IBM Expected to Enter the Desktop with a 64-bit PowerPC CPU

  Submitted by Fernando Lopez IBM 63 Comments
IBM is disclosing the technical details of a new 64-bit PowerPC microprocessor designed for desktops and entry-level servers. Based on the award winning Power4 design, this processor is an 8-way superscalar design that fully supports Symmetric MultiProcessing. The processor is further enhanced by a vector processing unit implementing over 160 specialized vector instructions and implements a system interface capable of up to 6.4GB/s. Read more here and here. The first article speculates that Apple might find a future in these new IBM CPUs. Update: News.com has an article too.
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Lindows Extends Membership to Two Years; New ISO for the Insiders

Linspire 17 Comments
Lindows has extended the membership of all Insiders to a two year period starting at the general release. The price still remains at $99 dollars but now it is extended for two years. After the general release the price for the distribution and the subscription will be $129 dollars. The insider program will go up to $299 for a year. New ISO Build Updated to Xfree86 4.2 and added nVIDIA Detonator Driver 1.0-2960. Read the rest at PCLinuxOnline.
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An Introduction of Modern Linux Distributed Filesystems

General Development 5 Comments
"The ability to share disks, directories, and files over a network is one of the most significant advances in modern computing, reducing local disk space requirements and making it easy for users to collaborate without ending up with hundreds of versions of the same files. Personal computers running Microsoft Windows and Apple's MacOS and Mac OS X inherently support sharing disks and directories with other systems of the same types. Linux and Unix systems traditionally use the NFS network filesystem in order to do the same sort of thing." Read the article at LinuxPlanet.
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Mini-Interview with Miguel de Icaza

Original OSNews Interviews 50 Comments
As the founder and leader of the GNOME Foundation, Miguel is one of the foremost luminaries in the Linux development community. He brings this same excitement to his role as CTO of Ximian. Miguel was instrumental in porting Linux to the SPARC architecture and led development of the Midnight Commander file manager and the Gnumeric spreadsheet. He is also a primary author of the design of the Bonobo component model, which leads the way in the development of large-scale applications in GNOME. Today, his primary project is Mono. Read more for an exclusive mini-interview with Miguel.
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Macs with Intel Inside? You Bet! Here’s How

Apple 81 Comments
"I've considered--and rejected--this idea in the past. My feeling has been that, unless Apple were ready to cut the cord with Microsoft, it wouldn't attempt this kind of head-to-head platform competition. Well, guess what? With Apple ads encouraging Windows users to switch platforms, and Microsoft whining about supposedly slow sales of Office for OS X, it's clear that the relationship is in trouble. As the two drift apart, Apple has little reason not to make a processor change." AnchorDesk's David Coursey on the Mac/Intel issue.
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Exploiting Design Flaws in the Win32 API for Privilege Escalation

  Submitted by yc Privacy, Security 13 Comments
"This paper presents a new generation of attacks against Microsoft Windows, and possibly other message-based windowing systems. The flaws presented in this paper are, at the time of writing, unfixable. The only reliable solution to these attacks requires functionality that is not present in Windows, as well as efforts on the part of every single Windows software vendor." Read the paper over at Tombom.co.uk. In the meantime, another flaw affects Windows 2000, Linux and MacOSX.
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Thoughts & UI Clean-Ups on a Random Red Hat/Gnome2 Screenshot

Graphics 143 Comments
I was reading Adam's preview of Red Hat Limbo beta 2 the other day, and was also checking out his screenshots. I already did a Gnome 2 review a few months back, and a month ago I did a more constructive article on KDE 3's UI. This time, I just picked a random screenshot off Adam's article, and I will suggest some UI changes to make it look better. IMNSHO, as always of course, so be prepared. Update: My post to Gnome Usability mailing list, regarding a more refined/fixed version of my GUI suggestion for the specific theme discussed.
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Why Lindows Ultimately Won’t Matter

  Submitted by JBQ Linspire 22 Comments
"A lot has been said about the upcoming Lindows OS. Most of it has been either overblown hype (it will let you run ALL Windows programs! Yee-ha!) or anti-hype (it's not a real Linux distro, it's for Windows losers!). Lindows has polarized opinion in the Linux community while simultaneously setting up huge expectations for non-techy Windows users desperate to free themselves from Microsoft's iron grip. " Jim Lynch's Lindows editorial for ExtremeTech.
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Borland Delivers Delphi 7 Studio

General Development 26 Comments
"Borland Software Corporation today announced Borland Delphi 7 Studio, featuring full support for new and emerging Web Services, integrated model driven development, and preview capabilities for the Microsoft .NET Framework. Using Delphi 7 Studio, the estimated one million Delphi developers can begin developing their skills for .NET and preparing applications for .NET without abandoning their existing work and skills on the Windows platform." Read the rest of the press release at Borland USA.
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C# Input/Output Classes Simplified

General Development 4 Comments
"Beginners to the .NET Framework sometimes have a hard time trying to understand the classes in the System.IO namespace for performing input/output (IO) operations. The difficulty stems from the fact that this namespace is relatively large, containing more than 40 members, some of which are similar classes that can be used to achieve the same tasks. Thus it is sometimes hard to figure out which class is best for which task. This article tries to make your life a bit easier by grouping IO tasks into three categories and introducing the classes that are suitable for each task category." Read the developer's article at O'Reilly.
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Ten Reasons We Need Java 3.0

Java 30 Comments
"Over the last few years, refactoring -- the process of gradually improving a code base by renaming methods and classes, extracting common functionality into new methods and classes, and generally cleaning up the mess inherent in most 1.0 systems -- has gained a lot of adherents. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Eclipse and IDEA can now automatically refactor code." Read the 10 reasons at OnJava.com.
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Sun to Announce Leap Into Linux

Oracle and SUN 22 Comments
Sun Microsystems will overhaul two major components of its low-end server strategy later this month, introducing new low-end systems and detailing support for the Linux operating system. Despite all the recent talk about Sun entering the Linux distribution fray, Sun insiders told NewsForge that "Sun Linux" (or whatever it will be called) is really just Red Hat rebranded, with a few hardware-specific tweaks, and will neither be available for public download nor sold on CDs for a good while, if ever.
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