XP Embedded: The One That They Want?

"XP Embedded is designed to identify dependencies, not remove them. What if a binary you remove is depended upon by other parts of the system? During Bill Gates' recent testimony in the antitrust lawsuit being pursued by nine U.S. states, he insisted that Windows could not be easily split into modular pieces. On the other hand, during cross-examination government lawyers pointed out that Windows XP Embedded seems to consist precisely of Windows split into modular pieces. So, who is right?" Read the editorial at OSOpinion. Update: ZDNews also features an editorial on the subject.

OpenOffice.org 1.0 Released

The OpenOffice.org community today announced the availability of OpenOffice.org 1.0, the open source, multi-platform, multi-lingual office productivity suite available as a free download at the OpenOffice.org community website. OpenOffice.org 1.0 is the culmination of more than 18 months of collaborative effort by members of the OpenOffice.org community, which is comprised of Sun employees, volunteer developers, marketers, and end users working to create an international office suite that will run on all major platforms. Scroll down this page for mirrors.

Interview with the Leader of the Mozilla Project

"As the leader of the Mozilla.org project, an AOL-funded open-source Web browser technology, Baker has been trying to stoke the fire she helped light in 1998. Mozilla, which was created using Netscape's browser code, found support among a legion of software developers intent on blocking the juggernaut advance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Making sure that's a prediction and not a pipe dream is going to be Baker's challenge. She recently offered her thoughts to CNET News.com on why, despite the heavy odds against it, Mozilla will triumph." Read the interview at News.com.

Michael Phipps On the OpenBeOS Progress

The OpenBeOS project leader, Michael Phipps, sent us a status report and he even makes a guess as to when a packaged OpenBeOS alpha release might be ready: "The status is very good. The networking and FS groups are coming along really well. To the point where they are testing functional (albeit occasionally going to kernel debugger land) pieces. The other kits are mostly moving along quite nicely. Printing, Input and ScreenSaver are nearly done. Storage and Midi are moving very rapidly. You know all about prototype 5 of the app_server, and work is in progress on #6. Media is moving under the heroic efforts of Marcus, and there should be some exciting Kernel news shortly. As far as an alpha, it would all depend on what people are looking for. Anyone can download and build today. We encourage (and warn, since nothing is super well tested yet) that. As far as a completed, packaged alpha, I would not expect one for **AT LEAST** a few months. Probably more."

Survey Shows IE 5/5.50/6 Dominating 97% of the Browser Market

From ZDNews: "Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.0 was the most popular browser on the Web last month, with a total global usage share of 44.7 percent, according to Net analysis company OneStat.com. Microsoft IE 5.5 took the second spot with 26 percent of the global usage share, followed by IE 5.0 with 25 percent, AOL Time Warner's Netscape Navigator 4.x with 1.6 percent, Netscape Navigator 3.x with 0.5 percent and Opera 6.x with 0.4 percent. The numbers show that 'Microsoft dominates the browser market with a total global usage share of 97% on the Web,' said Niels Brinkman, one of the founders of OneStat.com." Let's wait and see if the release of Mozilla next month will at least overthrown Netscape 4.x which currently holds 1.6%. Konqueror and OmniWeb can only deliver better scores if their perspective operating systems they run on gain more popularity (Linux ~1%, MacOS <3%).

Book Review: Understanding Open Source Software Development

The good people over at Addison-Wesley sent us this book, "Understanding Open Source Software Development" written by Joseph Feller & Brian Fitzgerald. It is an analysis of the history of the open source, its goals, where it is now and where it is expected to be in the near future. The ultimate goal and target of the book, apart from the knowledge feed about open source in general, seems to be the effort to convince project managers why they should adopt Open Source. Does the book succeed? Read on.

Next-Gen Windows Rumors Heat Up

"The XP SE story appears in "Microsoft Windows XP--The Official Magazine," which the UK's Future Publishing produces. Dated June 2002, the issue describes XP Service Pack (SP1), a follow-up called XP SE, and the differences between the two releases. "Essentially XP SP1 is a free collection of enhancements and patches for Windows XP," the story reports. "Windows XP SE is a bigger upgrade--including IE 7 and DirectX 9--which you will have to pay for if you want it. When can I get them? Windows XP SP1 is out this summer...Windows XP SE is due early 2003." Read the rest of the report at WinInfo. Update: Microsoft: "XP SE Not Happening".

SuSE Linux 8.0: Good Software, Poor Distro

"Those of you who have read my posts at the DesktopLinux.com discussion forum may have noticed I'm a fan of SuSE's distribution. You might even be shocked by the title of this article. But don't get me wrong, I love SuSE Linux 8.0, even though I've been disappointed by some elements of it. But let's start at the beginning..." Read the review of SuSE 8.0 at DesktopLinux. In other SuSE-related news, ZDNews had two articles "SuSE 8.0 arrives without StarOffice" and "SuSE looks to stabilize Linux".

