Windows 7 Can Be a Success Without Hurting Apple

On October 22, Microsoft will unleash the much-anticipated Windows 7. After the commercial disaster that is Windows Vista, it is believed the new release will turn the tide for the world's biggest software maker. A lot of people also believe it will put a halt to Mac OS X's growth, but I personally think we need to remember the timeless quote form Steve Jobs: "We have to let go of the notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose."

What Problems Does Google Wave Solve?

"There are countless pundits and other tech gurus describing Google Wave as a disappointment, lately. Most of that seems to come from the fact that nobody seems to get what Wave is for. So they compare it to social media. Is Wave the next Twitter? Nope. Is it the next Facebook? Nope. Is it going to replace Instant Messengers? Possibly, in some circumstances, but not any time soon." Read more here.

Who Should We Interview?

In the past, OSNews' interview volume was quite a bit higher than it has been lately. I had the pleasure of having lunch with Eugenia and her husband last week, and she mentioned that we haven't done as many interviews, and that in the past they were always very popular. So I decided that I'm going to make it a personal priority to publish more interviews. I'd like to crowdsource the idea, and ask the OSNews community who they'd like to see us interview. Please let us know in the comments of this story who you'd like us to talk to, and what specific questions you'd like us to ask. Shoot for the moon. It's not as hard to get an email-based interview as you might think. Obviously OS-world luminaries will always be a priority, but feel free to recommend people from the larger tech community, or even geek-oriented popular culture.

Microsoft Recovers Sidekick Data

"Microsoft says it has now recovered the personal data lost when its Sidekick servers suffered an outage on 13 October. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Roz Ho says that all data will be restored, beginning with personal contacts. She believes that only a minority of Sidekick users are still affected. 'The outage was caused by a system failure that created data loss in the core database and the back up,' she wrote in an open letter to customers. The number of customers affected was not released, but Sidekick is believed to have more than one million subscribers overall. Microsoft says it has installed a 'more resilient back-up process' to safeguard against a repeat incident."

Micro Kernel Mona 0.3.0 Released

Micro kernel Mona with KVM virtio-net driver 0.3.0 has been released. This is the first release of Mona for daily use. You can listen to music, run a web server and do some work with an interactive shell. Major changes since 0.2.0 are ported uIP httpd, added KVM virtio-net driver, Added Scheme-based Shell, libc implementation, ported a Squirrel programing language, added standard I/O and pipe, improved thread APIs, added sound player and driver, improved CD-ROM access speed, improved console drawing speed, supported build on gcc 4.1.x, added VFS, support build on Linux, added APM support, ported Mesa, added Stack auto expansion, improved memory management, boot from CD-ROM. Also see the catalog of applications.

Borland in the 1980s: “Treat Software Just Like a Book”

Let's do a little trip down memory lane. We're talking the '80s, early '90s, and we're looking at a company called Borland, which produced several well-known and popular products related to software development. Back in those days, Borland had an end user license agreement. However, contrary to the EULAs we know and despise today, Borland's 'No-Nonsense License Statement' was a whole lot simpler, and in fact, is a perfect example of how software should be treated.

Firefox 3.6 with Tumbly Support

Firefox will now include code to detect how a laptop or mobile device is situated in relation to the ground for devices with the appropriate hardware. "One new feature that we’re including as part of Firefox 3.6 is support for web pages to access machine orientation information if it’s available. As you can see from the you can use it to figure out if the machine is moving and what direction it’s facing. Originally built as something that we would include for our upcoming mobile browser release, we’ve made it available on desktop systems as well. Many modern Macbooks and Thinkpads contain devices and drivers that expose this information. We’ve added support for Linux, Macs and some Thinkpads where drivers and devices are available."

