Interview with Stardock’s Brad Wardell

Original OSNews Interviews 18 Comments
I met Brad Wardell, Stardock's CEO, two weeks ago in San Fransisco. Stardock are mostly known for creating WindowBlinds. But Stardock has a long history, going back to the OS/2 days, releasing not only the most 'successful' OS/2 application ever, Object Desktop, but also a number of games. Today Stardock still releases games and UI enhancement tools for Windows, but the main focus is still Object Desktop. Read more for our interview with Brad, his views on theming, the future of UIs and more.
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ADO.NET Primer & Custom Code Generation in .NET Visual Designers

.NET 2 Comments
"The purpose of this paper is to provide a concentrated, yet pragmatic, overview of ADO.NET by highlighting the performance and usability benefits of using ADO.NET with Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The intended audience is architects and developers who are familiar with ADO and are interested in learning about data access in the Microsoft .NET Framework." Read the article at MSDN. "When developing the design-time architecture for the .NET Framework, Microsoft chose to use source code as the persistence mechanism for user code rather than a binary or other private solution. Code persistence allows users to learn from the code that the Designer outputs as well as be able to easily build projects outside of the Visual Studio .NET environment if desired. It also allows understandable and accessible customization for advanced scenarios and components." Read the article at MSDN.
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Web Services: Why Care?

Internet No Comments
"Anyone made leery by the unfulfilled promises of the dot-com era may feel skeptical, or at least confused, about Web services, the latest wave of innovation on the Internet. Sky-high expectations and reams of hype are too often the death knell for emerging technologies. Will this one be any different?" Read the rest of the story at C|Net News.com.
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SoftwareMarketSolution Interviews Don Rosenberg

  Submitted by the Three Dot Anonymous In the News No Comments
"As visitors to SoftwareMarketSolution.com know, we've reviewed Don Rosenberg's Open Source, 'The Unauthorized White Papers' (Wiley), and think it's an excellent look at the business, marketing, and legal issues surrounding the Open Source movement. If you have any interest in the Open Source movement we strongly recommend you purchase a copy and keep it close by. Don is a Ph.D. and the president of Stromian Technologies, a highly respected and well known consulting firm in the industry." The interview is mainly about the success and failures of Linux and open source in general.
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Gentoo Linux 1.0 Released

Gentoo 9 Comments
Gentoo Linux is a high-performance ports-based Linux metadistribution for x86-based systems. Gentoo Linux 1.0 has finally been released. You'll find install instructions and ISOs and build tarballs (and on mirrors soon). Gentoo Linux is said to be the "fastest" Linux distribution to date, incorporating patches that make it extremely responsive. It is mostly aiming at developers though, as its installation procedure is definately not for newbies. Gentoo uses Portage as its package system, which is a mix of Debian's apt-get and FreeBSD's ports system, incorporating the good points of both technologies.
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New Versions for Bochs, VMWare and Virtual PC Released

  Submitted by Peter R. Tattam General Development 21 Comments
Bochs 1.4 is the latest release of Bochs, the popular x86 emulator. This version delivers features such as booting from a CDROM, VESA BIOS Extensions, improved networking, keyboard mapping for non-US keyboards, and a working serial port. You'll notice several new buttons on the GUI, copy, paste, and snapshot, which let you copy text between the system clipboard and the Bochs screen. There is also a new cross-platform interface using the SDL library. In related news, VMWare has just released a beta of its upcoming VMWare 3.1 x86 runtime (VMWare is not an emulator like Bochs and VPC are, this is why it can't be ported to any other architecture than x86 - however, by being a runtime, it is speedier than the emulators), while Connectix released its x86 emulator, Virtual PC 4.3, just 15 days ago.
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First Snapshot of Nova Released

  Submitted by Johan Rydberg OS News 3 Comments
The first source snapshot of Nova, a POSIX server running on top of RTMK, is now available. After just three months of development Nova can now run native applications from a ext2 filesystem mounted on a IDE hard disc. The next thing to do is to get more parts of the GNU C library working, providing Nova with more applications, Johan Rydberg wrote. The sources can be downloaded from savannah.
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AmigaDE – Am I Missing Something?

