OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Mac OS X VirtualRiscPC in Beta Release

Submitted by teigetje 2007-05-18 RISC OS 6 Comments

VirtualAcorn today announced it was releasing a version of its RiscPC emulator for Apple PowerPC machines as part of a new beta testing scheme. According to their website, the publisher will release 'a limited number of VirtualRPC-AdjustSA products suitable for use on G4 and G5 PowerPC Apple Macintosh computers'.

Submitted by shykid 2007-05-18 AMD 4 Comments

"AMD recently disclosed a few details regarding their upcoming mobile platform technologies, codenamed 'Griffin' and 'Puma'. We've been given some preliminary information regarding these plans and thought we'd share a few of the more salient details with you here. The 'Griffin' codename pertains to an upcoming mobile processor that incorporates a number of features designed specifically for the mobile segment, with the intention of increasing performance and battery life. And 'Puma' is the name given to the new platform as a whole."

FreeBSD Developer Summit at BSDCan 2007

Submitted by Anonymous 2007-05-18 FreeBSD 5 Comments

The 2-day by invitation only FreeBSD developer summit at BSDCan 2007 in Ottawa has just ended. Over 60 FreeBSD developers attended the summit, along with representatives from large BSD-friendly corporations such as Apple, Yahoo, Nokia, Juniper, NetApp and Ironport. A variety of topics were discussed, such as ZFS, the BLUFFS file system, SMP scalability improvements and the new virtualized network stack. Video recordings from the summit are available, as well as pictures.

Intel Q965 Graphics Performance

Submitted by Michael 2007-05-18 Intel 17 Comments

"The last time we had looked at the performance of Intel's integrated graphics under Linux with their open-source driver was back in February when testing the GMA 3000 IGP using an Intel DQ965GFEKR motherboard. However, with display drivers constantly improving, we recently carried out some additional Intel Q965 graphics tests along with comparing these numbers to discrete graphics solutions from AMD/ATI and NVIDIA."

LogFS: a New Way of Thinking About Flash Filesystems

Submitted by FreeRhino 2007-05-18 Hardware 21 Comments

"Storage manufacturers are getting ready to start shipping solid state disks, and Linux-based devices like One Laptop per Child's XO and Intel's Classmate don't contain standard hard disks. To improve performance on the wide array of flash memory storage devices now available, project leader Jern Engel has announced LogFS, a scalable filesystem specifically for flash devices."

Submitted by anevilyak 2007-05-18 Windows 28 Comments

"Bill Laing, a General Manager in the Microsoft Windows Server Division, has been quoted as saying that Windows Server 2008 will be the last 32-bit operating system. Bill is a server guy and indeed Windows Server 2008 is the last 32-bit server operating system - all future operating systems for server hardware from Microsoft beyond Windows Server 2008 will be 64-bit. A few folks took Bill's comments on Windows Server and applied them to Windows Client deriving that Windows Vista would be the last 32-bit operating system. That is an incorrect extension. While Windows Vista includes both 32-bit and 64-bit and there is a growing community of drivers for 64-bit Windows Vista we have not decided when Windows Client will follow Windows Server and become 64-bit only."

Mobile Linux UI Gains Fancy Visual Effects

Eugenia Loli 2007-05-18 Wireless 15 Comments

Mizi Research has updated its graphical user interface framework for consumer electronic devices like mobile phones. Prizm 3.0 has switched to Python as its main application programming language (from Qt), and has gained modern visual effects such as "dragging, sliding, fading and accelerated smart scrolling," the company said. Their devices usually sell in Korea in Samsung touchscreen phones.

Review: ANYCOM EDR-AP Bluetooth Access Point

Eugenia Loli 2007-05-18 Internet 7 Comments

Most of my readers know that I love cellphones, PDAs and gadgets. Many of these gadgets do not have WiFi in them, but they do support the PAN-client Bluetooth profile which allows them to get wireless internet connectivity (e.g. the Palm Treo). To achieve this, you need to have a PAN-server. And this what Anycom's EDR-AP Bluetooth Access Point is all about.

How to Make Apple’s Tiger OS Roar Like a Leopard

Eugenia Loli 2007-05-18 macOS 20 Comments

Tired of waiting for Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard'? Make the wait easier with tools that add power, pizazz and some Leopard-like features to OS X 10.4 'Tiger' in this 4-page article at ComputerWorld.

Tuning Your Memory Settings, Part 1

Submitted by BlueVoodoo 2007-05-18 Unix 3 Comments

Changing some memory parameters on your system can increase performance dramatically, particularly when these parameters are not optimized for the environment which you are running. Part 1 of this series provides an overview of memory on AIX, including a discussion of virtual memory and the Virtual Memory Manager (VMM).

Should GNOME Get a Global Application Menubar?

