The Latest News from the BeOS Front

Haiku 18 Comments
Most of the big BeOS news sites are down (mostly server hardware failures), so OSNews is taking the initiative to publish an all-around BeOS news article. First of all, a whole lot of nice software has been released on BeBits recently. Sequitur 2.0 is here, Palm Reflections, i.Scribe and even a new version of OpenTracker. Ubix.org is reporting that Apacabar is selling out its BeOS-related software, offering among others, BeOS 5 Pro and even T-Racks ($299 original price) for 99 French Franks (about $13 USD) each. I sent to Palm's CEO, Mr. Carl Yankowski, 5 questions for a mini-interview (questions that most BeOS users have in their mind these days), but instead, Marlene Somsak, Senior Director at Palm, replied:
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AmigaDE Players for Linux and Windows

  Submitted by Mike Bouma Amiga & AROS 5 Comments
This interview gives some more insight regarding Amiga`s imminent PDA adventures. Note that soon you will be able to use this PDA content and other AmigaDE software transparently with AmigaDE players on both Linux and Windows based platforms. How well such players will sell remains to be seen. Here`s a rather positive quote from John Harris (well known games designer of games like Frogger, Jawbreaker and Mouseattack) regarding his work for Amiga: "It literally revitalized my life!"
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WindowsXP Hits Gold While Linux Turns 10

Windows No Comments
Microsoft announced that its WindowsXP operating system is now complete and that the company will present the final "gold code" version to computer manufacturers today. Windows XP is scheduled for widespread release on October 25th and will be available in several versions: WindowsXP Home Edition will be available as an upgrade for Windows 98/ME users while WindowsXP Professional will be available as an upgrade for Windows 2000/NT users. In the meantime, this month 10 years ago, Linus Torvalds first invited open-source folks to play with his free operating system. Now Linux has grown a lot and it is serious business for giants like IBM, Compaq and HP and competes straight with Microsoft's OS offerings.
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Free IBM Software Evaluation Kit for Linux CD

IBM No Comments
Get a free CD containing IBM Linux middleware products, tools, e-busines roadmaps, and documentation. The IBM Software Evaluation Kit for Linux CD contains the following: IBM WebSphere Application Server, Advanced Edition V4.0 for Linux, IBM DB2 Universal Database Enterprise Edition V7.2 for Linux, Lotus Domino Server Release 5.0.7a for Linux, IBM MQSeries V5.2 for Linux, VisualAge for Java, Professional Edition Version 4, Web Services tools, Java and XML tools, e-business documentation and roadmaps.
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Hewlett Packard Backs Linux

Linux 10 Comments
While a lot of Linux companies are closing one after the other and a lot of people are starting to wondering if GPL software can actually bring some money in, Hewlett Packard gave Linux a big boost yesterday as they announced they would use the operating system to power everything from cell phones to stereos. HP said it would develop new security software for Linux, as well as HP Chai-LX, a program to develop Linux applications for small consumer devices like stereos and cell phones. This may very well be the fruit of the work of one of the most important people in Linux history, Bruce Perens, who was recently hired by HP. Our Take: Even if Linux never make it to the desktop market and be able to beat Microsoft's OS offerings (Linux covers about 1% of the desktop market surveys report), it sure can have lots of usages in the embedded market, where some say that "this is where the real money is."
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Intel Launches New Compilers for Linux

Intel 10 Comments
From the Press Release: "Intel Corp today announced version 5.0 of the Intel C++ Compiler for Linux and the Intel Fortran Compiler for Linux. The compilers are specifically designed to help developers fully utilize the architectural innovations in the Intel Itanium and Pentium 4 processors, allowing for easy access to all of the performance features of Intel's latest processors." Our Take: The big news is not just to dryily report this release for Linux. The real news here is that Linux can now have an incredibly good compiler. Sharing a house with 4 ex-Be engineers in the past taught me at least one thing: the Intel compilers are many times faster (in generated executable code quality and compilation speed) than GCC 3.X and even VC++. While GCC is free and Intel's Proton costs $399, still, for professional use or for apps where execution speed matters (games or scientific software for example), Proton and VTune seems like the clear choice.
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ZDNet Reviews Seven Linux Distributions

Linux No Comments
ZDNet writes: "Over the last decade, Linux has evolved from the pet project of a Finnish university student to a worldwide platform. The undisputed strength of Linux in the server arena has led to widespread adoption in the business arena--case in point, the ubiquitous Apache Web server, which serves roughly 65 percent of the world's Web sites." ZDNet continues with a full review of seven well-known Linux distributions, an interesting read especially for those who are still undecided as to which distro suits them better.
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