Archive
OnTap WAFL's .snapshot feature is such easy to use since years while on FreeBSD UFS2 the
unprivileged users were not able to as easily use snapshots for retrieving old stages of their files.
To solve this I've implemented a little snapshot management environment for FreeBSD around mount(8), mdconfig(8), amd(8) and cron(8) which provides a
similar environment than what people are used to from WAFL.
A
summary article and proof of concept
implementation is available.
This is a report of a very simple and unscientific effort to determine which browsers are used by tech-savvy power users. Why would anyone care? Idle curiosity, mostly. And because it might be interesting to see if the recent spate of well-publicized security problems with Windows and Internet Explorer have had any effect on browser choice among alpha geeks.
As a programmer and manager of embedded software products for a living, I think that operating system programming is so much fun that it will eventually be outlawed. I've previously published two articles on OSNews,
So, you want to write
an operating system and
Climbing
the kernel mountain, and tried to summarize my experience in designing operating system kernels as well as technical traps that can be easily avoided.
This article offers feature suggestions to budding OS developers looking for that neat edge. This osnews mini-series is a series to give people developing hobby operating systems - for fun - ideas that take their OS from a kernel to a 'system'.
We are pleased to announce a new stable release of Valgrind, version 2.2.0.
Despite the impressive list of achievements of open source software, it can be argued that there have not been any world-class games created under the open source banner. Sure, several old games like Doom and Quake have been gifted to the open source community, but there are no comparable original creations in this area. One should not expect this situation to change anytime soon, because the open source development model does not make sense for game development.
Golem.de talked to Fabian Franz and Kurt Pfeifle. NX, developed by the
NoMachine aims for nothing less than to revolutionize network computing. The software allows to connect and work on remote desktops even across low bandwidth links such as ISDN or modems.
I have just
written an entry in my
O'Reilly Weblog about the similarities between people with similar technical interests. Why do these patterns occur and what is it about certain people that binds them to certain technologies?
I recently had a bad experience with an application service provider that illustrated a growing problem with technology companies- lack of service and support. We have grown complacent as technology consumers and we allow vendors to offer very poor levels of service that wouldn't be allowed in other markets.
This review started because I was curious about GNOME as a desktop. I wanted a live cd with GNOME so I went over to Distrowatch
and found Gnoppix.
ELQ's note: I have sent the Gnoppix author a proposal on how to enrich the live CD experience with more relevant, third party desktop gnome apps, but don't expect any changes before November, as the author will be busy until that time.
Far and away the top three problems facing wireless operators and Application Service Providers (ASPs) today are integration, integration and integration. Their worst fear is mucking up their service to customers in any way. How do you integrate new data services into a legacy system without compromising its stability and security? In this article I’m introducing a new solution that can prevent rogue application behaviour, such as uncontrolled SMS or MMS blasts or over-consumption of resources leading to an interruption in service.
Release 0.41 of Visopsys is now online at
visopsys.org (freshmeat
announcement). It is largely a supplemental (and bugfix) release for the recent 0.4 version, but continues where 0.4 left off in terms of improving the overall look and usability, as well as providing a few new user tools to experiment with.
Lately
posted on Slashdot, an
article written by Joel Spolsky mentioned the trouble through which Microsoft went to make each version of Windows backwards compatible. In one case, for the game Simcity, they even changed the way memory handling was done when running that application. You can find additional stories of
software tricks that recent versions of Windows have to perform in order to run these bug-dependant applications on the web. After reading the story, I discussed with a couple of friends how weird this was and how Free Software completely avoids this problem.
Recently I upgraded my home PC and I thought, well, how about loading it with only freeware/open source software (On top of Windows XP)? So I started looking around and found some excellent freeware, along with a lot of trash. It took some work to evaluate all the applications but in the end, it was worth it.
The recent book
C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3 contains complete distributions of a relatively-current (3.2.1) version of Qt for Linux, Mac and Windows. Installing Qt on Windows wasn't easy, though--certainly not as easy as one would expect. I ran into
a number of little quirks that took a surprisingly long time to resolve. These issues aren't Trolltech's fault, just little gotchas to be aware of--but they are frustrating if you don't know how to deal with them.
Issues regarding UNIX software package managment have brought us many usable, yet complicated package management tools, such as those seen in RedHat Linux, Solaris, BSD systems and Mac OS X. While being very useful at their tasks, they bring unnecessary complexity of the management software used, as well as dependency on central package database.
I had bitter feelings about RealNetworks products and practices years ago, but over the last couple of years I find that RealPlayer8 is one of the first apps I open on my linux machines. I confess I am a BBC Radio addict living in the USA and streaming audio is my only way to listen.
This article offers feature suggestions to budding OS developers looking for that neat edge.
After a few days of work Thomas Weidenmueller and Filip Navara of the ReactOS project have developed a SkyOS Compatibility Layer that works under ReactOS and Windows.
I manage computers running BSD variants every day, at work and at home. After many man page and RTFM iterations to support vital administrative aspects, a desire grew to understand what lay beneath my level of expertise. As eager as I was, I found the prospect of simply plunging into a lengthy code review unappealing.
