OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

ARM’s Feeling Lucky; Netbook ‘Battle’ Just Beginning?

weildish 2009-04-20 Hardware 51 Comments

Thus far it seems that netbooks with Windows XP and Intel Atom processors have been the most successful, leaving little room for other players. There have been those who doubt ARM's longevity in this particular market, so we decided to interview some of the folks at ARM. They told OSNews that the company is confident about its current and future mobile markets, and Linux, which will soon be on various ARM-powered netbooks, is one of the reasons why.

Pirates, Grapes, Irony

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-19 OS News 5 Comments

We had an interesting week here over at OSNews. We had lots of talk about the Windows worm Conficker, information regarding computer sales figures, a sentence in the Pirate Bay case, and much, much more. This week's My Take is about the irony of copyright law.

Xfce 4.6.1 Released

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-19 Xfce 14 Comments

The Xfce team has released the first bugfix release in the 4.6.x tree of the Gtk+ desktop environment, Xfce 4.6.1. "The first bugfix-release of xfce 4.6 has been released. Thanks to all the people who have been using xfce 4.6 and took the time and effort to submit bugreports for stuff that wasn't quite working the way it is supposed to. We have been able to fix several issues during the past few weeks."

Windows 7 RC To Be Released May 5

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-19 Windows 10 Comments

We already knew the Windows 7 Release Candidate would arrive somewhere in May, but we now also have a release date thanks to a "slip-up" (you're not fooling anyone, Microsoft) on the Microsoft Partner Program website: Windows 7 RC will be released on May 5. Just so you know.

Submitted by Hakime 2009-04-18 In the News 23 Comments

"A Customer Experience Index report from Forrester Research came to the conclusion after studying almost 4600 computer users' experiences from 2008 and asking them to score the ease of use of their computers, how enjoyable the experience is and whether or not the systems fulfill their owners' needs. Apple's overall score reached 80 and was not only enough to give it the lead but also leave it as the only company to earn a 'good' ranking in Forrester's view. Every other manufacturer in the list scored significantly lower, with Acer's American label Gateway being closest with a score of just 66; the standing is only 'okay' in the research group's chart."

Submitted by diegocg 2009-04-18 General Development 7 Comments

Ulrich Dreeper, the glibc maintainer, details on his blog the main features of version 2.10 of the library: POSIX 2008, C++ compliance, C++ 201x support, DNS NSS improvement, use NSS in libcrypt, printf hooks and, perhaps more interesting, better malloc scalability.

First Mac Botnet Activated, Engages in DDoS Attacks

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-18 macOS 113 Comments

Remember the Mac trojan that we reported about earlier this year? A trojan was found piggybacking on the back of copies of iWork and Photoshop CS4 found on warez sites and networks, and it would install itself after the user had entered his or her administrator password during the software's installation. This trojan didn't seem like much of a threat back then, but as it turns out, it's now in use in the first Macintosh botnet.

Guest post by Flatland_Spider 2009-04-18 Hardware 14 Comments

GlobalFoundries, the former manufacturing arm of AMD, has announced they will have a 28-nanometer high-k metal gate process available in the second half of 2010. GlobalFoundries developed the 28nm process in conjunction with IBM, Chartered Semiconductors, Infineon Technologies, Samsung Electronics, and STMicroelectronics as part of the IBM Technology Alliance. According to The Tech Report, the new process will reportedly enable "40% better performance, over 20% lower power consumption, and 50% smaller die areas" versus the current 45nm process, but it was not mentioned what kind of performance numbers the 28nm process will have compared to the upcoming 32nm process.

Episode 5: Can’t Do Mental Arithmetic Edition

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-17 Podcasts 11 Comments

It's Friday, and a little sooner than normal (because Kroc will be away for the weekend) we bring you the 5th instalment of the OSNews podcast. We will discuss the Windows Conficker situation, the chances of nettops in the current market, and, of course, the outcome of the Pirate Bay trial which made a splash today.

Google CEO on Android on Netbooks

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-17 Google 12 Comments

It's a bit of a mobile day on OSNews today, with news about Cinder and Symbian. Next up is Google's Android. While Android is designed for smartphones, there has been increasing chatter about netbook manufacturers using Android on netbooks. Google has always remained fairly mum on the possibility of Android on netbooks, but during yesterday's earnings call, Google CEO Eric Schmidt talked about this subject.

Symbian Ported to Intel’s Atom Platform

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-17 Wireless 6 Comments

"Some chaps at Symbian with way too much time on their hands have compiled the current version of the OS onto an Intel Atom processor - proving that you don't have to follow the ARM road to Symbian nirvana. The chaps concerned work for 'S60 in Symbian Customer Operations' and did the port to see if it would work, and if anyone would take an interest. The port is to an Atom reference board from Intel, but demonstrates that Symbian could probably run on a netbook if anyone wanted such a thing."

