OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

FreeBSD Developer About Linux SD, CFS Schedulers

Submitted by lomax 2007-08-06 Linux 25 Comments

"I took a little while to learn more about SD and CFS to see what the linux guys were up to. I have a couple of interesting comments. Including some discussion of increased algorithm complexity in the CFS scheduler; it's no longer O(1). Please keep in mind that these comments are entirely from reading code and documentation. I make no claim of knowing which scheduler actually makes the best scheduling decisions." Jeff Roberson (jeffr), the developer of the new ULE3.0 scheduler for FreeBSD 7, wrote down some insights about the Linux SD and CFS schedulers.

Submitted by flanque 2007-08-06 Linspire 48 Comments

"In an interview today with Linux-Watch, controversial Linux leader Kevin Carmony confirmed rumors that he had resigned as CEO of desktop Linux vendor Linspire on July 31. Carmony said he plans to work on several of his own business projects, and on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign."

Submitted by irbis 2007-08-05 Linux 54 Comments

"It has been almost two years since LWN covered the swap prefetch patch. This work, done by Con Kolivas, is based on the idea that if a system is idle, and it has pushed user data out to swap, perhaps it should spend a little time speculatively fetching that swapped data back into any free memory that might be sitting around. Then, when some application wants that memory in the future, it will already be available and the time-consuming process of fetching it from disk can be avoided. There is a vocal set of users out there who will attest that swap prefetch has made their systems work better. Even so, the swap prefetch patch has languished in the -mm tree for almost all of those two years with no path to the mainline in sight. Con has given up on the patch (and on kernel development in general). It is an unfortunate thing when a talented and well-meaning developer runs afoul of the kernel development process and walks away. So it is worth the trouble to try to understand what went wrong."

Submitted by distantvoices 2007-08-05 OS News 28 Comments

BlueIllusionOS 0.08 has been released (get it from the download page). The author wrote to us: "It sports a GUI with window composing capability & support for translucent windows, TCP/IP Stack, ext2 FS and ISO 9660 FS, various applications, as well as a program to play mpg1 movies (mpgplay - a port of mpg2player). All the settings in this OS are done via xml files." The about page tells us a little more about the goals and kernel: "BlueIllusion is a micro kernel based operating system, which operates on the Intel x86 architecture. It uses some features like paging to some excess to get work done. Other things like TSS-based hardware task switching aren't used. It will - in the future - have a graphical user environment, which I intend to be analogous to the MacOS 9 GUI, with a menu bar that appears when moving the mouse to the upper border of the screen - as well as support for a right-click-popup menu under the mouse at needs."

Minimig: Recreation of the Amiga Hardware in FPGA

Submitted by Meng 2007-08-05 Amiga & AROS 32 Comments

"Minimig stands for Mini Amiga. Minimig is an FPGA-based re-implementation of the original Amiga 500 hardware. In it's current form, Minimig is a single PCB measuring only 12*12cm which makes it the smallest 'Amiga' ever made and the first new 'Amiga' in almost 14 years! Minimig is available for download as an open-source/open-hardware design under the GNU public license. This page describes the architecture and the inner working of the Minimig. All design files can be downloaded from the download section."

Red Hat Global Desktop Delayed

Submitted by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols 2007-08-05 Red Hat 44 Comments

Red Hat confirmed on Aug. 3 that it would be delaying the release of the newest member of its desktop Linux family, Red Hat Global Desktop, because the company is seeking to provide certain multimedia codecs. Sources close to Red Hat said obtaining some of these codecs was dependent on Red Hat coming to an agreement with Microsoft.

Ubuntu Continues to Ride the Linux Train

Eugenia Loli 2007-08-04 Ubuntu 80 Comments

Google Trends recently updated their online "popularity" meter and Ubuntu remains the clear No1 Linux distro in terms of search trend. Fedora and Debian seem to be battling for the second position, while SuSE had a small "trend" loss in the 3rd place. Then, we find Gentoo, Mandriva, then Red Hat and Kubuntu. While this trend meter is not an official Linux distro market/mind share, it's considered a pretty good approximation. Meanwhile, Fedora seems more strong in USA, while SuSE in Europe.

Submitted by irbis 2007-08-04 Google 32 Comments

"Google's first mobile phone reportedly will run a Linux operating system on a Texas Instruments "Edge" chipset, and will likely ship to T-Mobile and Orange customers in the Spring of 2008. "GPhone" call minutes and text messages will apparently be funded by mobile advertising, according to reports." The report found at the popular embedded systems Linux news site LinuxDevices.

Service Pack 3 for XP in 2008

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-03 Windows 43 Comments

"In the past, we've speculated on an early 2008 launch, and according to a recent Redmond Channel Partner Online article, Microsoft could be planning just that. "We're currently planning to deliver SP3 for Windows XP in the first half of CY2008. This date is preliminary, and we don't have any more details to share at this time." Service Pack 2 was released in August of 2004 and added various features like the Internet Explorer Pop-up blocker, Windows Security Center, firewall updates and improved wireless and Bluetooth support."

