OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Szeleney: “SkyOS Is Not Dead”

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-02 SkyOS 70 Comments

Over the past couple of months, I've been getting a number of emails asking me about SkyOS' status. Since I didn't know anything beyond what's on the SkyOS website, and because, well, I have no affiliation with SkyOS, I couldn't really reply to these emails. However, after yet another email sent to me late last week, I decided to simply... Email Robert Szeleney, the man behind the project.

Submitted by Idefix 2010-03-02 Opera 35 Comments

After a number of alpha and beta releases, Opera Software has announced the final release of Opera 10.50 for Windows, which they call "the world's fastest browser for Windows". Apart from performance improvements, Opera 10.50 comes packed with other new features, as well as improved integration with Windows 7.

‘No, You Can’t Do That with H.264’

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-01 Multimedia, AV 53 Comments

"A lot of commercial software comes with H.264 encoders and decoders, and some computers arrive with this software preinstalled. This leads a lot of people to believe that they can legally view and create H.264 videos for whatever purpose they like. Unfortunately for them, it ain't so."

Elements of Firefox Overhaul Arrive for Testing

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-01 Mozilla, Gecko 16 Comments

"Mozilla, faced with new competitive pressures, has begun work on three separate, significant changes to Firefox. First is a new JavaScript engine that - with a transfusion from the project behind Apple's Safari - should run Web-based programs at least 30 percent faster. Second is a new graphics engine for Windows that will take advantage of hardware acceleration for graphics and text. And third is a programming tool to help bring to fruition a new system for Firefox add-ons."

Microsoft Wins Windows XP Downgrade Lawsuit

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-01 Legal 4 Comments

"A federal judge has dismissed a year-old lawsuit against Microsoft over alleged antitrust violations for the 'downgrade' rules it set for Windows Vista and XP. The order issued Monday by US District Court Judge Marsha Pechman put an end to the lawsuit filed by Emma Alvarado in February 2009. In her original complaint, the Los Angeles resident accused Microsoft of coercing computer makers into forcing consumers who wanted to run Windows XP to first buy Windows Vista, or later, Windows 7, before they were allowed to downgrade to XP."

Submitted by hotice 2010-03-01 Ubuntu 75 Comments

Well, this is a welcome surprise for those of us waiting for Ubuntu 10.04, the Lucid Lynx. Several users are reporting that their iPod Touches and iPhones (including the 3GS) work in alpha 3 - without tweaking, without jailbreaking, without patching - with Nautilus and Rythmbox.

Submitted by kragil 2010-03-01 Gnome 70 Comments

Ah, Nautilus, GNOME's default file manager. It's been with us for a long time now, and it has certainly been at the centre of a number of controversies. Do we go with a spatial or a navigational Nautilus? Should we replace the location bar with a breadcrumb bar? And now, it's time to move on. Recently, it has become apparent to many that Nautilus could use a make-over.

Google Go Captures Developers’ Imaginations

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-01 General Development 20 Comments

Less than four months after its unveiling at an early, experimental stage, Google Go looks promising to developers who say it offers significant improvements over other programming languages.

Doing the Microsoft Shuffle: Algorithm Fail in Browser Ballot

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-01 Internet 5 Comments

"DSL.sk did a test of the 'ballot' screen at www.browserchoice.eu, used in Microsoft Windows 7 to prompt the user to install a browser. It was a Microsoft concession to the EU, to provide a randomized ballot screen for users to select a browser. However, the DSL.sk test suggested that the ordering of the browsers was far from random. Maybe there was cogent technical analysis of this issue posted someplace, but if there was, I could not find it. So I'm providing my own analysis here, a little statistics and a little algorithms 101. I'll tell you what went wrong, and how Microsoft can fix it. In the end it is a rookie mistake in the code, but it is an interesting mistake that we can learn from, so I'll examine it in some depth."

Submitted by cloud 2010-02-28 Linux 5 Comments

Evidence has just submitted to LKML a new version of the SCHED_DEADLINE real-time CPU scheduler for the Linux kernel. The project is basically a new scheduling policy (implemented inside its own scheduling class) aiming at introducing deadline scheduling for Linux tasks, and it is being developed by Evidence in the context of the EU-Funded project ACTORS. This version takes into account comments come from Linux kernel developers, and it also introduces a first drafted implementation of deadline inheritance.

