OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Ars Technica: Mac OS X Public Beta Repost

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-13 macOS 2 Comments

"For the vast majority of Mac users, the September 13, 2000 appearance of the Mac OS X Public Beta was the first glimpse of Apple's attempt to produce a modern operating system. Hop in the Classic.Ars time machine and check out John Siracusa's original review of the Mac OS X Public Beta." I've read all Siracusa's Mac OS X reviews in one day once. Very much worth it.

Microsoft Provides Russian NGOs with Unilateral Software License

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-13 Microsoft 27 Comments

Who said a public outcry - even if it's just on the internet - never helped anyone? Yesterday, we reported on The New York Times' findings that Microsoft lawyers were taking part in raids on opposition groups in Russia. Today, Microsoft has announced a number of steps to fix the situation - the most significant of which is a unilateral software license extended to all NGOs in Russia and several other countries.

Guest post by snydeq 2010-09-13 Open Source 26 Comments

InfoWorld's Neil McAllister offers 20 questions to test your knowledge of the open source and free software movements. Which was the first commercial Linux distribution? How many separate clauses make up the typical BSD-style open source license? What is the difference between the GPL and the LGPL?

Swiss Federal Supreme Court Declares P2P Investigations Illegal

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-13 Legal 65 Comments

With bad news after bad news when it comes to consumer rights in relation to software and copyright, it's always refreshing to see that there are still people in high places who aren't yet bought by big content. Late last week, a major battle was won for consumer rights in Switzerland: Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court has ruled that IP addresses are personal information, and therefore, fall under the country's strict privacy laws, and may not be used by anti-piracy companies.

NYT: Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-12 Microsoft 49 Comments

Piracy is a big problem for large software ~~vendors~~ licensors like Microsoft. As such, the Redmond giant is undertaking several anti-piracy efforts all over the world, and, of course, it attempts to make its software harder to crack through activation and validation. As The New York Times has discovered, however, the prevalence of pirated Microsoft software in Russia is giving the Russian authorities a pretence to raid the offices of outspoken advocacy groups or opposition media - supported by Microsoft lawyers. Update: Microsoft responds with a blog post that says all the right things, including "Microsoft will create a new unilateral software license for NGOs that will ensure they have free, legal copies of our products."

Recreational Programming With LoseThos

Kroc 2010-09-12 General Development 33 Comments

Technologists fear (and loathe) that which has no purpose. Why must some insist in deriding an operating system like Haiku that doesn't fit their particular needs or precepts of what has a purpose, when, it's advanced enough to have a decent web-browser and productivity software? Today I shall be further offending these people's tastes with a look into LoseThos--a pure 64-bit, preemptive-multitasking, multicored PC operating system that is intended to be used as a secondary operating system for user's recreational programming on their best PC while dual booting a primary system such as Linux or Windows where they do networking and other modern activities such as multimedia. Yes, LoseThos has no networking, no security of any kind, and VGA graphics; but it certainly has a purpose: to be fun! (for programmers, at least)

Cydia, Rock To Merge

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-12 Apple 31 Comments

The iPhone jailbreak community is on a roll lately. Not only did the US Library of Congress do the right thing by adding the jailbreaking DMCA exemption, the two major jailbreak application stores - Rock and Cydia - will merge into one. Cydia will acquire Rock, an all Rock applications will be moved into Cydia. There's also some impressive statistics in here that indicate just how popular jailbreaking really is.

US Court Upholds EULAs, Criminalises Pretty Much All of Us

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-10 Legal 125 Comments

EULAs, and whatever nonsense they may contain, are legally binding in the US. Have a great weekend!

Google, Adobe Respond to Apple’s Policy Changes

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-10 Apple 24 Comments

Yesterday's back-pedaling from Apple has been very well received in the industry. Two companies who were bitten pretty hard by Apple's policies - Google (through AdMob) and Adobe - have both responded to yesterday's changes, and as you can expect, they're both pretty happy.

Submitted by lemur2 2010-09-10 Mozilla, Gecko 64 Comments

"Mozilla has published the first Firefox build that integrates a new JavaScript engine that aims to match the performance in IE9 and reduces the gap to Safari, Opera and Chrome. The JavaScript performance is pretty dramatic and, at least on our test system, Firefox 4 is now faster than IE9 PP4."

