OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Oracle Kills OpenSolaris, Moves Development Behind Closed Doors

Submitted by Cytor 2010-08-13 Solaris 61 Comments

Well, Oracle went from one of those big enterprise-serving companies most of us don't deal with to one of the more hated companies in our little community. Not only did they just sue Google over Android and its use of Java-related technologies, they also just officially killed off OpenSolaris. Solaris will still be open source, but source code will only come after each major release - development will happen behind closed doors.

Details from Oracle’s Complaint Against Google

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-13 Legal 61 Comments

The entire complaint Oracle lobbed at Google has been available online for a while now, and after reading it through with my total lack of any knowledge of the inner workings of the American legal system, a few things did stand out to me as peculiar. We'll have to wait for a more detailed analysis by someone qualified to do so. Also, a few other notes about this case I've picked up online.

Oracle Sues Google Over Java in Android

Submitted by JeremyPoulson 2010-08-13 Legal 117 Comments

I'm supposed to be asleep right now, but this news kind of hit me like a ton of bricks: Oracle is suing Google over its Android mobile operating system, claiming it infringes on its patented Java technology. Not a good week to be Google, is it?

Google Defends Net Neutrality Proposal

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-12 Internet 16 Comments

Google and Verizon's joint statement on net neutrality and the internet (which apparently consists of three separate internets) wasn't particularly well-received. Google has gone into damage-control mode, defending the policy proposal in a sort of get-the-facts-like weblog post.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta To Arrive September 15

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-12 Internet Explorer 25 Comments

Microsoft has announced the release date of the beta of Internet Explorer 9 - September 15. "Starting today, a select group of VIP web developers, designers, bloggers and press begin receiving their invitations to an event we're holding in San Francisco on September 15th to celebrate the Beauty of the Web and to mark the launch of the IE9 Beta."

Windows Phone 7 Secret Sauce: Developers

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-12 Windows 10 Comments

"Windows Phone 7 is entering a tough market. Apple's iOS and Google's Android have become well-entrenched, widely used platforms, and both have application stores boasting tens or hundreds of thousands of applications. At launch, Windows Phone 7 will certainly have its virtues - a slick user interface, a first-rate e-mail client, and extensive integration with online services -- but it will also lack a great many features that its competitors include. But the modern, consumer-friendly, touch-friendly smartphone market is still a new one, expected to undergo substantial growth over the next few years. Microsoft may be late to the game, but probably isn't too late - there's certainly no winner yet. And the company has one major strength its competitors lack."

IDC, Gartner: the Android Invasion Is Worldwide

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-12 Wireless 54 Comments

The fact that Android is doing well shouldn't be a surprise to anyone; lots of figures already prove that. New figures from research firms Gartner and IDC from the second quarter of 2010 show that not only is Android doing well in the United States - it's doing well in Foreign as well. Worldwide, Android has soared past iOS, and is closing in on Research In Motion's BlackBerry - just one percentage point left. Symbian is still the undisputed king of smartphone land, with more installations sold than RIM and Android combined.

Submitted by namakemono 2010-08-11 Wireless 53 Comments

Kaspersky has announced in this article the first trojan specific for Android. "The new malicious program penetrates smartphones running Android in the guise of a harmless media player application. Users are prompted to install a file of just over 13 KB with the standard Android extension .APK. Once installed on the phone, the Trojan uses the system to begin sending SMSs to premium rate numbers without the owner’s knowledge or consent, resulting in money passing from a user’s account to that of the cybercriminals."

Apple Patches iOS PDF Flaw that Allowed Web-based Jailbreak

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-11 Apple 8 Comments

"Apple has released security updates for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad to address flaws in both PDF handling and I/O - these flaws had been exploited recently to create a Web-based jailbreak for the company's portable devices. iOS 4.0.2 is available via iTunes for the iPhone and iPod touch, and iOS 3.2.2 patches the flaw for iPad owners."

