OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Xfce 4.4 RC2 Released

Submitted by bmeurer 2006-11-05 Xfce 41 Comments

The Xfce development team is pleased to announce that the second and hopefully last release candidate of the upcoming Xfce 4.4 desktop is available for download now. The release focuses primarily on bug fixes and optimizations; see the release notes for a complete list of changes. The source tarballs and the graphical installer are available from the download page.

Submitted by falko 2006-11-05 Debian 2 Comments

"This guide describes how to install and use xen-tools, xen-shell, and Argo on a Debian system. All three packages provide useful tools for the administration of virtual Xen machines. Xen-tools is a collection of Perl scripts that allow you to easily create, update, and delete Xen guest domains. The xen-shell provides a command-line interface to owners of Xen domains so that they can manage their Xen domains without the help of the server administrator. And with Argo, you can control Xen domains through a web interface or through a menu on the command line. All three packages were developed for Debian systems, but might work on other distributions as well."

Novell-Microsoft: Miguel de Icaza Responds

Thom Holwerda 2006-11-04 Mono 144 Comments

Some interesting bits of his blog entry in which De Icaza replies to emails he has received concerning the Novell-Microsoft deal: "I do not know of any patents which Mono infringes. (...) Although I did not take part of the actual negotiations, and was only told about this deal less than a week before the announcement, I had been calling for a long time for a collaboration between Microsoft and Open Source and Microsoft and Novell. (...) Similar deals have been done in the past, in 1997 Microsoft signed a similar deal with Apple, and Apple used that agreement and the incoming monies to turn the company around. Sun signed a similar agreement with Microsoft in 2004, which at the time I realized enabled Sun to ship Mono on Solaris (which we already supported at that time)."

‘Macarena’ Virus Targets Macs

Thom Holwerda 2006-11-04 macOS 71 Comments

Source code for a Mac virus has gone public, a security company warned Friday, and although the original doesn't carry a malicious payload, more dangerous variants can be expected. The virus, dubbed 'OSX.Macarena' by Symantec, targets some, but not all, Mac OS X Mach-O executables. "Although methods of infecting Mach-O binaries have been publicly available for some time, this marks the first known fully functional Mach-O file infecter virus," Symantec noted in an alert to customers of its DeepSight threat network on Friday. "The source code for this virus is publicly available and as such it is possible that variants may be trivially developed to extend the virus's functionality."

Open Source Is Not a Verb

Thom Holwerda 2006-11-04 Open Source 38 Comments

"I am a linguist by training. Long before I delved into free software and was snagged by the quagmire of marketing, I pondered the marvels of morphology, the grimness of grammar and the splendor of semantics. It is only natural then that my wrangling criticism of industry-speak, in both technical and literary modes, is informed by ingrained linguistic sensibilities, descriptive and proscriptive. Given my background, I find it vexing when open source is used as a verb."

Submitted by ghen 2006-11-04 NetBSD 3 Comments

NetBSD 3.0.2 and 3.1 have been released simultaneously. NetBSD 3.0.2 is a critical/security-only update for NetBSD 3.0, while NetBSD 3.1 brings much broader fixes and improvements, including: Xen3 domU support, LFS stability improvements, Postfix 2.2.11, BIND 9.3.2, msdosfs write optimization, addition of scan_ffs/scan_lfs tools, driver updates, and many, many other bug fixes and enhancements. Binaries and ISO's for both releases are available via FTP and BitTorrent.

FSF Recruiting ‘Freedom Verifiers’ for Free Ubuntu Derivative

Submitted by anonymous 2006-11-04 Linux 67 Comments

The FSF recently announced the release of gNewSense 1.0 in a press release. gNewSense is a free software GNU/Linux distribution created by two Irish free software advocates, Brian Brazil and Paul O'Malley, and is based on the Ubuntu and Debian distributions.

Review: ADS MXL-581 Media-Link Entertainment Receiver

Eugenia Loli 2006-11-04 Multimedia, AV 12 Comments

Apple is working furiously to get their ITV product into market early next year. However, this type of product is not a new idea. There have been a number of similar remote multimedia products since 2003, most based off the Syabas software stack. Geeks.com were very generous sending us over ADS' MXL-581 Media-Link Entertainment Receiver for a review, a Syabas-based device that's using the uCOS-II real-time kernel (introduction ). Check inside for our review and many screenshots of the system.

Novell-Microsoft: MS Open To More Distros, Red Hat Responds

Thom Holwerda 2006-11-03 Novell and Ximian 143 Comments

Some more reactions to the Novell-Microsoft deal. Firstly, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company is open to talking to other Linux distributors about reaching mutual patent coverage deals similar to the agreement signed Nov. 2 with Novell. Secondly, according to Red Hat, this deal means that 'Linux has won', while also saying they would never make such an agreement with Microsoft: "An innovation tax is unthinkable. Free and open source software provide the necessary environment for true innovation. Innovation without fear or threat. Activities that isolate communities or limit upstream adoption will inevitably stifle innovation." More reactions here and here. Update: Another response from Red Hat. In one year's time, a Red Hat general counsil said, Red Hat will be the only Linux commercial vendor left standing, Microsoft support or not.

