Monthly Archive:: June 2004

Microsoft and Apple Computer are searching for the same thing with their next operating systems: a better way to find stuff on an increasingly cluttered hard drive. The article fails to mention the similar Beagle & Storage projects for GNOME (albeit not as integrated to the filesystem) and the original effort (that Apple's Spotlight is inspired from as it is developed by the same engineers), Be's BFS & Tracker.

In this article, Dino Esposito demonstrates how to create a Windows shell extension using C# code and the .NET Framework. He discusses the COM Interop layer and using a practical example, shows you techniques and tricks you need to know to build managed shell extensions. On the same site: Java and .NET are both great platforms on their own, but together, they are a practical necessity in today's enterprise. This article looks at various interoperability issues between the Java & .NET platforms.

Novell and the Mono project developer community announced the release of Mono version 1.0, an open source implementation of the .NET framework for use on Linux, Unix, Mac OS X and Windows system. See their Release Notes, or go directly to the download page. MonoDevelop 0.5 was also released. Elsewhere, Edd Dumbill is talking about the metadata on the desktop using the Mono-based Beagle system (similar to Seth Nickell's Storage, Apple's Spotlight and originally, Be's BFS & Tracker).

Sun Microsystems today introduced Java 2 Platform Standard Edition (J2SE) 5.0, the most significant upgrade to the Java platform and programming language since its initial release nearly one decade ago.

Apple has released a preview version of its Rendezvous technology for Windows 2000 and XP. Rendezvous (also known as zero-configuration networking), enables automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. Regarding our yesterday's "An Engineer's Thoughts on Mac OS X Tiger" article, the author rewrote the article and the new version can now be found here.

Virtual memory is one of the most important subsystems of any modern operating system. Virtual memory is deeply intertwined with user processes, protection between processes and protection of the kernel from user processes, efficient shared memory, communication with IO (DMA, etc.), paging, swapping, and countless other systems. Understanding the VM subsystem greatly helps understanding how all other parts of the kernel work and interact. Because of this "Understanding the Linux Virtual Memory Manager" is a great guide in better understanding and working with the entire kernel.

At GUADEC, Owen Taylor and the other GTK+ developes got to discuss the future of the toolkit.

Here is an 8-part editorial on Java's problems and suggested fixes.

Some call for Apple to choose between PC and consumer electronics markets for its future. Could the company's record of making quality hardware and software be held against it? Sean Gallagher says.

Developers and solution providers might get more than they expect when Sun Microsystems details its plans to open-source Solaris later this year. Sources familiar with the company's plans told CRN at JavaOne 2004 that Sun is not going to simply open up bits and pieces of the millions of lines of code in Solaris, Sun's popular Unix-based operating system. The vendor plans to open up nearly all of the OS's source code, including, "all the rocket science," one Sun employee who requested anonymity said.

In an exclusive conversation with eWEEK's Steve Gillmor, Sun president and chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz discusses Sun's nuanced position on open source and the Java community. Update: Elsewhere, Scott McNealy, the Sun chief executive who has become something of a punching bag as his company fights back to profitability, threw some punches of his own on Tuesday.

WindowsForDevices.com reports on the keynote talk at Microsoft's Windows Embedded DevCon (developer conference) taking place this week in San Diego. The story includes some interesting comments and highlights from the talk.

A Task Force Team of KDE and Knoppix hackers and enthusiasts created "just in time" for LinuxTag 2004 two programs which harvested an overwhelming response from visitors: FreeNX Server and kNX Client. Although not yet officially released, several presentations showed a well working preview of the KDE version for the speed boosting NX Terminal Server technology. The software will be available soon at Kalyxo.org. Read more here.

A Trojan horse program installed through malicious pop-up windows can capture normally encrypted financial information from victims' computers, security researchers warned on Tuesday.