What Does Your OS Require of You?

  Submitted by OSer OS News 43 Comments
"All of you who are reading this article right now are doing so with the help of an operating system. Of course, if you're reading it on paper, then that you may not think that that's the case, although it had to be printed by a printer that was connected to a computer which was operated by an operating system, right? In a way, it's like playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. When you get right down to it, operating systems are a major part of our connected lives since something is needed to manage and execute all of the actions that take place on the electronic devices that we love oh so very much."
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Automating Development Tasks with Automator and Xcode

  Submitted by Hakime macOS 7 Comments
With Automator, users can graphically assemble Actions - self-contained modules that perform a single task - into a Workflow to create a collection of Actions that complete a larger task. This Automator functionality is also available to developers for automating workflow in software development projects. This article shows you how to streamline some of the tasks you face in development projects by writing custom Shell Actions and Workflows.
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GP2X: It’s All Fun and Games

Games 16 Comments
The GP2X is an open, Linux-based handheld games console manufactured by Game Park Holdings of South Korea. It has a typical handheld control layout, a good quality backlit screen, built-in stereo speakers, headphone socket, and several connectivity and expansion options. My son is completely taken with the device, and it has won me over too. At £125 (or $190), you're not going to find a less expensive handheld device that can be expanded into a full-blown computer.
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Gardens Point Ruby.NET Compiler is Out

  Submitted by bkavanaugh .NET 4 Comments
The preliminary beta release of the Gardens Point Ruby.NET compiler is out. The Queensland University of Technology crew responsible for the software notes that it is a true .NET compiler. It is beta, but the team notes that it "is the only Ruby compiler that we know of for either the .NET or JVM platforms that is able to pass all 871 tests in the samples/test.rb installation test suite of Ruby 1.8.2."
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Debian for the Uninitiated

  Submitted by anonymous Debian 7 Comments
Lars Wirzenius wondered how usable Debian with GNOME is for the uninitiated, or more specifically, for someone who has been using Windows for a number of years, and switches to Debian. The experiment will continue for a couple of months. The first use went pretty well, with only a couple of real problems which he outlined.
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Whatever Happened to… Mac OS X Leopard?

macOS 107 Comments
Paul Thurrot, everybody's favourite Microsoft Apple Microsoft zealot, writes on his webpage: "It's funny. Apple calls Microsoft a copy-cat, and yet, I feel like I've seen some of these features somewhere before. Many of the features, however, are just sad. Is this really the best they had to show off right now?" El Reg agrees with him, saying: "On the basis of the evidence so far the sixth release of Mac OS X is, to put it bluntly, a point release." Update by ELQ: A related editorial by Wired.
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Microsoft Wants Vista PCs to Pop

Windows 40 Comments
Microsoft has begun sharing ideas on how to design a Vista PC as part of what it calls the Vista Industrial Design Toolkit. The kit, which has been distributed to about 70 different companies, offers PC and peripherals manufacturers as well as product design firms a number of ideas on ways to shape PCs and related hardware to complement the operating system's new features. The kits, whose design ideas remain under wraps at the moment but are believed to convey ideas of simplicity and elegance, comes as Microsoft pushes to release Windows Vista in the coming months.
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Haiku’s USB Makes Progress; Pe 2.4 Released

Haiku 15 Comments
Some tidbits on Haiku/BeOS again, today: "Michael Lotz has posted to his blog about the status of USB on Haiku. Michael, who took over working on the USB stack from Niels Reedijk, has got it to the stage where he can now use his USB mouse under Haiku, albeit only temporarily before memory leaks take it down. He states the core stack is around 80% completed, with the UHCI driver around 75% of the way - lacking support only for isochronous transfers." Also, Pe 2.4 has been released to BeBits.
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The Black Hat Wi-Fi Exploit Coverup

Privacy, Security 14 Comments
"You've probably heard of full disclosure, the security philosophy that calls for making public all details of vulnerabilities. It has been the subject of debates among researchers, vendors, and security firms. But the story that grabbed most of the headlines at the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas last week was based on a different type of disclosure. For lack of a better name, I'll call it faux disclosure. Here's why."
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Open Source: Architecture or Goodwill?

  Submitted by Moulinneuf Open Source 16 Comments
"There are a lot of reasons why people make their code open source. I believe that one of the strongest original motivations has often been overlooked. Our hagiography tells the tale of how it all started with the quest for software freedom. But contemporaneous with Richard Stallman's story, other people were taking the same path (releasing source code) for a very different reason: the architecture of Unix."
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Ten Reasons to Dump Windows

  Submitted by Borys Musielak Windows 75 Comments
"Microsoft has reached an enormous success with its Windows product during the last decade and practically monopolized the market for home computer operating systems. But, does it mean Windows is still the best OS around, especially for power users? I'm going to cumulate my Windows XP frustrations and tell you about the top 10 reasons why I decided to dump Windows and use GNU/Linux as my primary desktop OS."
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