OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing - Page 565

Anonymous Sets Its Sights on Security Firm Working with FBI

Thom Holwerda 2011-02-07 In the News 14 Comments

"Internet vigilante group Anonymous turned its sights on security firm HBGary on Sunday evening in an attempt to "teach a lesson you'll never forget." The firm had been working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to unmask members of Anonymous following the group's pro-WikiLeaks attacks on financial services companies, and was prepared to release its findings next week."

Android 2.4 See in April, May Keep Phones, Tablets Divided

Guest post by fran 2011-02-07 Google 14 Comments

"Google may be planning to keep Android 2 and 3 segregated in a long-term split of the platform, according to a ViewSonic source on Monday. The 2.4 update, once thought to be called Ice Cream, is now said to be a continuation of Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) that would simply add backwards compatibility for dual-core apps on single-core phones. Ice Cream, Pocket-lint heard, should be Android 3.1 and would keep the two apart in features and the interface."

European Parliament Starts Free Software User Group

Guest post by jonas.kirilla 2011-02-07 Open Source 18 Comments

"One member of the European Parliament and a handful of their advisors and assistants started a free software group last Saturday, aiming to increase the use of Free and open source software in the European Parliament's IT infrastructure. The user group is open to all who work in the European Parliament, including staff and assistants working in political groups."

Pyxis 2 ‘Operating Environment’ for NETMF Released

Submitted by poundsmack 2011-02-07 OS News 9 Comments

We have a new operating system! Well, no - we have a new operating environment, since it's technically not an operating system. Pyxis 2 is an operating environment written in C# on the .NET Micro Framework. The goal of the project is to make it easier for developers to develop robust NETMF applications, while providing users with a common environment to launch applications in. It is open source (Apache 2.0).

Debian 6.0 Released

Thom Holwerda 2011-02-06 Debian 96 Comments

Oh glorious day! After two years of development, one of the prime Linux distributions has pushed out a new release - Debian 6.0 'Squeeze' has been released. The most fascinating aspect fo this new release is that it includes Debian/kFreeBSD s a technology preview, which fascinates me to no end. Of course, there's a whole lot more, including a brand new website for the project - the first major redesign in 13 years.

Hobby OS-deving 2: Setting Goals and Expectations

Neolander 2011-02-05 OS News 69 Comments

So you have taken the test and you think you are ready to get started with OS development? At this point, many OS-deving hobbyists are tempted to go looking for a simple step-by-step tutorial which would guide them into making a binary boot, do some text I/O, and other "simple" stuff. The implicit plan is more or less as follow: any time they'll think about something which in their opinion would be cool to implement, they'll implement it. Gradually, feature after feature, their OS would supposedly build up, slowly getting superior to anything out there. This is, in my opinion, not the best way to get somewhere (if getting somewhere is your goal). In this article, I'll try to explain why, and what you should be doing at this stage instead in my opinion.

Nokia Experiments With Bubbles Interface

Submitted by sawboss 2011-02-05 Wireless 14 Comments

Nokia Beta Labs are currently experimenting with a new kind of lock screen for touchscreen Symbian phones. Called Nokia Bubbles, this lock screen "offers a new way to achieve a bunch of different interactions and access functionality with a load of bubbles floating around on your handset's touchscreen."

Piracy Increases Anime DVD Sales, Study Concludes

Thom Holwerda 2011-02-05 Multimedia, AV 72 Comments

Piracy hurts the content industry. This has been the common line of thought in the piracy and copyright debate for years now, and even though study after study highlight that this is simply not the case - or at least, not as clear-cut a case - the content industry and its avid fans continue to spread this party line. Well, yet another study, this time from the Japanese government, has concluded that piracy actually increases anime DVD sales.

Nokia To Embrace Windows Phone 7?

Thom Holwerda 2011-02-04 Wireless 88 Comments

Is it really going to happen? Will we see one of the more momentous announcements in the tech world next week? The web's been abuzz about Nokia possibly adopting Windows Phone 7 for a number of handsets, and now even The New York Times has chimed in - at which point it might be time to start taking the rumours seriously.

‘iPad Is the New IE6’

Thom Holwerda 2011-02-04 Internet 54 Comments

"Since the last year with all the hype around HTML5 and the buzz about 'how HTML5 is going to save the web' and that 'Flash is dead', etc., a lot of people started to believe that HTML5 is ready for production and that it is more stable and has a better performance than Flash... Since the beginning I've been saying to everyone that it isn't true and it won't be for a long time."

