OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Qt4 Port for eComStation Almost Ready

Submitted by martini 2010-01-04 OS/2 26 Comments

For some months now, independent developers have been working on a Qt4 port for eComStation, and it's almost ready. Some Qt4 applications have been ported to eCS, as well. This project is funded by donations from the eCS-OS2 community and currently they have 82% of the needed sum.

Review: Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server

Thom Holwerda 2010-01-04 Apple 6 Comments

"Apple's Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server is aimed squarely at small businesses that, for any number of reasons, need or prefer to host their core Internet services in-house without breaking the bank. Ars kicks the tires on the new combo to see if Apple has another hit on its hands."

Episode 30: I Wonder What the Children Would Be?

Kroc 2010-01-03 Podcasts 25 Comments

The problem with the future is that by the time you get there, everything is pretty normal. Now that we've arrived in 2010 (something I could hardly imagine 10 years ago), we're now met with the annual tradition of predicting what will happen this year. Now that Kroc, Thom and Tess have recovered enough from the new year we discuss KDE 4, desktop OSes vs. the web and the issues of privacy and government involvement in the Internet--that is, when we managed to stay on topic. More coffee!

Intel Forced to Remove “Cripple AMD” Function from Compiler?

Thom Holwerda 2010-01-03 General Development 123 Comments

Here's something you probably don't know, but really should - especially if you're a programmer, and especially especially if you're using Intel's compiler. It's a fact that's not widely known, but Intel's compiler deliberately and knowingly cripples performance for non-Intel (AMD/VIA) processors.

PC-BSD 8.0-BETA Released

Submitted by theeb 2010-01-03 PC-BSD 16 Comments

The PC-BSD team has released the first beta release of PC-BSD 8.0. "The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 8.0-BETA (Hubble Edition), running FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE, and KDE 4.3.4. Version 8.0 contains a number of enhancements and improvements."

Syllable Web Server Cheyenne Gets WebSocket Framework

Guest post by Kaj de Vos 2010-01-03 Syllable, AtheOS 1 Comment

Over the holidays, the Cheyenne web server that is used in Syllable Server got a WebSocket framework. Cheyenne's author Nenad Rakocevic implemented WebSocket support in just a day on top of the UniServe universal network I/O subsystem that underpins Cheyenne. In a few more days, he designed an original WebSocket framework supporting persistent connections in an efficient manner, extending the regular Cheyenne framework for the typical HTTP stateless request/response communication.

Chrome Overtakes Safari, Becomes Number 3 Browser

Thom Holwerda 2010-01-02 In the News 98 Comments

NetApplications has released its latest browser market share figures, and these figures show that Chrome has overtaken Safari as the number three browser worldwide, behind Internet Explorer and Firefox. IE, by the way, continues to lose popularity rather fast.

Hyperion Teases Amiga Community

Thom Holwerda 2010-01-02 Amiga & AROS 84 Comments

People, this is an interesting thing to follow first-hand. Hyperion, the company behind AmigaOS4, has been talking about its "Most Ambitious Project" for a while now, but on December 31, they started teasing the Amiga community like crazy. They opened a site called a-eon.com, which is most likely about the MAP.

Submitted by jeanmarc 2010-01-01 Haiku 40 Comments

As I drag myself from cup of coffee to cup of coffee, led by the soothing sounds of The Eagles, still recovering from last night (happy new year everyone!), it hit me that there is this thing I normally do, this website. Anyway, we've got some good Haiku news on this first day of 2010.

(Re-)Introducing HTML5 Video

Kroc 2010-01-01 Opera 84 Comments

HTML5 Video is coming to Opera 10.5. Yesterday (or technically, last year--happy new year readers!) Opera released a new alpha build containing a preview of their HTML5 Video support. There's a number of details to note, not least that this is still an early alpha...

