OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

AtheOS Fate in Question – But Users Hungry for New Features

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-29 Syllable, AtheOS 25 Comments

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

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-29 OS News 14 Comments

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

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-28 Windows 38 Comments

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!

Why You Want Linux – Or Not

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-27 Linux 43 Comments

"If anything is creating a stir in the world of computing these days, it's definitely Linux. You may have heard a lot of things about Linux, or not much at all, depending on what you read and who you talk to. Comments range from how incredible Linux is and how it will be a serious threat to Microsoft, to how difficult it is to use, and how there's no software support. Well, every tidbit you hear gained life from some sort of truth, but it's hard to put all the facts together when they're being fired at you from all over the place. With this article I hope to tell a prospective Linux user what he or she needs to know to make the decision to switch. I'm not talking enterprise server stuff here, you can find information on that all over the place. I'm talking about the OS on your home PC that you're probably using right now." Read the article at LinuxOrbit. Also check the guide for new Linux users at ExtremeTech.

Nvidia: Sketching the Future of Graphics

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-26 3D 18 Comments

Dave Kirk, Nvidia's chief scientist, was in London recently as part of a European tour. ZDNet UK caught up with him to talk about the future of PC and console graphics, whether they will ever really match mainstream movie quality, and how the company will maintain the performance curve. The interview is indeed interesting and it can be found at ZDNews.

Review: Mozilla Loaded up for Browser Wars

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-26 Mozilla, Gecko 50 Comments

"We've waited more than four years for Mozilla, the Netscape-backed open-source browser--and we're still waiting for the completed version. But Mozilla has finally posted its official Release Candidate 1 (RC 1) and plans to release the final soon." Read the review at ZDNews. NewsForge also runs an editorial for Mozilla: "Three reasons to fall in love with Mozilla". Tabbed browsing is one of the reasons, and indeed a very handy feature.

GNOME 2.0 Desktop Beta 4 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-26 Gnome 12 Comments

The GNOME 2.0 Desktop Beta 4 release, "Thank You", is ready for your bug-busting and testing pleasure. It is available for immediate download. The GNOME 2.0 Desktop is a greatly improved user environment for existing GNOME applications. Enhancements include anti-aliased text and first class internationalisation support, new accessibility features for disabled users, and many improvements throughout GNOME's user interface.

Editorial: Where is the Progress?

Guest post by Roger M. 2002-04-26 Editorial 49 Comments

I can remember seeing my first calculator in the 1970s. It was shown to us by a teacher in school. Up to then all we had seen were mechanical adding machines. The calculator amazed us, it was silent, instantaneous, and even had a square root key, a function I never saw any adding machine do. The teacher explained that soon every home would have a computer. I couldn't believe it, computers were huge, and filled rooms. Even a home computer would take up a living room. He was right though, by 1977 we had home computers that weren't much bigger than a keyboard.

ClosedBSD 1.0 RC-1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-26 FreeBSD 4 Comments

ClosedBSD is a firewall and network address translation utility which boots off of a single floppy disk or CD-Rom, and requires no hard drive. ClosedBSD is based off of the FreeBSD kernel, and uses ipfw as its native ruleset management system, and natd as it's network address translation utility. The CD-Rom version has full DHCP client support. The floppy version (1.0B) is still without it for now.

Creating and Consuming Web Services

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-26 .NET 4 Comments

"Web Services signal a new era of lightweight distributed application development. While Web Services are not intended nor do they have the power to solve every distributed application problem, they are an easy way to create and consume services over the Internet. One of the design goals for Web Services is to allow companies and developers to share services with other companies in a simple way over the Internet." Read the lengthy and informative article at ExtremeTech. Another Web Services article, an editorial this time, is hosted at the Open Standards web site. The author has concluded pretty much the same as we did in our .NET editorial, that "Web services is at least a solid beginning to a new era of distributed computing that is as inevitable as paved roads. If web services is not hype, what remains to be questioned are the tools and services the hype masters themselves know you do not have to choose. Will .NET be the answer for everyone? Will Java take the lead through its community involvement and open source support? Will supply and demand for web services skyrocket in the next few months? These are things to be hyped. Will web services and distributed computing change our lives? Now I hear a ring of truth."

Intel Releases V6.0 Compiler Suite

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-25 General Development 28 Comments

News from Slashdot: ""Intels C++ and Fortran compilers are now available for Windows and Linux. The compiler for Linux provides higher compatibility with the GNU C-compiler including compability to the upcoming GCC-3.1 C++-ABI (binary compability) and support for several GNUisms in the syntax (PDF). To quote Intel: 'The 6.0 release of the Intel C++ compiler has improved support for the GNU C language extensions and is now able to build the Linux kernel with minor work arounds for both the IA-32 and Itanium architectures.' Little reminder: Running such a kernel is, of course, not supported by the kernel developers. Evaluation copies are available for download, but requires previous registration."

