Frames Per Second: Fact & Fiction
There's an interesting editorial at Mikhailtech regarding FPS, refresh rates and what the brain really distinguishes. Although he has no scientific background experience he has assembled some interesting facts. You can get more information on how the brain interprets visual data here.
Mac OS X: Look who Else is Switching
"From the moment Mac OS X was announced, one of its most compelling features for me was its ability to run Mac and Unix software at the same time. It meant I wouldn't have to keep multiple systems around, booting into one or the other as needed. And now, with the release of version 10.2 (aka Jaguar), OS X is a better Unix than ever. Make no mistake: Mac OS X has been a real Unix from the start, albeit one that could actually run desktop apps like Microsoft Office, Photoshop, and BBEdit, and let you play Warcraft III and (soon) Halo. But now, Jaguar's Unix underpinnings have been given a much-needed refresh." Read the editorial at ZDNet.
Flamethrower Linux Information and Screenshots
Jusitn Gasper writes: "I have just posted some information about a GNU/Linux distribution, FlameThrower, that I am working on. I am planning it to be a contender in the media box market. I have not released any files yet, that should be coming in a few weeks, but I have put up some screenshots, and would like some input back as to how I could maybe make my software easier to use or theme."
An Octet of Operating Systems
"With all the publicity that Windows and Linux get, you may be forgiven for not being aware of a number of other operating systems. Yet there are many other choices that I find interesting and as useful alternatives. Five Desktop Alternatives..." Read the article at Byte.
Information About Reported Architectural Flaw in Windows
A recent white paper suggesting that an architectural flaw exists in Windows has generated interest in the press and on security mailing lists. While some of the report's findings are correct, its core assertion – that there is an architectural flaw in Windows – is inaccurate, Microsoft says. The Microsoft Security Response Center has thoroughly investigated the report's claims, and they would like to provide information about our findings and the planned future steps.
Intel has Huge Nano Plans
Intel will uncork the company's nanotechnology strategies at its developer conference next week in San Jose, Calif., shedding some light on the future of its chips.
ROOTLinux, Lunar Linux Released; CRUX on its Way Too
Lunar Linux is a fork off Sorcery Linux and it recently had its 1.0 beta release. In the meantime, ROOTLinux was just released version 1.3, and it includes kernel 2.4.19, it is compiled with GCC 3.2 and it has many brand new packages like KDE 3.0.3 and Gnome 2.0.1. We also learned that CRUX will have a new release soon too, and it will be also switched to GCC 3.2.
Sun Draws Heat Over Solaris Roadblock
In an open letter to Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, a group of users has called for the company to make Solaris 9 available on the lion's share of computers based on the Intel architecture. The letter, published as an ad in the San Jose Mercury News and titled "Shame on you, Scott", is the latest move in an eight-month war of words between Sun and a vocal contingent of its users. The spat kicked off in January when the software maker said it would put its next operating system, Solaris 9, on indefinite hold for the x86 architecture. Read more at News.com.
Linux Ready for Smart Phones
Looking to get a piece of the growing market for mobile services in China, a Chinese Linux developer has released an open-source alternative to smart-phone software from Microsoft and Symbian. China MobileSoft Ltd. (CMS) built its mLinux for Smart Phones software around its mLinux kernel, which is derived from a Linux kernel developed by Red Hat Inc., said Liu Bing, business manager at CMS at the CeBIT Asia show on Monday. The mLinux kernel requires 200K bytes of memory and can be used in 3G (third-generation) mobile handsets, he said.