Palm Releases webOS 1.4

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-28 Wireless 20 Comments

The sky might be dark over Sunnyvale, but that obviously doesn't stop Palm from updating its webOS. The highly anticipated version 1.4 of the young mobile platform has been released over the weekend, and it includes an impressive array of new features, improvements, and bug fixes.

Episode 32: Shady Candy Companies

Kroc 2010-02-28 Podcasts 23 Comments

Kroc, Thom and David devote a show to the discussion of monopolies. What defines a monopoly, what has it to do with morals, and what positive and negative effects monopolies have on the market. Microsoft and Google are mentioned throughout as we try to place the current position Google finds itself in in context with the massive change in the technology world since Microsoft was king of the hill.

Sam440ep Backplates Available

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-27 Hardware 1 Comment

I just have to make mention of this. ACube, the company behind the sam440ep PowerPC motherboard, has finally made available the backplates for sam motherboards. As mentioned in my review, they shipped the sams without backplates, which over time kind of became a running joke in the Amiga world. Sam440 owners can now contact their dealers, or ACube directly, for a free backplate.

Support Ends for Windows Vista RTM, XP SP2, 2000

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-26 Windows 99 Comments

All good things come to an end, eventually, and operating systems are no different. Microsoft has reminded the public that support for several Windows versions will end over the coming months, which could likely have significant consequences if you or your company are still running these Windows versions.

Joo Joo Delayed Due to Manufacturing Issues

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-26 Wireless 14 Comments

The Joo Joo tablet has been delayed by one month. "Just a day after we pondered the shipping status of Fusion Garage's JooJoo tablet, the company's come clean and told us shipping will delayed to March 25 because of a manufacturing issue with the tablet's 12.1-inch capacitive screen. Yep, it looks like it's going to be at least 27 more days until you've got a JooJoo of your very own - which means, of course, that Fusion Garage will now be trying to launch this thing during the same week Apple's scheduled to launch the iPad."

Parallels Cuts Virtualisation Down to the Bare Metal on Xserve

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-26 Apple 9 Comments

"Parallels, known for its virtualization solutions for both desktops and servers, has announced another option for creating virtual servers on Apple's Xserve. The recently announced Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition lets admins create Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux virtual servers without the overhead of running Mac OS X Server as a host OS."

Microsoft: Oracle Will Take Us Back to 1970s Hell

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-26 Oracle and SUN 24 Comments

Microsoft's server and tools chief Bob Muglia has chided Oracle for peddling a return to '1960s computing', accusing its rival of going against industry trends and backing a dying and expensive operating-system architecture. "There are some things that Oracle is doing that I just shake my head at," Muglia told financial analysts attending the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, California, "I don't understand what's going to happen - what they think they're going to do with Sparc. I don't see how Sparc can live long-term."

Submitted by poundsmack 2010-02-26 Multimedia, AV 97 Comments

The debate about HTML5 video is for the most part pretty straightforward: we all want HTML5 video, and we all recognise it's a better approach than Flash for online video. However, there's one thing we just can't seem to agree on: the codec. A number of benchmarks have been conducted recently, and they highlight the complexity of video encoding: they go either way.

Submitted by kragil 2010-02-26 Gnome 61 Comments

GNOME hacker Seth Nickell has written a lengthy PDF and accompanying blog post with a number of very interesting ideas for GNOME 3.0. I pondered putting this up on the front page, but since that usually only attracts the "It's not what I'm used to so it sucks"-crowd, I decided to put it up here. Be sure to read the blog post, the PDF, and the comments on the blog post to get the entire picture.

Palm Lowers Sales Expectations, Shares Plummet

Thom Holwerda 2010-02-25 Wireless 28 Comments

The result of a market crowded by bigger competitors. Palm has taken a thorough beating today on the NASDAQ, as shares plummeted nearly 20%. The reason? Palm had to adjust its sales forecasts downward for the third quarter of the 2010 fiscal year, and, well, investors don't like that.