OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Review: KDE 4.0 Beta 2

Submitted by troy.unrau 2007-09-04 KDE 54 Comments

Ars takes a look at KDE 4.0 Beta 2, and concludes: "This beta may not be the end result yet, but there has definitely been a lot of progress since the last one. For the first time I have been able to stop writing about individual features within KDE 4 and start to talk about the level of integration, and general feel of the system to get an impression of how KDE 4.0 will feel like to use."

Submitted by adstro 2007-09-04 Solaris 54 Comments

Sun seeks to apply the lessons of Linux and turn open source Solaris into an operating system to rival Linux and to be as commonly used as Java. Sun Microsystems has ambitious plans for the commercial and open-source versions of its Solaris operating system, hoping to achieve for Solaris the kind of ubiquity already enjoyed by Java. In addition, Sun released Update 4 for Solaris 10 (also called Solaris 08/07), introducing a major enhancement in its OS virtualization technology called Solaris Containers.

Opera 9.5 Alpha Released

Submitted by abdavidson 2007-09-04 Opera 90 Comments

Opera has released an alpha build of their upcoming 9.5 release. "Following the release of Opera 9 last year, we re-wrote Opera's rendering engine for the coming Opera 9.5 release. As a result, Opera 9.5 contains more than a year's worth of speed, standards and performance improvements."

PC-BSD 1.4 RC1 Released

Thom Holwerda 2007-09-03 PC-BSD 25 Comments

PC-BSD 1.4 RC1 has been released. "After a month of refinement, the PC-BSD team is pleased to make available the 1.4RC release. This update addresses many of the reported bugs from 1.4BETA, as well as adding working i18n support for international languages. PC-BSD 1.4RC can be downloaded via our mirrors or via Torrent on the 1.4 download page."

Ion3 RC5 Released

Thom Holwerda 2007-09-03 Desktop environments 10 Comments

The last release candidate for Ion3 has been released. "This release features a few minor fixes. If no major problems are discovered, this is likely to be the last 'rc' release before the first and hopefully final 'stable' release." Ion is a tiling tabbed window manager designed with keyboard users in mind.

Fedora Includes Sun OpenJDK/GNU Classpath Fusion IcedTea

Submitted by Mark Wielaard 2007-09-03 Java 15 Comments

Just in time for Fedora 8 test 2 IcedTea has landed in Fedora RawHide. The IcedTea project provides a harness to build the source code from the Sun OpenJDK project using Free Software build tools (gcj) and provides replacements for the non-free binary plugs with code from the GNU Classpath project. Installing this experimental GPL Java platfom is now as easy as yum install java-1.7.0-icedtea. In addition, Sun has promised to provide a Test Compatibility Kit soon so people can see how 'officially Java' this package really is.

Nouveau Driver Q&A

Submitted by Michael Larabel 2007-09-03 3D 26 Comments

"On the Phoronix Forums we have been running a Q&A with the developers of the Nouveau project. For those out of the loop or new to Linux, the Nouveau project aims to provide an open-source 2D/3D graphics driver for NVIDIA hardware. After collecting a number of questions from our readers, KoalaBR and Marcheu have answered these questions. The questions range from whether there will be open-source SLI support to asking if NVIDIA has ever contacted the Nouveau developers."

Haiku Gets Samba, FireWire Support

Thom Holwerda 2007-09-02 Haiku 43 Comments

Two interesting bits of news from the Haiku front. First, Haiku now has basic support for FireWire, thanks to GSOC student JiSheng Zhang. You cannot connect a FireWire hard drive just yet, though. Second, Russian BeOS hacker Troeglazov Gerasim has ported Samba 3.10 to Haiku, so you can now browse your Windows shares in Haiku, as well as share files through Samba in Haiku. IsComputerOn has the details, as well as some screenshots.

Raymond: MS Makes it Hard to Be Treated Equally

Thom Holwerda 2007-09-02 Open Source 224 Comments

Eric S. Raymond writes on his blog: "There's been a lot of debate in the community about how OSI should properly handle Microsoft's planned submission of some of its licenses for OSD certification. That debate has been been going on within OSI, too. OSI's official position, from the beginning, which I helped formulate and have expressed to any number of reporters and analysts, is that OSI will treat any licenses submitted to Microsoft strictly on their merits, without fear or favor. That remains OSI's position. But I find that my resolve is being sorely tested."

OpenBSD: Stealing vs. Sharing Code

Submitted by anonymous 2007-09-02 Legal 202 Comments

OpenBSD project creator Theo de Raadt detailed his concerns regarding BSD-licensed code and Dual-BSD/GPL-licensed code being re-licensed under only the GPL (as previously discussed): "Honestly, I was greatly troubled by the situation, because even people like Alan Cox were giving other Linux developers advice to... Break the law. And furthermore, there are even greater potential risks for how the various communities interact." Regarding the concern that the BSD license allows companies to steal code, Theo reflected: "GPL fans said the great problem we would face is that companies would take our BSD code, modify it, and not give back. Nope - the great problem we face is that people would wrap the GPL around our code, and lock us out in the same way that these supposed companies would lock us out."