Microsoft Sponsors Family Guy Episode

Those who enjoy the popular television show will be happy to know that November 8, 2009 will feature a variety show from the makers of Family Guy, and it will play for its entire allotted time without any commercial interruption-- courtesy of Microsoft. The company has made a deal with Fox to have Windows 7 propaganda integrated into a special entitled "Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show," which will include varied live-action Family Guy musical performances, animated shorts, and celebrity guest appearances. Just how the show will be used to advertise Windows 7 is unclear, but the folks at Microsoft say that "you'll see us deeply integrated into the content... you'll hear a lot about how Windows 7 can help you simplify your PC -- it's simple, fast and easy to use." So sit back in the lazy chair on November 8th, take a bite out of your Windows-branded toast, and enjoy.

The Amazing MorphOS 2.4 G4 Mac Testing Effort!

As we all know, the MorphOS team recently released MorphOS 2.4, which added support for the PowerPC G4 version of Apple's Mac Mini. Even though this long-awaited 'feature' is a very welcome one, I personally think that of all the G4 Macs MorphOS could support, the Mini is the least interesting. As such, I want to find out if any other G4 Macs happen to be supported too - without us knowing about it.

Linux Foundation Offers Members Hardware Discounts

"Back in June, the Linux Foundation started their individual membership program and they're now expanding it with new hardware discounts. Starting this week, those who pay the $99 for an individual Linux Foundation membership will also get up to 40 percent off of Lenovo devices and employee purchase pricing from Dell and HP... When the Linux Foundation started the $99 yearly fee provided users with their very own Linux.com email address. Now users can lock-in their email address for $150, for what the foundation calls a 'permanent' address."

OpenVMS V8.4 Field Test

We missed this one when it was announced, but since there's not much VMS news these days, I thought "better late than never." Dying to get your hands on the upcoming OpenVMS 8.4? HP is inviting participants for the field test of the next version of OpenVMS. As a field test site, you have the opportunity of trying the latest version of OpenVMS early.

Best Free Open Source Software for Mac OS X

InfoWorld surveys the FOSS-on-Mac OS X landscape, detailing the most essential free open source applications for the Mac, all precompiled and ready to run. 'In many cases, you're not just getting an open source tool; you're getting a range of options to add to that tool as many of them have yet another layer of openness hidden inside. Several of the applications have their own built-in environment for extending the software. Some accept plug-ins, some have pop-up windows for writing short extensions, and some have both -- so you have even more options for customization.' From AppleJack to GIMP to jEdit, each of these top 10 open source apps and utilities for the Mac prove that the best free open source software isn't just for Windows users.

Ubuntu Linux Adds Private Cloud Backing

Canonical's Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition will include private cloud capabilities, thanks to support for the open source Eucalyptus project, InfoWorld reports. Available for free download on Oct. 29, Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition will introduce Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, an open source cloud computing environment based on the same APIs as Amazon EC2. Users will be able to set up 10 to 15 private servers, leveraging the same capabilities they would use with Amazon, thereby allowing them to take their applications off the Amazon cloud and put them instead into a private cloud, or vice versa

Eee Keyboard Detailed by FCC

Aspects of the mouth-watering Eee Keyboard have been mysterious since we first heard about it at the beginning of this year. Now that the FCC has had a go at the device and has released its documents, we have sweet description in full. "Several of the documents hidden from our anxious eyes during the FCC filing have now gone public. Not only can you visually inspect its innards, the feds have also laid bare the full spec sheet for the ASUS Eee Keyboard model EK1542. Beneath the 5-inch, 800 x 480 pixel touch panel (with stylus) we'll be getting Windows XP Home running on an Intel Atom N270, 945GSE / ICH7-M chipset with Broadcom AV-VD905 video decoder, 1GB of DDR2 memory, either 16GB or 32GB of flash storage, 4-hour battery, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and VGA outputs, integrated stereo speakers and mic, 3x USB, headphone and mic jacks, and external WiFi / UWB antenna. The Eee Keyboard's on-board Ultra-Wideband (UWB) throws 720p content to your TV within a 5-meter range (10-meters for non-video transmissions) via a UWB receiver packing 2x USB ports, another mini-USB port, audio out, and HDMI. You can even connect to two external monitors at the same time using UWB and either VGA or HDMI cable. Now all we need is a final date and price... ASUS?"