OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Development Release: Lycoris Build 52 (Beta)

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-03 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 5 Comments

From DistroWatch: "A new beta version of Lycoris Desktop/LX has been spotted on several mirrors. Build 52 is a development release; among the major packages only Mozilla has been updated to version 1.1. Download: cd1_en_binary.iso (517MB), cd2_en_source.iso (415MB), cd3_en_devtools.iso (193MB). As usual, a Build 52 bug reports forum has been opened." We featured a review of Lycoris recently.

Stardock’s WindowFX 2 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-03 Graphics 45 Comments

A few months ago we were discussing the upcoming release of WindowFX2 from Stardock, which was to utilize the graphics 3D hardware to render cool animations and transitions on your Windows. WindowFX2 is now out, there is a demo, and a very cool video where you can see the new, very cool transitions in action.

SGI SPECIAL: Introducing the Jewel of UNIX, the 64-bit IRIX OS

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-02 SGI and IRIX 96 Comments

In the '90s, before MacOSX was released, if people were to reffer to a user-friendly Unix that looked cool at the time, that would have been SGI's 64-bit operating system for the MIPS processors, the IRIX. IRIX was first released in 1987, and by 1995 was already a highly respected UNIX, the first with immense multimedia capabilities! Check out our introduction and some screenshots of IRIX.

SGI SPECIAL: Interviewing SGI Employees

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-02 SGI and IRIX 15 Comments

For our special SGI day, that is today, OSNews sent a number of questions to SGI regarding the company's products and a number of different people replied for this interview. We hope that this interview will familiarize more people with SGI, their products and their strategy.

KDE 3.1-Beta2 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-02 KDE 18 Comments

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.1 beta2, the third development release of a significant feature upgrade for KDE 3. KDE 3 is the third generation of KDE's free, Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.1, scheduled for final release in October 2002, will provide substantial improvements to the KDE desktop experience. As the KDE 3 API is frozen for binary compatibility, KDE 3.1 will be binary compatible with KDE 3.0.

The OS Wars: BSD vs. Linux

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-02 Rumors 49 Comments

Enterprises tend to choose Linux because they must consider the availability of professional service, the IT learning curve, and standards and interoperability, the Yankee Group's Laura DiDio said. Read the article at NewsFactor.

Mandrake 9.0 vs. Mandrake 8.2 for New Linux Users

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-02 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 3 Comments

"This article concentrates on describing a basic Mandrake 9.0 installation and setup from a new user's viewpoint, using nothing but default settings all the way through. I've also tossed in a few notes on how Mandrake 9.0 differs from Mandrake 8.2 and other previous Mandrake releases." Read the article at NewsForge.

Everything You Wanted to Know about Linux

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-02 Linux 7 Comments

"Red Hat, Suse, Mandrake and others are just starting to bless us with a new round of desktop-oriented distributions – aka "distros". If you're finally considering Linux as a desktop OS, congratulations! And don't fret, we're here to help." Read Jim Lynch's article for ExtremeTech.

(Yet Another) Mandrake 9.0 First Impressions

Submitted by Roland Stoker 2002-10-02 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 25 Comments

"My initial reaction to the Mandrake desktop was no different than before. The Mandrake desktop is fairly basic, maybe even ugly. First I installed the Windows fonts, then upgraded Freetype to enable the bytecode interpreter and things started looking a lot better. Then, I headed to pclinuxonline.com and downloaded some KDE and Gnome themes that Texstar has provided for Mandrake 9.0. KDE started looking as beautiful as my 8.2 install. To get a clean and consistent desktop, I use the Bluecurve theme that Texstar has provided from Redhat." Read it at RatedPC.

Steal Your Interface: A History

Submitted by Yama 2002-10-02 Graphics 88 Comments

"A history of computer interfaces follows a nice, tidy timeline. In the 1970s researchers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center invented the basics of the point-and-click interface familiar today: mouse, windows, menus. Apple peeked at the research and brought it to the masses with the Macintosh in 1984. Ten years later, Microsoft copied Apple with Windows 95." Read the article at Wired.

Linux vs. Windows: The Rematch

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-01 Rumors 90 Comments

"You might be pretty happy with Windows XP. But Windows continues to suffer from more than its share of drawbacks: From the newer operating system's incompatibility with older software to Microsoft's well-known security problems, Windows still engenders a fair amount of user aggravation. Windows XP also subjects its users to the indignity of the Microsoft Product Activation service: You might have to ask Microsoft for a new key if you upgrade more than one or two major components." Watch the match at PCWorld.

