FreeBSD VM vs Linux VM Revisited

Benchmarks 6 Comments
"In my October, Byte.com column I described the new VM written by kernel hacker Andrea Arcangeli. In that article, I promised I would come back to my FreeBSD versus Linux comparison that I ran in my February 2001 column. Many people say FreeBSD has a very good virtual memory manager. As it turns out, I pretty much proved them right in that article. Now, with the new VM engine in Linux as of 2.4.10, things might look different, so I prepared a new test environment for the benchmark." Moshe Bar benchmarks the VMs between Linux and the previous FreeBSD, version 4.3.
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Apple Releases MacOSX 10.1.1

macOS 3 Comments
Apple has posted Mac OS X 10.1.1 and it is installable via via System Preferences' Software Update pane. Last week's Installer Update 1.0 must be installed first. MacOSX 10.1.1 "delivers improvements for many USB and FireWire devices, including support for additional digital cameras, and overall improvements to CD and DVD Burning. The update includes enhancements to AFP, SMB and WebDAV networking, updates to the Finder and Mail applications, as well as improved support for printing. In addition, hardware accelerated video mirroring has been enabled for the new PowerBook G4." The download weighs in at 14.4 MB.
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OS Alternatives – PCWorld on *BSD

BSD & Darwin 7 Comments
"It's hard to browse the Web or read a computer magazine without finding a reference to Linux, the operating-system wunderkind created by Linus Torvalds and developed by a host of others. But although Linux steals the headlines, ISPs and system administrators often choose one of the BSDs - a group of operating systems based on code polished during more than 20 years of research at one of America's leading academic institutions. What are the BSDs? And why should you consider using them if you're looking for a non-Windows operating system?"
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The OS Manifesto

  Submitted by Scot Hacker OS News 4 Comments
"They say that motorcycle riders go through three stages: fear, over-confidence, and finally respectful care. The same stages apply to OS programmers. Motorcyclists in the over-confident stage may be injured or killed. Programmers can create a subtle defect that is fantastically expensive to remove." Read the OS Manifesto at Byte.
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Opera 6 Beta1 for Windows Released

  Submitted by Egil Opera 24 Comments
Opera Software ASA today unveiled Opera 6.0 for Windows Beta 1, introducing a browser with an array of new and improved features, including a completely new default user interface, skins, buttons and panels. With the release of Opera 6.0 for Windows (3.2 MB), Opera reaches out to users accustomed to competing browsers' single document interface (SDI) and targets users in regions that previously could not use Opera.
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Be Shareholders Approve Asset Sale to Palm

  Submitted by David Huff Haiku 19 Comments
Be, Inc. announced that the stockholders of Be have approved the sale of substantially all of its intellectual property and other technology assets to a subsidiary of Palm, Inc., pursuant to the terms of a previously announced asset purchase agreement between Be and Palm. The stockholders of Be have also approved the proposed dissolution of Be pursuant to the terms of a plan of dissolution. It is anticipated that the transaction with Palm will close within the next two business days. We hope that the sale of Be's IP to Palm will have a positive outcome regarding the BeOS and the BeUnited effort to license the BeOS source code.
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The Great MacOSX 10.1 Experiment, Part III

macOS 2 Comments
"This is the third and final installment of my MacOSX 10.1 saga. For six weeks now, I have attempted to use 10.1 exclusively during my workday. When I first embarked on this adventure, I knew it would take several weeks to thoroughly test-run the new OS. In part two of my empirical extravaganza, I revealed software that I've found indispensable under 10.1, and admitted that I cheat daily by rebooting into 9.2.1 to perform backups. Now, I will present my final conclusions." Editorial by Stephan Somogyi.
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nVidia, ATi Release New Mobile Graphics Chips

