David Adams Archive

Slow PC Sales Overall, but Macs are “Hot”

David Adams 2005-05-11 In the News 67 Comments

Recent PC sales numbers indicate a sluggish marketplace, though laptops are doing slightly better than desktops, and upgrades to flat panel monitors continue unhindered. Of the major computer manufacturers, though, Apple's sales have been extermely high, accorsing the Merrill Lynch analysts.

Novell Loses Another Executive

Submitted by Patrick 2005-05-11 Novell and Ximian 24 Comments

Richard Seibt, formerly CEO of Suse Linux before its acquisition by Novell in 2003, has left Novell. This follows the recent resignations of other top executives Chris Stone, Alan Nugent, and Deb Bergavin. The major portion of Novell’s management came from Novell’s acquisitions of Cambridge Technology Partners, Ximian and Silverstream.

Dell Invests 99.5 Million USD in Red Hat

Submitted by Tony Caduto 2005-05-11 In the News 27 Comments

Through his private investment firm, PC Tycoon Michael Dell has invested $99 Million in Red Hat recently, according to an SEC filing.

“CherryOS Is No More”

David Adams 2005-05-11 Apple 80 Comments

To hopefully close the book on this sad saga, it appears that the controversial Mac emulator CherryOS has been removed from the market

Security – The Best Laid Plans

Submitted by Danny 2005-05-11 Privacy, Security 2 Comments

Security used to be as simple as a solid lock on a solid door, a safe in the back room and perhaps even a retired police officer out front (if you were really serious). But the modern business looks at security, and threats to security in a whole different light. Security of information, systems and networks are now just as important as, and often integrated with, shop-front security. read more

Linux Use In U.S. Federal Agencies

Submitted by Tom Adelstein 2005-05-06 Linux 25 Comments

Linux Insider has a short article detailing how various government labs and agencies have used Linux as the backbone of various projects: some truly skunkworks, and some large and high-profile. Projects range from early clustering work at Goddard to the FBI's Emergency Response Network.

Gcc 4.0 Vectorizer

Submitted by Carice 2005-05-06 General Development 18 Comments

The new gcc 4.0 compiler shipped with Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 makes use of a new component, the loop vectorizer. This allows gcc to compile code that will take advantage of altivec optimizations without the need for the developer to explicitly use altivec code.

OSNews Troll Succeeds Beyond Wildest Expectations

Submitted by Will Senn 2005-05-06 Humor 65 Comments

An anonymous commenter on OSNews posted the snarky comment, "There is no OpenSolaris. Show us the code or quit mentioning it." That made a couple of Sun engineers angry enough to fight back on their blogs, and the battle is now immortalized in a ZD Net article. Well, Mr. Anonymous commenter, you have been inducted into the OSNews Troll hall of fame. A plaque of a blank face representing you will be posted in our Troll hall of fame, under the bridge.

OpenOffice Gets Some Mainstream Press

Submitted by Aaron Benedict 2005-05-06 Office 50 Comments

The Associated Press has run a short review of OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta. They ran into some beta-type problems with installation and stability, but overall found it to be a good alternative for casual Office users.

Bluetooth Future is UWB

David Adams 2005-05-04 Wireless 1 Comment

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group - the body that controls the wireless connectivity standard - has formally chosen ultrawideband as the foundation for future versions of the technology. UWB, traditionally seen as a potential competitor to Bluetooth, seems to now be bluetooth's ticket to future relevance. Meanwhile, Bluetooth's current popularity assures that UWB adoption won't spark yet another Beta vs VHS standards war.

A Java Developer Talks About MONO

Submitted by Adrian 2005-05-04 Mono 97 Comments

A developer who's spent five years working on Java/J2EE applications for the enterprise takes Mono for a spin. He's a self-described Java lover, and isn't afraid to say it. What does he think of Mono?

Mobile Security: Data Goes Walkabout

Submitted by Danny 2005-05-04 Privacy, Security 4 Comments

Mobile security is a hot issue, but who is listening? The mere word 'security' sends most people running. Investing in preventative IT security has never been a very popular topic. It often needs a competitor or an organisation itself to become a victim of crime before senior executives sit up and listen. read more

Hardware 3D on BeOS a reality

Submitted by Kian Duffy 2005-05-04 Haiku 56 Comments

According to HaikuNews, new open source nVidia 3D drivers are now ready for BeOS. Included are screenshots of Be's 1999 era Quake II port running unmodified and 3D accelerated.

DarwinPorts: 2500+ OSS Titles for Darwin/Mac OS X

David Adams 2005-05-04 BSD & Darwin 15 Comments

After more than two years in the making, DarwinPorts 1.0 is now available in binary and in source form. The DarwinPorts Project's main goal is to provide an easy way to install various open-source software products on the Darwin OS family (OpenDarwin, Mac OS X and Darwin).

GPL Under “Price Fixing” Legal Attack

Submitted by Tyrone Miles 2005-05-04 Legal 89 Comments

The suit claims that the "Free Software Foundation has entered into contracts and otherwise conspired and agreed with individual software authors and commercial distributors of commodity software products such as Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc. to artificially fix the prices charged for computer software programs through the promotion and use of an adhesion contract that was created, used and promoted since at least the year 1991 by the Free Software Foundation" Update: A Groklaw article casts some serious doubt on the validity of the suit and sheds some light on serious inaccuracies in the Linux Business News article linked above.

Selecting a mid-market database

Guest post by Paul N Richter 2005-05-03 Databases 53 Comments

The mid-market is hot. It is forecasted to be the main growth segment in the IT market for the next few years. As such, it is fiercely contested by the major software makers. The BBC recently even called it a 60 billion dollar software battle. What exactly constitutes the mid-market is a bit vague, but some define it as businesses ranging from 50 to 1,000 employees.

ARS Technica Reviews Tiger

Submitted by Ralf Hasemann 2005-04-28 macOS 78 Comments

Ars Technica has a review that not only looks "under the hood" at Tiger, but takes the engine apart and catalogs all the pieces for us to see. The article takes note particularly of the many improvements in Tiger that will benefit Mac developers, that end-users will only begin to benefit from when the next crop of new Mac apps starts to come onto the scene.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: A Review

David Adams 2005-04-28 macOS 120 Comments

OSNews reviews Apple's latest OS upgrade. Is it an overpriced, glorified point release or a truly worthy upgrade with major new functionality? Is it a Longhorn killer or just more of the same? We'll take a look, and try to see what's on the surface as well as what's under the hood.

Trust and Zeal in Open Source Advocacy

Submitted by Jono Bacon 2005-04-27 Open Source 43 Comments

In the second part of my Open Source advocacy series, Trust and Zeal in Open Source Advocacy, the article covers the importance of trust and the potential risks of zeal in pushing Open Source forward and creating change.

What if you could add a GPS chip to anything?

David Adams 2005-04-27 Editorial 19 Comments

What's the easiest way to ensure that GPS tracking technology doesn't become the tool of an evil elite? Make sure everyone has access to it! For people already thinking along these lines, the availability of tracking technologies such as RFID tags and (GPS) chipsets is confirmation that we're all living in a Panopticon. The saving grace is that the CIA and the Trilateral Commission don't have a monopoly on these technologies -- maybe we can turn a world of mass observation to our benefit.