Monthly Archive:: January 2005

A Highly Available Windows Server Architecture

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-18 Windows 5 Comments

This chapter teaches you how to set up a Windows-based network around a single support server used for updates, patches, tools, installation bits, and DHCP services.

Changing Software and Legacy Code

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-18 General Development 4 Comments

The old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," doesn't necessarily apply in the case of technology. Projects continually require alterations, updates, and enhancements. This chapter outlines the nature of code change, and suggests some of the challenges to be faced when making these changes.

LWN: Mandrakelinux 10.1 on AMD64

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-17 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 23 Comments

"Is Mandrakelinux 10.1 (X86-64) worth €119? As we did not test the commercial edition of the product, we cannot really answer the question, but the FTP edition has given us enough warning signs to put any recommendations on hold." Read the review at LWN.

A New Desktop for QNX?

Submitted by Garry 2005-01-17 QNX 29 Comments

There is an article over at OpenQNX about a possible new desktop for QNX Neutrino. Elsewhere, check the VxWorks-to-QNX porting guide news.

FreeBSD 4.11-RC3 realeased

Submitted by J@F 2005-01-17 FreeBSD 10 Comments

The third release candidate of FreeBSD 4.11 is now available.

Portable.NET 0.6.12 released

Submitted by Maciek Plewa 2005-01-17 .NET 14 Comments

A new release of DotGNU Portable.NET is out - the new .6.12 version includes a large number of fixes for WinForms and XML, and some preliminary performance increases for PowerPC platforms. Download the source or ready to run packages from GetDotGNU.com or read detailed release notes.

LynuxWorks intros User-Mode Linux for PowerPC G5

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-17 Linux 4 Comments

LynuxWorks today introduced a PowerPC version of User-Mode Linux (UML) based on the latest Linux 2.6 kernel and available for PowerPC G5. LynuxWorks' UML software will run on a LynuxWorks' BlueCat Linux host, providing a stable Linux 2.6 virtual machine environment for a PowerPC platform.

Review: ELX Power Server 1.0

Guest post by Michael C. Barnes 2005-01-17 Linux 17 Comments

ELX(Everyone's Linux), is a Linux focused company based in India. ELX's first product, ELX Power Desktop, received very good reviews during its early stages but for the past several months, the product has been very quiet.

Designing .NET Class Libraries

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-17 .NET 2 Comments

The Designing .NET Class Libraries series presents design guidelines for developing classes and components that extend the .NET Framework. The goal of the Designing .NET Class Libraries series is to encourage consistency and predictability in public APIs while enabling Web and cross-language integration. The guidelines presented in 'Designing .NET Class Libraries' are intended to help class library designers understand the trade-offs between different solutions.

Review: Lycoris Desktop/lx 1.4 could replace Windows 98

Submitted by Tim Mullins 2005-01-17 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 40 Comments

"It’s a very good system for a first time Linux user, otherwise referred to as a ‘Newbie’. So if your reading this and have never used Linux before I can recommend you give this operating system a try, you may fall in love with it." Read the review here.

Xfce 4.2.0 released

Submitted by Benedikt Meurer 2005-01-16 Xfce 73 Comments

The Xfce Team is pleased to announce the availability of Xfce 4.2.0, the next major version of the Xfce Desktop Environment and Development Framework for Unix and Unix-like platforms.

Get Groovy with JDBC programming; PostgreSQL 8.0.0-RC5

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-16 Databases 14 Comments

Development is distinctively breezy with Groovy, and its lightweight syntax can alleviate some of the verbosity of JDBC in Java. This article shows you how to use GroovySql to build a simple data-reporting application. GroovySql combines closures and iterators to ease Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) programming by shifting the burden of resource management from you to the Groovy framework itself. Elsewhere, PostgreSQL 8.0.0 RC5 was released.

Still Room for the Palm OS to Take the Lead in VGA

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-15 Wireless 28 Comments

There's no doubt that, at this point anyway, Pocket PCs have the lead in VGA screen. However, the race is far from over. The Pocket PC's implementation leaves much to be desired, so there's plenty of room for the Palm OS to come out with a better implementation of VGA.

MSN Messenger 7: consolidating Windows’ lock-in strategy?

Guest post by Stéphane Rieppi 2005-01-15 Internet 181 Comments

What happens when the corporation anybody seems to love to hate, namely Microsoft, release a killer app and of makes it free (as in dollars), but, of course, keeps its source jealously closed? And worse than that, use it to maintain a strong lock-in to the Windows platform?

Patrick J. Volkerding on the Future of Slackware

Submitted by Paul Best 2005-01-15 Slackware, Slax 78 Comments

On a recent IRC discussion Pat discussed Slackware's future and the restructuring that will happen for Slackware 11. Regarding the removal of Gnome from Slackware, he said: "GNOME is not easy to build into packages, lacks decent documentation to build, and requires many undocumented system changes for things to work 100%".

Avalon 2004 Tech preview now available

Submitted by Erun Whuzington 2005-01-14 Windows 23 Comments

Avalon's 2004 Tech Preview is now available for developer consumption. It includes the WinFX SDK, and supports Windows XP and Windows 2003.

Vidalinux 1.1 Reviewed

Adam Scheinberg 2005-01-14 Gentoo 38 Comments

Linux.com has a great new review of VidaLinux 1.1 in which they conclude "If you're a moderately experienced GNU/Linux user looking to switch to a modern, upgradable, GNOME-based distribution that does not involve RPMs, or if you want to get into Gentoo without the steep learning curve, Vidalinux OS 1.1 is worth trying." As always, OSDir provides us the screenies.

Hardware Today: HPC Server Snapshot

Submitted by Ken Farmer 2005-01-14 Hardware 2 Comments

ServerWatch: Vast marketing budgets from the likes of Dell, Microsoft, and IBM ensure the behemoths take much of the server limelight, leaving high-performance computing (HPC) niche players, such as NEC and Bull, to receive scant coverage. Even a company like HP, which spends as much on marketing and public relations as a small country's GDP, hardly seems to give its AlphaServer line more than a mention. Yet, these platforms have a lot to offer and shouldn't be automatically bypassed. Read part one...

Interview: Mark Gorham, HP Vice President for OpenVMS

Submitted by Ken Farmer 2005-01-14 OS News 9 Comments

From HP World Magazine: "At press time, Hewlett-Packard planned to announce in January its long-awaited version of OpenVMS that runs on Itanium-based Integrity servers. We spoke with Mark Gorham, vice president for HP’s OpenVMS Systems Division. He is responsible for worldwide engineering, customer satisfaction, quality, partner management and business management of the OpenVMS Systems product portfolio."

Comparing Linux to System VR4

Eugenia Loli 2005-01-14 Linux 23 Comments

"If there's a real bottom line here, the one thing I'm clear on is that I haven't found it yet, but the questions raised have been more interesting that the answers -- so more help would be welcomed." Read the article at LinuxInsider.