Taking a Sneak Peek at Palm OS 5

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-25 Wireless 19 Comments

"When PalmSource, Palm's operating system unit, previewed the Palm OS version 5 at the PalmSource conference in San Jose earlier this year, participants got a chance to see a test version of Palm's next-generation OS in action." Read the rest of the story and the comparison chart of PalmOS at ZDNews.

SOT Office 2002 Available for Windows and Linux

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-25 Office 27 Comments

"SOT Office 2002 is a free productivity suite for Windows and Linux. At SOT, we're committed to making sure that a free, commercial-quality office suite is available to all Windows and Linux users. Partly based on OpenOffice.org, SOT Office 2002 is the only office application you'll ever need. A full-featured, high-quality software suite, SOT Office is fully compatible with other major office applications. You can open and save .doc, .xls and all your usual file formats with SOT Office, so sharing documents with friends and colleagues is a breeze." SOT Office is an OpenOffice spin-off and it was released for both Windows & Linux recently. Update: On a similar note, Office NGO screenshots have been leaked.

Ext2 Documentation Released

Submitted by Dave Poirier 2002-04-25 General Development 2 Comments

If you ever had to implement an ext2 file system driver, you surely noticed the lack of good documentation on the subject. This project aims to solve this issue by providing thorough documentation on the low level details of implementing a Second Extended file system driver.

SkyOS 3.7.5 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-25 SkyOS 22 Comments

Robert Szeleney released today a newer version of SkyOS, which fixes a number of problems and adds new features. Our Take: Many people have reported problems with the PS/2 mouse (which I also experienced on my laptop, but works fine on my desktop PC), however my Voodoo5 fails to load the desktop with the included VESA driver. I wonder if anyone was succsesful loading SkyOS with a Voodoo3/4/5 card.

States Show Microsoft Judge a Variation of Windows

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-24 Legal 27 Comments

"Nine states seeking stiff antitrust sanctions against Microsoft showed the judge on Wednesday a commercial version of the Windows operating system that already has removable features -- similar to one of their key demands. Microsoft has said requiring a version of Windows that can be customized by computer makers and rival software companies would fragment the operating system, cripple Microsoft, harm consumers and hurt the entire computer industry." Read the story at Reuters.

Gates Says Microsoft Can’t Comply and Make Modular Windows

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-24 Legal 103 Comments

"Microsoft chairman Bill Gates says his company would be unable to allow manufacturers and consumers to choose which elements of its Windows operating system to install on their computers under sanctions being proposed to a federal judge.The issue stems from how different portions of Windows are reliant on each other. If one piece is removed, such as the part of the Internet Explorer Web browser that makes Web pages appear, other features like the Windows Help system would break." Read the rest of the story at Yahoo!News. You can also read the submitted Gates testimony as a PDF here. Our Take: Personally, I prefer products to be solid and in one piece, as they were designed to be. Recreating something like Linux's dependancy hell at all levels, is naturally something that does not benefit the consumer. Or my hot temper when dealing with it. What is needed IMHO, is restrict Microsoft's business practices, not its product line. Update: More about Gates on the stand.

Emulate This! with Bochs – Part 3

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-24 General Development 10 Comments

"Bochs is an emulator for the x86 hardware platform. In other words, it can emulate a PC of varying hardware configurations. When you boot into Bochs, it will appear as though you are booting another PC from inside your own PC, and in a way, you are. Bochs emulates the entire PC platform, I/O devices, memory and its own BIOS. What's even more interesting is that you don't have to be running PC hardware to run Bochs. It will emulate x86 hardware on any platform on which you compile it. By changing the configuration, it is possible to specify the type of processor (386? 486? 586?), the amount of memory and so on. Bochs is a box inside your box. In fact, Bochs is as many boxes as you want it to be. It even has its own power button." Read the third part of the emulation articles at LinuxJournal.

XFree86 Celebrates Its 10 Years

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-24 Wayland 9 Comments

XFree86 has the proud honour of announcing that unlike other technologies that have come and gone, it is now officially 10 years old. What makes this particularly adventful is that it is fully backwards compatible; this is a true testament to the spirit of the original X protocol of which XFree86 is its finest implementation. "Yes there will be parties. Yes there is an international reunion, but sorry, by invitation only. You can wish us well at the xpert mailing list. And don't forget to ask for pictures." the site notes.

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP are Back

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-24 Windows 9 Comments

After two months of being offline, Microsoft releases new versions for the famous PowerToys for WindowsXP. You can now download the new versions for Open Command Window Here, Alt-Tab Replacement, Tweak UI, Power Calculator, Image Resizer, CD Slide Show Generator, Virtual Desktop Manager, Taskbar Magnifier, HTML Slide Show Wizard and the Webcam Timershot. In this release, Microsoft did not include some other popular PowerToys like the "Desk Menu tool" and "Extra Send to menu" and the Shell Audio player and ISO Burner.