OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Jordan Hubbard Interview Revised

Submitted by Jim Strawberry 2002-02-19 Original OSNews Interviews 13 Comments

OSNews reader Jim Strawberry writes: "The BSDvault guys did an interview with Jordan Hubbard not to long ago -- unfortunately it was done as an IRC conversation and was posted as such -- making it rather hard to read & follow. For this reason it didn't really get much attention. The other day I took it upon myself to transform this IRC log into a real interview." Jim received authorization by the original posters, BSDVault, and asked us to publish his revised and cleaned-up version of the interview with Apple's & FreeBSD's Jordan Hubbard.

Red Hat Linux on Hewlett-Packard Computers

Submitted by Jason Lotito 2002-02-19 Red Hat 15 Comments

Hewlett-Packard has begun selling new Intel-based workstations with Linux, the company said. The x1100, an Intel-based machine first introduced with Windows in January, is available with Red Hat Linux version 7.1, HP said Thursday. HP had Linux versions of the two systems' predecessors, the x1000 and x2000, which have a slower memory subsystem than the new models.

MacOSX Server in the Hands of a Linux Geek

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-18 macOS 23 Comments

"Yes I’m a Linux nut, but it's also no surprise that I'm a huge fan of Mac OS X, it’s what I use on a daily basis and is what I’m using right now to write this. Well I was recently tasked with the duty of moving our servers at work over to OS X Server two of which are Linux servers. This was the first time I’d ever used OS X Server so I thought it would be a good idea to share my experiences, some good, some bad." Read the rest of the review at ReactiveLinux.

Inheritance and Interfaces with Visual Basic .NET

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-18 General Development 9 Comments

"In this document, you learn about the differences between class inheritance and interface implementation. Inheritance supports the creation of hierarchical frameworks of increasingly specialized classes that share some code and also add their own customizations. Interfaces allow multiple unrelated classes to share predictable sets of methods and properties. Both interfaces and inheritance provide polymorphism, allowing generic procedures to work with many different kinds of objects. You also saw how object composition allows you to reuse and extend implementation code without inheritance, and how it can be combined with interfaces to support polymorphism. All these techniques enable you to create and revise complex software systems by helping you add new functionality, with minimal need to dig back into old working code." Read the rest of the article at MSDN.

How to Fix the Unix Configuration Nightmare

Submitted by Dave Poirier 2002-02-18 Unix 13 Comments

Unix is steadily evolving into something much easier to use. The trick is to find tools that make things friendlier, but which fit in well with existing tools and are easier for people to take and use for new projects. Read more at Freshmeat.

Intel Application Accelerator 2.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-18 Intel 25 Comments

If you are the lucky owner of one of these Intel motherboard chipsets, you can now install the Intel Application Accelerator 2.0, a new performance software package for Intel-based desktop PCs. This new version brings the following enhancements: faster boot time, accelerated disk I/O for games, graphics Applications, disk utilities, and edia authoring applications, performance-enhancing data pre-fetcher for Intel Pentium 4 processor-based systems, support for 137+ GB IDE hard drives. Check a benchmark here. The download supports Windows NT4/2000, Windows 98/SE/Me & WindowsXP Home/Pro.

Realtime Chat with AmigaOS4 Developers

Guest post by Mike Bouma 2002-02-17 Amiga & AROS 10 Comments

Hans-Joerg Frieden, Thomas Frieden and Steffen Haeuser will be attending an #AmigaFun meeting today at 6PM (GMT) and will be answering questions regarding AmigaOS4.x. Also this Saturday at the Alt.WoA Show in the UK, Fleecy Moss (CTO, Amiga Inc) and Alan Redhouse (CEO, Eyetech Group) will hold a presentation regarding Amiga's future plans.

Death, Re-birth & Silence: Troubleshooting Sound Cards under Linux

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-17 Linux 31 Comments

"It happens to everyone eventually. You walk into the office, turn on the desktop PC and you're greeted with ugly beeping and no video. The slightly acrid tang of electrical smoke reaches your nostrils and you know that before you've even begun your day, it's already over. You say a small prayer to the computing gods that it's not the hard drive that's fried and you turn everything off before you begin unplugging peripherals." Read the rest of the article at LinuxOrbit.

Judge Says Microsoft Must Give States Windows Code

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-16 Legal 44 Comments

"Microsoft Corp. will have to supply the computer code for its Windows program to a group of states seeking stiffer antitrust sanctions against the software giant, a federal judge ruled on Friday. Nine state attorneys general had argued that they needed to see the Windows source code in order to verify Microsoft's claim it could not offer a simpler version of the Windows personal computer operating system, stripped of features like the Internet Explorer browser." The Reuters report is at Yahoo!News.

A Linux Guy Looks at FreeDOS

Submitted by Dave Poirier 2002-02-16 OS News 10 Comments

"As someone who writes about Open Source, I spend quite a bit of time considering its future in the enterprise. I don't spend much time reflecting on how Open Source can improve on the technology of yesteryear. But there are people who do just that." Read the rest of the story at NewsForge.