Cinder OS Aims to Improve Mobile Power Management

Submitted by Fred Ollinger 2009-04-17 Wireless No Comments

Many of the major mobile operating systems today are derived from desktop variants, leaving them with excess bagage that only hinders their functioning in a mobile environment. A group of researchers at Stanford University are building a mobile operating system from the ground up, taking various things into account that others do not. The biggest focus of the project is power management, and it's got some pretty interesting ideas in that area.

Submitted by sonic2000gr 2009-04-17 FreeBSD 15 Comments

KenSmith announced the immediate availability of FreeBSD 7.2-RC1 in the FreeBSD-stable mailing list. "The first of two planned Release Candidates for the FreeBSD 7.2-RELEASE cycle is now available. Testing of some of the recent work would be particularly appreciated." The release schedule states that the final release is to be expected early May, at which point we'll cover FreeBSD 7.2 in much more detail.

Submitted by csynt 2009-04-17 Legal 111 Comments

Old World 1, New World 0. The four defendants in the landmark The Pirate Bay case, taking place in Sweden, have all been found guilty, and sentenced to one year in jail. They also received a hefty fine of USD 3.58 million to 17 ~~American~~ media companies, among which are Warner Bros. Entertainment, MGM Pictures, Columbia Pictures Industries, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment, and Activision. The defendants have already stated they will appeal the decision.

Grape Impresses; OSNews Gives Away Beta Access!

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-16 Graphics 63 Comments

About a year ago, OSNews reported on Grape, a new way to manage your desktop. Back then, Grape was only a concept, a set of ideas without an implementation. This is different now: Grape has been turned into an actual piece of working software, and the people behind the project, Yann Le Coroller and Dockland Software's Stephane, gave us early access by means of a beta release. We are also giving away beta access, se be sure to read on to the end of the article to find out how you can get beta access (hint: post a comment). Update: The response has been more substantial than I anticipated, so the cut-off point is 50 comments. Twelve comments left, guys and girls, so hurry up! Update II: Sorry guys, we're full already (that was quick)! Thanks for the enormous interest from everyone. I'll send the invites out today! Update III: All invites have been sent out. Enjoy testing Grape, and be sure to post your findings here on OSNews. Also, report any bugs here.

Ubuntu 9.04 RC Released

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-16 Ubuntu 19 Comments

The Ubuntu team has released the release candidate for Ubuntu 9.04; we already covered the various changes and additions when the beta was announced. "The Ubuntu team is happy to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. This is their latest result, the Ubuntu 9.04 release candidate, which brings a host of excellent new features." The various other Ubuntu-derived distributions, like Kubuntu, have also had their RCs released.

Apple Responds to Laptop Hunters Ads

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-16 Apple 47 Comments

In a rare case of Apple frankness, the company has allowed a PR person to make a statement to BusinessWeek about the recent Microsoft "Laptop Hunters" ad campaign. Don't read to fast, or you'll miss it: "A PC is no bargain when it doesn't do what you want," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told BusinessWeek, "The one thing that both Apple and Microsoft can agree on is that everyone thinks the Mac is cool. With its great designs and advanced software, nothing matches it at any price." That's it. Just thought you'd like to know.

HP-UX 11i v3 Update 4 To Be Released Tomorrow

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-16 Unix 40 Comments

Even though the old-world UNIX operating systems, like IRIX and HP-UX, have been steadily losing ground to Linux for a long time now, they do still get updated and improved. HP-UX 11i v3 is supposed to get update 4 tomorrow, with a host of new features that won't excite you if you're used to Linux, but they're still pretty useful for HP-UX users.

Apple Does Relatively Well in Q1 2009

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-16 Apple 25 Comments

For some inexplicable reason, people treat Apple differently from other PC manufacturers, and as such, it's common to look at the company's well-being separately from others. Yesterday, we reported on the overall state of the PC market, and Apple didn't really make an appearance there. Thanks to the various Apple rumour websites digging through the IDC and Gartner figures, we can still give you all the latest figures on Apple.

Microsoft Says EU Antitrust Deadline Extended

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-16 Legal 2 Comments

Microsoft on Wednesday confirmed a report that it had received a one-week extension from European antitrust regulators to respond to charges that it had sought to thwart rivals by bundling its web browser with Windows systems. "Microsoft confirms that the new deadline for the company to respond to the Commission's statement of objections is 28 April," a spokeswoman said, referring to an unsourced reference to a new deadline reported on the website of the Financial Times. A spokeswoman for the European Commission said she could not immediately comment.