SkyOS Beta 6762 Released

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-03 SkyOS 71 Comments

SkyOS beta 6762 has been released. "SkyOS Beta 6762 is now available to download directly from the Beta Center. This build features the new Viewer, a huge performance increase, 36 additional API Classes, updated libraries, a new font alpha blending method, 280+ fixed bugs including critical boot bug fixes."

Reviewing Linux 0.02 and 0.03

Submitted by LinuxFan 2007-08-03 Linux 21 Comments

Continuing their historical series looking at the early Linux kernels, KernelTrap is discussing the 0.02 and 0.03 kernels released in late 1991. Though the actual source code has been lost to time, the article offers an interesting collection of emails by Linux creator Linus Torvalds about his new operating system, 'for hackers by a hacker.' Version 0.02 was the first usable release, gaining the ability to run programs such as gcc if compiled on Minix. Version 0.03 fixed buffer-cache issues that made it possible to compile gcc from Linux. Interestingly enough, at this point Linus thought of Linux as a short-lived project saying, "wait for Hurd if you want something real. It's fun hacking it, though (but I'm biased)."

New OS for the Z88 Computer

Submitted by Thierry Peycru 2007-08-03 OS News 4 Comments

A new operating system for the Cambridge Computer Z88 (Sinclair latest portable computer) is available. This version runs from an external flash eprom slot and thus is easily upgradeable. It uses a code hook present in the original ROM. This version is now international and handles ISO characters and lots of keyboards. All details are on the wiki.

Submitted by Flatline 2007-08-03 macOS 80 Comments

"The advent of Vista and Mac OS X, along with the ascension of Linux, add new dimensions to a long-time controversy. Now more than ever before, the Mac OS is the most cost effective operating system of all."

Mozilla Releases Browser Testing Tools

Submitted by Miche 2007-08-03 Mozilla, Gecko 9 Comments

"At the Blackhat conference, Window Snyder and Mike Shaver of Mozilla released new tools for testing their browser - Firefox - and other popular browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari and Opera. The tools include a protocol fuzzer by Michael Eddington and a Javascript fuzzer by Jesse Ruderman. Fuzzing is a method by which researchers randomly simulate common conditions under which most browsers fail.

‘DTrace Knockoffs’

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-03 Rumors 33 Comments

"Last week at OSCON someone set up a whiteboard with the heading 'Tools We Wish We Had'. People added entries (wiki-style); this one in particular caught my eye: 'dtrace for Linux, or something similar'. So what exactly were they asking for? "

Submitted by irbis 2007-08-03 Gnome 29 Comments

A free Gnome-based Linux distribution for mobile devices such as smartphones and PDAs has achieved a major release. OpenedHand's Poky Linux 3.0 ("Blinky") is based on X11, GTK+, and the Matchbox window manager, much like the Nokia-sponsored Maemo.org project. However, in place of the proprietary Hildon GUI layer, it includes a new "Sato 0.1" plain GTK+ component.

Microsoft Releases ‘Sneak Peak’ at Vista SP1 to Testers

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-02 Windows 25 Comments

"In all the excitement about Vista Service Pack 1 betas that were imminent and then not so imminent, the company continues to release patches to select groups of testers. Most recently a group of patches appeared on Windows Connect, the online downloading service Microsoft provides for a select group of beta testers. Only testers of Windows Server 2008 beta were allowed to download the patches, but they are aimed at Vista as well."

OpenSUSE 10.3 Alpha 7 Released

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-02 SuSE, openSUSE 32 Comments

OpenSUSE 10.3 alpha 7 is released. "Alpha7 is ready, after 5 rebuilds we're happy to say it looks good enough for the public. Important Changes Since Alpha6: Linux 2.6.22.1; gcc 4.2.1; libzypp 3.12.1; the package set of the CDs are heavily reshuffled and with it the patterns also affecting the DVD."

Mass. Gives Open XML the Official Green Light

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-02 Office 35 Comments

The commonwealth of Massachusetts has officially thrown its weight behind Microsoft's Office Open XML format along with the OASIS Open Document Format. In July, the commonwealth added Microsoft's format, also known as Ecma-376 or Open XML, to the list of approved standards in a draft of the Massachusetts ETRM, an architectural framework used to identify the standards, specifications and technologies that support Massachusetts' computing environment.

Acer Clarifies Position on Linux PCs

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-02 Hardware 24 Comments

Acer is planning to sell Linux-based PCs to the UK market, the company told ZDNet.co.uk. On Thursday Acer contacted ZDNet.co.uk with the following statement: "At this moment in time Acer UK does not have a PC available with Linux pre-loaded, but we are looking at introducing one in the future." This appears to represent a reversal of Acer's previous statements on the matter, which suggested that the manufacturer had no plans to sell PCs here with a pre-installed open-source operating system.