Pepper Author Maarten Hekkelman Says it All
We have been reporting on Pepper, the programmer's text editor, several times, so this is a follow up on what really made Maarten Hekkelman to stop development of his multi-platform product (Mac/OSX/Win/FreeBSD/Linux). Even Slashdot noticed his interview at DaringFireball. "Programming for BeOS was simple when you just started. But it became quite messy quickly. The problem is the multi-threading." "MacOSX, however, loses on all fronts. It claims to be a Unix but it doesn’t support much of the more advanced Unix features, since it is using such an old kernel. It claims to be user friendly, but I find it more obscure and difficult to use than my Win2k box. And then, it is dog slow." Very good (and long) read about the troubles of an independent developer in today's computing market, who's trying to make a difference with his product. Today, Maarten is trying to find companies or other devs that might be interested in purchasing the source code and rights to Pepper.
OpenBFS Reaches Beta Stage
The OpenBFS team today announced that they finally moved to beta stage. This means that OpenBFS (the free and open source alternative, but fully compatible BeOS File System clone) is completely done feature-wise and only testing is missing now. OSNews (over)heard that "the query engine is way faster than the BFS one _and_ it supports searching on non-indexed attributes. Also it performs at least as good as BFS and in some test cases it is even considerably faster than it.".
Microsoft Announces Completion of WindowsXP Media Center Edition
Monday morning, Microsoft announced the completion of Windows XP Media Center Edition, which will power new media center PCs from companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Samsung beginning next month. XP Media Center is the latest Windows version, and one of several products which rely on XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), which was finalized last week.
Walmart.com Flogs $199 Linux OS PCs
Wal-Mart is famous/notorious for its relentless focus on price. Now it's decided to have a little fun with the PC business. The world's biggest retailer is flogging a new desktop computer for $199. The 800 MHz VIA C3 processor is never going to win prizes for performance - but for price/performance at the budget end of the market, it's very hard to beat. The PC comes with 128MB SDRAM on a VIA Apollo PLE133 chipset-based mobo, supplying integrated graphics and networking.
Sun Plans Assault on Microsoft Dominance
So what exactly are Sun's plans? While precise details remain close to Sun's chest, it is clear that the company is planning to assemble a suite of both open source and proprietary software products with which to go head to head with Microsoft. Some of these, such as the MySQL open source database, Sendmail messaging software, Samba file and print software, Apache web server, Mozilla browser, and Gnome desktop, have already been discussed by Sun executives. Our Take: At LinuxWorld, I saw their default configuration of Gnome 2 on Solaris. It looked pretty bad, while their X server did not even support AA. I don't think they are going anywhere to "assault" Microsoft. They might "assault" some other Unix or even Linux vendors, but their game will stop there.
Writing your own Toy OS – Part III
In Parts I and II of this series, LinuxGazette examined the
process of using tools available with Linux to build a simple boot sector and access the system BIOS. The toy OS will be closely modelled after the Linux kernel - and it will be switching to protected mode soon! This part III shows how it can be done.
Sun Lines up OEMs for Reborn Solaris on Intel
Sun Microsystems Inc is looking to expand its Intel Corp-compatible processor-based server line and is also drawing up a list of OEM partners for its Solaris x86 Unix operating system for Intel-compatible servers, indicating a new level of commitment to the reborn operating system, Matthew Aslett writes.
FreeBSD 4.7-STABLE Branch Now Frozen
From BSDForums: The FreeBSD-STABLE branch (development branch for 4-STABLE) of the source tree has now been frozen in preparation for the release of FreeBSD 4.7. This means that any new commits to the -stable source tree must be approved by the Release Engineering Team first. The expected "ship" date for FreeBSD 4.7 is October 1, 2002.
Microsoft Lags on Itanium II Software
Despite the introduction of a heap of HP Unix servers tomorrow using the PA-RISC processor, the firm's long term push is for the Itanium platform. HP, you'll remember, seemed to get better results with the McKinley platform than its competitors at launch, and a document we've seen spells out its position both on compilers and on the binary compatibility of HP/UX, Linux and the Windows operating system.
HP-Compaq Merger: Worth it?
One year later, the jury is still out on whether the tech industry's most contentious merger was worth the effort. The company still faces the same criticisms: Technology mergers rarely work.