Thom Holwerda 2007-05-17 Gnome 175 Comments

In the GNOME bugzilla, there is an ongoing discussion about whether or not to include a patch into the default GNOME installation which would enable GNOME to (optionally) have a global application menubar, similar to that of the Mac OS and KDE (in the latter it is optional and off by default). Installation instructions and .deb packages, as well as a 60-page (and counting) discussion of the patch, are available on the UbuntuForums. Read on for a poll on this issue.

AROS Gets a New Name

Thom Holwerda 2007-05-17 Amiga & AROS 20 Comments

The facelift the AROS project had planned is now complete. Most importantly, due to the recent legal troubles concerning Amiga, the project has changed its name from "Amiga Research Operating System" into "AROS Research Operating System". They have also redone their website. There is also development news; the USB UHCI and OHCI support has been completed, and write support for the FAT filesystem has been added, among other things.

Microsoft Announces New Vista SKU Specifically for Virtual Deployment

Thom Holwerda 2007-05-17 Windows 12 Comments

In a completely unanticipated announcement made quietly during a virtualization talk here at WinHEC 2008, Microsoft announced a completely new SKU of Windows Vista, to be entitled Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop. Its purpose will be to enable Vista to run within an enterprise exclusively as virtual machines, managed centrally using System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Microsoft’s Mundie Looks Beyond Gates

Thom Holwerda 2007-05-17 Microsoft 11 Comments

Craig Mundie is trying to fill Bill Gates shoes. Well, at least one of them. Keenly aware that no one person can replace Microsoft's cultural icon, the company has divided his responsibilities among two top executives. Ray Ozzie has taken over as chief software architect, but Gates' role overseeing technical strategy and policy has gone to Mundie.

Apple Preps First Builds of Mac OS X 10.4.10 for Testing

Submitted by Sunny 2007-05-17 macOS 5 Comments

"With the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard pushed back to October, Apple has bought itself more time to tie loose ends in the current Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system and will put forth those fixes via its first 'dot ten' software update in quite some time, AppleInsider has learned. According to those people familiar with the matter, the first pre-release builds of Mac OS X 10.4.10 began making the rounds in Cupertino earlier this month."

Google – Don’t Be Evil

Guest post by Mohit Ranka 2007-05-17 Google 59 Comments

A recent Google acquisition of DoubleClick for a whopping USD 3.1 billion has turned many heads. The recent past certainly does not fit into Google's traditional non-aggressive attitude towards acquisitions for monopoly in the market. DoubleClick Inc., a spearhead in ad-serving, is only one of many companies acquired by Google. A comprehensive list can be seen here. Beside Google's acquisitions, this article will also explore some changes in Google's philosophy and potential threats to web community.

Submitted by danwarne 2007-05-17 Windows 72 Comments

"It's the end of the line for 32-bit operating systems, Microsoft has proclaimed at its annual Windows Hardware Engineering conference After the software giant has gotten over its hangover from partying like it's 1999 with the release of Windows Server 2008, it will have one last 32-bit hurrah with a 'release 2' update to Windows Server 2008, and that'll be it. 32 bit CPU: if you have one, learn to love Vista - you're stuck with it.There will be no more versions of Windows - on desktop or server - that will work on 32-bit CPUs like Pentium 4 or Core Duo."

GNOME 2.19.2 Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2007-05-17 Gnome 33 Comments

GNOME 2.19.2 has been released. "This is our second development release on our road towards GNOME 2.20.0, which will be released in September 2007. New features are still arriving, 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."

Gates: 40 Million Vista Copies Sold

Thom Holwerda 2007-05-16 Windows 86 Comments

Nearly 40 million copies of Windows Vista have been sold in the first 100 days following its release, more than twice the sales of Windows XP over the same time period, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in his opening keynote here at the 15th annual WinHEC. "We have been amazed by the response to Vista and what has happened in the last 100 days. So, in the first five weeks of shipping Vista, we have matched the installed base of any other operating system provider," Gates told several hundred attendees in an address entitled 'Platform Innovations for Today and Tomorrow'. In addition, Microsoft said that the follow-on to its Windows Server 2008 operating system will be an interim release due to arrive in 2009.

OpenSUSE 10.3 Alpha 4 Released

Thom Holwerda 2007-05-16 SuSE, openSUSE 13 Comments

The fourth alpha release of OpenSUSE 10.3 has been released. "Inclusion of YaST Meta Packages handler; instLux allows users to start the Linux installation from Windows; we have removed zmd from the distribution and concentrate now on the tools opensuse-updater and zypper; TeX Live replaces teTex; first parts of KDE4svn entered Factory, its games are installed; OpenOffice.org 2.2; GNOME 2.18.1; improvements to our init script starter startpar to reduce boottime; first changes to support Sony PS3; Linux 2.6.21 with an updated AppArmor patchset."