OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing - Page 911

Process XForms in Firefox

Submitted by IdaAshley 2007-01-25 Mozilla, Gecko 5 Comments

"Using the experimental Mozilla XForms extension, you can process XForms in your browser today. While not yet deployed widely enough for use on the public Internet, XForms may be suitable for some intranet applications. This article demonstrates basic XForms processing as currently supported by Firefox and the Mozilla XForms plug-in."

Vim Tips: Using tabs

Submitted by Dolores Parker 2007-01-24 Office 10 Comments

"Before Vim 7.0 was released last May, I usually had six or seven xterms or Konsole windows open, each with a single Vim session in which I was editing a single file. This takes up a lot of screen space, and isn't very efficient. With Vim 7.0, users now have the option of using tabs within Vim. With Vim's tab features you can consolidate all your sessions into one window and move between files more easily."

DRM, Vista, and Your Rights

Submitted by Andrzej Ptak 2007-01-24 Legal 17 Comments

"In the US, France and a few other countries it is already forbidden to play legally purchased music or videos using GNU/Linux media players. Sounds like sci-fi? Unfortunately not. And it won't end up on multimedia only. Welcome to the the new era of DRM!" Update: Norway's consumer ombudsman has ruled that Apple's Fairplay DRM is illegal. This follows the news that France and Germany have sided with Norway.

Replacing a COREDLL Component in Windows CE 6.0

Submitted by anonymous 2007-01-24 Wireless 1 Comment

When porting Windows CE to a unique embedded device, developers are occasionally faced with the need to modify the default behavior of the OS. In this extensive, richly illustrated article, Windows CE development team lead Kurt Kennett explains how to replace so-called Core DLLs with customized, application-specific versions.

Overview of XFCE 4.4

Submitted by Michael 2007-01-24 Xfce 18 Comments

Here is an article that reviews the new features found in Xfce 4.4. Provides in details new features found in Thunar, new applets like Orage, and new abliities like built in compositing and ability to add desktop icons. Screenshots galore as well.

Tanenbaum Outlines His Vision for a Grandma-Proof OS

Submitted by Sandro Hartley 2007-01-24 OS News 26 Comments

Andrew Tanenbaum has introduced his latest metric: LFs - Lifetime Failures to describe the number of times software, particularly the operating system, has crashed in a user's lifetime.

The Road to KDE 4: Job Progress Reimagined

Submitted by ronaldst 2007-01-24 KDE 21 Comments

Have you ever had your taskbar filled with 10 applications all doing something that involved waiting for a task to finish? Document Printing Progress, a K3b CD burning dialogue, Audio Encoding via KAudioCreator, File Transfers in Konqueror, Kopete, KTorrent, checking email in KMail... The new Jobs support in KDE 4 will unify the display of progress for these tasks, making it easy to see and manage what is happening on your system. Read on for details.

The Definitive Guide to Dual-Booting Vista and Linux/XP

Submitted by danwarne 2007-01-24 Rumors 11 Comments

If you've ever asked for advice on how to set up dual-booting, you've doubtlessly come across online tutorials that only tell part of the story. You probably ended up spending all weekend researching the intricacies of adjusting partition sizes, boot loaders, installing operating systems in the right order, and other fun topics. Well, we have good news: APCMag has put together the definitive dual-booting guide between Vista and Ubuntu.

Looking Ahead: Where Computers and Emotion Meet

Submitted by Esther Schindler 2007-01-24 Geek stuff 3 Comments

New computer software applications--in the labs and in the market--are using emotion as data input and responding to it. This CIO.com feature looks at current applications that focus on human emotion, and looks ahead to work being done on that subject, in computer labs around the world.

Branching Registers with the PowerPC Processor

Submitted by IdaAshley 2007-01-24 IBM 3 Comments

In Part 1 of this series you saw how programs on the POWER5 processor work using the 64-bit PowerPC instruction set, then in Part 2 you learned how the PowerPC instruction set addresses memory, and how to do position-independent code. In this article, you learn how to use the very powerful condition and branch instructions available in the PowerPC instruction set.

Intel: Open Source Drew Us to Solaris

Submitted by MaxxTotal 2007-01-24 Solaris 14 Comments

Open source was behind Intel's decision to add Solaris to its list of supported operating systems, according to a top official from Intel during a teleconference with reporters. In other news, Sun returned to profitability.