Porting Perl to Python

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-10 General Development 60 Comments

Python programmers shouldn't get too smug. While many people agree that Python is designed in a way that makes it a highly readable language, there can still be problems with legacy, untested Python code too. Porting legacy Perl to Python can be a daunting task. In this article, learn some of the theory behind dealing with legacy code, including what not to do.

Nokia Replaces Its CEO, Hires Microsoft Exec

Submitted by Albert Astals Cid 2010-09-10 Wireless 34 Comments

This one doesn't come as a total surprise: Nokia has replaced its CEO. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is on his way out, and he's being replaced by Stephen Elop, head of Microsoft's Business division. This will be the first time someone from Foreign (from Nokia's perspective) will lead the company, but some fresh, outside blood may be just what the doctor ordered.

Android Not Open: Wait, What?

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-09 Google 54 Comments

TechCrunch held a little in-promptu poll a few days ago, asking its readers why they chose to go with Android instead of something else. Most people stated they choose Android because of "openness". The author of the article calls this "a load of crap", arguing that because carriers can do with Android as they so desire, the reality now is that Android isn't open. Clearly, the author doesn't get openness.

After Google Incident, Wi-Fi Data Collection Goes on

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-09 Internet 2 Comments

Four months ago, amidst a backlash from government regulators and privacy advocates, Google stopped collecting Wi-Fi data with its Street View cars. But that doesn't mean Google has stopped collecting wireless data altogether, and neither have other companies such as Apple.

Guest post by snydeq 2010-09-09 Java 52 Comments

Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister sees recent experiments enabling a resurgence for JavaScript on the server, one likely to dent Java's role in the data center. 'Today, projects such as CommonJS and Node.js are extending JavaScript even further, allowing it to take on Java's traditional role in the data center. In a fascinating role reversal, JavaScript is becoming the versatile, powerful, all-purpose language for the Web, while Java risks becoming a kind of modern-day Cobol," McAllister writes. And though such experiments have a ways to go, the benefits of JavaScript as a server-side language are clear and striking.

Submitted by kragil 2010-09-09 Linux 77 Comments

Ahem. I just had to write that all-caps headline. Broadcom's wireless chips - used by just about everybody in this industry - have been a major pain in the bum for Linux users, because the company did not release open source drivers. Workarounds had to be created, lots of pain was had in the process, but now, Broadcom has finally seen the light: they have open sourced their wireless Linux drivers.

Apple Caves, Drops Ban on iOS Third-party Development Tools

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-09 Apple 67 Comments

Very good news out of Cupertino just now. It took quite a bit of negative press, but Apple has finally caved in: the company is dropping its restriction on third-party development tools for iOS. Also, the company has published all its App Store review guidelines out in the open for the first time. It took a little too long, but very good news nonetheless.

ARM Unveils Cortex-A15, Up to 2.5Ghz Quad-core

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-09 Hardware 75 Comments

So, we have Intel and AMD. These guys are doing pretty well in laptops, servers, and of course desktops, but when it comes to mobile devices, they've so far been unable to adapt the x86 architecture to the stricter requirements that come with those devices. ARM, on the other hand, pretty much owns this market at this point. And you know what? It's time for Intel and AMD to get worried - really worried. ARM has just announced its Cortex-A15 MPCore chips - which will reach 2.5Ghz in quad-core configurations.

Submitted by aargh 2010-09-09 Legal 7 Comments

Ars Technica: "Today 377 members of the European Parliament adopted a written declaration on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in which they demand greater transparency, assert that ISPs should not up end being liable for data sent through their networks, and say that ACTA 'should not force limitations upon judicial due process or weaken fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and the right to privacy'."

Kno Secures Another Boatload of Funding

Thom Holwerda 2010-09-09 Wireless 3 Comments

Remember the Kno dual-screen tablet we talked about earlier this year? The massive dualscreen tablet, aimed at the education market, is supposed to change the way students carry around textbooks - by eliminating textbooks altogether. The company behind the Kno has secured another boatload of funding, and the device will ship before year's end.