OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Researcher Displays Parallel Processing Prototype

Submitted by MissinBeOS 2007-06-28 Hardware 8 Comments

Researchers at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering claim to have developed a computer system that is 100 times faster than today's desktops. The research group, lead by Uzi Vishkin, developed a system based on parallel processing technology. The team built a prototype with 64 parallel processors and a special algorithm that facilitates the chips to work together and make programming for them simple.

De Raadt Bugs in Intel Core 2 Duo

Submitted by anonymous 2007-06-28 Intel 34 Comments

Theo de Raadt wrote about the Intel Core 2 Duo chip: "Various developers are busy implementing workarounds for serious bugs in Intel's Core 2 cpu. These processors are buggy as hell, and some of these bugs don't just cause development/debugging problems, but will assuredly be exploitable from userland code." Intel has given a response to the concerns as well.

Google Desktop Goes Linux

Submitted by Beffidile 2007-06-28 Google 20 Comments

Google is launching this week a beta version of Google Desktop search for Linux in a sign of encouragement by the search giant for Linux on the desktop. Google Desktop allows people to search the Web while also searching the full text of all the information on their computer, including Gmail and their Web search history. Because the index is stored locally on the computer, users can access Gmail and Web history while offline.

Announcing OpenSound System Port to BeOS/Haiku

Thom Holwerda 2007-06-27 Haiku 31 Comments

Francois 'mmu_man' Revol has released a preliminary port of the Open Sound System to Haiku/BeOS. "I have the pleasure to announce I have ported OSSv4.1test to BeOS. It's not finished yet, but it runs and plays some sound. The goal is to use its drivers to get wider audio support for Haiku, the Free software rewrite (under BSD/MIT) of BeOS."

Etoile Live CD 0.2-RC1 Released

Thom Holwerda 2007-06-27 OpenStep, GNUstep 13 Comments

The Etoile project has released a release candiate for the 0.2 version of their live CD. "The Etoile project aims to produce a document-centric desktop and post-desktop environment. The project is built on top of GNUstep, a high-quality Free Software implementation of the OpenStep specification from Sun and NeXT and popularised by Apple as Cocoa."

Submitted by Oliver 2007-06-27 Desktop environments 16 Comments

"The OpenMotif Project Team announced today the release of OpenMotif 2.3, marking the most significant version of OpenMotif since it was released to the open source community in May 2000. OpenMotif 2.3 includes major feature enhancements and over 25 bug fixes requested by developers of enterprise applications. OpenMotif is the publicly licensed version of Motif, the industry standard user interface toolkit for UNIX systems provided on more than 200 hardware and software platforms including HP, IBM, Sun, SGI, and Linux (Red Hat and Novell SUSE)."

New WinAROS Version Released

Submitted by Ola Jensen 2007-06-27 Amiga & AROS 4 Comments

WinAROS, which allows you to easily install a virtual copy of AROS to run inside Windows, has seen a new version. "There is a new version of WinArosLight This time it comes with installation and uninstallation programs. The setup program will create a shortcut on the desktop. It has never been easier to try AROS."

Google Loses Anti-Trust Battle with Microsoft

Submitted by Dale Smoker 2007-06-27 Legal 102 Comments

Google lost its recent antitrust battle with Microsoft on Tuesday when a US District Court judge overseeing latter company's antitrust settlement declined to accept Internet search giant's request to extend the US government oversight of Microsoft's antitrust efforts. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who was scheduled to review the report in a hearing on June 26, in her ruling, refused to consider Google's petition to have the agreement extended beyond November, when major parts of it expire.

Sun Gunning for Top, MS for the Masses in Supercomputing

Submitted by Ian McWell 2007-06-27 Hardware 2 Comments

Sun Microsystems on revealed the Constellation System, a high-performance computing platform that could hit a peak performance of 2 petaflops while HP and Microsoft gang up to give High-Performance computers a mass appeal by making it easier to deploy, support and manage. Customers can 'realistically expect to have a 64-node cluster deployed and running within two hours', HP said in a statement.