22 Percent of Windows Installs Non-Genuine

Thom Holwerda 2007-01-23 Windows 133 Comments

Microsoft disclosed Monday that over one in five Windows installations were deemed non-genuine through the company's Windows Genuine Advantage program, which requires users to validate their operating system before downloading updates from the company. Since WGA launched in July 2005, over 512 million users have attempted to validate their copy of Windows, Microsoft said. Of those, the non-genuine rate was 22.3 percent. 56000 reports have been made by customers of counterfeit software, which grants that user a free replacement copy of Windows.

Jobs ‘Questioned Over Options Backdating’

Thom Holwerda 2007-01-23 Apple 20 Comments

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs was questioned by US investigators about stock options backdating at the company, according to several reports citing unidentified lawyers. Apple and Jobs' attorney did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment on Tuesday. The US Attorney's Office in San Francisco was also not immediately available.

The Ultimate Windows Vista Laptop

Thom Holwerda 2007-01-23 Hardware 28 Comments

"The most visible part of Windows Vista is the Aero interface, and while we can't deny that it looks very swish we find it very hard to get excited by a shiny new GUI. Instead, we're looking forward to new Vista hardware, which includes a new use for the humble USB memory key and much, much more. So what will the ultimate Windows Vista notebook offer?"

Wal-Mart Takes Advantage of Novell-Microsoft Deal

Submitted by WillM 2007-01-23 Novell and Ximian 35 Comments

Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores is contracting with Microsoft and Novell - Microsoft's preferred Linux partner - to build out the company's Web operations, according to a Wal-Mart executive. On Tuesday, Microsoft and Novell are expected to announce that Wal-Mart is the latest customer to purchase both Microsoft software and support certificates for Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server.

Linspire Standardizes Software Installation Across Linux Distributions

Submitted by Adam Scheinberg 2007-01-23 Linspire 59 Comments

"Linspire announced plans to standardize software installation across Linux distributions by expanding its popular CNR digital download and software management service to support several of the most popular desktop Linux distributions in 2007. Previously available only for Linspire and Freespire desktop Linux users, the CNR Service will begin providing users of other desktop Linux distributions a free and easy way to access over 20000 desktop Linux products, packages and libraries."

Should You Buy Vista Ultimate?

Submitted by Deathspawner 2007-01-23 Windows 56 Comments

"With the Vista launch imminent, you may be wondering what version you should be buying. Thanks to the four primary versions available, this is no easy task. Many will be swaying towards the Ultimate Edition, but should you save your cash?"

SDK for Java v6 Early Release Program for Linux

Submitted by anonymous 2007-01-23 Java 8 Comments

IBM has released an SDK for Java 6. Product binaries are available for Linux on x86 and 64-bit AMD, and AIX for PPC for 32- and 64-bits. In addition to supporting the Java SE 6 Platform specification, the new SDK also focuses on, Data sharing between Java Virtual Machines, Enhanced diagnostics information, Operating system stack backtraces, Updated jdmpview tool, platform stability, and performance.

Maemo Development VMware Appliance

Submitted by konfoo 2007-01-23 Wireless 5 Comments

A VMware appliance built on Ubuntu which allows for easy Nokia N800 Internet Tablet console and GUI development, including debugging in the nested Xephyr X server is available. This appliance is targeted at the N800's Maemo Bora 3.0 platform. This is of particular interest to developers who are thinking about developing for the N800 or wanting to do a quick port/recompile, and are unsure of or not willing to go through the install procedures.

An Interesting Offer: Get Paid to Contribute to Wikipedia

Submitted by anonymous 2007-01-22 Microsoft 166 Comments

"So I was a little surprised to receive email a couple of days ago from Microsoft saying they wanted to contract someone independent but friendly (me) for a couple of days to provide more balance on Wikipedia concerning ODF/OOXML. I am hardly the poster boy of Microsoft partisanship! Apparently they are frustrated at the amount of spin from some ODF stakeholders on Wikipedia and blogs. I think I’ll accept it: FUD enrages me and MS certainly are not hiring me to add any pro-MS FUD, just to correct any errors I see." So basically, it seems as if Microsoft is trying to 'hire' people to edit Wikipedia.