David Adams Archive

Internet-connected Xbox units are phoning home to Microsoft and downloading a patch that closes the loophole that the Xbox Linux Project was exploiting to get Linux running on the Microsoft-built game machine. The patch may also delete "foreign" files that the Xbox Linux users install on the machine. There is some evidence that even if Xbox users don't enable the "Xbox Live" settings, some games also can connect to the internet and transmit information back to Microsoft.

We've been thinking of printing up some OSNews T-shirts. We're going to print up a whole batch of them, and we wanted to get some feedback on what they should look like. Would you be interested in buying a shirt? What would you like it to look like?

Intel is working on hardware to facilitate instant-on capability for PCs. It works on the same principle as the saved state functionality that OS vendors have used to eliminate the lengthy boot-up that PC users hate, but in hardware. What's really interesting about their work is that this saved state will not only work when the user shuts down the system properly, but will work even after a power outage. This has interesting application in the server space too, and eliminating the boot-up would help reduce downtime after a UPS failure, for example.

As many OSNews readers forced to get by with ailing, slow computers at work may know, a stingy hardware upgrade cycle can have negagitve productivity effects. However, in this age of gigahertz processors, how often do businesses really need to upgrade? Every three to four years, a recent Gartner study recommends. Now, I'm sure Dell is happy to hear this news, but is it really necessary to upgrade that often?

A article over at NewMobileComputing asks whether 2003 is the "year of the laptop." It seems that the tide has turned, and laptops are powerful and cheap enough to be most people's main computers, and wireless networking is certainly a killer app. Also at NMC, a look at GSM vs. CDMA, wearable computing influencing fashion, and a 3D laptop.

A recent Gartner study (which unlike the Forrester one from this week was not commissioned by Microsoft) finds that while some businesses can save money by migrating desktop systems to Linux, others would do better to stick with Windows. Companies that have held off upgrading for quite some time and use a limited number of applications on the desktop may save money with Linux, but those that have already spent the time and effort to upgrade to recent Windows versions and those that depend on a wide range of apps should stay with Windows.

You may have noticed that we've implemented a system that allows readers to report comments that abuse our forum rules, in an effort to improve the quality of the conversation and make the job of moderating the comments a little easier for OSNews volunteers. However, this reactive solution is only half of the effort that will be required to make OSNews a better place for reasoned debate. The proactive, and more important, effort is the responsibility of all those who use the comments system. It involves showing a little restraint before being lured into the fray and contributing to a negative atmosphere.

A Singapore-based company claims to have created in operating system for mobile devices that can run software created for Windows, Linux, and Palm platforms. Called MXI, the OS "performs a sophisticated form of emulation that enables the non-native program to perform as smoothly and quickly as it would on its native OS." It also includes a server-based component for connected devices that allows the heavy lifting to be performed on the server side. I'll file this in the "I'll belive it when I see it" folder.

HP will be establishing a laboratory at its Beijing facility for Red Flag Linux developers to work with HP engineers, and will be putting together packages of HP hardware running Red Flag for the Chinese market, and perhaps other markets in the future.

L.A.S. Linux is a 'live CD' distribution of Linux (based on Knoppix) with a CD-bootable toolkit for information security professionals and systems administrators. Its small footprint maks it able to fit on a 185MB mini-CD. Despite its small size, L.A.S. contains over 100 security tools including basic desktop applications, an array or forensic, penetration testing, intrusion detection, sniffers, and administrative utilities. Changes in this latest version include the addition of Ettercap-GTK, Clam Anti-Virus, MiniCOM, SpikeProxy, MRTG, and many of the Cisco-centric Open Source Exchange tools.

Motorola is planning on selling its 19% stake in the Symbian Consortium to Nokia and Psion. The company claims that it isn't ending its relationship with Symbian nor will it necessarily cease to use the Symbian OS in its phones, but that its focus is on developing its Java environment, and the underlying OS isn't that important to them. Motorola recently developed a Linux-based smartphone.

It's semi-official: the next major update to Windows, which has already had its release slip from 2004 to 2005, will likely be even later. Microsoft executives are now reluctant to even discuss a release date. "We do not yet know the time frame for Longhorn, but it will involve a lot of innovative and exciting work," said Bill Gates at a recent financial analyst meeting.

A trade group has urged the US Department of Homeland Security to reconsider its recent decision to use Microsoft as its preferred supplier of desktop and server software, citing recent security problems. Quote from the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) report: "Because of these recent developments, historical experience, and the inherent risks associated with lack of diversity, we ask that you reconsider your heavy reliance on a single, flawed software platform to protect our national security."

There is a group trying to develop an exokernel operating system for real world use, and it is supposed to be a hybrid with microkernels. There's not a lot at their SourceForge site yet, except for a cute slogan, but there's a comprehensive overview of the project's goals.