OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Embedded Linux Crying Out for Standards

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-17 Linux 15 Comments

"Linux is set to become the de facto standard in so-called "embedded" devices such as robotics, information appliances and automobile information systems. However, fragmentation could prove a stumbling block, said Inder Singh, chairman of the Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC)." Read the rest of the article at ZDNews.

Lycoris Desktop/LX Update 2 on the Way

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-16 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 24 Comments

The Lycoris Development Team is hard at work finishing Desktop/LX Update 2, a very exciting enhancement to the popular desktop operating system. Included, is a new Desktop/LX Control Center that makes it easier to accomplish configuration tasks in a simple, plain language way (screenshot). A new Desktop/LX Software Wizard allows you to install software from local media or right from the Internet using Iris, the Internet Rapid Installer for Software (IRIS). Lycoris also put work into the Desktop/LX Installer and some cosmetic changes are readily apparent (screenshot). "Fry's Electronics will be carrying Desktop/LX on the west coast. More to follow for sure. We are hard at work finishing Update 2 and dealing with our explosive growth." Jason Spisak of Lycoris told OSNews.

Steve Jobs and the History of Cocoa, Part Two

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-16 macOS 5 Comments

In Part One, Simson Garfinkel and Michael Mahoney explain why Cocoa and Mac OS X aren't nearly as revolutionary as they are evolutionary, beginning with Apple's genesis in the 1970s. Now they pick up the story with the Star Trek project and bring you to the current iteration of Mac OS X.

Sun to Include Solaris API’s in Linux

Submitted by Dan Tate 2002-05-16 Solaris 7 Comments

In an article posted at C|Net News.com sun has announced their intentions of expanding linux with Solaris features (and continuing to expand Solaris with Linux features) to make the two "similar". Perhaps this is seriously the next step in the Intel Unix market for Sun, if they have, in the end, chosen to do without Solaris/x86. In other news, according to the article, Solaris 9 will be released May 22nd.

Kode KDE Kindly, Kan You?

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-16 KDE 12 Comments

"There are many toolkits to choose from for building Linux desktop applications. Some say this is Linux's downfall; others say it is its greatest feature. I'll stand somewhere in the middle and say choice is good if you choose what meets your needs. Most graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on Linux are based on X, a client/server architecture that allows for networked computers to share GUI applications." LinuxJournal has the tutorial.

Matrix Teaser, Episode II Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-16 Multimedia, AV 19 Comments

Friends of Sci-fi and CGI should be pleased this month, first with the release of the (pretty good, I might add) Spider-Man movie, the Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions teaser last night and of course, today, the opening of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Have fun everyone!

GCC 3.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-15 General Development 30 Comments

Get the news first on OSNews: The long-awaited "stable" and recommended for full use, GCC 3.1, is finally released. Get it from Gnu's ftp site, while the mirrors are not fully updated yet. Update: And the release is now official. You heard it first, here, on OSNews. Again.

Steve Jobs: OS X Marks the Spot

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-15 macOS 21 Comments

"Apple's CEO says it's tough times for corporate and education sales--but consumers are still buying. His biggest challenge? Convince the majority of Apple users to switch to OS X. At the start of the year, Apple had only 1 million of its 25 million Mac owners actively using OS X. That number is now in the range of 1.5 million to 2 million, although about 3 million Macs have been sold with the new OS on the hard drive. However, Jobs remains confident the company can end the year with 5 million OS X users." Read the report at News.com. Update: TheRegister features an article where they chat with Apple's Tevanian on Windows CIFS, networked Quartz.

The Office Suite That Lets You See Past Redmond

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-15 Office 13 Comments

"Microsoft's operating-system monopoly has gotten plenty of ink in this paper, but Microsoft Office exerts an even tighter stranglehold on the market. The productivity suite dominates not just on Windows PCs but on Macs as well, and its file formats have become a default language in offices, homes and schools around the world." Rob Pegoraro reviews OpenOffice for WatshingtonPost. In the meantime, Sun puts a price at Star Office, while Microsoft is finalizing its next-gen Office.

Opera Releases New Versions for Windows, Linux

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-15 Opera 11 Comments

Opera has just released version 6.02 for Windows, and the final version of Opera 6.0 for Linux while they announced support for Symbian's new exciting technology concept, "Magpie", when it becomes available as a commercial solution. In the meantime, Mozilla RC-2 was released a few days back.

GNOME 2 on Track for June Release

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-15 Gnome No Comments

"The long-awaited second major version of the GNOME desktop is days away from a fifth beta and on schedule for a full release on the first day of summer, according to its release manager. 'I'm quite sure we're going to make it, given that our UI and string freeze has just kicked in, and the number of 2.0.0 bugs we have left to go,' says Jeff Waugh, who is ramrodding the release. According to the release schedule, Beta 5 will be issued at the end of this week. It is to be followed by a release candidate, which developers hope to make public June 7. If all goes well, GNOME-2.0 will be released two weeks later." Read the rest of the news at LinuxAndMain.

