OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Linux 3.4 released

Guest post by diegocg 2012-05-21 Linux 11 Comments

Linux kernel 3.4 has been released. New features include several Btrfs updates: support of metadata blocks bigger than 4KB, much improved metadata performance, better error handling and better recovery tools; there is also a new X32 ABI which allows to run programs in 64 bit mode with 32 bit pointers; several updates to the GPU drivers: early modesetting of Nvidia Geforce 600 'Kepler', support of AMD RadeonHD 7xxx and AMD Trinity APU series, and support of Intel Medfield graphics; support of x86 cpu driver autoprobing, two new device-mapper targets, several perf improvements such as GTK2 report GUI and a new 'Yama' security module. Here's the full list of changes.

Who’s pirating Game of Thrones, and why?

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-21 Multimedia, AV 61 Comments

"With over 3 million downloads per episode, the HBO hit series Game of Thrones is without doubt the most pirated TV-show of the season. Data gathered by TorrentFreak shows that most of the pirates come from Australia, while London tops the list of pirate cities. But why have these people turned to BitTorrent?" Because in order to get it legally, I have to take a monthly subscription costing me â‚¬15 per month. So instead, I buy the season box sets as they come out, and download them every Monday morning in the meantime.

Apple, Samsung CEOs set for court talks

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-21 Legal 3 Comments

Apple's and Samsung's CEOs are meeting tomorrow for patent lawsuit settlement talks, and cross-licensing appears to still be an option. Me, I'm hoping the talks fail utterly. Let this mess play out in the fullest. Let the world see the ridiculousness that is the patent system. Let's see what happens when iPhones and Galaxy devices get banned from the US and US senators suddenly don't get their hands on the latest shiny toy. Let's see how that impacts this mess.

Guest post by karijes 2012-05-21 Desktop environments 20 Comments

EDE is a desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. Main features of EDE are speed and responsiveness, low resource usage and familiar look and feel. Simply put, a desktop should not get in your way. This is the final 2.0 release, a major rework. Summarizing previous alpha and beta releases, 2.0 is now fully FLTK powered (eFLTK is deprecated) and freedesktop.org friendly. Specificaly, this release adds a new notification daemon, replaces the old edewm with the pekwm window manager, fixes a lot of issues and memory leaks, and more. Grab the release and try it. You can also try ede netinstall, a single command that will download and compile EDE for you.

Google says it won China’s approval for Motorola deal

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-20 Google 9 Comments

"Google said on Saturday that Chinese authorities have approved its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, the last regulatory hurdle to a deal that would allow the world's No. 1 Internet search engine to develop its own line of smart phones." The main requirement from the Chinese government? Google needs to keep Android open and free for at least five years. I'm guessing that's the time Baidu needs to properly fork Android.

Smartphones Reignite the OS Wars

Howard Fosdick 2012-05-19 Wireless 103 Comments

Smartphones have become the preferred computer of the masses. Sales surpassed those of personal computers in 2010, having grown over 50% per year for several years. Nearly 500 million smartphones shipped in 2011. This radically shifts the terrain in the consumer operating system competition that was, for years, firmly decided in favor of Windows. This article analyzes the New OS Wars.

Submitted by fran 2012-05-19 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 15 Comments

"Just days after the Mandriva community started its own plans for the next release of the French Linux distribution, its commercial sponsor has formally announced that the community will take the lead on all Mandriva Linux development moving forward. In a blog post on the Mandriva SA site, CEO Jean-Manuel Croset ceded control of the Mandriva Linux distribution back to the community at large." Take 'r 'round the shed and put a bullet 'tween 'r eyes already.

System description: the Apple-II by Stephen Wozniak

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-19 Apple 13 Comments

"To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use and inexpensive." You'll want to read this: Steve Wozniak's original description of the Apple ][, published in May 1977 in Byte Magazine.

Creating the Windows 8 user experience

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-18 Windows 34 Comments

A long - very long - blog post justifying all the ideas and choices behind Windows 8. We've all been here before, but it's nice to have it all summed up once again for easy reference in case we hit another yes/no debate on Windows 8 and keyboard and mouse. Anywho, the most interesting bit is that Microsoft has updated the theme of the traditional desktop, flattening it to achieve a very nice look.

Submitted by tomcat 2012-05-18 Windows 8 Comments

"All eyes were on Microsoft's rather important launch of Windows Phone in China earlier this year. Nokia followed up with the Lumia 800c, released on China Telecom. According to Michel van der Bel, COO of Greater China Region at Microsoft, the company has achieved 7% marketshare in the country, overtaking the iPhone (sitting at just 6%)." I'm raising an eyebrow over these figures due to their source, but assuming they're true, we get a good glimpse of how well Windows Phone 7 would handle itself in a market where the competition had less of a head start.

