OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Update on the 12″ Powerbook Review; Altitude Problems?

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-03 Apple 110 Comments

OSNews featured two reviews of the new 12" Powerbook from Apple last month. Using a machine and more fairly evaluating it, is a continuous process, so when new facts emerge, we should be reporting them back. So, what I discovered this weekend is that my 12" Powerbook doesn't like... the mountains. Read on, it is an interesting issue. Update: The issue is now logged at Apple's tech support db.

FreeBSD 4.8-RC1 Available

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-03 FreeBSD 25 Comments

FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Murray Stokely announces that FreeBSD 4.8-RC1 i386 mini ISO and FTP installation directory are on ftp-master. He says that the Alpha release will be available shortly. The plan is to make FreeBSD 4.8 available only for i386 and alpha platforms. Subsequent 5.1+ releases will have FreeBSD available for all platforms including sparc64, ia64, etc. Read the announcement at BSDForums.org.

Impressions of Phoebe, the Latest RedHat 8.1 Beta

Submitted by Frank 2003-03-03 Red Hat 64 Comments

Frank writes: "A new beta recently appeared from RedHat and this article has in-depth analysis of the release and finds many different problems with it." Please note that OSNews also published a preview of Red Hat 8.1-Phoebe3 a few days ago, accompanied by screenshots.

Slackware Linux 9.0-RC1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-03 Slackware, Slax 32 Comments

From DistroWatch: "A new Slackware Linux 9.0 is fast approaching a point of release. See the complete changelog for the long list of changes, which includes all the latest goodies such as XFree86 4.3.0 and KDE 3.1. There is no ISO image to download, but you can rsync the current branch with one of the Slackware mirrors or, if you are lucky, with the main Slackware FTP server."

McNealy: Sun Reduces the Complexity

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-03 Oracle and SUN 12 Comments

Recently, Sun Microsystems Inc. hosted its annual analyst conference in San Francisco. The company faces high-end competition from IBM Global Services and low-end competition from companies including Dell Computer Corp. offering clustered systems running the Linux operating system. While not dismissive of the threats posed by the competition, Sun President Scott McNealy in a one-hour interview with eWEEK Editor-in-Chief Eric Lundquist and Labs Director John Taschek contended that the company is poised to capitalize on the research and development efforts launched over the past several years.

The Very Verbose Guide to Updating and Compiling Your Debian Kernel

Guest post by Clinton De Young 2003-03-03 Debian 59 Comments

If you are reading this, I assume you already know what the Linux kernel is and why you may want to update it. However, if you are accidentally reading this walkthrough, just happen to be running Linux, and have no idea what the kernel is or why you would want to update it, the next two paragraphs are for you (if you are looking instead into a less verbose and more generic way of updating your kernel on any Linux distro, read here). In a neophyte nutshell, the Linux kernel is the brain of the Linux system. It tells your system which file systems, hardware, protocols, etc. are supported. There is a lot more to it than that, of course, but I think that diminutive description will suffice for now.

Lycoris Desktop/LX Build 69 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-03 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 36 Comments

Our friends over at DistroWatch report: "A new Lycoris build has quietly appeared on some of the FTP sites that mirror the main Lycoris server. You can get build 69 (beta) here: cd1_en_binary.iso (541MB). Don't be misled by the timestamp on the ISO image (14 February 2003); users who have installed it report that this is indeed a new build."

Hyperthreading Moves Into Mainstream In 2003

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-03 Intel 21 Comments

Hyperthreading moves into hyperspeed throughout 2003, with the Canterwood and Springdale chipsets forming the backbone of Intel's desktop roadmap. According to Intel roadmaps seen by ExtremeTech, Intel's desktop processors will extend up to and possibly beyond 3.6-GHz by the beginning of 2004, with Celerons cresting 2.5-GHz by the same timeframe. Await soon an article regarding hyperthreading, here on OSNews.

VMWare 4.0 Beta Released

Submitted by Salnave & Burns210 2003-03-02 OS News 52 Comments

VMWare released a beta of their flagship application, VMWare 4.0 Build 4183. The new version includes support for new versions of Linux and Windows OSes, better VESA BIOS, ACPI and APIC support, better sound, new interface under Linux and more. In the meantime, the OpenOSX company released recently "WinTel", a re-packaged version of Bochs for MacOSX, with a new easy to use interface.

