Monthly Archive:: April 2003

Getting to Know FreeBSD 5.0

I have read many OS/distribution reviews in the last couple of years, but it always seems like it is distros like Red Hat, SuSe and Mandrake (and the fairly new distro, Lindows) that get all the attention. The light has sometimes moved towards other less "user friendly" distros as Slackware, Debian and so forth, but the main concern of the authors has always been the distros meant to be used by Joe User.

.NET Framework SDK v1.1 and Visual J# .NET v1.1 Released

The Microsoft .NET Framework SDK version 1.1 includes everything developers need to write, build, test, and deploy .NET Framework applications—documentation, samples, and command-line tools and compilers. You must install the .NET Framework Redistributable Package version 1.1 prior to installing the .NET Framework SDK. The Microsoft Visual J# .NET version 1.1 Redistributable Package includes everything you need to run your Visual J# .NET applications on a computer that already has the Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 installed.

ExtremeTech Review: Red Hat 9 Marks Strategic Shift

"Red Hat has become one of the most widely deployed Linux distributions in the Enterprise space, and has long been a favorite of Linux devotees. Red Hat 8 introduced a new Gnome-based GUI that gave the OS a unique look and feel, and the company has continued to add more proprietary configuration tools designed to make system tweaking a graphical, rather than a command-line process." Read the article at ExtremeTech.

Interview with Fink’s Project Leader Max Horn

Today, we host a mini-interview with Fink's project leader, Max Horn. The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X. They modify Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac OS X and make it available for download as a coherent distribution. Fink uses Debian tools like dpkg and apt-get to provide powerful binary package management and you can choose whether you want to download precompiled binary packages or build everything from source.

Rational Releases Development Powerpack

The new The Rational Developer Powerpack has been released, it includes XDE - Java Platform, XDE - .NET Platform, Rational Rose Enterprise Edition, Rational Rose RealTime, PurifyPlus, software evaluation guide, technical articles and whitepapers, valuable code snippets and reference applications, a handy quick-reference posters and much more. Also take a look at this interview with Rational Chief Scientist Grady Booch, who offers insights on the future of software development.

The Quest for the Perfect Linux System…

This (quite long) article has been written by me for two primary reasons: One, to hopefully save someone else the time and hassle associated with trying out various Linux distributions, and two, to promote some discussion and feedback regarding what a modern Linux distribution should be, and of course to contrast this with what is currently available. I am exploring the offerings of MS Windows, BeOS and MacOSX, and then taking on a number of well-known Linux distributions.

Sun, Apple Ignite New Desktop Skirmish …

"... with Microsoft Corp. While it's doubtful that either company will be able to unseat Windows' monopoly status in the PC market, you've got to admire their pluck. Sun Microsystems Inc.'s attack on Microsoft's desktop fortress is called Project Mad Hatter and uses Linux combined with StarOffice and other open-source goodies. Although most of the attention has been given to Sun's embrace of Linux and open source, the real story is about hardware." Read the article at ComputerWorld.

In the Linux Loop

"Using open-source software like Linux is a no-brainer for many companies. It's stable and can be fixed easily if bugs appear, and you can't beat the price. But some companies and government organizations are taking their commitment to open source a step further by actively participating in the open-source community." Read the article at ComputerWorld.

Enterprise and Server Software to Become Commodity

"We often forget that that idea of software as a boxed, mass-market, proprietary product is only about 30 years old. During these three decades, the software industry has made a number of individuals wealthy. But this era may be over. The future of software may not have room for new billionaires, even though there is a growing demand for new software, and opportunities for people who write that software will continue to grow along with that demand." Read the article at NewsForge.