"For a long time, Linux has been blamed to boot slowly, compared to other modern operating systems. In this article, we are going to focus on a new init system we developed for our Pardus Linux distribution, Mudur, together with other initiatives that are worth mentioning. Mudur is written from scratch in Python with simplicity, speed and maintainability in mind. It isn't a replacement for the /sbin/init command like some other alternatives, nor just a parallel script executor. Mudur greatly simplified our boot process, making it faster and more flexible. Authors look forward for future boot process research for further improvement and optimizations."

It was just a matter of time before someone built a more effective scaffolding system for Ruby on Rails. Streamlined is a framework with a rich metamodel that enables application generation that improves scaffolding productivity. Part 1 of this two-part series, demonstrates Ruby on Rails scaffolding, illustrating its limitations, and how Streamlined can improve it. Part 2 explores how the impressive metamodel behind Streamlined enables customizations.

Ignorance can be bliss, but it's not a tight defense, lawyers say. When Apple disclosed Wednesday its internal investigation had uncovered some stock-option backdating, the company said Jobs was aware of the practice but unaware of its accounting implications. The probe also did not find any misconduct by Jobs or other current officers, the company said. In a blend of semantics and general legal analysis, however, securities experts say Jobs could still face some kind of penalty over the situation.

Canonical is the 65-employee start-up behind a popular version of Linux called Ubuntu. The company is betting that it can win a place in the market using a strategy that dominant Linux seller Red Hat has dropped. Red Hat offers two versions of Linux: Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Fedora Core is free, but relatively untested and unsupported by Red Hat, while RHEL is supported and certified, but must be purchased. With Canonical's Ubuntu, however, the free and supported versions are identical - the approach Red Hat abandoned in 2003.

Here is OSNews' review of Xandros Desktop Home Edition Premium version 4.0 (a mouthfull). Xandros Systems was so kind as to provide OSNews with the top of the line version of their product, which includes, among other things, complete copies of Versora Progression Desktop, CrossOver Office, and various non-Free drivers and utilities. Read on for the complete review.

Microsoft, of all companies, continues to lead the way with free and loose licensing terms around server virtualization software and multi-core processors. As of Oct 1, Windows Server Datacenter Edition operating system customers will have the right to run "an unlimted number of virtualized Windows Server instances". This policy applies to licenses covering new servers and previous licenses upgraded with new version rights. All told, it means that you pay to run Windows Server Datacenter Edition on a server with a set number of processors and can then divvy that box up with any combination of Windows Server Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition and/or Datacenter Edition without needing to count the number of virtual machines being created or pay for extra Windows Server licenses.

"Is Ubuntu an operating system? Last week at EuroOSCON, Mark Shuttleworth gave the closing keynote outlining what he believes are the major struggles faced by the open-source/free-software community. During his talk, it became clear that Ubuntu is trying to achieve a radical shift in the software world. Ubuntu isn't trying to be a platform for mass-market application software: it is trying to be the primary provider of both the operating system and all the application software that a typical user would want to run on his machine. Most Linux distributions are like this, and I think it is a dangerous trend that will stifle innovation and usability."

Red Hat has an NDA cooperation with Marvell for the wireless chips that they want to use for the One Laptop per Child-project. The idea of this is that both parties think Marvell will be more open in the future, but this is absolutely not the path they should walk, according to OpenBSD's Theo de Raadt. "I am getting really tired of 'open source' people who work against the open source community. Our little group can probably take credit for having 'opened up' more wireless devices than the rest of the community, and therefore we feel we have a better grasp of the damage OLPC has done here."

These easy to understand XForms tips show you how to get the most out of your XForms. In this XForms and Perl tip, you'll learn how to submit an XForms form using POST to a Perl script, and capture the data for later use. This tip shows you how to access the submitted XForms data using a Java servlet. This tip looks at both the XForms and Ajax versions and how to combine the two techniques and in this XForms and PHP tip, you will see how to create a PHP script that can receive and work with XML data submitted by an XForms form.

Here is an article which reviews Mandriva 2007 and provides tips as well as plenty of screenshots. Everything worked from the start and the Live CD is quite impressive, says the author - comes with XGL enabled on the disc too. Another Mandriva-related review is the 'Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0' article at SoftwareInReview.com.

"Like most companies, my employer has a stash of old, 'obsolete' PCs and laptops that won't run the latest versions of Windows worth a darn. Naturally, this represents a great source of systems for testing the latest Linux distributions. I thought it would be interesting to find out which modern Linux distro made the best OS for a supposedly 'obsolete' old laptop. With this in mind, I requisitioned an oldie but goodie: an IBM ThinkPad 2662-35U, with a Pentium III 600MHz processor, 192MB of SDRAM, and a 20GB hard drive."

Google is introducing a new search service - strictly for computer programmers only. The Web search leader said late on Wednesday it is introducing Google Code Search, a site that simplifies how software developers search for programming code to improve existing software or create new programs. Google product manager Tom Stocky said the company is set to help programmers sift through billions of lines of computer source code using its familiar search box to uncover snippets of reusable software.

ENP has an article on Linux's udev. "udev handles the task of detecting hardware and creating nodes for it in /dev, and also managing device permissions. It works in concert with the Linux Hardware Abstraction Layer and the hotplug subsystem. In effect, all devices, even internal drives and expansion cards, are treated as removable hotplug devices."

The POWER5 processor is a 64-bit workhorse used in a variety of settings. Part 1 of this Assembly language for Power Architecture series is an introduction to assembly language concepts and the PowerPC instruction set. The series as a whole will introduce assembly language in general, specifically language programming for the POWER5.