Snow Leopard, Psystar, SCO
It's time for another week in review. This was decidedly the Snow Leopard week, but we also talked a lot about Linux, Psystar, and even SCO resurrected from the dead to continue its litigation about UNIX.
Mac OS X 10.6 Brings Serious Performance Gains
Some detailed benchmarks of Snow Leopard. "The performance improvements we encountered in Mac OS X 10.6 through our benchmarks we were quite astonishing. Thanks to the introduction of the Grand Central Dispatch, 64-bit migration, OpenCL support, and other refinements made "under the hood" of Snow Leopard, this is one hell of a fast operating system. We were quite appalled with multiple tests exhibiting nearly 50% performance boosts over Mac OS X 10.5.8. While that was an extreme improvement, many other tests ran 10~16% faster. In a few tests, the performance was the same or the delta was statistically insignificant, but in a couple tests, there were regressions."
Canonical Unveils New Ubuntu Software Store
"With the Ubuntu Software Store, Canonical is hoping to unify all of the different package management needs into a single, unified interface. While this will not be achieved in Ubuntu 9.10, Canonical is hoping that all of the capabilities of the update-manager, Synaptic, the computer janitor application, gdebi, and other package management-related programs will be merged into Ubuntu Software Store. When this has occurred, it will be easier on the new end-user having to just deal with a single program to provide all of this functionality."
A New, Secure Operating System?
"Newmium is currently developing iXRIOS, a high-speed, multi-processor, multi-operative, real-time operating system based on the workstation-server model. Users log on to a specific machine on which their operatives execute by default. They can request remote execution of their operatives via automatic and transparent load balancing of operatives and processors. Coupled with transparent load balancing, the iXRIOS system is loading only required services and drivers. iXRIOS is going to be restricted to commercial USA corporations. All government and non-profits are excluded from the program."
Microsoft Opens Popfly Source Code
Submitted by
"Popfly, a platform developed by Microsoft to help people create and share games with their friends, was shut down this week, according to a blog post on the project's Web site. It's not a total loss to the gaming community, however, since Microsoft decided to open source the code and host it on CodePlex for anyone who still wants to tinker with the game engine."
Theora: Thusnelda Project Update
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"Since the last update from around the time of 1.1alpha2, Thusnelda has moved to the SVN trunk where work has concentrated on final features, cleanup and testing for the Theora 1.1 (Thusnelda) final. We're very close to the complete 1.1 and have already released two 1.1 release candidates. We'd optimistically scheduled final 1.1 release for last week, however we're taken some additional time to do more testing/tuning of the two-pass rate control."
Psystar Sues Apple, Demands Apple Stops Tying Snow Leopard
The week isn't even over yet, and we already have another instalment in the Apple-Psystar soap opera. Psystar has filed a new lawsuit in the Florida Southern District Court in Miami, asking for an injunction and damages because of Apple's "anticompetitive attempts to tie Mac OS X Snow Leopard to its Macintosh line of computers".
HTML 5: Can the Center Hold?
Guest post by
Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister questions whether the ideal of a truly standards-compliant Web will ever be possible given ongoing disagreements over HTML 5, including those most recently set in motion by Microsoft's latest concerns over the spec. "While some items on Microsoft's list seem like quibbles, others are valid issues," McAllister writes. And with others in the working group supporting the proposed additions in question as they stand, an impasse could conceivably be the end result. "Disagreements are an inevitable part of any standardization process. But if disagreements lead to irreconcilable differences, it calls in to question the validity of the final standard." So where does that leave HTML 5?
Genesi Launches Efika MX
Submitted by
Genesi just launched the Efika MX 'smarttop' - an ARM-based Linux device with HD video capability. Based on the Freescale i.MX515 processor (800Mhz ARM), it includes WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, and only consumes about 7W of power.
Safest Web Browser
Another instalment of Ask OSNews. A reader sent us in a question about browser security and privacy. "Could you please advise me and your readers on what you consider to be the safest web browser? I am considering the term 'safe' from both a privacy and security stand point."
