First Look at Libranet 3.0
Libranet 3.0 has been a long time coming, and highly anticipated by its devoted customers. Read the review here.
Monthly Archive:: April 2005
Stardock’s Multiplicity
Stardock's newest application allows you to control multiple computers from one workstation. While it has some of the features of Win2VNC and Synergy2, the Pro version allows you to connect to an unlimited number of computers and "copy and paste" files between them. Review here.
Building a Linux Cluster, Part 3: How To Get Started
Now that he has covered why cluster computing is a great idea and what's involved in doing it in Parts 1 & 2, Rob Lucke concludes this series by describing how to take those first steps on the road to building a Linux cluster for your organization.
Rebuilding the OpenBSD kernel
Users who want their OpenBSD machine to perform specific functions or need additional device drivers might want to customize their kernel. In other OS's, like some types of Linux, it is very popular to rebuild the kernel because the default is so bloated. For most users, the default OpenBSD kernel is sufficient; however, you can still apply kernel patches, which will require rebuilding and installing a fresh kernel.
Tiger’s Out This Week. No Bull
Both Apple and Microsoft seem to know what's needed for the next step in desktop computing.
China Announces Unix-compatible Server OS
Kylin, a server OS focusing on high performance, availability and security, that was funded by a Chinese government-sponsored R&D program, has been announced. Kylin has been organized in a hierarchy model, including the basic kernel layer which is similar to Mach, the system service layer which is similar to BSD and the desktop environment which is similar to Windows. It has been designed to comply with the UNIX standards and is compatible with Linux binaries. Unfortunately, the download page is currently nonfunctional.
Lack of testing ‘threatening stability of Linux’
One of the maintainers of the Linux kernel has said that a lack of 'credit or money or anything' for those who test the open source OS could threaten its long-term stability.
The future of Spotlight and OS X
Bill Brown has uncovered some interesting Slashdot comments by an Apple employee about Spotlight and future Apple's future plans. (Ed note: it's unclear whether As Seen On TV (ASOT) is indeed an Apple employee, but even if he/she isn't, the thoughts are still interesting.)
C++ creator upbeat on its future
The creator of the C++ programming language claims there has been a backlash against some of the newer programming languages such as Java and C#, with developers moving back to using C++.
Mandrake Corporate Server 3.0: Server software made easy
Mandrakesoft released its Corporate Server 3.0 product in February. It's a significant upgrade to the older 2.1 edition. With a newer kernel and a competent GUI management utility for its services, Corporate Server 3.0 is a good, inexpensive choice for businesses that need a powerful and secure server operating system with as little overhead as possible.
MySQL for Linux on POWER and PowerPC servers
wxWidgets 2.6.0 Released
wxWidgets 2.6.0 was released yesterday. This is the first stable release in over 18 months. Release notes and downloads are available here.
New Desktop Features of Next Java
The next release of Java (Mustang) has some significant enhancements for desktop usage, including improved OS L&F, text anti-aliasing modes, more and improved graphics hardware usage, threading improvements, etc. Also, some long term bugs are fixed (like gray rectangle issue). See a full list and details.
FreeBSD January- April 2005 Status Report
A FreeBSD status report has been posted. Highlights for 5.4 include CARP support, Initial JDK 1.5.0 support, cpufreq(8), plus more. Highlights for 6.0 include OpenBSD pf v37 import, Proposed journalling support for UFS, IPv6 support fo IPFW, and more.
PalmOS NVFS and Transactions
PalmOS users and developers have been having problems lately with the NVFS (Non Volatile File System) which has been included on recent PalmOne devices such as Tungsten T5, E2 and the Treo 650. Developer Zakai Hamilton has a solution to solve it for the future.
Opera CEO promises to swim Atlantic Ocean
The CEO of Opera Software, Jon S. von Tetzchner, has promised he "will swim from Norway to the USA with only one stop-over for a cup of hot chocolate at his mother's house in his home country, Iceland" if the number of downloads passes 1 million by Saturday. Sure, we're falling for this cheap publicity stunt, just as they hoped we would. But I can't help but hope he ends up having to make good on his commitment.
Linux Insider: How Linux Saved Microsoft
Rob Enderle has an commentary at LinuxInsider discussing the effect Linux has had on Microsoft. An excerpt: "As I look at how Microsoft is changing to address the Linux threat, one that may actually turn out to be no more real then Netscape's was, I can't help but see how Microsoft has dramatically benefited from it -- and much more broadly so than they did from the rise of Netscape."
Microsoft’s New Mantra: ‘It Just Works’
Microsoft's Jim Allchin says that the number one design goal for Longhorn has been:
"it just works." In other words, a lot of the fiddly, annoying tasks that computer users have become accustomed to (or never quite got the hang of) such as searching for files, defragmenting, changing network configurations, and tweaking security settings, will happen automatically.
Apple Mythology and Desktop Security
A CIO Today editorial notes that security concerns are most often cited when IT managers consider a switch to Linux over Windows, but difficulty in replicating Microsoft Office functionality is a barrier. Why not use Macs? In addition to software-side security advantages, there are distinct security advantages to using a non-x86 platform as well. And you can still run Office.
The Facts & Fiction Around Windows Security
Microsoft has taken alot of heat for the security issues that surround its Windows operating systems, but they should not be the only ones taken the heat for Windows security. There are other parties out there that deserve to shoulder some of the blame with Microsoft. This editorial, originally written for a Communication Security course, tries to take an objective view of who is exactly to blame for what in the perceive mess that is Windows security.