The Power of X

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-16 Apple 26 Comments

"For those who aren't familiar with OS X, it is a full implementation of BSD Unix with a Macintosh front end, which is to say world class inside and out. OS X is faster, smarter, prettier, and easier to use than any version of Windows. In short, it is exactly the competitor Microsoft needs. And the timing couldn't be better." Very interesting and easy-reading article, but I would not say "faster" in the above excerpt. Robert Cringely is at it again, this time discussing how the best thing for Apple, for users, and even for Microsoft, would be an Intel version of OSX.

Microsoft: .Net Security Fears ‘Unfounded’

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-16 Privacy, Security 19 Comments

"Microsoft Corp. is going on the offensive to restore confidence in its .Net platform after a security consulting firm claimed it had found a critical flaw in a new compiler Microsoft released earlier this week. In an unusual move, a member of the team that developed the product in question--the Visual C++.Net compiler--posted a lengthy message to the Bugtraq security mailing list excoriating Cigital Inc. for making what Microsoft deems to be false claims in its press release and inciting unnecessary concerns about the security of .Net applications built with the compiler. Brandon Bray, a member of the product's development team said: 'The allegation that applications compiled with Visual C++'s /GS switch somehow expose themselves to more attacks is unfounded and patently false.'" Read the rest of the story at ExtremeTech.

Sun Releases Java 2SE-1.4

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-15 Java 5 Comments

Just a few days ago, Java2SE version 1.4 was released by Sun. Overview page, download page and change log/incompatibilities here. Furthermore, an interesting editorial at ZDNews titled "The convergence of .NET and Java" can be found here.

OpenBeOS Milestone: First Test Release

Submitted by Neil Johnson 2002-02-15 Haiku 63 Comments

The OpenBeOS folks released their first ever test version for their BeOS clone operating system. This first release is not self-hosted, it is just a collection of individual components that replace their equivelant under the original BeOS 5. The components released so far are OpenTracker, OpenDeskbar, MDR(Mail Daemon Replacement) and some of the preference panels: Keyboard, Menu, Mouse, Screen, Virtual Memory, WorkSpaces. The OBOS developers are looking for beta testing and feedback.

Several Apple-Related Editorials on the Web

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-15 Apple 18 Comments

"Welcome to today's multiple-choice quiz. Apple Computer is: (a) the top design shop in the computer industry; (b) the manufacturer of the best PC on the market; or (c) destined to forever remain a prisoner of its own success. Actually, the answer is all of the above." Editorial at News.com regarding the failure of Apple to attract the corporate market. OSOpinion features an editorial called "Apple Bidding To Regain Speed Throne". On ZDNews you will also find the editorial by Stephan Somogyi "Why Apple should support Microsoft's .Net".

What is the Difference Between Carbon and Cocoa

Submitted by Ludovic hirlimann 2002-02-15 macOS 17 Comments

"Since Mac OS X shipped, announcements regarding new versions of software applications designed to run natively on the new OS have become a daily occurrence. Some of these announcements mention that the application is Cocoa-based while others mention that the application is Carbon-based. The smart developers mention neither, knowing that the average Mac user doesn't know the difference and doesn't care. Apple has been talking to developers about the benefits of Cocoa and as a result, many Mac users have started to get the idea that applications that are Cocoa-based are somehow better than applications that are Carbon-based. API or framework choices have much more impact on developers than on end users. This white paper explains what Carbon and Cocoa are, how they differ, and what impact they have on users of REALbasic." Read the rest of the story at Real Software, developers of the Real Basic.

Creating Components in .NET

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-15 .NET 3 Comments

"Microsoft .NET applications are built from components. All .NET objects expose important attributes, such as properties, methods, and events. These attributes form the foundation of object-oriented programming. As the architect of Visual Basic .NET objects, you are also responsible for implementing the interface (that is, the properties, methods, and events) necessary for other programmers to use your application's services. Much of your development time will be spent designing objects and writing the code defining the objects and components exposed and used by your applications." Read the rest of the article at MSDN.

Managing Processes and Threads

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-15 General Development 3 Comments

"In Ed's previous column, he focused on socket programming and performance within a single system. In a future column he will pick up where he left off, but his topic this month is management of threads and processes in Linux and Windows systems. He walks through the differences between processes and threads, shows how to create and destroy them, and writes a program you can use to study thread management on your systems." Read the intersting aricle at IBM DeveloperWorks.

Anders Heljsberg on What’s Next for C#

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-14 General Development 9 Comments

"According to Anders, generics (parametic polymoprhism) is one of the directions in which C# would evolve. Microsoft already has a prototype of the runtime in generics. "The trick is to proceed with caution," he advises." Read the rest of the interview with the creator of C# at TheRegister.

Can a Computer Help You Find True Love?

Eugenia Loli 2002-02-14 Humor 24 Comments

"Digital matchmakers such as Match.com and Yahoo Personals' ClubConnect are all the rage these days among singles searching for sweethearts. Who knew your soul mate was a mouse click away?" Read the rest of the story at ZDNet. Our Take: Well, I did find my beloved husband on the net, exchanging (angry) emails "discussing" technical details of the nVidia TNT2 and BeOS, as a follow up of a news story on BeNews, exactly two years ago. The emails were followed by IRC & ICQ chats, and the rest is history...