Syllable gets a CVS freeze in preperation for version 0.4.2, while Daryl Dudey continues his truly remarkable work on Syllable's preference panels.

GTK+ Users, Meet the LightHouseBlue Theme

While we do not normally report on themes, this one is special. Remember a few months ago our article on a "random Gnome2-Limbo screenshot"? OSNews reader Jan Rosczak dived into coding and the result is the LightHouseBlue theme for GTK+ 1.x and 2.x, based on some of the suggestions found on that article. While there is still some work to be done (e.g. change some of my button/tab colors to not be so... loud :) the theme has already been accepted by users positively.