Take a Closer Look at the Most Secure Unix OS: OpenBSD

OpenBSD 36 Comments
OpenBSD strives to be the most secure UNIX derivation. Design principles, such as code auditing, extensive use of encryption, and careful configuration choices, combine to ensure OpenBSD's secure by default philosophy holds true. This article gives you a close look at the operating system so secure that it was once banned for use in a DEF CON competition, where crackers go after each other's systems.
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No Open Graphics Drivers from AMD

  Submitted by fish reloaded 3D 77 Comments
Statement by ATI: "For other markets, such as workstation and consumer, performance and feature differentiation are key metrics. Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open source. In addition, multimedia elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature, be allowed to go open source."
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Yet Another Way to Browse OSNews

OS News 20 Comments
Between the full desktop version, the subscriber's ad-free version, the normal mobile version (via autodetection), the very lite mobile version and the WAP version of OSNews, here is one more: http://osnews.com/pda . This version is built around our RSS feed and it's geared towards cellphones (like the Motorola RaZR line) that can't quite manage to render our normal mobile front page (28 KB overall) while the very lite or WAP versions don't have enough information in them so they leave our readers with a bitter taste. Hence, we implemented this RSS-based middle-ground mobile version, like we also did for other popular sites yesterday (screenshots). The PHP source code that generates this mobile-friendly layout is freely available and ready to be deployed, courtecy of MoBits.com.
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The IBM PC’s 25 Year Legacy

  Submitted by Saad IBM 27 Comments
"August 12, 1981 marks the birth of the IBM PC, the computer that single-handedly turned personal computing to the business market. IBM's success forced Apple and others to change their focus, and most personal computer companies from the pre-IBM era have become historical footnotes. By 2006, even Apple Computer had followed IBM's lead and adopted Intel CPUs and built Macs that can boot Microsoft Windows." Yes, boys and girls, she's that old. A 'thank you' is in order, I suppose.
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Haiku LiveCD Script

  Submitted by sardaukar siet Haiku 29 Comments
The Haiku news just keeps on coming lately. "HaikuLiveCDScript is a shell script to build a Haiku live CD. It downloads, decompresses, and generates a boot image and drops files in a folder ready to be burnt. Just unpack the script files and execute 'makelivecd', and wait a while."
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The GNU Linear Programming Kit

  Submitted by IdaAshley General Development 1 Comment
"The GNU Linear Programming Kit is a powerful, proven tool for solving numeric problems with multiple constraints. Get an introduction to GLPK, the glpsol client utility, and the GNU MathProg language to help find the best solutions to complex numeric problems. Then, learn to solve the problem of optimizing the operations for Giapetto's Woodcarving, Inc., a fictional toy manufacturer."
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Is .Net Taking Over the World?

  Submitted by Dolphin .NET 82 Comments
"Four short years ago, Microsoft unveiled its new framework/engine for programming and running applications in a virtual environment, and the world was stunned. Microsoft had introduced a run-time environment that was for the first time a true 'write once, run everywhere' implementation, but that was far from being the end. With .NET 3.0 on the loom, NeoSmart Technologies takes a look at how far .NET has come and just how long it can keep going."
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Debunking the Blue Pill Myth

  Submitted by Alessandro Perilli Privacy, Security 2 Comments
"Blue Pill is the prototype resulting from a security study made by Joanna Rutkowska, which took advantage of new virtualization capabilities of AMD processors (known as SVM and previously as Pacifica) to inject a rootkit in a running Vista operating system. Ms Rutkowska claimed a malware using this method is undetectable. Virtualization.info met Anthony Liguori, Software Engineer at IBM's Linux Technology Center, and, most of all, one of the men behind the Xen hypervisor, to finally debunk the Blue Pill undetectabiliy myth."
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Review: Mac Pro

  Submitted by alcibiades Apple 50 Comments
Ars does its usual thorough stuff on the new Mac Pro. According to Ars: "The interior layout is a big win for Apple. Four drive bays is adequate for a pro tower, and the fact that each drive is on its own bus is a smart design decision. It's also great having room for a second optical drive. In terms of performance, it's good news - with a caveat. While the fully-buffered memory, the screaming-fast Xeon 5150s, and the 1333MHz FSB are all great, Apple's video card choice is most definitely not. It doesn't fit, and it detracts from the overall experience. Despite that, the Mac Pro is a very solid graphics or video editing workstation. When all the major 'pro' applications have made the transition to Universal Binaries, the PowerPC years will be little more than a memory."
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Novell CTO Defends ‘Unstable’ Xen Claims

  Submitted by george Novell and Ximian 17 Comments
Novell chief technology officer Markus Rex has hit back at criticism the company included an 'unstable' Xen virtualisation environment in its new Linux server, pointing to support from hardware partners. "We had all the major hardware partners that had virtualisation hardware like IBM, Intel and AMD. They all stood up and said 'Yes, this technology's ready, and we fully support deployments based on Xen and in combination with SUSE Linux Enterprise 10'."
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Review: Sabayon Linux

  Submitted by Rob Williams Gentoo 51 Comments
Techgage reviews Sabayon Linux, and conclcudes: "After taking an initial look at Sabayon, I have mixed feelings. Though, I feel more joy when using it than anything negative. One reason this distro may stand out above others is because it takes a difficult base distro, and opens its arms for new users who want to experiment. When it's all said and done, you will have a full functional Gentoo machine after the installation, topped off with a Sabayon coat of paint. What a great looking coat of paint it is."
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.NET and Java to Get Better Dynamic Language Support; PHP.NET

  Submitted by gonzo General Development 71 Comments
With highly expressive syntax that is easy to read, write, and maintain, dynamic programming languages like Python and Ruby are extremely conducive to rapid development. Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have observed growing interest in dynamic programming, and plan to integrate more extensive support for dynamic language features in their respective managed language platforms. Elsewhere, check PHP for .NET.
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Open-Source Darwin? Not Yet

  Submitted by proclus macOS 63 Comments
Apple is stonewalling open-source developers despite the company's recent release of much of the Mac OS X Tiger kernel source code, according to Proclus, administrator of the GNU-Darwin Distribution. "In order to have a free and open source system, two things are necessary. First, all the necessary source code must be obtainable by anyone, and second the system must obviously be bootable in order to use it," Proclus told MacNN. "Darwin OS is not bootable without the AppleACPIPlatform driver, which is closed source at this time." On a related note, a slew of unannounced features have been posted to the web, found in the developer preview of Leopard.
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3dfx’s Quad-GPU Voodoo5 Board Offered to Bidders

3D 26 Comments
A never-shipped 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP graphics card has popped up on eBay to tempt fans of historical GPUs. Speaking of fans, this boy has four of 'em, one each for the four VSA-100 graphics chips the board sports - along with 128MB of frame-buffer memory. The full-length card requires a 3.3V AGP slot should the successful bidder care to try the thing out. It also requires a power feed from the host system's PSU. Later incarnations of the card were bundled with their own, external power supply brick. The GPUs are clocked to 166MHz.
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