Palm Demoes Pre Third Party Apps, Says SDK Ready for Release

Wireless 10 Comments
After a bit of a long pause, Palm has fed the media with some more details on its upcoming lifesaver, the Palm Pre smartphone with its webOS. Even though Palm didn't give a launch date or pricing information, it did show us a number of third party applications. And there was also something for those of you who still swear by PalmOS Garnet: a fully functional PalmOS emulator for the Pre. There's also some news on the Mojo SDK.
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KDE 4.2.2 Released

  Submitted by poundsmack KDE 49 Comments
We're really in a KDE/GNOME mood today, it would seem. The KDE team has released the second maintenance release for the KDE 4.2 series, KDE 4.2.2. The three biggest improvements in this release are stability fixes in KRunner, performance enhancements in KMail, and bugfixes, performance improvements and optimization in KHTML. As always, this release will find it way to your distributor of choice soon enough, but if you're impatient, you can always build it yourself.
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Retro Linux News: KDE 2.2 Live CD Available

  Submitted by KugelKurt KDE 13 Comments
My first thought was that this was an April Fool's joke, but as it turns out, this is real (I actually downloaded and tested it). The openSUSE KDE team has created a KDE 2.2.2 live CD using openSUSE 11.1 as a base. It boots like any other live CD, but instead of the latest and greatest KDE 3.x or 4.x desktop, you're presented with a fully functional KDE 2.2.2 desktop. That sure brought back some memories!
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OSNews Goes Open Source

Web 2.0 63 Comments
We here at OSNews take open source software seriously. That's why, today, we're making our site's source code available to the public. While some sites have inline SQL statements, embedded passwords, afterthought modules, and sensitive data embedded into their pages, at OSNews, we have a strict system that employs no hacks whatsoever to extend functionality. This is why our site rarely changes look-and-feel and rolls out new features slowly, only after they've been rigorously tested. This code is offered under the BSD license: feel free to use it as you wish! So, today, we're proud to offer you the code that powers OSNews.com. Be sure to start with the README file to get started! Enjoy responsibly.
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Rackable Systems Buys Bankrupt SGI

SGI and IRIX 16 Comments
Silicon Graphics Inc., the perma-struggling workstation-turned-server-maker, filed for bankruptcy protection today, and was immediately bought by Rackable Systems. Rackable has signed to take on all of SGI's liabilities. The deal is expected to complete in 60 days. The combined company will target the hyper-competitive market for x86 boxes for cluster and high performance computing, internet and cloud services. "This combination gives us the potential for significant operational synergies, a strong balance sheet, and positions the combined company for long-term growth and profitability," said Rackable CEO Mark Barrenechea.
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Collecting Underpants in the Cloud

  Submitted by inkslinger Microsoft 19 Comments
The technology world is all aflame about "cloud computing", and how businesses are supposed to move all of their stuff into the cloud, or die. Or something. In my eyes, "cloud" is simply a different name for the internet, and cloud computing is simply a different and fancier name for what most internet users have been doing for ages.
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Conficker Worm: Hoax or Criminally Genius Scheme?

Privacy, Security 68 Comments
Many have gotten antsy the past months about the Conficker worm, and all with good reason. Though the worm hasn't done much of anything (yet) except spread like the plague, it's infectious if one doesn't have his or her Windows operating system up-to-date with the most recent security updates. The worm is supposed to execute on April 1st, and the computer world is holding its breath to see if a disaster comparable to the hyped-up supposed Y2K doomsday will ensue or if it's just someone's idea of a sick April Fool's Day joke.
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8-Bit Game Creator Now Available for Order

Games 21 Comments
Not only can this nifty old-school 8-bit computer play all of your old NES games (with a converter, of course), but you can also program your own mind-challenging games, stimulating chiptune music, and "circuit-bending art" with this affordable keyboard, mouse, and controller combination. The package includes the keybaord, mouse, two game controllers, an OS cartridge (containing a GUI in Madarin Chinese as well as an English DOS prompt, BASIC programming language and sprite manipulator, and an 8-bit music composer), RCA cables, and a nine-volt power supply. What's more is that it ships in 3-5 business days, so you can relive the golden days of Saturday mornings with the NES before the week is out.
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Western Digital Acquires SiliconSystems, SSDs to Follow

Hardware 20 Comments
Western Digital, a leading maker of the traditional hard drive, supposedly felt a little out of the loop as they still hadn't really caught on to the solid-state disk bandwagon. Instead of playing a long game of catch-up, they simply forked out $65 million in cold cash and bought the technology they needed in the form of the aptly-named SiliconSystems, Inc. SiliconSystems has been making millions of SSDs for embedded systems for the past several years and will find a nice new home after integrating into the Western Digital Empire, henceforth being known as the "WD Solid-State Storage business unit." Since they're combining forces "immediately," here's to bigger and better SSDs in the near future.
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