Thom Holwerda Archive

Microsoft Seeks to ‘WAIK’ Corporate Users with Vista

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-12 Windows 1 Comment

Microsoft recently posted to its Web site for download a user's guide for WAIK. Microsoft describes WAIK as "a new set of tools designed to help Original Equipment Manufacturers, system builders, and corporate IT professionals deploy Windows Vista onto new hardware." Read more.

Review: Echo2 Framework

Submitted by Eraser 2005-08-12 General Development 9 Comments

Echo2 is an open source Java web development framework that aims to simplify the development of web applications using the AJAX model. I read the online tutorial, downloaded the library and wrote a simple test application to see if Echo2 lives up to its promise.

Windows Vista Beta 1: a Guided Tour

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-11 Windows 72 Comments

"It's unusual for a Beta 1 version of Windows to have both the final shipping name of the product and as many new features as this build shows. And that's a strong sign of two things. Firstly: Windows Vista remains an ambitious release of Windows, despite some of the features that Microsoft has pushed off the side of the boat. Secondly: Microsoft is trying to get serious, both internally and externally, about this development program. Windows Vista is now the company's top priority." Read on, ten pages, here.

FreeBSD: an Open Source Alternative to Linux

Submitted by SQwerl 2005-08-11 FreeBSD 170 Comments

"The objective of this whitepaper is to explain some of the features and benefits provided by FreeBSD, and where applicable, compare those features to Linux. This paper provides a starting point for those interested in exploring open source alternatives to Linux."

Debian Vendors Launch Common Core Alliance

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-11 Debian 40 Comments

One of the worst kept secrets in the Linux industry was revealed at LinuxWorld this week with the announcement that a group of Debian-based Linux vendors have formed an alliance to promote the enterprise use of the Debian GNU/Linux package.

Thinking About Apple’s Rosetta in Light of Transmeta

Submitted by kenny 2005-08-11 Apple 32 Comments

One of the big unknowns of the Apple Switch that not many people are talking about right now is Rosetta, the translation software that Intel-based Macs will use to run legacy PPC binaries. Prior to the release of the first Intel-based Mac it's difficult to assess just what kind of performance Rosetta will yield on the majority of legacy OS X software. Will most legacy PPC apps be usable? Mostly usable? Barely usable?

NetBSD Ported to Toaster

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-11 NetBSD 33 Comments

NetBSD has been ported to toaster. At the LinuxWorld Expo in San Fransisco, the NetBSD Project showed off a toaster running NetBSD.

LinuxWorld Visitors Look for Real-World Applications

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-11 Linux 5 Comments

The LinuxWorld Conference & Expo here this week has drawn fewer people who came to learn what Linux is all about and more who are ready to buy Linux products that can deliver cost saving, performance and reliability. That was the view expressed by several LinuxWorld attendees who took time out to talk about what they saw and liked at the show.

VMware Embraces Sun and Even Solaris x86

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-11 Solaris 8 Comments

Sun Microsystems this week matured a bit as an x86 server vendor by kicking off a broad partnership with VMware that will see the companies team on engineering and sales efforts. Of most immediate help to customers is the support of VMware's highest-end partitioning product - ESX Server - with Sun's line of Opteron-based hardware.

The Pixel Pickle: Alternatives to the Pixelated UI

Submitted by anonymous 2005-08-11 General Development 23 Comments

Do you think the pixel is the only unit of measurement for building graphical displays? Come on, you can measure better than that! This article offers tips for user-friendly HTML layout and interface design, and explains why pixels aren't always the best unit for the job.

Review: YellowTAB Zeta 1.0

Submitted by kenny 2005-08-11 Zeta 44 Comments

"Fans of BeOS still mourn its untimely demise all these years after the release of R5 and subsequent sale of its assets to Palm. Now ZETA, a successor to BeOS, has been released. Naturally, we had to review it."

GNOME 2.12 Beta 2 Development Release

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-10 Gnome 71 Comments

GNOME 2.12 Beta 2 has been released. Download: platform, desktop and bindings.

KDE 3.5 Alpha Released to FTP

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-10 KDE 80 Comments

KDE 3.5 Alpha source tarballs are up on the FTP servers. This release is "really alpha quality", so no big announcement is planned. To get this release, you can either use Konstruct, or download the Klax KDE 3.5 Alpha Live-CD. Update: Here's a screenshot gallery of this release.

PalmSource Acts on Linux Ambitions

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-10 Wireless 16 Comments

The company behind the Palm operating system, PalmSource, has just signed a technology partnership agreement with Montavista Software. Montavista, which specialises in GNU/Linux systems for wireless devices, is best known for its Mobilinux products for mobile phones.

Microsoft’s HoneyMonkeys Prove Patching Windows Works

Submitted by Not_Today 2005-08-10 Privacy, Security 33 Comments

Microsoft unveiled details of its Strider HoneyMonkey research, a project that sniffs out sites hosting malicious code, and hands the information to other parts of the company for patching or legal action. The technical report (pdf) outlines the concept of cruising the Web with multiple automated Windows XP clients - some unpatched, some partially patched, some patched completely - to hunt for Web sites that exploit browser vulnerabilities.

Opera Mini for All Java Cellphones Released

Submitted by kmarius 2005-08-10 Opera 20 Comments

Opera released a mini/lite version of their 8.0.1 browser for all Java-enabled phones. On a similar note, the current leader of mobile phone browsers with 52% of market share, Openwave Systems, shipped one billion handsets with their browser in it.

New C/C++ Source Code Search Website

Submitted by Sembiance 2005-08-10 General Development 29 Comments

"After over a year of work, my C/C++ Source Code Search website is finally live! It allows you to search over 107 million lines of open source C/C++ code and it actually understands the C/C++ syntax thus giving better results. I'm currently adding 2 to 3 million lines of new code per day."

Scyld Software and Cluster Resources Form Alliance

Submitted by Ken Farmer 2005-08-10 Linux No Comments

Scyld Software today announced an agreement with Cluster Resources, an innovator in advanced workload and resource management software. The two companies have joined forces to extend the virtualization and system management capabilities of Scyld Beowulf Linux clustering software to include a powerful workload management toolset.

GPL3 First Public Draft Due Early 2006

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-10 Open Source 50 Comments

The first draft of the next version of the General Public License should be released for public comments in early 2006, according to a key player in the effort to modernize the foundation of the free and open-source programming movements.

Windows Vista Beta 1: Administrator’s Preview

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-10 Windows 51 Comments

"Windows Vista is actually quite interesting for an administrator. When I first saw it on MSDN, I thought, "Over 2 Gig's. What could they have done for it to be that large without the drastic new UI?" Well, I have been looking at this thing for about a week now and I uncover more and more each time that I look into it. I am going to cover some of the enhancements that Vista will provide for administrators as well as a few neat little tidbits that I have not seen much of."