‘The World Just Isn’t Ready for Linux’

Thom Holwerda 2006-11-03 Linux 91 Comments

"Windows Vista brings with it a new era of DRM and restrictive license agreements that aren't going to sit well with even your basic power user and some are looking for an escape route. These changes are making some users question their commitment to Microsoft. The obvious step is to make the leap to Linux. But what's holding people back from escaping Microsoft's shackles and moving to a free, easy platform? My guess is that the platform isn't everything. In fact, it's only a small part of the equation."

Submitted by twickline 2006-11-03 Open Source 181 Comments

Of course the net is buzzing with reactions to the Novell-Microsoft agreement of yesterday. Bruce Perens is very negative about it all: "What aren't they telling you? First, you can be sure that Microsoft's not out to help a competitor. This announcement paves the way for Microsoft to implement significant control over commercial customer's use of Free Software. And it has significant negative implications for Open Source in general." Eben Moglen of the FSF says about the possible GPL issues: "If you make an agreement which requires you to pay a royalty to anybody for the right to distribute GPL software, you may not distribute it under the GPL."

I Never Metafile I Didn’t Like

Submitted by esther schindler 2006-11-03 .NET 6 Comments

"Metafiles are one of two fundamental ways of representing an image. While they are not suitable for all images, photographs in particular, they have many advantages over bitmaps for charts and drawings. Peter Aitken demonstrates how to use them in .NET."

Are You Ready For Vista Graphics?

Eugenia Loli 2006-11-03 Windows 55 Comments

Windows Vista will offer varying levels of functionality depending on what kind of video card you have. When you upgrade, will your PC be up to the challenge?

Why Software Sucks

Eugenia Loli 2006-11-03 General Development 53 Comments

"Software sucks, 80% of projects fail, and most developers are unhappy individuals. Why is this? My answer; complexity. Complexity is the single factor I would attribute poor software to. The more you have to do, the harder you make it on yourself, the way requirements seem to change, the worse the final result is; right? Software needs to be simple", says Chris Stewart.

Submitted by amaze_9 2006-11-03 KDE 33 Comments

The second KDE 4 developers snapshot is now available. This 3.80.2 release includes source from all the KDE modules. Application developers are strongly advised to work primarily on KDE 4 from now on. This release builds with Qt 4.2.0 and 4.2.1 (but not the 4.2 preview). Packages are available for Kubuntu and currently working through the SUSE buildservice.

Microsoft, Novell Ink Linux Deal

Submitted by anonymous 2006-11-02 Novell and Ximian 131 Comments

At a press conference in San Francisco, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to announce a new partnership between Microsoft and Novell. The unprecedented deal will have Microsoft offering a degree of sales support for Novell's SUSE Linux while both companies work towards better interoperability between their respective operating systems. As part of the agreement, Microsoft also promises not to wield its patent portfolio against SUSE Linux. More here. You can follow the live webcast announcement, by Steve Ballmer, here. Update: Novell has put up a detailed FAQ about this deal.

Microsoft Removes Transfer Limitations From Vista

Submitted by anonymous 2006-11-02 Windows 19 Comments

Responding to the myriad complaints over ambiguities and outright uncool (that's a technical term) licensing terms, Microsoft has revised the Vista retail license to remove some of the most major causes of complaint. A previous version of the Windows Vista retail license restricted the number of times you may transfer Vista from one device to another. The license read: "The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the 'licensed device'." The new license has removed this language relating to device transfers.

Google Drives Mobility

Eugenia Loli 2006-11-02 Google 13 Comments

Google released today a Java client for their Gmail service which works on all Java-enabled cellphones (mobile web-based client also available). Click through to see many screenshots from the app. Having used it for a few hours we conclude that it's very usable, very fast and it can even read and display images and MS/OOo attachments. More reviews on this app here and here. Additionally, now the Google-owned YouTube is preparing for a mobile launch within 2007, while Google is a major partner in the Opera Mini project. Version 3.0-beta was released yesterday. It now supports SSL, RSS feeds and content folding (which unfortunately does not play nice with OSNews' mobile page). Screenshots inside.

Linux on More Dell Client Systems?

Submitted by Scott 2006-11-02 Linux 28 Comments

Dell's Linux Software Architect blogs on behind-the-scenes moves towards Linux support on Dell client systems and announces a new public mailing list for related discussions. "We put a lot of effort into our Linux offerings on our workstations and servers. On the client side, our efforts are much more behind-the-scenes. We recognize the chicken-and-egg problem though: it has to work before many people will want to buy it; and it won't work unless effort is put into it before people start buying it. So we're cracking the egg, not quite making omlettes."

Submitted by grfgguvf 2006-11-02 Privacy, Security 12 Comments

Earlier this year, stealth malware researcher Joanna Rutkowska created a stir at the Black Hat Briefings when she demonstrated a way to infect Windows Vista with a rootkit and introduced Blue Pill, a new concept that uses AMD's SVM/Pacifica virtualization technology to create '100 percent undetectable malware'. In this interview with eWEEK senior editor Ryan Naraine, Rutkowska talks about her interest in computer security, the reality of stealth malware threats, the risks associated with hardware virtualization and why the anti-virus industry comes up short.