OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

WWDC 2006: Rumor Round-up

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-03 Apple 32 Comments

Coming Monday, 'His Steveness' will once again hold a keynote, at WWDC 2006, in which he at least will talk about Mac OS 10.5, Leopard. Rumours abound: virtual desktops, .Mac file syncing. iChat Mobile. Improved Spotlight, Safari 3.0. Xeon-based Xserves, Mac Pro, and more. For me, it means ten Firefox windows open with live-text streams, spread out over three monitors. Also fun.

Submitted by Valour 2006-08-03 SuSE, openSUSE 21 Comments

"Novell's SLED 10 is a decent business desktop operating system as-is. However, it does not appropriately meet the needs of a large portion of business professionals. This guide will show you how to install or upgrade the Java Development Kit, install software from the SUSE Linux 10.1 package repositories, and enable DVD movie playback in SLED 10." Note: I also used the Pacman repositories weeks ago to install the non-free packages; it seems to have not affected stability.

Firefox 1.5.0.6 Released

Submitted by Y2J 2006-08-03 Mozilla, Gecko 21 Comments

Firefox 1.5.0.6 is a stability update that is part of our ongoing program to provide a safe Internet experience for our customers. We recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version. Fixed an issue with playing Windows Media content.

Microsoft XenSource Talk About Their Agreement

Submitted by Alessandro Perilli 2006-08-03 OS News 2 Comments

"Two weeks ago Microsoft and XenSource announced an agreement to grant interoperability of virtual machines on upcoming Windows Server Virtualization and XenEnterprise virtualization platforms. The move raised the attention of the whole IT world, involving license, support, security, and performance issues. Virtualization.info interviewed both companies to understand the details of the agreement and shed light on what customers can expect from the Microsoft hypervisor release."

Linux Initial RAM Disk (initrd) Overview

Submitted by IdaAshley 2006-08-03 Linux 12 Comments

"The Linux initial RAM disk is a temporary root file system that is mounted during system boot to support the two-state boot process. The initrd contains various executables and drivers that permit the real root file system to be mounted, after which the initrd RAM disk is unmounted and its memory freed. In many embedded Linux systems, the initrd is the final root file system. This article explores the initial RAM disk for Linux 2.6, including its creation and use in the Linux kernel."

Submitted by Hakime 2006-08-03 Internet 13 Comments

The KDE team announced a new project to re-synchronize our HTML engine, KHTML, with the WebKit engine. Code named Unity, the project has so far focused on porting the WebKit engine to Qt 4 with minimal changes to the existing code-base. WebKit is a derivative of the KHTML engine by Apple.

Intel Sends Out Centrino Patches

Submitted by Marcus Lee 2006-08-03 Intel 3 Comments

Intel has issued patches for flaws in its Centrino device drivers and ProSet management software that affect the security of the wireless products. One could allow an attacker to break into a PC via Wi-Fi or even create a worm that jumps from one wireless-enabled laptop to another, provided the computers are within each other's range. Another security hole makes the system vulnerable to attacks that let a malicious user gain additional privileges.

GNOME 2.14.3 Released

Eugenia Loli 2006-08-02 Gnome 39 Comments

GNOME 2.14.3 is now released, a bug fix version of the current stable tree. You can find the changelog, build scripts and download locations here. In other related news, GTK+ 2.10.1 was recently released, the pyGTK-based multi-track studio Jokosher 0.1 was released and the very popular Windows HTML editor HTML-Kit is currently being re-written in Mono and GTK#.

Microsoft Details Server 2003 SP2 Plans

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-02 Windows 6 Comments

With beta testing underway for Windows Service 2003 Service Pack 2, which also is designed for Windows XP x64 edition, Microsoft is providing a bit more details about the impending upgrade. Window Server program manager Ward Ralston says SP2 will be much less painful than SP1.

Thunderbird 2.0 Preview

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-02 Mozilla, Gecko 22 Comments

"Following on the heels of the Firefox 2.0 beta in mid-July, Mozilla has released the first 2.0 previews of its Thunderbird email client. Firefox may get most of the attention, thanks to its flashier job, but it is the trusty email reader that conducts most of the killer-app conversations on a daily basis. Let's see what the new build holds in store."

