Thom Holwerda Archive

Interview: Debian’s Branden Robinson

Submitted by Vincenzo Ciaglia 2005-12-04 Debian 25 Comments

Here's an interview with Debian's Branden Robinson. From the interview: "I think Debian's success stems from its dual commitments to userempowerment through free licensing of the works we distribute, and to high quality through careful design and integration decisions. Not everyone is a software freedom fighter, nor is everyone a software perfectionist – but we can accommodate both of those passions pretty well. Debian is an exciting and rewarding place to be if you want to help shape the future of the Free Software landscape."

NetBSD 3.0_RC5 Binaries Available for Testing

Submitted by Jan Schaumann 2005-12-04 NetBSD 21 Comments

On behalf of the NetBSD Release Engineering team, Matthias Scheler announced the availability of NetBSD 3.0 RC5 for testing. NetBSD 3.0 RC5 is available in the "daily builds" section of your local FTP mirror, and users are encouraged to test it out and report any bugs using send-pr(1). A brief summary of changes from NetBSD 3.0_RC1 to 3.0_RC5 is available in Matthias's announcement (a list of changes from NetBSD 2.0 to NetBSD 3.0 can be found here).

Genesi Launches ‘Home Media and Communication System’

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-04 Morphos 35 Comments

Genesi has announced a new product this weekend. "The Genesi Home Media and Communication System is built on the PegasosPPC platform, utilising the Freescale G4 processor for outstanding media performance. Enclosed in a fully aluminium case which will fit in with your existing Hi-Fi amplifier or TV, and featuring a VFD status display under mirrored acrylic glass." Software-wise, the machine will only feature open-source software. Genesi also made the EFIKA 5K2 available.

ReactOS Weekly Newletter

Submitted by TwoTailedFox 2005-12-04 ReactOS 27 Comments

"Welcome to Issue 7 of the ReactOS Weekly Newsletter, as persistant as a Jehovah's Witness. This week, I'll be taking a look at the NDK used by the ReactOS developers, covering WINE 0.9.2, and detailing the latest SVN activity."

A Sneak Peek at Novell Linux Desktop 10?

Submitted by Carondelet 2005-12-03 Novell and Ximian 118 Comments

An observing poster at the Ubuntu forums unearthed what he says are screenshots of the upcoming Novell Linux Desktop 10. "I was snooping around for details about Novell Linux Desktop 10 and stumbled upon an internal Novell Desktop Design wiki. Most of the pages were unavailable without logging in but I found a few pics by going through their 'Recent Changes' page." So, are they for real? My take: Whether these are real shots of NLD 10, or just 'mere' mockups, they in any case show that Novell is willing to differentiate itself from its competitors. Which is a good thing.

MS Office Problems, Solved!

Submitted by DigitalDame 2005-12-03 Office 30 Comments

"Office has enough irritations and 'secret' functions to fill a dozen thick books. For this story, we've selected some of the most notorious problems and the most useful tricks that we've discovered in our years of wrestling - or dancing - with the suite."

Installing SUSE Linux 10.0 on a Laptop

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-03 SuSE, openSUSE 33 Comments

"All in all, SUSE Linux 10.0 OSS is the best Linux system I've used. It's easy to install and has a large selection of both desktop and server software. It has been extremely stable during my use. It is clearly an excellent choice for Linux beginners, with its fine documentation, easy installation, and comprehensive graphical configuration tools, while also offering software selection and powerful tools for the experienced user."

Red Hat’s New CTO Talks Government

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-03 Red Hat 20 Comments

As if his promotion to chief technology officer weren't demanding enough, Red Hat's Brian Stevens must also lead a revolution of sorts. After all, open source is changing government, and Red Hat shoulders a good deal of that direction. Stevens sat down with GovernmentVAR senior editor Jill Aitoro to discuss what's next for open source in government including Red Hat's work on SELinux in partnership with NSA and open standards.

Apache 2.2 Released

Submitted by Witek Wasilewski 2005-12-03 Internet 14 Comments

Apache HTTP server 2.2.0 has been released. This version of Apache is a major release and the start of a new stable branch. New features include Smart Filtering, Improved Caching, AJP Proxy, Proxy Load Balancing, Graceful Shutdown support, Large File Support, the Event MPM, and refactored Authentication/Authorization.

