OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Preventing End-Users from Installing Applications

Submitted by Esther Schindler 2006-08-29 Privacy, Security 17 Comments

IT professionals need to strike a balance between user freedom (such as letting them install any app they want) and keeping a predictable and safe computing environment. Several network admins give their advice about the best way to find and maintain that balance - with tech tips for each operating system.

The .NET Show: Windows Server “Longhorn”

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-28 Windows 11 Comments

The next version of Windows Server may still be using its code name, but this episode helps explain some of the ways it will help you run your systems and services better.

Intel: Optimize Applications for Multicore

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-28 Intel 19 Comments

Intel is expected to release on Monday development tools designed to help programmers at software companies take advantage of the added computing power available on multicore systems.

Vista Build 5536 Shows Performance Gains

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-28 Windows 75 Comments

eWeek's review of the latest Vista build is pretty positive: "On Aug. 25, Microsoft released to testers Vista Build 5536, the latest in a long line of sneak peeks at Microsoft's forthcoming desktop operating system. eWEEK Labs' tests of Build 5536 show that the operating system is gaining speed and losing quirks as its release nears." They also made a pretty screenshot gallery. In addition, everybody's favourite ~~Microsoft~~ ~~Apple~~ Microsoft zealot is also positive about this build.

Analyst: Apple Better than Microsoft at Maximizing OS Profitability

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-28 Rumors 33 Comments

By releasing its operating system more often and at a slightly higher cost, Apple Computer is better able to maximize its profitability in the OS field compared with its rival, Microsoft. That conclusion is according to a new analysis released Aug. 28 by Gene Munster, a senior researcher at Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray & Co.

RISC OS 4 Caught on Mac OS X

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-28 RISC OS 15 Comments

RPCEmu has been ported to the Mac OS X platform, allowing RISC OS 4 to run alongside Apple's shiny desktop. An experimental port of the open source RiscPC emulator was checked into its source code repository over the weekend after the emulator was adapted to run on Apple computers that use PowerPC processors. The port can run RISC OS 4 and 3.7 with mouse and keyboard support. The emulation of IDE hard discs and higher resolutions needs further testing, and the user interface needs more work. The emulator manages around 5 MIPS on a modest 800MHz G4 iBook - which makes the desktop fairly usable.

Quo Vadis, Linux Distribution?

Submitted by anonymous 2006-08-28 Linux 41 Comments

"How many distributions does the Linux world need? And what exactly is a distribution, as opposed to just an edition of another distribution? Why is it that there are so many developers who feel inclined to start their own project instead of joining another, more established one?"

Submitted by twickline 2006-08-28 Google 12 Comments

Starting Monday, Google will offer Google Apps for Your Domain, a free package of programs for businesses, universities and other organizations. Workers will be able to send e-mail with Gmail, Google's two-year-old Web-based mail service, but messages will carry their company's domain name. The package also includes Google's online calendar, instant-messaging service, and Page Creator, a Web page builder.

Analysis of Department of Justice Prosecutions 1999-2006

Submitted by anonymous 2006-08-28 Privacy, Security 2 Comments

A landmark study on Department of Justice network crime prosecutions reveals most attacks used stolen IDs and passwords, resulting in far greater damages to affected organizations than previously thought: up to USD 10 million per occurrence and on average more than USD 1.5 million per occurrence. The report, "Network Attacks: Analysis of Department of Justice Prosecutions 1999-2006", concludes that 84% of attacks could have been prevented if, in addition to checking the user ID and password, the organization had verified the identity of the computer connecting to their networks and accounts.

The Future of Mobile Web Services

Submitted by anonymous 2006-08-28 Internet No Comments

Web services have been around for a while, but the idea has yet to fully take off. Learn how that's about to change, particularly as Web services go private and mobile. Learn how the application builders of tomorrow will use simple, drag-and-drop techniques to build new applications out of existing services.