AMD Signs 64-Bit MIPS Processor License

"AMD signed an agreement with MIPS Technologies Inc. for 64-bit technology, complementing the Alchemy design team already in place at AMD. AMD, Sunnyvale, Calif. said it will license the MIPS64 architecture for an undisclosed period of time, allowing the processor company a growth path for embedded devices. AMD already owns a 32-bit MIPS license through the Alchemy Semiconductor design group AMD acquired in February." Read the rest of the report at ExtremeTech.

Jordan Hubbard Resigns from FreeBSD Core

DaemonNews reports: "Citing lack of time, energy, fun and commitment, Jordan Hubbard resigned today from the FreeBSD core team. Hubbard, a founding member of the FreeBSD Project, has been a core member from the project's inception. Despite resigning from his administrative duties, Hubbard plans to continue to contribute to FreeBSD through code development."

Apple Unveils the eMac

Apple today introduced the eMac, a new desktop computer targeted specifically for education that mimics the all-in-one design of the original iMac. The eMac features a 17-inch CRT display (1280x960 maximum resolution at 72 Hz), 700MHz G4 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce2MX graphics, 128MB RAM, and a 40GB hard drive. The US$999 model features a CD-ROM drive while the $1,119 model includes a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. Apple also unveiled a new PowerBook G4 running at speeds of 667MHz and 800MHz and featuring higher-resolution 1280x854 15.2-inch display. The new PowerBook G4 also features a new 4x AGP ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics processor with DVI output.

Why Linux Isn’t on the Desktop Yet

"The answer to the title of this article is a single sentence, but you'll have to read the whole article to understand it. The Linux community has an amazing blind spot, and I'd like to rant about it a bit. I keep bumping into programmers who think some program or other is needed to change the world. They're wrong. "Linux just needs this one program and then we'll be ready!" they cry. I generally want to slap these people until they snap out of it (which is kind of hard to do through an internet connection). They are making a fundamentally wrong assumption. It's not about programs. It's about data." Read the rest of the editorial at LinuxAndMain.

OpenBeOS Proto5 app_server Replacement Released

The large team known as the OpenBeOS Team, who their goal is to recreate a new operating system that it is largely compatible (source and if possible, binary too) with the abandoned BeOS has made another release. Codenamed Proto5, it is the fifth release of the app_server BeOS replacement (for BeOS agnostics, the app_server is a major part of the BeOS graphics subsystem that does not live in the applicastion address space and it also deals with the graphics driver). In related news, the OpenBFS team have also created a BFS filesystem driver and they are looking for testers.

AtheOS Fate in Question – But Users Hungry for New Features

Almost seven months have been past since Kurt Skauen, author of the Athe(na) Operating System released version 0.3.7. As Kurt have already publicly said, some personal outstanding issues, plus because he needed some time off his project, he did not touch the AtheOS codebase since then. However, some third party AtheOS developers lately have been working on producing alternatives or improved versions of some AtheOS parts, namely, replacements for the login screen, desktop etc. We tried to contact Kurt regarding the fate of AtheOS (which seems to be facing possible forks from many fronts), but we received no reply.

Bell Labs Releases New Version of Plan 9

The fourth release of the Plan 9 operating system from Bell Labs packages a major overhaul of the system at every level. From the underlying file system protocol, 9P, through the kernel, libraries, and applications, almost everything has been modified and, in many cases, redesigned or rewritten. The most significant change is that 9P has been redesigned to address a number of shortcomings, most important, its previous inability to handle long file names.

Windows Longhorn Video and Documents Leaked on the Web

According to a leaked video, two documents and a PowerPoint presentation at MsBetas.com, the next generation of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, scheduled to be released sometime in 2005, is introducing a number of new features. Most notably, as seen in the video is the "task shelf" concept and the replication of a window. In the documents you will also find information about the 3D-based technology to render the desktop (please do not confuse the 3D composition rendering technique with a "3D desktop/interface" - different things) and its formula. According to the bandwidth formula including in the docs, for 1024x768x32bpp (refreshing at 60Hz and composing at 30Hz), the required bandwidth is, 0.93Gb per second in the local graphics card memory. Please note that this information has not been officially confirmed by Microsoft, and until then should be treated as you would any other rumour. Notice: This happened to be our 1000th news story at OSNews! Thank you for all your support during this second "birth" of OSNews since August 2001. We started serving less than 700 pages per day back then. Six months later, we were already serving more than 30,000 page views per day, with an average of 15,5 comments per story! Thank you everyone!