Submitted by John Nilsson 2007-06-27 Microsoft 61 Comments

The Singularity team at Microsoft has recently published a new article concerning their research OS. It is a concise introduction to the Singularity project. It summarizes research in Singularity 1.0 and highlights ongoing research for Singularity 2.0.

Ramble Around the UNIX File System

Submitted by BlueVoodoo 2007-06-27 Unix 36 Comments

"Many directories in the UNIX file system serve a special purpose, and certain directories are named per long-standing convention. In this instalment of the 'Speaking UNIX' series, discover where UNIX stores important files."

Mesa 7.0 released

Submitted by liquidat 2007-06-27 3D 16 Comments

On June 22nd Mesa 7.0 was released, featuring OpenGL 2.0 and 2.1 support among other features.

A Slew of iPhone Reviews

Submitted by Chris from Apple 2007-06-26 Apple 98 Comments

A number of iPhone reviews were released today on the net: NYTimes, WSJ, MSNBC and USAToday. All seem to agree that the iPhone is a worthy device with few flaws.

Submitted by WillM 2007-06-26 Linux 115 Comments

The Linux community is splitting - right down the middle, at this point - over Microsoft's controversial claims that the open-source operating system infringes on patents it holds. Last Tuesday, Mandriva became the third Linux vendor within five days to say it isn't interested in signing a licensing deal with Microsoft to avoid possible infringement claims. A blog posting to that effect by Mandriva CEO Francois Bancilhon followed similar declarations by officials at Red Hat and Canonical.

Submitted by Hakime 2007-06-26 macOS 43 Comments

Another turn in the Apple-ZFS saga. Apple has made available a developer preview of ZFS for Mac OS X with read/write capability. The preview is available to all ADC members. From the readme file: "ZFS is a new filesystem from Sun Microsystems which has been ported by Apple to Mac OS X. The initial (10.5.0) release of Leopard will restrict ZFS to read-only, so no ZFS pools or filesystems can be modified or created. This Developer Preview will enable full read/write capability, which includes the creation/destruction of ZFS pools and filesystems." Update: Will it ever end? The release has been pulled from ADC by Apple.

The Solaris Installation Experience

Submitted by Michael 2007-06-26 Solaris 44 Comments

"There's a problem with Solaris and Sun knows it. The installation experience of Solaris (along with other areas) could be greatly improved. The installer doesn't 'suck' as it's easy and known to Solaris administrators, but for a Linux or Windows user it could prove to be a bit challenging. For those of you that have never tried out Solaris, what we've decided to do is to show you this 'usability gap' with the installation process in Solaris compared to Linux. Is the experience really that bad?"

Submitted by JCooper 2007-06-26 Hardware 14 Comments

"The Series 5 pocket computer from Psion was launched 10 years ago this week. It was a remarkable achievement: entirely new silicon, a new operating system, middleware stack and applications were developed from scratch in just over two years. This was the last time anyone undertook such a daunting task: it may be the last time anyone ever tries, either."

Submitted by lost 2007-06-26 Slackware, Slax 34 Comments

Today Patrick J. Volkerding announced Slackware Linux 12.0 RC2. There are no big new features, this is almost a collection of bug fixes. A review of the RC1 can be found here (translation). A review of the Slackware-based Vector Linux 5.8 SOHO can also be found here.

Firefox Add-ons: Coding in a Tunnel

Guest post by Olier Raby 2007-06-25 General Development 12 Comments

Firefox add-ons, or extensions, are small programs that run inside the browser in order to customize some behaviors. In theory, it is possible to develop and maintain a multilingual, multiversion and multiOS Firefox add-on. In practice, there are many obstacles to overcome in order to create and to maintain a working Firefox add-on in one language for one Firefox version and for one OS.

Longhorn Reloaded Receives ‘Cease and Desist’ Letter

Thom Holwerda 2007-06-25 Windows 58 Comments

As was to be expected, the Longhorn Reloaded team has been shut down by Microsoft. "It is with sad news that I have to inform you that today due to a cesit and decist letter we recived from Microsoft we are no longer able to provide you with a download link to Longhorn Reloaded. It deeply saddens me that although Microsoft hknew about this project for many months they only issued us with this notice a few days after we started to distribute the iso via torrents and ftp server."