TrollTech Readies QSA – Qt Scripts for Applications

Submitted by Matt Poepping 2002-05-15 Qt 1 Comment

Qt Script for Applications (QSA) is a multiplatform toolkit that allows developers to make their C++ applications scriptable using an interpreted scripting language, Qt Script (based on JavaScript). QSA allows developers to make their applications more attractive to end-users, VARs and their own support staff. All three groups are empowered by scripting to compose their own functionality from the functions that the application developer provides, and from the Qt library itself.

New Realtime Microkernel Sphere SP 2.0

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-15 OS News 23 Comments

"Today miray Software introduced a new realtime microkernel, named Sphere SP 2.0. Compared to its successor, it has been completely redesigned and delivers high realtime performance for 32-bit processors. At a size of only 21 KB, Sphere SP 2.0 is especially suitable for embedded systems. But due to its extreme scalability it's also well prepared for large systems." Read the rest of the press release over at Miray.

Solaris 9 to Boost Clustering

Submitted by Dan 2002-05-15 Solaris 15 Comments

"An upgrade to Sun's enterprise server clustering technology is set to arrive next week alongside the company's much-anticipated new Solaris 9 operating environment. Backwards-compatible to Solaris 8, Sun Cluster 3.0 will offer features such as improved ease of management, enhanced dynamic configuration, and support for Oracle9i RAC (Real Application Clusters), according to Jim Sangster, the group manager for Sun's cluster product line, in Palo Alto, Calif." Read the story at InfoWorld.

Wind River OS Zooms Onto Racetracks

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-15 OS News 8 Comments

Wind River Systems, a maker of software that powers many of the lesser-known types of computing devices hidden in the fabric of the high-tech world, has won approval to have its operating system used in Formula One race cars. Read the report at ZDNews.

Microsoft’s Plot to Block Sun, Linux Revealed

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-14 Legal 39 Comments

A Microsoft Corp. executive urged the company to quietly retaliate against supporters of the rival Linux operating system in an August 2000 memo that nine states still suing the software giant want admitted as evidence. In the meantime, Microsoft executives apparently attempted to steer the direction of a Web services standards body away from rival Sun Microsystems, according to evidence and testimony introduced during the software giant's ongoing antitrust trial. "I can live with this if we have the positioning clearly in our favor. In particular, Sun not being one of the movers/announcers/founding members," Gates is said to have written in an internal email.

Miscellaneous Hardware News

Submitted by Ian Crooks 2002-05-14 Hardware 33 Comments

A lot of interesting hardware-related news lately. First of all, Matrox makes a dynamic come back with its Parhelia512 graphics card and a lot of sites (1, 2, 3, 4) carry the white papers and spec sheets. In the console world, SONY has slashed the prices of PSone ($49) and PS2 ($199), following price cuts by Microsoft on XBOX. However, PS2 remains the No1 console in sales, by far. In the meantime, Intel introduced faster Celerons, based on the Pentium4 core. In fact, these new Celerons are nothing but the older Pentium4 that were selling last year. The newer Pentium 4s have reached a speed of 2.53 Ghz. On the other side of the river, Apple announces a new rack-mount server:

Interview with Gentoo’s Daniel Robbins

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-14 Original OSNews Interviews 32 Comments

Gentoo is so far, the big Linux surprise this year. With its 1.0 release took the Linux world by storm and converted a huge number of power users and developers from the well-known Linux distros they were using, to the lightweight Gentoo Linux. While its installation process is not for the faint of heart, it pays back the user with a highly optimized system. As a result, Gentoo is dubbed the "fastest Linux distro" to date. Read on for an exclusive interview with Gentoo's project leader, Daniel Robbins where he reveals that Gentoo will be further optimized with the fastest x86 C/C++ compiler (Intel's ICC) in addition to GCC 3.1. Daniel also speaks about the future plans for Portage and the overall system in general.

What’s New In FreeBSD 5.0

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-14 FreeBSD 24 Comments

The question was asked recently on a FreeBSD mailing list, "What will be new in FreeBSD 5.0?" The thread discussed several ways a person could obtain such information, one good source being the latest release notes. The first developer preview of 5.0 was released on April 8th. The final release is targeted for the end of this year. Robert Watson offered an interesting summary of items to look forward to in FreeBSD 5.0, including: SMPng ("next generation" symmetric multiprocessing), KSE (improved scheduling), devfs (automatic /dev management), Firewire support, and much more. Read on KernelTrap for more details.

Inside Jaguar: A Visual Look at the Finder and System

Eugenia Loli 2002-05-14 macOS 6 Comments

This is the first installment in ThinkSecret's series of news coverage for the next major update to Mac OS X, code-named Jaguar. They take a look at tweaks to OS X's Finder and System Preferences, as seen in the first developer preview of Jaguar, build 6C35, and include lots of screenshots.