Slackware 13.0 Released
Among OSNews readers, Slackware is a surprisingly popular choice when it comes to Linux distributions. A new release came out today, Slackware 13, which comes packed with improvements, and even a whole new port.
Why No OtherOS Option on PS3 Slim? Sony Answers
The recent release of the PS3 Slim brought about joy for those who were waiting for a less expensive/smaller gaming system and indignation for those who were waiting for a Linux experimental machine of the same type as there was no "OtherOS" or Linux option on this model. Why? we cry sadly. Because, the deep, omniscient voices of two Sony representatives boom back.
Do You Care About EULAs?
Earlier today we reported that while Apple doesn't encourage it, the Snow Leopard upgrade disk can be used to upgrade machines that have Mac OS 10.4 Tiger installed as well. However, this is actually forbidden by the accompanying EULA, which raises an interesting question: do you have any moral problems ignoring said EULA? And on a more general note, do you actually care about any EULA at all?
Is the Linux Desktop Too Much Like Windows, Mac OS X?
A complaint you hear quite often is that the Linux desktop environments, which mostly refers to KDE and GNOME, are trying too hard to be like Windows and Mac OS X. Now, even James Bottomley, Distinguished Engineer at Novell, Director of the Linux Foundation, and Chair of its Technical Advisory Board (put that on your business card) states in an interview that he believes the Linux desktop is too much like Windows and Mac.
Nokia “Evolves” Away from Internet Tablets with New N900
"It's turning out to be a busy week for Nokia. Days in advance of NokiaWorld in Stuttgart, and a couple of days after lifting the curtain on its first netbook, Nokia has announced the Nokia N900, the successor to its almost four-year-old lineup of Internet Tablets. The N900 follows in the footsteps of the N810 with its slide out keyboard, but adds for the first time built-in 3G (Nokia calls it 3.5G) functionality, making the N900 the first Nokia tablet with the ability to go online without a WiFi connection or cellphone pairing. It's also the first Nokia device to run Maemo 5, Nokia's homegrown Linux distro."
State Department Workers Want Firefox
Submitted by
The US State Department is quite clearly fed up with not being able to use Firefox. One of its staffers asked (causing applause) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton why they were not allowed to use Firefox. Clinton did not know the answer right away herself, but under secretary Kennedy explained that while Firefox is free, it still comes with a price. However, the goal is indeed to allow the State Department to use Firefox. More here.
Snow Leopard Reviews Positive, Upgrades Tiger Too
We're certainly not done yet with Snow Leopard on OSNews! The operating system will be officially released tomorrow, but that hasn't stopped various news outlets from cranking out reviews of Apple's latest big cat. As usual, the reviews are fairly consistent: this latest release is the best yet. In addition, very welcome news for Tiger users: the Snow Leopard "upgrade" disk can upgrade Tiger installations too, and performs no checks to see if Leopard is installed.
Snow Leopard’s Anti-Malware Feature Explained
Yesterday we reported that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, due for release coming Friday, contained some form of malware and/or virus protection. Since the scope of this protective measure was not yet known - nor if it even existed at all - I thought it would be best to write another post detailing that yes, it's real, and yes, it's all relatively crude.
Inside Windows 7: Fault Tolerant Heap
"The Fault Tolerant Heap is a subsystem of Windows 7 responsible for monitoring application crashes and autonomously applying mitigations to prevent future crashes on a per application basis. For the vast majority of users, FTH will function with no need for intervention or change on their part. Principal Development Lead and rock star developer Silviu Calinoiu is the mastermind behind FTH. Here, we go deep into how FTH works and why it's designed the way it is."
FSF Launches ‘Windows 7 Sins’ Campaign
When Windows Vista was launched, the Free Software Foundation started its BadVista campaign, which was aimed at informing users about what the FSF considered user-restrictive features in Vista. Luckily for the FSF, Vista didn't really need a bad-mouthing campaign to fail. Now that Windows 7 is receiving a lot of positive press, the FSF dusted off the BadVista drum, and gave it a fresh coat of paint.