OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Oracle Details Solaris 11, OpenSolaris’ Future Shaky

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.

Submitted by philip.may 2010-08-09 Oracle and SUN 16 Comments

For the first time since Sun was eaten by Oracle there was an email in my inbox today promising news and updates from the transition. As a valued member of the Sun community, we'd like to make sure you keep abreast of all the latest as we transition to Oracle. A lot of great things will be coming from the combination of Oracle and Sun and you'll want to stay informed! Here's your chance to keep up to date. Simply follow the link below and tell us a little more about yourself to receive news and information about products and events from Oracle. Maybe they are finally realising that we won't wait around forever. Time will tell if this will be substantial. The phrase 'a little slow on the uptake' leaps to mind.

What Is your Most Likely Apocalyptic Scenario?

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-09 Humor 75 Comments

Now that I'm done with my internship and ready to take on OSNews again, I figured it'd be nice to start off with something light-hearted. I just read that Google bought an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a camera, ready to photograph whatever it flies across. We may consider Google's biggest threat to be privacy, but with all this computing power they have, their Street View cars, and now, unmanned flying drones, they look more and more like SkyNet to me. So, what's your most likely apocalyptic scenario?

Flash ‘Ported’ to iPhone

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-08 Apple 26 Comments

So, now that jailbreaking is easier than ever, right now is probably the best time to dive into the vast array of possibilities that lay ahead in shackle-free land. I've already tricked my iPhone out pretty substantially, but there's always somewhere further you can go. Yes, Flash had already been ported to the iPad, and now the iPhone has received the Flash treatment as well. Jailbreaking required, naturally.

HP CEO Mark Hurd Resigns After Inappropriate Behaviour

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-06 In the News 22 Comments

Right before the weekend, we have some interesting news from Hewlett Packard, hardware and software maker, but most of all (at least to me) owner of Palm and its assets. CEO of HP, Mark Hurd, has resigned, effective immediately, after the board found out he had behaved "inappropriately" towards a former HP marketing contractor which "violated HP's Standards of Business Conduct". Cathie Lesjak has been appointed interim CEO while the company seeks a new one.

Android Phone Sales Outpace iPhone Sales

Thom Holwerda 2010-08-06 Wireless 41 Comments

A bunch of figures travelled all over the web this past week regarding Android's remarkable growth. Its growth is indeed remarkable - bigger than the iPhone, bigger than Research In Motion's BlackBerry (in the US, at least). However, as impressive as those figures are, isn't it about time we start comparing platforms instead of devices?

Live Kernel Patches with Ksplice

David Adams 2010-08-06 General Development 7 Comments

Ksplice applies kernel patches on-the-fly - no reboot required -- in a fraction of a second. Here's a hands-on guide to performing painless system updates. Learn how to patch a live kernel and give reboots the boot.

Glass is Hot in the Smartphone Era

David Adams 2010-08-06 Wireless 8 Comments

During the fiber boom, Corning became the darling of Wall Street. A decidedly old-school industrial era company that specialized in making glass, Corning is getting rich of another boom -- this time from smartphones like the iPhone.

JoliCloud Launches

David Adams 2010-08-06 OS News 3 Comments

JoliCloud, the much talked-about cloud client OS, is making its debut today with the release of the official 1.0 milestone, and is now available for general release. JoliCloud is an operating system combined with a user interface that allows people to access web services as if accessing an app on their smartphones.

Submitted by poundsmack 2010-08-06 Qt 59 Comments

Been wondering about Nokia's strategy for conquering the rapidly expanding app space? Great! So were we, which is why we joined up with a recent dev event carried out by the Finnish company for an update on how and where things are going. It's a familiar narrative by this point: Qt is all set to become the way that Nokia-friendly apps are made -- whether it be for Symbian smartphones or MeeGo-powered mobile computers, coffee machines or infotainment consoles