Archive

MSDN Magazine Detailed Overview of Windows CE.NET

Guest post by submitted by Gil Bates 2003-01-06 Windows 6 Comments

"Windows CE .NET, the newest member of the .NET family, includes a number of improvements over previous versions of Windows CE. For example, there are quite a few new APIs and enhancements to security and connectivity, the user interface, the kernel, and the emulator. In addition, DirectX support has been added and C++ in Windows CE .NET now supports C++ exceptions, STL, and runtime type information. In this article the author takes a tour of Windows CE .NET, starting with the New Platform Wizard that allows you to code for your choice of devices. A sample application is included that locates features on portable devices so the reader knows what's available before writing code." This article is from July but it should still be relevant to OS-interested readers.

T2002 – A Freeware Turrican Clone Now Completed

Guest post by Mike Bouma 2003-01-05 Games 17 Comments

The Turrican game series were among the best selling game titles released for the C64 and Amiga 500 little over a decade ago. Now Pekaro Software finished their Turrican recreation using Direct X (version 7 or newer) for Windows. More info about other Turrican games and inspired projects can be found at the Turrican SETA Project homepage.

Context Switching, Part 2

Guest post by OSNews Writer 2003-01-05 General Development 14 Comments

This article looks at two behaviors of the scheduler. The first behavior is the reaction to adding more choices to the scheduler's switching decision. The second demonstrates fairness by performing a uniform workload in multiple threads. Source code is provided so you can experiment. Last month's column looked at bare context switch times by using the best primitives on both Windows and Linux. According to those results, context switch time under Windows takes only half as long as under Linux.

OpenBeOS Translation Kit Reaches Beta 1

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-01-05 Haiku 29 Comments

"The OpenBeOS Translation Kit BETA 1 is now available. It contains the Translation Kit library, BMP translator, StyledEdit files translator, TGA translator and the source and project files for all of the above. Also, the BMP and TGA translators should have more capabilities than the BMP and TGA translators that came with BeOS R5." You can download the beta at the OpenBeOS website.

Microsoft Products Reach End of Lifespan

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-01-04 Microsoft 34 Comments

According to this table on the Microsoft website MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and NT 3.5x reached their end of life on December 31, 2002 and will no longer be supported by Microsoft.

BeOS Newsbits

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-01-04 Haiku 19 Comments

Here's some recent news from the BeOS world. The OpenBeOS MIDI Kit team has reached Milestone 1! They now have their own now have their own midi_server and libmidi2.so. Work on the BeOS-native video editor, PostMagic, is moving along well. A new screenshot was posted on the 1st. PostMagic version 1.0 is expected to be released around mid July. LeBuzz reports that Marcus Overhagen is writing a new Audio Card Driver API. The new API will get rid of some of the multi-source, multi-channel limitations inherent in older BeOS APIs.

Apple Preparing New Upgrade Fees

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-01-04 Apple 54 Comments

"Apple Computer next week will announce a plan to charge for upgrades to some of the company’s highly acclaimed "digital hub" software, a move that could anger customers accustomed to receiving free updates." Read on at CNet News.com.

Desktop Options

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-01-04 Rumors 42 Comments

"Michael C. Barnes takes an in-depth look at desktop operating system options available on the market today in this exclusive article at DesktopLinux.com. Evaluating over 30 desktop options for this article, Barnes dissects Microsoft Windows XP, offers a perspective on the evolution of the desktop, and reviews popular Desktop Linux options including Red Hat, ELX, Debian, Slackware, Lycoris and more." Read the article over at DesktopLinux.com.

Linux Continues Desktop March

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-01-04 Linux 31 Comments

"The good news for Linux as an operating system for the desktop--as opposed to the server--is that it is set to become No. 2 after Windows in the next year or so. The bad news is that its growth does not look to be as explosive as some advocates might have hoped." Read more at ZDNews.

Lindows CEO Funds Xbox Hacking Contest

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-01-03 Linspire 70 Comments

"Michael Robertson, CEO of software company Lindows, has revealed himself as the formerly anonymous donor of $200,000 in prize money in a contest to translate the Linux operating system to Microsoft's Xbox video game console. The revelation was made in a posting earlier this week on the Xbox Linux Project site at SourceForge, a site for collaborative development of open-source software projects. Robertson disclosed his identity as the person funding the contest and extended the deadline." Read the article at ZDNews.