2000-2009: Microsoft’s Decade of Shattered Dreams

Kroc 2009-12-31 Microsoft 94 Comments

BetaNews writes: "Microsoft executives and product managers -- Chairman Bill Gates, above all of them -- showed great technology vision for the new millennium. The company was right about so many trends to come but, sadly, executed poorly in bringing too many of them to market. Microsoft's stiffness, perhaps a sign of its aging leadership, consistently proved its foible. Then there is arcane organizational structure, which has swelled with needless middle managers, and the system of group competition".

Songbird 1.4.x Released

Eugenia Loli 2009-12-31 Wireless 71 Comments

Just before Christmas Songbird 1.4.0 was released, and a new fix versions was released today as 1.4.3. Songbird now supports MSC storage devices and CD ripping, bringing the app one step closer to replacing iTunes for some users. What's particularly interesting is that Songbird now specifically pushes their product against users of Android, Nokia and Palm smartphones -- which is something I also suggested a few months too. Hopefully Google, Nokia, and Palm will get behind the small team in San Francisco to help out the cause, since it's also on their best interest too.

Submitted by SReilly 2009-12-30 Hardware 63 Comments

What laptop does Richard Stallman use? A Dell, HP, maybe even an Apple? No - RMS uses a rather odd laptop, a netbook powered by the Chinese Loongson processor: the Yeeloong, a completely Free laptop. From BIOS to operating system, this machine is completely open source. Wired is running a very interesting article on the Loongson processor effort.

A Possible Cure for Exploitable Heap Corruption in Windows 7

Thom Holwerda 2009-12-30 Windows 7 Comments

"Last November, Russinovich triumphantly introduced developers at the company's annual PDC conference in Los Angeles to a multitude of measures implemented in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 not only to improve reliability and harden security, but to overcome the deficiencies he openly admits characterized the brief era of Windows Vista. Collectively, just the introductions to these new features by Russinovich and his partners consumed 11 hours over the first two days, all of that time with a standing-room-only crowd."

Palm Updates webOS, Drops Hints at What’s to Come

Thom Holwerda 2009-12-30 Wireless 17 Comments

Lots of news regarding Palm's webOS the past few days. Not only did Palm release webOS 1.3.5, the company has also laid out a number of hints on what's to come at CES coming January: OpenGL is here.

Review: Litl Webbook

David Adams 2009-12-30 Hardware 20 Comments

OSNews reviews the Litl Webbook, an Atom mini-notebook with an innovative convertible form-factor and a custom, web-centric Linux-based OS. (Includes video review). Update: Turns out that Havoc Pennington, proponent of the Gnome Online Desktop, now works at Litl. No coincidence.

“Google Nexus One Phone Likely to Launch Jan. 5”

Thom Holwerda 2009-12-29 Google 10 Comments

"Google's much-anticipated new phone, the HTC-designed Nexus One, could make its debut next week. Google has scheduled a press event for Tuesday, January 5 at its Mountain View, California, headquarters. Though the company hasn't mentioned Nexus One, the invitation mentions Android, Google's mobile operating system for phones, and the company is widely expected to show the device that has had smartphone industry watchers buzzing for weeks."

Submitted by OSGuy 2009-12-29 Legal 38 Comments

And here you were, thinking the legal tussle between Apple and Nokia couldn't get any uglier. Well, it turns out it can, as Nokia has filed another patent complaint, this time to the US International Trade Commission. This new case revolves around patents other than the ones in the first case.

Submitted by OSGuy 2009-12-29 Hardware 48 Comments

Earlier this month, Psystar suspended all sales of its hardware products, honouring the court's decision which favoured Apple. This week, Psystar has also temporarily halted sales of Rebel EFI while the former clone maker confirms the tool's legality with the court. Psystar also announced it will continue hardware sales in the coming days - with Linux rather than Mac OS X.

Dave Barry’s Year In Review

David Adams 2009-12-29 Humor 4 Comments

Continuing with our slow-news-week theme, I'd bring your attention to Dave Barry's year-end column. People outside the US may not be familiar with Barry, a prominent nationally-syndicated satirist whose columns are full of hyberbolic nonsense. But in addition to national and international events, he covers some technology news to, excerpted after the jump.