OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Mandriva Linux 2007 Beta 2 “Odin” Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2006-08-16 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 12 Comments

Mandriva Linux 2007 Beta 2 version "Odin" has been released: It comes with GNOME 2.16 beta 2, Kernel 2.6.17 (based on 2.6.17.8, with ALSA 1.0.12 rc2, i965 support, and new kernel factorization: normal, enterprise and legacy). KDE 3.5.4, more applications migrated to XDG menus, new 'Ia Ora' Mandriva Theme (only included in GNOME for now) and a new VPN configuration tool (drakvpn).

Memory Architecture of Windows Mobile 5.0 Explained

Submitted by Mani 2006-08-16 Wireless 20 Comments

Windows Mobile 5.0 is an operating system for the mobile devices. It is based on Windows CE version 5.0 and is a 32-bit operating system. Just like any other operating system, it performs many services like process management, file management, memory management and also power management. In this article, OSWeekly explores the memory architecture of Windows Mobile 5.0.

A New Acceleration Architecture for Xorg: Glucose

Submitted by Joël Cornuz 2006-08-16 Wayland 58 Comments

Trolltech's Zack Rusin today introduced Glucose on Freedesktop Xorg mailing list. Glucose is a new "OpenGL based acceleration architecture" that "uses XGL code". It does not require any change on the drivers side, except a call to glucoseDriverInit.

Submitted by Valour 2006-08-16 Linspire 11 Comments

"Linspire Inc. claims that the recently released Freespire is the development version of Linspire, much like Fedora Core is the freely available development version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. During the several days that I used it, I found this to be true in both a good and a bad way. It's good in the sense that the software that comprises Freespire is a bit more modern, but bad in that it has a few problems that make it unsuitable for a production release." Read more at TheJemReport.

Kernel Mode Driver Framework Video

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-15 Windows 26 Comments

If you write Windows kernel mode drivers you really should watch this video. You will be impressed with the work that has gone into the Kernel Mode Driver Framework. This framework abstracts some of the pain points away for driver developers giving them the freedom to concentrate on their algorithms related to device usability.

Submitted by Mitarai 2006-08-15 GTK+ 25 Comments

The new and re-written version of Glade has taken the streets. Glade 3.0 Requires GTK+ 2.8 and libxml2, Glade 3.0 will expose properties, signals and widgets from GTK+ 2.8, but it has deprecated support for custom widgets. Update: Glade 3 is featured on the latest Gnomejournal.

RealNetworks to Add WMV/WMA Support to its Linux Offering

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-15 Multimedia, AV 104 Comments

RealNetworks will release open-source software this year that will let Linux computers play Windows Media files legally. The media delivery software company and Novell made the announcement at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. Novell said it will include the tool in its Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in the fourth quarter.

Novell’s Giant Killer: Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-15 Novell and Ximian 22 Comments

"I'm rather impressed. Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is designed to do just that – impress the user from the start, with a smooth and (mostly) simple experience that will satisfy the secretary through to the MD. It does still have some areas to work on, however." Read the rest at Tectonic's.

Lenovo Debuts SUSE Linux Portables

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-15 SuSE, openSUSE 38 Comments

Lenovo debuted its first Linux-based laptops at LinuxWorld in San Francisco on Tuesday, running SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 provided through a partnership with Novell. The systems are the result of a two-year research effort by the two companies as well as Intel, whose Centrino Duo processors power the portable. The Thinkpad T60p is an inch thin and weighs 4.7 pounds. Several features of Lenovo's Windows-based notebooks, including Help Center support, the ThinkPad Configuration Utility, Power Manager and Access Connections have been ported to Linux, the company said.

AMD To Unveil ‘Rev F’ Opteron Chips

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-15 AMD 6 Comments

AMD plans to announce its new 'Rev F' generation of Opteron server processors Tuesday, the next volley in a competition with Intel's newly competitive Xeon models. The Rev F Opterons, all dual-core models, add new virtualisation abilities and faster memory, run at the same 2.6GHz top speed as preceding mainstream models, and plug into AMD's new 'Socket F'. Although that new socket disrupts server designers' easy upgrade path from one Opteron to the next, it also lays the foundation for quad-core chips in 2007 and for server designs through the end of the decade.

