Thom Holwerda Archive

"A prerelease of X-Windows version X11R6.3 for OS4 is now available on OS4-depot. It is a complete unix-like environment, which is meant as a base for ports from the linux-world." It includes X11R6.3 and various other components.

The developers of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution plan to make a new landmark version of the software widely available this week. Ubuntu's public schedule for releasing the software lists 1 June as the date for the new version, code-named 'Dapper Drake', to be made public. The milestone release will be officially supported by the project for a longer period than previous versions, and will be billed as suitable for enterprise use.

"I had a course on distributed system in my Engineering curriculum, and I was really fascinated with the way people use this technology for work. As my interest grew in this field, I started to read a lot on this. As a result, while browsing a few pages, I found a link to Google File System. Honestly, it didn’t make any sense to me. Where would Google deploy this proprietary file system? Or is Google planning to have an operating system? I decided to have a look at it nonetheless and here’s a quick overview of my findings."

Micheal Phipps addresses the Haiku Bounties website: I have received some questions about the 'Haiku Bounties' website and I wanted to answer them here. It is run by a gentleman who has been a good friend to Haiku for a long time now. I have every confidence that he is trying to do the right thing for the Haiku community and that he will be upfront and honest with the money and that you can trust his word." Haiku has also hired its 2nd employee.

The 2006 OpenBSD Hackathon, c2k6, is well underway in a conference room at a hotel in downtown Calgary, Canada. The event started yesterday, May 27th, attended by nearly 50 OpenBSD developers from all over the globe. OpenBSD creator Theo de Raadt is thrilled by what is already proving to be another successful event. "I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development."

SoftwareInReview takes a look at SUSE 10.1, and summarizes: "While SUSE Linux 10.1 has lost some ground on its wonderful predecessor, I can see where it is headed in the future - and I like what I'm envisioning. A mildly buggy release like 10.1 was necessary in the big picture, unless of course Novell had opted to wait until issues with Atheros drivers, the ZENworks updater, and XGL were resolved. That would have resulted in a 'skipped' release, I think. Despite the trouble I had with 10.1, none of the problems were showstoppers, nor would they keep me from continuing to use and recommend SUSE Linux."

"In a decision that could set the tone for journalism in the digital age, a California appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers, like traditional reporters, have the right to keep their sources confidential. A panel of three judges said in a 69-page decision that a group of bloggers did not have to divulge their sources to Apple, contending that the same laws that protect traditional journalists, the First Amendment, and California's Shield Law, also apply to bloggers." My take: You already know how I feel about this, but I still need to say it, and I do not care if I get flamed for saying it: this is a clear-cut victory for the freedom of speech and press in the US (I live in The Netherlands, though), and you should all be happy Apple did not win this case. Update: Ars has an analysis and history of the case.

"Windows Vista Beta 2 includes a new defense against buffer overrun exploits called address space layout randomization. Not only is it in Beta 2, it's on by default too. Now before I continue, I want to level set ASLR. It is not a panacea, it is not a replacement for insecure code, but when used in conjunction with other technologies, which I will explain shortly, it is a useful defense because it makes Windows systems look 'different' to malware, making automated attacks harder." On a related note, Microsoft is having difficulties in reaching parity between the 64bit and 32bit version of Vista concerning the amount of drivers shipped.

This guide explains how to expand Damn Small Linux to fit your needs. "For those unfamiliar with the Distro, DSL is a severely stripped down version of Debian/Knoppix. The distribution aims to include as many useful applications as possible while remaining under 50MB. It uses a 2.4 series kernel, busybox, a tiny little Xserver, Fluxbox as the default WM, and a host of other microscopic office, media and Internet applications. It is designed to be easily expandable by via a system called 'MyDSL'."

Sun dtrace developer Bryan Cantrill reports on the progress being made by John Birrel on porting dtrace to FreeBSD. "While John has quite a bit further to go before one could call it a complete port, what he has now is indisputably useful. If you run FreeBSD in production, you're going to want John's port as it stands today - and if you develop for the FreeBSD kernel (drivers or otherwise), you're going to need it (once you've done kernel development with DTrace, there's no going back)."

The server market was slapped and dropped on its head during the first quarter of 2006. We haven't seen anything quite like it since 2000. What's the big shocker? Well, Sun Microsystems actually enjoyed one of the stronger runs during the first quarter by most metrics, while Dell proved one of the worst performers. Beyond the server vendor rumbles, AMD continued to gain gobs of share on Intel in the x86 processor market.

Whichever BSD you use, the basics of package management are similar. Each member of the BSD family has a slightly different approach in this area, but all share common themes, as David Chisnall discusses in this article.

"At PC World, we spend most of our time talking about products that make your life easier or your work more productive. But it's the lousy ones that linger in our memory long after their shrinkwrap has shriveled, and that make tech editors cry out, 'What have I done to deserve this?' Still, even the worst products deserve recognition (or deprecation). So as we put together our list of World Class winners for 2006, we decided also to spotlight the 25 worst tech products that have been released since PC World began publishing nearly a quarter-century ago."

"The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the Release Candidate for version 6.06 LTS of Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu - codenamed 'Dapper Drake'. The Release Candidate includes installable live Desktop CDs, server images, alternate text-mode installation CDs and an upgrade wizard for users of the current stable release."