Submitted by martini 2012-05-17 Wireless 17 Comments

"As April draws to a close we are pleased to share more code for Open webOS. This month's scheduled release includes support for Node.js as well as updates to Enyo and Ares. In addition, we are pleased to announce early delivery of the System Manager Bus (which was originally scheduled for July) and a release of three policy components based on our Platform Portability Layer. We're happy to be ahead of schedule in getting this component of the Open webOS platform into your hands." Can't wait for the day I can run an up-to-date WebOS version on my SII.

HTC ships custom Android builds to the US to avoid Apple patents

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-17 Wireless 23 Comments

So, the new HTC phones are facing delays in the US, and they now ship with a slightly modified US-specific Android build which removes data tapping and sports an altered app associations screen to avoid Apple's patents. This is step one. Step two is companies avoiding the litigious and anti-consumer messes that are the US and German markets altogether. Clearly, IP laws are working to the benefit of the consumer and the market as a whole. Great work guys.

OpenSignalMaps logs 3997 unique Android devices

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-16 Wireless 19 Comments

An interesting study has been making the rounds across the web these past 24 hours. The creators of OpenSignalMaps have been logging which new devices download their product, and they've collected data on 681900 devices. The results are... Diverse.

Submitted by fran 2012-05-16 Wireless No Comments

A company called OpenMobile is demonstrating an application compatibility layer so Tizen can run Android applications, The Handheld Blog reports. "The solution is targeted towards OEMs and not end users. So it's upto the manufacturers of Tizen devices to modify the kernel etc. to bake support in for ACL."

Submitted by nej_simon 2012-05-16 Windows 16 Comments

"Microsoft has greatly improved its Windows 8 multiple monitor support in the Consumer Preview version of the operating system, but the company has fine tuned this even more with the upcoming Release Preview. Mark Yalovsky, a member of Microsoft's User Experience team, has taken to the company's Building Windows 8 blog to detail a number of important improvements in the Release Preview, including improved mouse targeting on shared edges and the ability to launch Metro apps on any monitor. Although the post in question has been mysteriously removed by Microsoft, we managed to secure the details thanks to a Google cached version." Very welcome.

WSJ: Apple moves toward larger iPhone screens

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-16 Apple 43 Comments

"Production is set to begin next month for the screens, which measure at least 4 inches diagonally compared with 3.5 inches on the iPhone 4S, the latest phone from Apple, the people said." Cue the usual suspects twisting and turning to change the very fabric of space-time so that instead of 3.5" being the optimal size, 4.0" will be the optimal size. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Google to expand Nexus program

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-16 Google 15 Comments

"Google plans to give multiple mobile-device makers early access to new releases of Android and to sell those devices directly to consumers, said people familiar with the matter. The expansion of direct sales marks a bid to exert more control over key features and apps that run on Android-powered phones and tablets, thus reducing the influence of wireless carriers over such devices, these people said. Wireless carriers typically handle marketing and sales of devices and thus can exert some control over the services that run on them." So, an expanded Nexus program that includes several smartphones and tablets without crapware. Sounds good.

Alsup: “I’ve written […] code like rangeCheck a hundred times before”

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-16 Legal 22 Comments

A bit of a fascinating little surprise in the Oracle vs. Google proceedings yesterday. As it turns out, judge Alsup... Has done, and still does, a lot of programming, and hence, he knows just how silly the whole rangeChek issue is. Addressing Oracle's lawyer, Alsup notes: "I couldn't have told you the first thing about Java before this problem. I have done, and still do, a significant amount of programming in other languages. I've written blocks of code like rangeCheck a hundred times before. I could do it, you could do it. The idea that someone would copy that when they could do it themselves just as fast, it was an accident. There's no way you could say that was speeding them along to the marketplace. You're one of the best lawyers in America, how could you even make that kind of argument?" Ouch.

Register for the HP Discover Conference

David Adams 2012-05-15 General Development 14 Comments

OSNews sponsor Hewlett-Packard is extending an offer to OSNews readers who register for the upcoming HP Discover conference: "This is HP's largest global conference for customers and partners attracting 10,000 IT executives, managers, architects, engineers, and solution experts from around the world. Join them to network and explore pivotal technology developments, best practices, and strategies." Readers can get a $300 discount on registration by using this link and using the discount code: "BLOG."

If you can copyright an API, what else can you copyright?

Thom Holwerda 2012-05-15 Legal 24 Comments

"If Judge William Alsup rules that APIs are subject to copyrights, he would overturn common wisdom in programming circles, potentially exposing many companies and developers who have built software platforms that openly mimic existing APIs. But that's not all. Such a ruling could shake things up for many other companies across the programming world and beyond." The fact we even have to worry about this speaks volumes about the state of the industry.