Submitted by martini 2007-09-02 OS/2 22 Comments

The second release candidate of eComStation 2.0 has been released. "This is the sixth public beta release of eComStation 2.0. This product is available for download to all registered eCS customers with active Software Subscription Services (see this explanation). This version of eComStation 2.0 is the second Release Candidate, no big changes or additions will be added before the GA version, it mainly consists of updates to drivers and installation scripts."

‘Apple’s Pages ’08 Is All Grown Up’

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-31 Apple 66 Comments

"With the latest release of Apple's office productivity suite, iWork '08, the Pages application moves into the ranks of full-fledged word processing applications. Previously known more for its page layout capabilities than for its word processing capabilities, Pages now enables users to switch seamlessly between writing and designing documents. In addition, the application offers 140 document templates and a snazzy track-changes feature, both of which work to position iWork '08 as an apt rival to Microsoft's Office 2004 for Mac in the OS X-compatible office productivity arena."

Submitted by diegocg 2007-08-31 KDE 156 Comments

The KDE project has delayed the release of KDE 4.0 by two months. "We, The Release Team, hereby announce that we are extending the KDE 4.0.0 schedule 2 months by inserting an extra 2 Betas, as follows: September 24: Beta3. October 22: Beta4. November 19: Total Release Freeze. November 21: RC1. December 5: RC2. December 20: 4.0.0 tagged. We feel that there are crucial elements of the release that need more development time. The feature freeze (less exemptions) remains in effect."

Quick Review: Dell Inspiron 1420N, the Dell/Ubuntu Laptop

Submitted by dell/ubuntu laptop review 2007-08-31 Hardware 25 Comments

Starryhope.com has a quick review of one of the Dell Ubuntu laptops, and concludes: "Overall, as a Linux geek, I'm very happy with my decision to get the Inspiron 1420N. The notebook is by far the fastest I've ever used and it's comfortable to work with on a desk or on your lap. The price is reasonable and comes in quite a bit cheaper than a Macbook. Unfortunately, Dell and Canonical have fallen short of releasing a truly great product. With just a little extra work and closer attention to the pre-installed software and drivers, they could be shipping the perfect Linux notebook. The way it is now, I wouldn't recommend this notebook for anyone who's not a seasoned Linux geek." The review is slightly outdated (two weeks old) but interesting nonetheless. In addition, Dell may also pre-install Ubuntu on servers.

GNOME 2.20.0 Beta 2 Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2007-08-31 Gnome 8 Comments

GNOME 2.20.0 beta 2 (2.19.91) has been released. "This is our eighth development release on our road towards GNOME 2.20.0, which will be released in September 2007. All new features should all be there, so your mission is simple : Go download it. Go compile it. Go test it. And go hack on it, document it, translate it, fix it."

FreeBSD Foundation Newsletter: GPLv3 Concerns

Submitted by Anonymous 2007-08-31 FreeBSD 117 Comments

The latest issue of the FreeBSD newsletter contains a letter from the Vice President of the FreeBSD Foundation about the GPLv3. "On June 29th, the Free Software Foundation unveiled version 3 of the GNU General Public license. Even though the majority of software included in the FreeBSD distribution is not covered by any version of the GPL, our community cannot ignore this very popular license or its most recent incarnation. Through extremely successful evangelization, and the popularity of Linux, the misconception that OpenSource and the GPL are synonymous has become pervasive."

Submitted by ganges master 2007-08-31 General Development 50 Comments

Python 3.0, 'Python 3000', has reached its first public release. This version will be followed by beta releases throughout 2008, and the final release is scheduled for August 2008. "Python 3000 ('Py3k', and released as Python 3.0) is a new version of the language that is incompatible with the 2.x line of releases. The language is mostly the same, but many details, especially how built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, have changed considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have finally been removed."

Competition Is Actually Good

Guest post by Dmitrij D. Czarkoff 2007-08-31 Editorial 61 Comments

This article is an answer to "Competition Is Not Good" by Kroc and reading it wouldn't be comfortable without switching to and from the original article. I wrote it just because I do strongly disagree with Kroc and I believe I can prove that he is not as close to truth as it may seem from the first glance.

Linux: the Really Fair Scheduler

Submitted by lomax 2007-08-31 Linux 40 Comments

During the many threads discussing Ingo Molnar's recently merged Completely Fair Scheduler, Roman Zippel has repeatedly questioned the complexity of the new process scheduler. In a recent posting to the Linux Kernel mailing list he offered a simpler scheduler named the 'Really Fair Scheduler' saying, "as I already tried to explain previously CFS has a considerable algorithmic and computational complexity. This patch should now make it clearer, why I could so easily skip over Ingo's long explanation of all the tricks CFS uses to keep the computational overhead low - I simply don't need them."

Finstall: a New Installer for FreeBSD

Submitted by lomax 2007-08-31 FreeBSD 45 Comments

"Welcome to the home page of the finstall project, accepted for Google's Summer of Code 2007. This project aims to create a user-friendly graphical installer for FreeBSD & FreeBSD-derived systems. The project should yield something usable for 7.0-RELEASE, but the intention is to keep it as a "second" installer system during 7.x, alongside sysinstall. In any case, sysinstall will be kept for architectures not supported by finstall (e.g. all except i386 and amd64)." A first version has been released.