Thom Holwerda Archive

openSUSE 10.2 Alpha 3 Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2006-08-11 SuSE, openSUSE 14 Comments

openSUSE 10.2 alpha 3 has been released: "I'm glad to announce the third alpha release of our 10.2 product. It's the first time that we call our distribution 'openSUSE' instead of 'SUSE Linux'." The full release announcement can be found at LinuxCompatible.

The GNU Linear Programming Kit

Submitted by IdaAshley 2006-08-11 General Development 1 Comment

"The GNU Linear Programming Kit is a powerful, proven tool for solving numeric problems with multiple constraints. Get an introduction to GLPK, the glpsol client utility, and the GNU MathProg language to help find the best solutions to complex numeric problems. Then, learn to solve the problem of optimizing the operations for Giapetto's Woodcarving, Inc., a fictional toy manufacturer."

Is .Net Taking Over the World?

Submitted by Dolphin 2006-08-11 .NET 82 Comments

"Four short years ago, Microsoft unveiled its new framework/engine for programming and running applications in a virtual environment, and the world was stunned. Microsoft had introduced a run-time environment that was for the first time a true 'write once, run everywhere' implementation, but that was far from being the end. With .NET 3.0 on the loom, NeoSmart Technologies takes a look at how far .NET has come and just how long it can keep going."

Debunking the Blue Pill Myth

Submitted by Alessandro Perilli 2006-08-11 Privacy, Security 2 Comments

"Blue Pill is the prototype resulting from a security study made by Joanna Rutkowska, which took advantage of new virtualization capabilities of AMD processors (known as SVM and previously as Pacifica) to inject a rootkit in a running Vista operating system. Ms Rutkowska claimed a malware using this method is undetectable. Virtualization.info met Anthony Liguori, Software Engineer at IBM's Linux Technology Center, and, most of all, one of the men behind the Xen hypervisor, to finally debunk the Blue Pill undetectabiliy myth."

Review: Mac Pro

Submitted by alcibiades 2006-08-11 Apple 50 Comments

Ars does its usual thorough stuff on the new Mac Pro. According to Ars: "The interior layout is a big win for Apple. Four drive bays is adequate for a pro tower, and the fact that each drive is on its own bus is a smart design decision. It's also great having room for a second optical drive. In terms of performance, it's good news - with a caveat. While the fully-buffered memory, the screaming-fast Xeon 5150s, and the 1333MHz FSB are all great, Apple's video card choice is most definitely not. It doesn't fit, and it detracts from the overall experience. Despite that, the Mac Pro is a very solid graphics or video editing workstation. When all the major 'pro' applications have made the transition to Universal Binaries, the PowerPC years will be little more than a memory."

Novell CTO Defends ‘Unstable’ Xen Claims

Submitted by george 2006-08-11 Novell and Ximian 17 Comments

Novell chief technology officer Markus Rex has hit back at criticism the company included an 'unstable' Xen virtualisation environment in its new Linux server, pointing to support from hardware partners. "We had all the major hardware partners that had virtualisation hardware like IBM, Intel and AMD. They all stood up and said 'Yes, this technology's ready, and we fully support deployments based on Xen and in combination with SUSE Linux Enterprise 10'."

Review: Sabayon Linux

Submitted by Rob Williams 2006-08-11 Gentoo 51 Comments

Techgage reviews Sabayon Linux, and conclcudes: "After taking an initial look at Sabayon, I have mixed feelings. Though, I feel more joy when using it than anything negative. One reason this distro may stand out above others is because it takes a difficult base distro, and opens its arms for new users who want to experiment. When it's all said and done, you will have a full functional Gentoo machine after the installation, topped off with a Sabayon coat of paint. What a great looking coat of paint it is."

Open-Source Darwin? Not Yet

Submitted by proclus 2006-08-10 macOS 63 Comments

Apple is stonewalling open-source developers despite the company's recent release of much of the Mac OS X Tiger kernel source code, according to Proclus, administrator of the GNU-Darwin Distribution. "In order to have a free and open source system, two things are necessary. First, all the necessary source code must be obtainable by anyone, and second the system must obviously be bootable in order to use it," Proclus told MacNN. "Darwin OS is not bootable without the AppleACPIPlatform driver, which is closed source at this time." On a related note, a slew of unannounced features have been posted to the web, found in the developer preview of Leopard.

3dfx’s Quad-GPU Voodoo5 Board Offered to Bidders

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-10 3D 26 Comments

A never-shipped 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP graphics card has popped up on eBay to tempt fans of historical GPUs. Speaking of fans, this boy has four of 'em, one each for the four VSA-100 graphics chips the board sports - along with 128MB of frame-buffer memory. The full-length card requires a 3.3V AGP slot should the successful bidder care to try the thing out. It also requires a power feed from the host system's PSU. Later incarnations of the card were bundled with their own, external power supply brick. The GPUs are clocked to 166MHz.

