Monthly Archive:: January 2005

Rolling with Ruby on Rails by Curt Hibbs

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-21 General Development 22 Comments

The Ruby community is abuzz about Rails, a web application framework that makes database-backed apps dead simple. What's the fuss? Is it worth the hype? Curt Hibbs shows off Rails, building a simple application that even non-Rubyists can follow.

Wireless USB in Linux

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-21 Linux 17 Comments

"I needed to connect my new desktop PC wirelessly from my second floor office to my first floor network. As I started researching the options for wireless USB adapters, I realized I might have some work ahead of me. Wireless USB in Linux is still in the early stages of development. But a little searching and some trial and error led to a successful connection." Read more here.

Development Release: Ubuntu Linux 5.04 Array 3

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-21 Ubuntu 44 Comments

A new development ISO image of the upcoming Ubuntu Linux 5.04 ("Hoary") has been released.

Use reentrant functions for safer signal handling

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-21 General Development 5 Comments

In the early days of programming, non-reentrancy was not a threat to programmers; functions did not have concurrent access and there were no interrupts. In many older implementations of the C language, functions were expected to work in an environment of single-threaded processes. Now, however, concurrent programming is common practice, and you need to be aware of the pitfalls.

NetBeans IDE 4.1 Early Access 2 Released

Submitted by Robert Demmer 2005-01-21 Java 14 Comments

The NetBeansTM open source project is proud to announce Early Access release 2 of the NetBeans IDE 4.1.

Swing threading and performance

Submitted by ahmet a akin 2005-01-21 Java 16 Comments

There is a nice Flash tutorial for java swing-threading subject. Explaining why some swing applications are not responsive, and ways of resolving those problems.

Configuring and Running X11 Applications on Mac OS X

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-21 Wayland 30 Comments

X11 (the X Window System) is a widely-used graphical user interface on UNIX. Read this article to learn how to set up and use X11 applications on your Mac OS X system.

Cell Architecture Explained

Submitted by Nicholas Blachford 2005-01-20 Hardware 110 Comments

Designed for the PlayStation 3, Sony, Toshiba and IBM's new "Cell processor" promises seemingly obscene computing capabilities for what will rapidly become a very low price. In this 5-part article you can look at what the Cell architecture is, look at the profound implications this new chip has, not for the games market, but for the entire computer industry. Has the PC finally met it's match?

Using Windows Applications with Linux

Submitted by Sam Hiser 2005-01-20 Linux 49 Comments

Linux Journal is running a telling chapter excerpt from the book, "Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop," (O'Reilly) by Tom Adelstein & Sam Hiser. The excerpt is Chapter 9: "Using Windows Applications with Sun's Java Destkop System". Many people remain blissfully unaware that you can run a growing list of Windows applications on Linux. This development may disturb a certain tidy model of reality but it represents the overthrow of a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of Linux, that of "Application Availability." Full Excerpt | Linux Journal

A Take on the Workstation Market Today

Guest post by Anton Klotz 2005-01-20 Hardware 26 Comments

Maybe you all know the old joke about the definition of a workstation: A trainstation is where a train stops, a bus station is where a bus stops, so a workstation ... In this article I will try to define the workstation market, the current models, what they are used for and some thoughts about their future.

Linux: 2.4.29 Released

Submitted by J@F 2005-01-20 Linux 20 Comments

Marcelo Tosatti released the official 2.4.29 kernel, unchanged from 2.4.29-rc4. Among many other enhancements and bug fixes, this release includes a number of local and remote security fixes, and thus is a recommended upgrade for users of the 2.4 kernel.

OSS v3.99.2a announced; ALSA Compatibility

Submitted by Dev Mazumdar 2005-01-20 Multimedia, AV 22 Comments

OSS 3.99.2a has been announced - it's shipping a new ALSA compatibility library that allows you to run most popular ALSA apps (most apps have OSS API support as well). OSS is now free for home/personal use - you just need to reinstall the new software every 4 months but all features and drivers like Virtual Mixer PRO and IMUX and PRO audio devices are available for free. Announcements regarding the company's latest OSS/3D for iTunes are imminent too.

Yoper: A next-generation OS?

Submitted by Editor 2005-01-20 Linux 56 Comments

Yoper Operating System (YOS), or Yoper GNU/Linux if you prefer, was an eye-opener even for someone who has used over fifty GNU/Linux distributions. Everything just seemed to work, and it was as simple as that. Could this be the answer to the Microsoft problem? Read More @ Linuxtimes.net.

Eclipsing Nokia devices

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-20 Java 5 Comments

This tutorial demonstrates how to develop Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) applications for Nokia handsets using the Eclipse IDE and the Nokia Developer's Suite for J2ME.

BigTux project shows Linux scaling to 64 processors

Submitted by Vikram 2005-01-20 Linux 8 Comments

HP has demonstrated Linux running on 64 Itanium 2 processors without any loss of efficiency, and says it's seeing growing interest in open source from financial institutions. More.

License to Sit

David Adams 2005-01-20 Humor 37 Comments

Have we become too accustomed to the bizarre realities of intellectual property licensing? What if physical property were subject to similar terms and conditions? A conceptual art piece explores these themes in the form of a chair that grants the user a license to sit, and then deploys spikes when the license has expired.

Judge Orders IBM to Reveal Unix Code

David Adams 2005-01-20 Legal 16 Comments

A judge overseeing the legal fight between the SCO Group and IBM over Linux and Unix on Tuesday ordered Big Blue to show all versions of its two Unix products, AIX and Dynix

OOP Is Much Better in Theory Than in Practice

Submitted by Lumbergh 2005-01-20 General Development 84 Comments

Has the Object-Oriented Programming been hyped too much, or do we suffer from the OO paradigms exposed in languages such as C++, Java, C#? How about languages that support features such as prototyping and/or multi-dispatch?

New Addition to OSNews: OS Galaxy

David Adams 2005-01-19 OS News 51 Comments

True to the internet fashion these days, we believe it's time for an operating system "planet" site. We are happy to announce OS Galaxy, a site fed by blog posts of popular OS-related industry figures, mostly developers. At this time we have subscribed only 10 bloggers, but we welcome developers to let us know if they wish to join in if they fit in one of our categories. OSNews members will automatically see OS Galaxy with the same ad-free, fast-loading format that they enjoy for OSNews.

Mandrake Targeting US Linux Market

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-19 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 12 Comments

The United States market for Linux support got more crowded Tuesday after French Linux vendor Mandrakesoft announced a partner program and a new line of Linux servers for the SMB (small to medium business) market in the U.S.