Thom Holwerda Archive

Mandriva has long had its Linux fans, but it's recently been turning its efforts toward the business and desktop markets and, if CEO François Bancilhon has anything to do with it, Mandriva will become as big a Linux name as Red Hat and Novell in the enterprise.

"BeleniX is a free live CD based on the OpenSolaris kernel. With it you can have Solaris, which once ran exclusively on SPARC, powering your modest desktop computer. But with few applications and lacking an installation script, the Live CD does little more than slake a nerd's thirst for a taste of Solaris."

"Every year the Inquirer announces nominations for awards but with a little difference. Often the nominations are there because products or strategies have made just that, little difference. This time round we've invited nominations from our team of worldwide hacks and those who could be bothered have come up with a list of contenders for the Gongs of Little Difference."

"FreeBSD is an enterprise-grade operating system that leaves little to be desired. Most people have tried Linux by now, but a surprisingly large number of people have not yet taken FreeBSD for a spin. Now may well be the optimal time to take the plunge, as FreeBSD 6.0 provides the same rock-solid stability for which FreeBSD is known, and also implements some outstanding new features."

"With the recent introduction of dual-core processors come more questions about system performance. Does a dual-core computer really perform better than a single-core CPU? How does it compare to a true multi-CPU system? What about Hyper-Threading Technology -- is it a thing of the past? Read on for an explanation of dual-core processors and symmetric multiprocessing and what it means to your computing experience."

The company expressed concern that to the extent its minority market share has caused software developers to question Apple's prospects in the PC space, developers could be less inclined to develop software for Apple products, and instead feel more inclined to devote their resources to developing software for the larger Windows market or growing Linux market. Here is the 10-K form in question.

Raquel Velasco and Bill Buck have announced that there will be a new developer program similar to the one with the Open Desktop Workstation for the Open Server Workstation (dual 970MP) and the EFIKA 5k2 board. If you are interested to apply please send an email directly to Genesi.

NEC has developed an ultra-thin, flexible, rechargeable battery capable of re-charging in just 30 seconds, the company said on Thursday. The new battery has been dubbed ORB, for Organic Redical Battery, by NEC, because it uses an organic radical polymer as its cathode.

"These machines are the ultimate in small form factor, trading power and performance for size, portability and convenience. The navigation of this tradeoff is of paramount concern: give up too much power, and the device is useless; too little, and it'll be inconveniently large. I've taken a look at how two products, The BlackDog Pocket Linux Server and the Waysmall 200BT, navigate these waters."

"We recently got in touch with a few Intel partners and learned that the much anticipated processor from Intel, codenamed Yonah, is expected to debut early next year on January 6th. Intel's Yonah is a dual-core chip based on the 65nm fabrication process. Yonah will also mark the first launch with Intel's new strategy in place - performance per watt."

International technology standards organization Ecma voted Thursday to approve the creation of a technical committee to begin looking into standardization of Microsoft Office's Open XML document format. The effort has been backed by Apple, Intel and Toshiba. The vote to create the committee would have been unanimous, however OpenDocument supporter IBM voted against the proposal while HP abstained. Critics outside of Ecma questioned the organization's move to standardize what they consider to be a proprietary format. Micorsoft submitted its new Office format to Ecma a few weeks ago.

The race is on to produce four-core processors for PCs. Intel, which is readying a bevy of dual-core chips for release in systems in the next month, is already plotting a move to quad cores, which some reports have said could come as soon as early 2007. AMD has already discussed a plan to begin offering a family of four-core chips in 2007, whereas Intel has only hinted about a four- core server chip thus far.

Hard drive vendor LaCie has teamed up with Mandriva on a bus-powered USB 2.0 hard drive preloaded with desktop Linux. The "GlobeTrotter" boots Mandriva Linux LE 2005, and is available in 40GB and 80GB models priced at $140 and $199 , respectively. The GlobeTrotter drives feature an industrial design by F.A. Porsche. The devices have rubber feet, a passively cooled case design, and a low-power drive that, unlike most USB drives, requires no separate power adapter, instead pulling power through the host PC's USB port.

'Dude, I can, like, totally do that way cheaper with Linux and stuff.' These were the words of a bearded geek running Linux on his digital watch. As he proceeded to cut and patch alpha code into the Linux kernel running on the production database system, the manager watched on in admiration. Six months later, long after the young hacker decided to move into a commune in the Santa Cruz hills, something broke. Was it really 'way' cheaper?"