Submitted by Cytor 2010-08-11 Solaris 83 Comments

Due to me not working for OSNews these past eight weeks, I've been a bit out of the loop, as I didn't really follow technology news. I did notice that a lot is going on in OpenSolaris land, and today, Oracle has outlined what it has planned for Solaris 11 - and according to some, the fears about OpenSolaris' future were justified.

Adobe Releases Flash for Mac with Hardware Acceleration

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-11 Multimedia, AV 37 Comments

Not too long ago, Apple added the Video Decode Acceleration framework to Mac OS X, allowing developers to get low-level access to hardware H264 acceleration. Adobe was quite thrilled about this, because they claimed this was needed for Flash video to become hardware accelerated on the Mac. This feature's been in beta for a while now, but yesterday they finally released it as part of a regular Flash Player update. Caveat: Apple's support for this framework can be a bit sketchy.

Submitted by Norman Feske 2010-08-11 OS News 2 Comments

Today, the Genode OS Framework has seen another feature-rich release, introducing support for hardware-accelerated graphics by the means of Gallium3D, wireless networking via the MadWifi communication stack, a new block-device infrastructure, and Qt4 version 4.6.3. Genode is a modular framework for building special-purpose operating systems, currently supporting 6 different kernels. With the new release, its device-driver coverage reaches a new level and brings the project one step closer towards the goal of shaping Genode to a general-purpose OS.

Chromium Sends Data to Google: Turns Out It’s a Regression

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-10 Internet 20 Comments

Well, some rumblings in Chromium-land today. An attentive user found out that it looked like Chromium, the open source, un-Googled version of Chrome, was phoning home to Google during start-up. A long discussion ensued, and together with Chromium hackers, the behaviour was clarified, and traced to a regression somewhere in the code. Open source at work, people.

HP Tells Employees webOS Tablet Coming Q1 2011

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-10 Wireless 4 Comments

"We've been trying to find out when HP would launch a webOS tablet since the company first bought Palm, and we're now hearing from several trusted sources that it'll be calendar Q1 2011. We're told Personal Systems Group VP Todd Bradley mentioned the date during an all-hands employee meeting yesterday, and that the project is indeed known internally as 'Hurricane'."

Submitted by JRepin 2010-08-10 KDE 116 Comments

KDE today celebrates its semi-annual release event, releasing new versions of the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Development Platform and a large number of applications available in their 4.5.0 versions. In this release, the KDE team focused on stability and completeness of the desktop experience.

Canonical Starts Tracking Ubuntu OEM Installs

Submitted by Michael 2010-08-10 Ubuntu 13 Comments

This is typically one of those things that could start to lead a life of its own if it doesn't get handled properly from the get-go. As it turns out, Canonical is interested in tracking Ubuntu OEM installs, and it has decided to do so by installing a tracking package on OEM machines running 10.04.

Google, Verizon Weasel Their Way Out of Net Neutrality

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-09 Internet 49 Comments

Well, this is interesting. As some rumours already suggested, Google and Verizon have released a joint proposal for a legislative framework regarding net neutrality. This being Google and all, some of you may expect this to be all flower-farting unicorns darting across rainbows, but sadly, that's not the case. This proposal? Well, it's not good.

Ubuntu: We Have No Plans to Fork GNOME

Submitted by suka 2010-08-09 Gnome 66 Comments

Ubuntu's community manager Jono Bacon talks in an interview with derStandard.at about the relationship between Ubuntu and GNOME, GNOME Shell, Unity and why the netbook market is that important to Canonical.

Try Out Windows Azure for One Month – Free

Submitted by Amy Bennett 2010-08-09 Internet 4 Comments

Between now and October 31, 2010, Microsoft is giving one-month passes to the Windows Azure platform to the first 500 developers to respond to the offer.

Flexible Plastic Displays

David Adams 2010-08-09 Hardware 8 Comments

Displays built out of plastic instead of glass would be a gadget lover's dream: they'd be rugged and lightweight, and they should be inexpensive to make on "roll-to-roll" systems similar to those used for newsprint. But to develop prototypes for flexible tablet computers and other gadgets with plastic displays, the device makers have had to develop custom equipment.