A Critical Look at Mandrake 9.0 (OfB.biz Distro Shootout)

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-01-03 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 19 Comments

Timothy R. Butler writes: "In this second part of the OfB Distribution Shootout, Eduardo Sánchez considers the distribution who nabbed our first annual Open Choice award last July -- Mandrake Linux. After finding Mandrake Linux 8.2 quite possibly the best GNU/Linux distribution ever released, Sánchez probes deep into its successor to see if it is a worthy replacement." Read the full review.

Desktop Linux for the Home: How and Why?

Guest post by John Munsch 2002-12-30 Linux 179 Comments

Why do it? I am asked this question more often than I expected, even by existing Linux users who I expected to know as well as I the reasons for building a next-generation desktop Linux for the home user. So here are some of my reasons for thinking that we must spend the effort to create a better desktop on Linux than any existing version now has. Editor's Note: Due to a technical glitch, the first segment of this article was ommitted for some readers. If you missed the "why" section, before, you can read it now.

Techseekers Reviews Mandrake Linux 9.0

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-30 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 14 Comments

"Today we are looking at Linux Mandrake, a relative newcomer but which has picked up a large user base through the years which keep its development alive and well. The first version of Mandrake was based on Red Hat which is a fine distro in itself. The makers wanted too keep all that was good with Red Hat and get rid of all the bad, such as using KDE instead of GNOME as default desktop. Over the years, though, it has changed from simply being Red Hat repackaged into a separate distro in its own right. However if you dig deep enough you can still see the Red Hat roots but we are not really interested in that." You can read the full 7 page review over at Techseekers.

Microsoft Worst Enemy: Themselves

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-30 Microsoft 56 Comments

"Microsoft's biggest threat isn't Linux, OpenOffice, or any piece of software at all--its themselves. Over the last eighteen months two distinctly different Microsoft cultures have emerged, often in opposition to each other. " You can get the full article over at Sudhian Media.

Red Hat 8: A Glimpse of the Desktop Future

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-30 Red Hat 36 Comments

"The future of the Linux desktop? At least, I hope the new unified look and feel of Red Hat 8.0 is a hint at the future that the Linux desktop is moving to. There has been some adverse reaction from the Linux community toward the new interface. I am not one of the detractors. I appreciate that Red Hat is making a contribution to Linux and I also believe that it is the direction that the Linux desktop should be taking." This is a look at Red Hat 8.0 that focuses on the direction it sets for the future of the Linux desktop. Read the full article at Librenix.

Creating a .NET Client that Uses DB2 DADX Web Services

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-26 .NET 20 Comments

Shell writers: "IBM recently shipped an enhancement to the DB2 Web services object runtime framework (WORF) to enable interoperability with .NET. This article showns you how to create a .NET C# client to consume a DB2 DADX Web service. The latest WORF improves the interoperability between DB2 DADX Web services and the Microsoft .NET platform."

A Lesson in Cyber-Security

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-26 Privacy, Security 22 Comments

"Reid Ellison is a 15-year-old high school hacker who, for a time, had complete control over his school's computer system. A hack attack from a smart kid is just about any school's worst nightmare. But Ellison got a pat on the back for his exploits, rather than a slap on the wrist. This is actually a good news story about a kid who used his hacking talents for good rather than evil." Read the full story at ABC News.

The Humane Environment

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-26 macOS 53 Comments

Pahtz writes: "A very alpha release of The Humane Environment (THE) for MacOS was made on Christmas Eve. Jef Raskin, creator Apple's Macintosh, and author of the book "The Humane Interface", is the leader of the open-source THE Development Team."

Judge Orders MS to Carry Java

Guest post by Mike Bouma 2002-12-24 Legal 186 Comments

The order to carry Java with Windows will remain in force pending the final outcome of Sun Microsystem's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. According to Sun, Microsoft tried to marginalise Java by unfair usage of its software monopoly position, making Windows incompatible with its platform independent programming language. More info at CBSNews.com and CNET News.com.

Sendo Sues Microsoft for Alleged Attempt of Theft

Guest post by Mike Bouma 2002-12-23 Wireless 42 Comments

CNET News.com reports: "Mobile phone maker Sendo has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the attempted theft of technical expertise and proprietary technology, adding to the intrigue surrounding its recently terminated relationship with the software giant." Last month Sendo announced that the company decided to license Nokia's Symbian based Series 60 Platform for future Sendo smartphones instead of Microsoft's software. Update: Reuters.co.uk has some more information.