OpenOffice Hits Back at Viral Risk Claims

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-15 Office 22 Comments

OpenOffice.org has hit back at claims that the alternative office applications suite is riddled with security holes. Researchers at the French Ministry of Defense say that OpenOffice is subject to security weaknesses that make it at least as susceptible to computer viruses as the commercial, more widely used, Microsoft Office.

Sun to Open-Source Java ME

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-15 Java 15 Comments

Sun Microsystems plans to open-source its implementation of the Java ME specification and is shooting to have that done by the end of this year, Sun executives said Aug. 14. This is the first time Sun has said publicly that Java ME (Java Platform, Micro Edition) is part of its plan for open-sourcing Java.

A Slow Start at LinuxWorld

Submitted by lh8 2006-08-15 Linux 4 Comments

The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo lurched to a start on Monday at the Moscone Center in San Francisco with half-day tutorials and after-hours parties for the early birds. As per usual, the first day of LinuxWorld consisted of tutorials only, while the exhibitors worked furiously to get their booths set up before the exhibit floor was scheduled to open on Tuesday morning.

Submitted by DigitalDame 2006-08-15 Hardware 4 Comments

Dell plans to announce a voluntary recall of 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries used within its laptops because the batteries could overheat, prompting a risk of fire. The batteries, manufactured by Sony, were found in 25 Dell laptops and eight Dell 'mobile workstation'-class notebook PCs. Dellbatteryprogram.com provides instructions on how to determine whether a notebook battery was affected by the recall, and if so, how to ship it back.

Path Finder 4.5 Released

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-15 macOS 12 Comments

Path Finder is a Finder file browser alternative for Mac OS X, which combines the best of Apple's Finder with powerful, integrated utilities and some innovative ways of accessing and manipulating your files. The new version, 4.5, features undo support, superuser mode, labels editor, multiple shelves, file listing reload button and more.

Submitted by flypig 2006-08-15 RISC OS 28 Comments

The developers of RISC OS 5 are prepared to open source 'elements' of the operating system, acccording to a report in Archive magazine today. Castle boss Jack Lillingston reportedly told Archive editor Paul Beverley on-the-record that the company is "very seriously considering making RISC OS open source".

Submitted by andymc 2006-08-15 OS News 5 Comments

Version 0.63 of Visopsys was released today. It's a maintenance release with bugfixes and loads of small tweaks throughout the system, but also a few new little features, including the ability to format and resize Linux swap partitions, more reliable OS loading, better CPU detection, and a simple text editor. Detailed change log and downloads.

Submitted by sogabe 2006-08-15 Haiku 19 Comments

A discussion on the Haiku mailing list about the recently announced icon contest has set off a somewhat controversial debate about communication in the project. The Haiku leadership seems to be of the idea that it is not yet a good time to the start PR machine, while the member of the community who initiated the discussion argues that, if done right, communication can be beneficial for the project at any point in time, and that it may actually help find the developers that the project so badly needs. Quite coincidentally, this article related to the topic of marketing open source projects.

Trolltech to Offer “Open” Linux Mobile Phone

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-15 Qt 25 Comments

Trolltech will ship an "open" Linux-based phone in September. The "Greenphone" features a user-modifiable Linux OS, and is meant to jumpstart a third-party native application ecosystem for Linux-based mobile phones.

Slackware Linux 11.0 RC1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-15 Slackware, Slax 23 Comments

The long development process of Slackware Linux 11.0 is about to conclude - that's according to Patrick Volkerding who has declared the "current" tree as RC1: "There are still a few changes yet to happen, but let's call this Slackware 11.0 release candidate 1." Other recent changes include upgrade to stable kernel 2.4.33; upgrade to udev 097, and rebuild of glibc 2.3.6 for both 2.4.33 and 2.6.16.27 kernels. Update: Screenshots.