3D 2 Comments
"ATi and nVidia both launched mobile graphics chips yesterday, the first aimed at retaining ATi's leadership of this market segment, while the nVidia part is designed to wrest the crown away from it. ATi's part is the Mobility FireGL 7800, a high-end mobile workstation-oriented chip (hence the FireGL branding) that supports up to 64MB of 128-bit DDR SDRAM. The chip is clocked at 270MHz. nVidia's NV17M is the successor to the GeForce2Go. The new part clocks in at 250MHz and supports up to 64MB of frame buffer memory." Read the rest of the news report at TheRegister.
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Prototype Tablet PCs Take Spotlight

Hardware 5 Comments
"Will your next portable computer be a tablet PC? Microsoft hopes so, and it has lined up a handful of partners that are showing prototype models of its reference design and plan to ship the real thing in mid-2002. For the second year here at Comdex, the software behemoth is pushing tablet computing that combines the portability of a laptop, the convenience of pen and paper, and of course Microsoft software." Read the rest of the news report at PCWorld.
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Public Domain Software – Better Than Open Source?

Open Source 42 Comments
Descriptive Quote from the OSOpinion editorial: "Open source and free software were founded on the idea that all information and knowledge should be made freely available for the benefit of all, and what is software but the embodiment of knowledge? Unfortunately, much of today's open software is not free in one important respect. The use of copyright and the General Public License (GPL) restricts its commercial exploitation."
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Microsoft Names Linux as their Long Term Threat

Microsoft 24 Comments
"Linux is the long-term threat against our core business. Never forget that!" Microsoft Windows Division Veep Brian Valentine exclaims in a confidential memo to his Sales Brownshirts obtained by TheRegister. Microsoft was winning ground against Unix the last few years and they were converting companies to x86 (intead of expensive SPARCs etc), but many companies were just converting to x86 Unices (and especially, Linux) instead of Windows. And Microsoft does not seem too happy about that.
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KernelTrap Interviews Neal Walfield

  Submitted by Jeremy Andrews OS News 3 Comments
This week, KernelTrap spoke with Neal Walfield of the GNU/Hurd development team. From their project FAQ, "'Hurd', as an acronym, stands for `Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons'. Hird, in turn, stands for `Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth'. The Hurd is a radical departure from UNIX. A unique and interesting approach to solving many of the problems found in current operating systems. While it's not yet production grade, it's evolved enough to be quite usable.
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Alan Cox on the DMCA, his Future, and the Future of Linux

Original OSNews Interviews No Comments
"Alan Cox is not only a long-time Linux kernel contributor and maintainer, he also isn't afraid to make waves once in awhile. While Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds usually stays above the fray of the politics of Open Source and related topics, the U.K.-based Cox, sometimes referred to as Torvalds' second in command, isn't afraid to weigh in on several topics, including his opposition to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act." Read the interesting interview at NewsForge.
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ext3 fs Makes it to the Kernel Source Tree

Linux 7 Comments
The journaling file system ext3 made it to the test version of 2.4.15 Linux kernel and it seems that it will be as standard of the final version of the kernel. ext3 has pretty much the same design and capabilities of ext2, but it adds journaling. Our Take: Can't wait for the day that SGI's next generation, truly advanced file system, XFS, will make it to the main source tree. Update: In a related note, the NTFS driver for Linux was updated today with support for WindowsXP's NTFS 5 among other new features.
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Xbox vs. GameCube – Get Ready to Rumble

Games 40 Comments
"Microsoft will make its first move into the cutthroat business with the Xbox on Nov. 15. Three days later, Nintendo plans to start U.S. sales of the GameCube, its first new console since the 1996 launch of the Nintendo 64. Meanwhile, market leader Sony has built a strong bunker against the interlopers, having shipped more than 20 million PlayStation 2 machines since its debut last year." Never in the history of the $20 billion video-game industry have two home consoles made their debuts in the same week. It's shaping up to be a battle royal between Microsoft and Nintendo.
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The Full AMD Roadmap

AMD 11 Comments
AMD will drive its Hammer family of 64-bit processors into the mobile market in the second half of 2003, a year or so after it makes its debut in servers, the company revealed at its analysts confab yesterday. However, the company also revealed their full roadmap with details about their desktop add the ClawHammer CPUs.
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