ReactOS 0.3.0 Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-28 ReactOS 29 Comments

The ReactOS team has released ReactOS 0.3.0. There's a massive changelog for this release. You can get 0.3.0 from the SourceForge page. "The ReactOS project is dedicated to making Free Software available to everyone by providing a ground-up implementation of a Microsoft Windows XP compatible operating system. ReactOS aims to achieve complete binary compatibility with both applications and device drivers meant for NT and XP operating systems, by using a similar architecture and providing a complete and equivalent public interface."

Sci-Fi: a New Kind of OS

Submitted by MHW 2006-08-28 Geek stuff 28 Comments

"Imagine if you will, a world where your ideas and perhaps, even your own creative works became part of the OS of tomorrow. Consider the obvious advantages to an operating system that actually adapted to the needs of the users instead of the other way around. Not only is there no such OS like this, the very idea goes against much of what we are currently seeing in the current OS options in the market."

Review: Debian Etch Beta 3

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-28 Debian 23 Comments

Debian has without much fanfare released the beta 3 of Etch, the final release slated to take place sometime this year. This review looks at what Debian has for the Linux enthusiast with its latest offering.

Submitted by falko 2006-08-27 Internet 10 Comments

"In this howto we will install 2 bind dns servers, one as the master and the other as a slave server. For security reasons we will chroot bind9 in its own jail. Using two servers for a domain is a commonly used setup and in order to host your own domain you are required to have at least 2 domain servers. If one breaks, the other can continue to serve your domain."

Understanding Objects and Collections in Visual C# 2005

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-27 .NET 16 Comments

Start learning about an important programming concept, namely objects. The more you work with Visual C#, the more you'll hear about objects. Visual C# 2005 is a true object-oriented language. This chapter isn't going to discuss object-oriented programming in any detail—object-oriented programming is a complex subject and well beyond the scope of this book. Instead, you'll learn about objects in a more general sense.

Domain-Driven Design Patterns and AMDD Architecture

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-27 General Development 11 Comments

Do you think design patterns are academic nonsense, useless and elitist? If this is how you feel, the aim in this chapter is to show you the opposite, because nothing could be more wrong.

Misconceptions About the Portland Project

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-27 Linux 23 Comments

"When OSDL announced the first release of its Portland initiative at LinuxWorld Boston in April, heralding it 'a breakthrough in desktop Linux', I muttered my skepticism to a co-worker. He expressed surprise at my reaction, noting that the initiative employs extremely smart people. I don't doubt their intelligence, or their sincerity, but I wouldn't bet a penny on the project living up to its initial claim, because you can't conjure a silver bullet out of intelligence and sincerity." KDE developer Kevin Krammer replies: "There is an article over at linux.com which predicts that the Portland initiative will fail to reach its goal of 'unifying the Linux desktop'. Unfortunately the author somehow missed that 'unifying the Linux desktop' is not the goal of Portland."

Ubuntu Developing Replacement INIT System

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-27 Ubuntu 81 Comments

Ubuntu is developing the "upstart", a replacement for the init daemon, the process spawned by the kernel that is responsible for starting, supervising and stopping all other processes on the system. The article compares upstart to Solaris SMF, Apple's launchd, and initng.

Fluffy Soap Mouse Works Without a Desk

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-26 Games 30 Comments

"Can you imagine controlling your computer with a peripheral that resembles a fluffy bar of soap? Well hear us out, because the Soap pointing device from Microsoft Research offers to combine the accuracy of a traditional optical mouse with the freedom of a wireless, even desk-free peripheral." There are even instructions in the video to make one yourself.

Submitted by sogabe 2006-08-26 Haiku 34 Comments

The controversial discussion about the important of communications at the Haiku project continues, and seems to be heating up. The project recently announced a new marcom team, and now the team lead (Koki) is coming on strong to the developers. He claims that the new Haiku website now in development "looks awful, is disorganized, and it has no focus whatsoever", and proposes to fix it by organizing it into marketing and development areas managed by each group (plus an open community area). Read on for a short summary written by OSNews reader sogabe.