Microsoft Touts Vista’s Restart Manager Feature

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-02 Windows 148 Comments

Microsoft is working on a significant new feature for Windows Vista, known as Restart Manager, which is designed to update parts of the operating system or applications without having to reboot the entire machine. "If a part of an application, or the operating system itself, needs to updated, the Installer will call the Restart Manager, which looks to see if it can clear that part of the system so that it can be updated. If it can do that, it does, and that happens without a reboot." And here & here are some more shots of Vista build 5259.

Spotlight, Wireless, RAW Enhancements Due in Mac OS X 10.4.4

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-02 macOS 26 Comments

Improvements to Spotlight searches, AirPort, Bluetooth, and RAW camera support are a few enhancements Apple reportedly has planned for an early winter release of Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update, a routine maintenance update to the Mac OS X Tiger operating system.

Novell Earnings Report Shows Linux Gains

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-02 Novell and Ximian 42 Comments

Novell's Linux investments are finally showing results as its Linux revenue of $61 million (EUR 52 million) jumped 418 percent from last year's fourth quarter. Novell announced its fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal year financial results, which ended October 31, 2005, on Thursday.

Fedora Directory Server 1.0 Released

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-02 Fedora Core 41 Comments

"We are pleased to announce the release of Fedora Directory Server 1.0! This version fulfills the promise to open all of the directory server source code that we made almost 1 year ago - 12/8/2004 - the date at which Red Hat acquired the code. Here are some Screenshots."

Hewlett-Packard Donates Blade Cluster to FreeBSD

Submitted by Jeremy C. Reed 2005-12-02 FreeBSD 14 Comments

The FreeBSD Foundation received a donation of a blade system from Hewlett-Packard for use as a third-party software build cluster. This 20-node HP BladeSystem cluster triples the speed of the build process for i386 packages.

How to Get People To Work for Free

Submitted by Dave Guard 2005-12-02 Open Source 8 Comments

"As time marches on and our lives become more complicated, it seems we have less and less time to devote to that free software project we started back in our idealistic youth. Rather than abandoning a good project due to lack of time, consider seeking out the assistance of other members of the free software community. With a few simple steps you can make it easy to find volunteers to help you complete your project."

The Scala Programming Language v1.4.0.3 Released

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-02 General Development 43 Comments

Scala is a modern multi-paradigm programming language running on top of a Java VM or .NET runtime. Recently version 1.4.0.3 has been released. Scala smoothly integrates features of object-oriented and functional languages. In Scala, every value is an object and the language supports OOP for instance via subclassing , traits, and mixins. Scala is also a functional language in the sense that every function is a value. The language supports anonymous, higher-order and nested functions as well as currying. There is also integrated support for pattern matching, parametric polymorphism, etc.

Book Review : Linux Debugging and Performance Tuning

Submitted by anonymous 2005-12-02 Linux 5 Comments

"Recently, I got hold of a book named Linux Debugging and Performance Tuning (Tips and Techniques) by Steve Best. The book positions itself as a programmers guide to debugging and ways of increasing the performance of the programs that you write. The book explores the various tools that a programmer can access to iron out the bugs that crop up in the programs that he writes."

Intel Yonah Performance Preview: the Exclusive First Look

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-01 Intel 46 Comments

"Although we didn't consider it as such here today, Yonah will be quite impressive on notebooks. The thought of having such a cool running dual core processor in a notebook is honestly amazing, and the performance difference (especially for multitaskers) over what we have today will be significant. The other thing to keep in mind is that when you go from a single core to a dual core Pentium M notebook, you won't be giving up anything at all. On the desktop side, you normally give up clock speed for dual core support, but Yonah will be running at very similar frequencies to what Dothan is running at today. In other words, you won't be giving up single threaded performance in favor of multi-threaded performance - you'll get the whole package."

Revised Open Source GPL Expected Spring 2007

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-01 Open Source 33 Comments

Plans to update the General Public Licence, which underpins the distribution of most open source software, were released by the Free Software Foundation and the Software Freedom Law Center yesterday. The first discussion draft of the new license – known as GPLv3 – will be released at a public conference, due to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 16th and 17th January.

Select 4 Will Not Be Ready Until New Year

Thom Holwerda 2005-12-01 RISC OS 6 Comments

The next version of RISC OS Select will not be ready until after the new year, RISCOS Ltd.'s Paul Middleton has said. Speaking to the Bristol usergroup last night, the ROL boss handed out copies of a leaflet distributed at the Guildford show which includes a list of features for Select 4. It is understood that development is on-going, and developers who have previously contributed components to the RISC OS 4 subscription scheme have been contacted to work again on the project.