Mozilla 1.1 Released

Mozilla, Gecko 281 Comments
The new version of Mozilla, 1.1, is released for many operating systems. Release notes here. Opinion: Check the screenshot, showing Mozilla's slow UI (XUL) performance on a dual Celeron @ 533. Before you comment on it, please read the already published comments, because we explain more over there. Update: I added a comment with the image attachment on Mozilla's BugZilla. There was already a bug entry for this, which suggests more people having problems with this behavior. See? I am not mad... Update2: And here is another bug submitted by someone else, with the same problem, and his shot. His bug is marked as "Verified". But it is still not fixed.
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Is Red Hat the Next Redmond?

Red Hat 57 Comments
Concern is growing in the Linux community that the forthcoming UnitedLinux distribution will not be able to meet the enterprise server challenge of Red Hat Inc. in the United States. Red Hat's dominance is worrisome to some industry players, who say the Raleigh, N.C., company needs effective competition to prevent it from becoming a Microsoft among Linux vendors and to ensure the operating system continues to develop in an open way. The article is at eWeek. Update: NewsForge has an editorial too.
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.NET and J2EE Web Services Interoperability Demonstration

  Submitted by Jeff General Development 1 Comment
This IBM article shows how J2EE (WebSphere for Linux) and .NET can work together using Web services standards. Specifically it explains how EJBs can interact with COM+ components using Web services standards developed on WebSphere Studio and Visual Studio .Net. You can download WebSphere Studio for Linux. Update: On a related note, Microsoft released its Web Services Development Kit Technology Preview.
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Usability Shootout: MacOSX vs. WindowsXP

Rumors 73 Comments
"Let's take an in depth look at the basic usability of these 2 OSes. Is it no longer true Macs are easier than PCs? Has Windows XP finally caught up with (and maybe even surpassed) Mac OS X? To get a little more clarity on this topic, I decided to look at the 2 OSes—Mac OS X 10.2 and Windows XP— in depth, and cover usability issues such as networking, windows and keyboard controls, voice feedback and voice recognition, the Dock vs. the Taskbar, Find/Search, Help, and much more." OSX scores 23 points against XP which scores only... 10. Read the article at WebMaster Mac.
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Microsoft Developer Tools Roadmap 2002–2004

General Development 4 Comments
This document contains a summary of Microsoft's plan for Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework over the next two releases. Designed to assist customers in their planning process, it is not a comprehensive "feature dump," but more an overview of general themes and direction—an explanation of the development issues that Microsoft is planning to help customers address in each new release.
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Going Overboard on Open Source?

Open Source 23 Comments
"Open source is supposed to be about freedom. Unfortunately, certain advocates have lost sight of that goal. People should be free to use software which best fits their needs, whether or not it adheres to a particular programming philosophy. I suggest that open source proponents spend their time crafting interoperability guidelines rather than creating a protected environment, which artificially boosts open-source adoption while hiding it from the full rigors of competition." Read the editorial at ZDNet.
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IRIX 6.5.17 Released

  Submitted by Matthias Schonder SGI and IRIX 5 Comments
SGI IRIX 6.5.17 is released and all new systems shipping from SGI worldwide include it. The IRIX 6.5.17 release contains updates for both the maintenance (6.5.17m) and feature (6.5.17f) streams. This release continues the focus on stability, reliability, security and compatibility required in the IRIX 6.5.X quarterly release process.
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Pixologic to Unleash ZBrush 1.5

Graphics 12 Comments
Slow news day today, but this product is truly interesting and it deserves our attention. It is the most innovative graphics application I've seen since Painter (demo here), and that was many years ago. ZBrush from Pixologic is neither strictly 2D or 3D, but it is "2.5D". In addition to new features, ZBrush1.5, which comes out tomorrow, also provides significant enhancements in nearly every tool and palette. You'll get expanded and improved 2.5D painting capabilities, texturing options, and sculpting utilities, plus many behind-the-scene changes. The available demo for download (Mac/Win) is only for version 1.23b currently, but it will give you an idea of what this is all about. Also, CorelDraw 11 is out.
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Karelia Speaks Out Against Apple; Plans Port To Windows

  Submitted by claudio General Development 59 Comments
This is just a follow-up to our previous story about Apple designing the new Sherlock 3 to be very similar to Watson. We raised the question if this policy (the OS company competing with its own third party developers in the application space) was a good thing or not in the long run. Now the company behind Watson, Karelia, openly speak against Apple's policy and they are planning to port their (great) application to Windows. On a similar note, did anyone got even close to start working on this? Update: Stardock's CEO, Brad Wardell, wrote an editorial related to the question above.
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Is Microsoft Hanging Fire on 64-bit Opteron Support?

Windows 22 Comments
An article on Japanese site PCWatch writes about a briefing Microsoft gave journalists earlier this week about 64-bit products it is proposing. One 64-bit OS is conspicuous by its absence, it would appear. Microsoft has outlined, according to the article, four different types of .NET server – Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter – and the article gives an interesting table describing the differences between these products. In particular, the table outlines IA-64 support, memory requirements, Numa support and also whether the products will support multiple CPUs. But Opteron support is still a mystery.
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MacOSX 10.2 Jaguar is Out; Festivity in Palo Alto a Success

Apple 118 Comments
I just came back from the festivities taking place in the Apple Store at Palo Alto, California, regarding the launch of MacOSX 10.2 Jaguar, and I got some exclusive pictures (well, almost...). There was a huge line of people waiting to get in the store. They were probably there for many-many hours. Just a few minutes before they open the doors to people, Steve Jobs enters the building (passing next to me by just one meter from where I was standing), and people around started getting really excited!
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CompactBSD for Embedded Projects Released

BSD & Darwin No Comments
From Slashdot: "FatPort (a wireless Internet service provider in Vancouver, BC) just released CompactBSD. It's a set of tools that allow you to build your own customized, lightweight distribution of OpenBSD and then burns it onto compact flash (or similar) so that it can be run on an embedded PC platform (like FatPort's own FatPoint). CompactBSD takes the security and networking features of OpenBSD that we know and love, and combines them with ease-of-build and small footprint, which is great for embedded devices. Check out the project on SourceForge."
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Borland to Wield Tools Against Microsoft

  Submitted by dave_sn General Development 14 Comments
Borland, in the midst of a turnaround after years of financial struggles and strategic missteps, is preparing to go head-to-head against Microsoft next year with new programming tools that allow developers to build software for Microsoft's Windows operating system and its overarching .Net software strategy. Borland's suite of tools, code-named Galileo, will be positioned to compete against Microsoft's popular Visual Studio.Net tool suite, said Ted Shelton, Borland's chief strategy officer. In the meantime, Borland has just released Kylix 3 for Linux.
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