OpenTracker 5.3.0 Released

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-02 Haiku 15 Comments

After nearly three years without an official release, OpenTracker 5.3.0 has been released to BeBits. Currently only available for x86 (a PPC build is requested by Axel), OT 5.3 adds a basic calendar display to Deskbar, the ability to quit apps via Switcher, the ability to undo/redo Tracker actions, and many bug fixes, from stability to font sensitivity. Many of the latter issues were found initially on Haiku, where Tracker also runs.

Microsoft To Buy in More Security Skills

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-02 Microsoft 22 Comments

Microsoft will focus on rapid acquisitions to quickly build its security capability, the company said this week. Recent acquisitions such as Winternals and virtual private network specialist Whale will help Microsoft build a comprehensive range of integrated services that cover every aspect of security, according to Gopal Kutwaroo, Microsoft's UK security product manager.

Apple Fixes 26 Mac OS Flaws

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-02 macOS 15 Comments

Apple issued on Tuesday updates for its Mac OS X operating system to fix 26 security flaws, some serious. Several of the vulnerabilities affect the way in which Mac OS X handles images and the file-sharing capabilities of the software, according to an Apple security advisory. Other flaws were found and fixed within components such as Fetchmail, file compression features, and DHCP networking functionality, Apple said.

Windows on Mac: BootCamp vs. Parallels Desktop

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-02 Apple 2 Comments

"Which approach you take to running Windows on a Mac will depend on how you balance the performance you hope to get out of your system with your need to proceed safely and risk-free. BootCamp will always deliver the maximum performance to your Windows apps, but Parallels Desktop offers greater flexibility and an easier, safer installation process. It's also the better product for quickly dipping in and out of Windows - or any of the other x86-based operating systems it, unlike BootCamp, supports."

Review: Freespire RC

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-02 Linspire 28 Comments

DesktopLinux.com reviews the Freespire release candidate, and concludes: "In short, I found it to be a fine Windows replacement desktop for home users. Without better network support, however, I still must recommend Xandros for business users who want a Windows-like experience, and SLED 10 for Linux friendly or heavy-duty office users."

Submitted by Mitarai 2006-08-02 KDE 61 Comments

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.5.4, a maintenance release. Significant enhancements include improved support for removable devices. Multiple holidays can now start on the same date in KOrganizer. Lots of fixes have been applied to Konqueror's HTML engine, KHTML. The dialog for sending client-side SSL certificates is now more usable, the StartCom SSL certificate was added and KNetworkConf now supports Fedora Core 5 and handles WEP better.

Reincarnating a Discarded Laptop with Linux

Submitted by anonymous 2006-08-02 Linux 21 Comments

"Laptop revival stories usually describe detailed procedures for installing Linux and device drivers on a specific make of laptop. This article is more general. How do you go about making an old laptop useful? What steps are involved? Which Linux distributions will work? We'll even discuss how Windows and dual-booting fit into the picture."

Intel vs. AMD Gaming Benchmark

Submitted by Jeremy 2006-08-02 Benchmarks 5 Comments

Any computer gaming enthusiast has probably seen his fair share of gaming benchmarks in the past, but how accurate are benchmarks determined by recorded playbacks? ExtremeTech's Jason Cross built both Intel and AMD-based systems and recorded performance based on actual gameplay of six popular gaming titles, using FRAPS to measure performance. High-end systems from Intel and AMD, in this case the Core 2 Duo and Athlon 64 X2 5000+, delivered superb performance, although Intel's newest architecture takes the cake across the board.

REST on Rails

Submitted by anonymous 2006-08-02 Internet 1 Comment

"As Ruby experiences increasing success, developers are seeking to integrate their Ruby applications with applications written in other languages. Rails provides excellent support for Web services. This article introduces Web services in Rails and focuses on a strategy known as Representational State Transfer."

Introducing the Open Graphics Project

Submitted by Just_Me 2006-08-02 3D 21 Comments

"One project that I've been following quite closely lately is a project started by chip-designer Timothy Miller, called the Open Graphics Project. His goal, along with the rest of the project, known as the Open Graphics Foundation, is to make a 3D accelerated video card which is fully documented, free-licensed, and open source." We have already covered the OGP a few times, but this article gives a nice overview of the project.