Amiga & AROS 30 Comments
A few months back, I started to read about the new AmigaDE environment, AmigaOne, and the new technology Amiga is using. After Tao released their Intent/AmigaDE ADK on a cover CD bundled with Digital Magazine (and being an old Amigaen), I wanted to dig a little deeper and find out what all the fuss is about. During my search on the web, I couldn't help being a little disappointed.
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Celebrating OS/2 2.0 10th Birthday

OS/2 24 Comments
"It’s hard to believe that the course of PC computing was irrevocably changed 10 years ago. On March 31, 1992, IBM release OS/2 2.0. While OS/2 ultimately lost out to Windows, its impact on OS interface design was extraordinary. Many Windows users today may be surprised to find out just how much of today’s Windows interface was borrowed from OS/2 2.0." Read Stardock's Brad Wardell editorial which includes a brief history of OS/2.
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Red Hat Advanced Server: The Real Enterprise Deal?

Red Hat 6 Comments
"At first glance, Red Hat's announcement of "Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, the first enterprise-class Linux operating system" sounds like just another dose of public relations hype. Another day, another Linux business announcement. But first impressions can be misleading. Many industry observers think the Advanced Server is a giant leap forward for enterprise Linux." Read the report at NewsForge. In a statement released to Linux Today from Caldera, the Utah-based firm has some pointed concerns regarding Red Hat's Advanced Server, announced March 26: "We believe, and some of Red Hat's own industry partners will tell you, that Linux today cannot scale in the same way that UNIX can."
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Not a Problem About Star Office 6, Mandrake Says

Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 10 Comments
It appears that Linux-Mandrake believes it has not angered customers as reported on many IT related web sites. According to this page, the folks at Mandrake explain how the OEM agreement they signed with Sun forced their decision (to make SO6 available only to Club members), justify the change in their membership benefits, and thank the community for their continued support of open-source R&D.
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Can Java and .NET Co-Exist?

Java 34 Comments
"Mark Driver, research director for Gartner Inc., spoke yesterday to a breakfast gathering of top-level marketing executives about trends in the app development market. He revealed some statistics about Java's inroads, which led him to some interesting conclusions." Read the highlights of this invitation-only event sponsored by Java Pro, and check out related coverage: "Driver on Java vs. .NET", "Which Language is Number One?", "Where is Java Going?"
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Is IIS 6.0 Worth the Effort?

Internet 16 Comments
"Whether you're an administrator or a developer, you must understand what's in store for you when you start using Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, which ships as part of the Windows .NET Server product line. The key interests of developers and administrators alike include security, stability, scalability, and programmability. Here's how IIS addresses those needs". Read the interesting review at .NETMag, while you can also similar explore interesting articles like "Evaluate Windows .NET Server" and "Internet Information Services 6.0 Overview - Beta 3".
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Mandrake Linux 8.2 for PPC Beta 2 Available

Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 2 Comments
"In a long awaited move, a beta version of the 8.2/PPC has joined the i586 version of the upcoming Mandrake Linux 8.2 distribution. This beta has a bit different schedule from the i586 version, but it should be roughly equivalent to beta2, with a few bug-fixes, and some PPC-specific features." Read about the new PPC features at Linux Mandrake. In related PPC news, Yellow Dog Linux 2.2 is now available for purchase.
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Does Open Source Software Really Work?

Open Source 64 Comments
"Sheila Harnett, an engineer at IBM's Linux Tech Center, told NewsFactor that what holds Linux back the most is the scalability issue. In the ongoing debate between open source advocates and proprietary software makers and users, it turns out that -- to at least some extent -- both sides are right: Open source does work, but only in some cases. With respect to enterprise computing, analysts agree that for smaller projects that do not involve mission-critical elements, there is room for open source software, such as Linux." Read the rest of the article at OSOpinion.
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Office Suite Review Galore

Office 3 Comments
For those of us who still mourn the BeOS, watching gobe software expand is like watching a little brother grow up; we're all rooting for them. That's why it's that much more exciting to see reviews like the one at arstechnica.com that gives gobeProductive 3.03 a solid 8/10 score, with the author commenting "I encourage everyone to pick up a copy." Read the rest of the review at ArsTechnica.com. NewsForge reviews OpenOffice 6.0 while they also report on a new crossover plugin for Linux which allows Microsoft Office to run under Linux.
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