Review: Versora Progression Desktop 2.0

Submitted by Valour 2006-08-10 Linux 8 Comments

"Versora's Progression Desktop migration tool gets better with every release. Now on version 2.0, the developers have expanded the capabilities of the software and qualified it with many more operating systems. It's never been easier to transfer your settings from Windows to GNU/Linux."

The Mac Pro Value Equation

Submitted by Saad 2006-08-10 Apple 56 Comments

"Apple has done something really different with the Mac Pro, and it's taken a few days to put it all in perspective. Instead of three different models with several build-to-order options, Apple has a single model with a host of build-to-order options. With so many options - Apple says there are millions of possible configurations - it's not easy to come up with a simple value equation for the Mac Pro."

GNU Classpath 0.92 Released

Submitted by Mark Wielaard 2006-08-10 Java 16 Comments

This is the first release that has a full graphics 2D implemenation based on Cairo enabled by default. This enables the use of applications like JEdit, FlickrBackup and JFreeChart out of the box. See Screenshots of CairoGraphics2D in action. Also new in this release is the inclusion of an applet viewer and plugin that can be embedded in webbrowsers or other applications. It works on any platform supported by the various runtimes based on GNU Classpath, including 64 bit architectures. Lots more improvements, like better gnome integration, are mentioned in the release announcement.

Building Cheat Sheets in Eclipse 3.2

Submitted by anonymous 2006-08-10 General Development No Comments

"Cheat sheets are a great way to guide users of your Eclipse plug-ins or Eclipse-based products through the steps they must follow to use your software. Eclipse V3.2 enhances cheat sheet technology to make them easier to build and more versatile for users. This article gives you a short overview of what's new for cheat sheets in Eclipse V3.2, including the composite cheat sheets feature, and gives good examples of how to use them."

Simplify Data Extraction Using Linux Text Utilities

Submitted by IdaAshley 2006-08-10 Linux 12 Comments

Much of Linux system administration involves tediously combing through plain-text configuration files. Fortunately, Linux has a rich array of UNIX-derived data extraction utilities, including head, tail, grep, egrep, fgrep, cut, paste, join, awk, and more. This article uses real-world examples that show how these simple command-line programs can make you a better sysadmin. Also look at each data extraction utility and its options, and learn how to apply them to typical day-to-day work files.

Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2006-08-10 Ubuntu 44 Comments

"The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS, the first maintenance release of "Dapper Drake". This release includes both installable Desktop CDs and alternate text-mode installation CDs for several architectures, for Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu. Xubuntu is also included, although commercial support for it is not available from Canonical."

PC-BSD: ‘the Most Beginner Friendly OS’

Submitted by matth 2006-08-10 PC-BSD 44 Comments

OSWeekly reviews PC-BSD, and concludes: "From PC-BSD's roadmap to their default installation, I honestly feel good about where these guys are headed with their take on FreeBSD. This operating system has it all: support both from the professional level as well as that of the community, the ability to install Linux software, thanks to the binary compatibility layer, and of course - speed."

Windows Vista and the Future of Hardware

Submitted by mikemuch 2006-08-10 Windows 12 Comments

"Whether you ever plan on upgrading to Windows Vista or not, one thing is clear: Its impact on the world of PC hardware will be huge. We've written about how to build a Windows Vista system. This time we're not talking about building a Vista system today, but rather, about what new types of hardware Windows Vista will spawn. We'll also consider how this new generation of hardware will affect your future buying decisions."

Stallman, Torvalds, Moglen Share Views on DRM, GPLv3

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-09 Open Source 40 Comments

"With the recent release of the second draft of the GNU General Public License version 3, digital rights management is back in the news. The new draft may raise concerns about the rewording of section 3 of the license, which deals with DRM. The Free Software Foundation dislikes the term "digital rights management" and instead choose to call it digital "restrictions" management. But many people don't understand the implications of DRM on free software like Linux."

AMD To Open-Source ATI Drivers?

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-09 AMD 57 Comments

AMD is strongly considering open-sourcing at least a functional subset of ATI’s graphics drivers. It’s time for X Window System, OpenGL, and client virtualization for which ATI binary drivers aren’t available to escape the ghetto of the 1980s-era framebuffer. And what a boon for PR. If AMD’s graphics cards were the only ones with open device drivers, it might affect a buying decision or two.

What Vista Can Learn From Leopard

Thom Holwerda 2006-08-09 Windows 43 Comments

"Apple has touted itself as the innovator in OS software; it has suggested that all the new additions in Windows Vista already exist in the most recent Mac OS X, Tiger. Microsoft might take issue with that, but there's no denying that it has struggled somewhat with Vista, which has had features cut and seen a series of delays. To find out what people on the street make of it, we asked our Vista Views panel, made up of ordinary readers, this question: Which feature in Leopard would you like to see in Vista?"