Thom Holwerda Archive

"Chances are that you think Linspire lets you run Windows applications, that you have to run it as root, and that it's really not quite a proper Linux. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. At LinuxWorld in Boston this week, CEO Kevin Carmony explained what Linspire Linux is, and isn't, all about."

"NeoOffice is important not only because it brings a decent OOo port to the Mac platform, but also because it is arguably the only complete, non-Microsoft office suite for Mac OSX. Apple has all but abandoned AppleWorks which has mostly been replaced with iWork, except that iWork has no spreadsheet component and the word processing component is more of a page layout tool than a word processor. That's right, the platform that encourages users to 'Think Different' is pretty much down to a single office suite." Read the entire review.

"If it's the number of cores that gets computers excited these days, then IBM may have its hands on the ultimate processor. Together with Rapport, a Silicon Valley startup, the company previewed the Kilocore1025, a processor with a total of 1025 cores that promises not only to boost processing speed but also to operate at low power levels."

"This project is an attempt to bring a Linux/Unix like development environment to the MacOS X platform. We believe that the Macintosh operating system has alot of potential and would like to help it reach it's potential. These libraries are not only compiled for MacOS X but are provided in a convienent form as a MacOS X Distribution Installer Package. This unfortunately means that the package is only compatible with MacOS X 10.4 Tiger. The Installer Package contains the following (and more): Sandalous Software's (partial) XML toolkit; Subversion 1.3.0; GTK+ 2.8; Glade-2; GNOME 2.12; Mono 1.1.14; and MonoDevelop 0.10."

Microsoft's Windows Vista will run on just about any PC available today, but it will only show its true colors on about half of them, according to a new report from Gartner. While Microsoft is currently suggesting a minimum of 512MB, the new OS will require at least 1GB of dual-channel memory to provide its full capabilities, Gartner said in the report. However, all recent discrete solutions from major graphics makers such as ATI and Nvidia, for both desktops and notebooks, are expected to be able to support Aero, Gartner said in the report. My take: After toying with Vista myself, it becomes quite clear what you need to run Aero glass: 512 MB of fast RAM, and a DirectX9 compatible videocard with 128MB RAM. I also found that even non-DirectX9 videocards can run Aero Glass comfortably.

"We finally benchmarked the Apple PC in Windows successfully, thanks to the latest video driver release. It seems to struggle a bit in games with the level of detail increased, but it's certainly not terrible, it's about as good as a mid range notebook system." Read on for detailed results. Cnet has special coverage of Boot Camp. And on a related note... This is just freaky.

A RealNetworks executive has claimed that Linux risks being excluded from the consumer market if it does not add support for copy-restriction technologies. But the Free Software Foundation Europe countered this claim on Thursday, saying that consumers have made it clear that they do not want DRM restricting their use of digital media.

"This presents a high-level overview of the different pieces of the GNOME Platform: libraries to write user interfaces, to integrate with the desktop, to do inter-process communication, the virtual file system, accessibility, multimedia. You should read this to know what tools you can use to perform different things in your GNOME applications."

Heise, an influential German tech website, stirred the BeOS community up today by reporting that YellowTAB filed for bankruptcy -- however, this bankruptcy was not filed from within YellowTAB, but by a 3rd party, possibly to damage YellowTAB. This news quickly spread accross BeOS related websites, but none of them could confirm the story. I emailed Bernd Korz, YellowTAB's CEO, and he confirmed that indeed someone from outside the company filed for bankruptcy, but that YellowTAB is in fact not bankrupt. Bernd could not disclose full details yet, as the company was still discussing this with its lawyers. Bernd did confirm that within a few days, the company will release an official statement concerning the issue.

Michael Spindler was supposed to be the savior of Apple. After four years at Apple, he was an executive vice president and had built Apple Europe to the point where it was providing 25% of Apple's revenues. Unfortunately, Spindler could not deal with stress and could not exercise control of his organization. Read on for the whole story.

"Here are 10 steps to set up a CD-less install server if you are using the Solaris 10 03/05 OS for x86 platforms or a version of Solaris for x86 platforms with GRUB. Booting off the Pre-boot Execution Environment is a lot easier and painless now, as this example shows. This process does not include profiles so you will have to sit through the install process and answer questions. It is just a quick and easy way to get the Solaris OS for x86 platforms installed on a remote machine without burning CDs."

"Over a year ago at the Fall 2005 Intel Developer Forum, Intel formally announced that they would be dropping the Pentium 4's Netburst microarchitecture in favor of a brand new, more power-efficient microarchitecture that would carry the company's entire x86 product line, from laptops up through Xeon servers, into the next decade. This past IDF saw the unveiling of some significant details about this new microarchitecture, 'Merom' or 'Core'. Intel presented many of these details in a presentation on Core, and others were obtained by David Kanter of Real World Technologies. The present article draws on both of those sources, as well as my own correspondence with Intel, to paint what is (hopefully) an accessible picture of the new microarchitecture that will soon be powering everything from Windows Vista servers to Apple laptops."

Like I predicted a few days ago, Microsoft is thinking about officially supporting Windows on Apple's Intel Macs. According to The Wall Street, Microsoft said it is still studying whether it will offer technical support for Windows on Macs. "There are several open questions to address before we have a final answer," says Kevin Kutz, director of Microsoft's Windows client group told the publication. The report also notes that Apple's Boot Camp requires a new copy of Windows XP, which it notes is available for suggested retail prices of $199 and $299. "It won't work to use less-costly upgrade versions or software installation disks for PCs that users already have." Update: Microsoft Watch's Mary Jo Foley wonders who want's Windows on a Mac, and why.

Parallels beats big shots Microsoft and VMWare in being the first to offer a virtualization solution for Intel Macs. "Parallels announced today that it is beginning beta testing for Parallels Workstation 2.1 for Mac OS X, the first virtualization software that gives Apple users the ability to simultaneously run Windows, Linux or any other operating system and their applications alongside Mac OS X on an Intel-powered Apple computer." Some users complained about Apple's Boot Camp, which is merely an elegant form of dual-booting, and actually wanted virtualization.