Mandrake 9.1-RC1; Desktop, Laptop, Small Server: 3-In-1 Review

Submitted by Ladislav Bodnar 2003-03-02 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 32 Comments

"Mandrake Linux 9.1 RC1 was released without fanfare on Tuesday 18 February afternoon in Paris, and as the ISO images percolated through the various mirrors worldwide, I prepared my hardware for another review of the latest pre-release of MandrakeSoft's "swiss-knife" Linux distribution. My previous articles have dealt exclusively with Mandrake's use on the desktop. This time around, I tested Mandrake 9.1 RC1 on three different platforms: a home use mid-range desktop workstation, my trusty old-and-battered Dell laptop, and last but not least a dual Celeron homebuilt SMP box nowadays used as a file server and test rig." Read it at DistroWatch.

Optimizing GCC Itself

Submitted by Yama 2003-03-02 General Development 31 Comments

"I have a Pentium 3 866MHZ CPU. After reading the freshmeat article on optimizing GCC a few days ago, it got me thinking. So I posed the following question: How much faster would gcc compile the kernel if gcc itself was optimized?" Read the rest at Linux Gazette.

KDE 3.1 vs. GNOME 2.2, Part II

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-03-01 Rumors 78 Comments

"KDE is delivering a better version of what GNOME's goal has apparently morphed into: becoming a great component framework that you can write to in multiple languages. Nicholas Petreley rebuffs the common GNOME battle slogans and explains why the window-manager's name needs reworking." Read the article at LinuxWorld. Commentary Update by Eugenia: The author of that article advocates that Gnome is... lame, but I would just say that these wars "gnome vs kde" are the lame ones.

Apple Must Innovate

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-03-01 Apple 79 Comments

"Going by the numbers, Apple Computer Inc. appears headed for trouble again. While CEO Steven P. Jobs engineered a remarkable comeback after retaking the helm in 1997, one-time expenses, such as plant closures, have pushed the company into the red for two quarters running." Read more at BusinessWeek.

NeoWin Exclusive: Longhorn Build 4008 Leaked

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-01 Windows 86 Comments

NeoWin reports that they got their hands on a new leaked version of Windows Longhorn, the next big version of Windows. Commentary: The reporter insists that these are original shots. Lots of grandients are going on in the UI and while this is an alpha and the final version might look different (that's what happened with XP's Luna, MS only revealed XP's final design only a few months before the release, while most betas used another theme), these shots showing there are just pretty ugly IMHO. Bad taste on colors, no easy distinction between elements, it all looks like a big bad web page.

Server Leaders Wrestle for Unix Crown

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-01 Unix 7 Comments

Hewlett-Packard and IBM tied for first place in the hotly contested Unix server market in the fourth quarter of 2002, pushing aside Unix heavyweight SUN, according to a new study released Friday.

Artificial… Stupidity, Parts 1 and 2

Eugenia Loli 2003-02-28 Geek stuff 10 Comments

This is the saga of Hugh Loebner and his search for an intelligent bot has almost everything: Sex, lawsuits and feuding computer scientists. There's only one thing missing: Smart machines. Read the first part and the second part at Salon.com.

Gates Reveals Windows Source Code to China

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-02-28 Windows 63 Comments

"Microsoft on Friday signed a pact with the Chinese government to reveal the Windows source code, making China among the first to benefit from its program to allay the security fears of governments. In addition, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates hinted that China will be privy to all, not just part, of the source code the government wishes to inspect. " Read the rest at ZDNet.

JavaTM 2 SDK, Standard Edition J2SE 1.4.1_02 Released

Submitted by Deniz Kaan Çopur 2003-02-28 Java 13 Comments

This is an update release targetting bug fixes and new optimizations. It does not change the functionality of original 1.4.1 release. Check out the release notes and/or download new Java VM. In a related note, the Java porting team at beunited.org reports that they have reached a significant milestone. The java and javac programs are now building under BeOS.

Mono 0.21 Released

Eugenia Loli 2003-02-28 Mono 27 Comments

The Mono Project just released Mono 0.21, only a few days after 0.20 due mainly to a bug in the compiler which made it abort on top-level enums and delegates on Windows. In the meantime, various other minor bugs were fixed on the class libraries, the runtime and the compiler. Additionally, the similar Portable.Net dotGNU project, released version 0.5.2 recently.

Perceptions: Is Linux a Suitable Desktop Platform?

Eugenia Loli 2003-02-28 Linux 73 Comments

In this guest column at DesktopLinux.com, former SCO evangelist and Samba.org team leader John H. Terpstra weighs in on market perceptions about Linux and its suitability for the desktop. Interviewing a sample group –- that included 30 people evenly split in the Linux and MS camps -- Terpstra discovered each group cited the very same arguments in defending their OS of choice! The author sought definitive answers about the state of Desktop Linux and reasons for and against a switch to Linux. The results, and key factors, were not as expected.