The Mac Inventor’s Gift Before Dying: an Immortal Design Lesson

Thom Holwerda 2011-02-03 In the News 21 Comments

"The man who created the Mac interface gives his son Aza Raskin a final gift that that testifies to the beauty and power of simplicity." A very touching story about the final days of one of the greatest minds in the technology world. A must-read.

New Hardware Boosts Communication Speed on Multi-Core Chips

Guest post by fran 2011-02-03 Hardware 4 Comments

"Computer engineers at North Carolina State University have developed hardware that allows programs to operate more efficiently by significantly boosting the speed at which the 'cores' on a computer chip communicate with each other."

Nokia Takes MeeGo Theme Code Offline; Preparing Custom UI?

Guest post by fran 2011-02-03 Wireless 6 Comments

"Nokia has temporarily closed the MeeGo-themed branch of its Qt Quick components project. Hartz says that moving behind closed doors is a temporary measure and that the code will be published as soon as the developers are permitted to do so. Although the situation is a little bit frustrating for developers, it's arguably an extremely positive sign that Nokia is getting close to finally delivering a MeeGo product."

Chrome 9 Now Final with Web Store, Instant, WebGL

Guest post by fran 2011-02-03 Google 16 Comments

"Google today posted a finished, stable version of Chrome 9. The update is the first non-beta to have the Chrome Web Store built-in and lets anyone in the US reach it through a new browser tab. The store packages apps in a way that Flash, HTML5 or other code behaves more like a conventional app download or sale with a list of installed apps to match."

Windows Home Server RC Released

Submitted by fran 2011-02-03 Windows No Comments

"Windows Home Server 'Vail' Release Candidate goes to testers. For those Windows Home Server loyalists hoping against hope that Microsoft might reconsider its decision to cut Drive Extender from the coming 'Vail' release, your prayers have not been answered. Microsoft is delivering the Release Candidate test build of Vail - Windows Home Server 2011 - on February 3, and there is no Drive Extender included."

How to Run Multiple Operating Systems

Guest post by Howard Fosdick 2011-02-03 OS News 26 Comments

In this series of OS News articles, I'vedescribed how to refurbish maturecomputers. One useful technique is torun multiple operating systems on a singlecomputer. This retains the benefits of the existing Windows install andcouples it with the advantages of open source software.Thisarticle explores different techniques to runmultiple operating systems on one computer and discusses theirbenefits andshortcomings.

Icaros Desktop 1.2.6 Released

Guest post by paolone 2011-02-03 Amiga & AROS 22 Comments

Icaros Desktop, the distribution for i386 PC of the AROS Research Operating System (an open source revival of classic AmigaOS) reached version 1.2.6 and introduces new improvements and features.

Dell Releases Ubuntu-powered Cloud Servers

Guest post by anonymous 2011-02-03 Ubuntu 7 Comments

Dell has released two servers for the U.S. market that have been customized to run Ubuntu-based cloud services. The company has outfitted its PowerEdge C2100 and C6100 servers with Canonical's Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, an implementation of the Eucalyptus private cloud software that runs on the Ubuntu Server Edition operating system.

HP Palm Sneek Peek for Next Week’s Event

Thom Holwerda 2011-02-02 Wireless 2 Comments

It's only seven seconds long. It's the first teaser video for the upcoming HP Palm launch event. I have a soft spot in my heart for Palm, and I'm actually quite anxious to see if HP runs the brand and its legacy into the ground, or if they manage to wow us like Palm did when they first unveiled the Pre and webOS. We'll be seeing new phones, tablets, and probably improvements in the webOS itself. Six more days.

Google Unveils Honeycomb, Updates Android Market

Thom Holwerda 2011-02-02 Google 9 Comments

Usually it's Apple doing the event thing, but today the thunder's on Google. It held a press event to officially unveil Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets, as well as a revamped Android market. Gizmodo has a hands-on of the Motorola Xoom running Android 3.0, as does Engadget. Also today, the Android Market has been updated with a web frontend which allows for the seamless purchase and installation of Android applications from within your browser, which are then pushed to your device(s). In-application purchases have been added as well.