Bandwidth Problems for OSNews

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-01 OS News 94 Comments

Anyone knows of really cheap but good (==stable) server hosting with about 100 MB of web space and at least 25 GB of bandwidth allowance per month? Please let us know, as we are completely out of bandwidth for the month (this is why screenshots for older articles do not work anymore, our mirrors for images are disabled). Because of the way our mirroring system works, the server should support direct linking to files (not to require to load images together with ads or via web page instead of direct linking), while SSH support is surely preferrable but not required. If you are a hosting provider and you would like to sponsor us for an exchange of a linked logo/button on our site, we are open for discussing the possiblity. We do not need fancy features (eg. mysql, php), just LOTS of bandwith for cheap!

Windows .NET Server: Completing the .NET Jigsaw?

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-01 Windows 11 Comments

"If you are an IT manager, you are either dreading the month of March next year, or are licking your chops in anticipation. This is because next March will see the launch of Microsoft’s highly-anticipated Windows .NET Server, and with it the whole gamut of upgrading issues for MIS—many of whom have only finished hardening their Windows 2000 or NT servers." Read the article at NCasia.com.

Microsoft Cuts Office Price on New Macs

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-01 Apple 37 Comments

Beginning Tuesday, buyers of new Macs can pick up the full version of Office v. X for $199, or about $200 less than the full purchase price. Read the story at C|Net News.com.

PaulOS 1.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-01 OS News 20 Comments

PaulOS is a low-latency, single-threaded embedded operating system for 16, 32, and 64-bit microprocessors. It is written to allow applications to be developed under GNU/Linux or FreeBSD and then recompiled for the target platform. It features POSIX file descriptors, a TCP stack (LwIP) with BSD socket API, an ANSI C library, and a DNS resolver library. A number of GNU/Linux network applications have already been ported.

Mandrake Linux 9.0 First Impressions

Submitted by John Gowin 2002-09-30 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 64 Comments

"As a long time Red Hat user I have of course been awaiting 8.0, but since Mandrake 9.0 was released a little sooner, I decided to give it a try, while I was waiting on Red Hat 8. I had high hopes, but my hopes were quickly dashed." Read the article at LinuxOrbit. LinuxHelp have a review of Dolphin too.

Linux Servers With a Smile

Submitted by Linux_Baby 2002-09-30 Linux 9 Comments

"It will never beat Windows on the desktop, but the Linux operating system has an undeniable charm in the world of corporate computing: It's free. Microsoft's Bill Gates may be richer, but when it comes to unvarnished business aggression, no one in the high-tech world can top Larry Ellison, the 58-year-old founder and CEO of Oracle. This is a man cocky enough to fly his own fighter jet, competitive enough to have his minions pilfer Gates' trash, and mean enough to verbally flog his executives in public. He's worth $14 billion, making him the fourth-wealthiest American at last count, and unlike his peers who demur on the subject of money, Ellison isn't afraid to admit that he loves being rich." At Fortune.com.

Time to Ditch Java for .Net? Not Yet

Eugenia Loli 2002-09-30 .NET 36 Comments

"Much has been written about the virtues of .Net. But as Builder.com's Lamont Adams pointed out in a recent article, "I'm confused...What is '.Net' anyway?," the developer world is a long way from adopting .Net as the de facto standard for development tools." Read the editorial at ZDNews. Another related .Net article is to be found at ZDNews: "Why .NET will benefit other platforms".

Hurd: RMGPT; POSIX Threads

Eugenia Loli 2002-09-30 OS News 7 Comments

Neal Walfield announced the first release of RMGPT, which "is (or rather, aspires to one day be) a complete, portable implementation of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 threads known as POSIX threads." With this new pthreads library, it will soon be possible to run complex software packages on the Hurd, including the GNOME and KDE desktops, the OpenOffice suite, and the Mozilla web browser.

World’s First Review of Red Hat 8.0-Psyche

Eugenia Loli 2002-09-30 Red Hat 242 Comments

Gentoo, Lindows and Lycoris arguably were the big surprises of the year in the Linux land, but everyone is waiting the release of Red Hat 8.0 with, possibly, the biggest anticipation ever for a Linux distribution. Since Red Hat posted the Limbo and Null betas, fans of the most popular distribution on earth were making waves and even called this new version a Windows killer. Does this really hold up though? Will Red Hat be successful on their quest to infiltrate the business workstation/destkop market? Read more to find out and view some of the high resolution screenshots we have for you! UPDATE: Red Hat 8 is out! ZDNews has an article about the new release of Red Hat 8.0.