Monthly Archive:: July 2005

C# and CLI Become More Powerful

Submitted by anonymous 2005-07-28 General Development 20 Comments

In June 2005 the Ecma General Assembly approved the third edition of the standards for C# and CLI. With the first edition of the standards in 2002 and their adoption by ISO/IEC in 2003, the industry was given powerful tools to enable vendor-neutral development of Web services. Today, Ecma is keeping pace with the growing needs of the developer community by publishing the third edition.

Tapwave Out of Business

Eugenia Loli 2005-07-28 Wireless 22 Comments

Tapwave, the third most popular Palmsource licensee behind Palm (and Sony in the past) and makers of the Zodiac PDA/gaming device, has gone out of business.

Submitted by Kelly McNeill 2005-07-28 Zeta 66 Comments

Ever since Be, Inc. was dissolved and its BeOS technology was turned over to the Palm OS charnel house in '01, Be fans have been eagerly awaiting a successor to their favorite operating system, with very few rays of hope since. Earlier this month, however, yellowTAB released their BeOS descendent Zeta. Have Be fans finally found their savior, or is this just another failed attempt at reviving the dead? Read on — this review will help you decide exactly that.

Hands On with Windows Vista Beta 1

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-27 Windows 164 Comments

Today, Microsoft released the first beta of Windows Vista. PC Mag reviews it. "After several years of waiting to see the successor to Windows XP, code-named Longhorn, we've finally gotten our hands on Beta 1 of what now will be called Windows Vista." They also have 40 screenshots. Elsewhere, MS has announced the official names for Avalon and Indigo.

Microsoft Delivers the ‘Other’ Longhorn Beta 1

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-27 Windows 13 Comments

While Vista Beta 1 is stealing most of the headlines this week, Microsoft also is delivering simultaneously on wednesday to a group of private testers the first beta of its Longhorn Server product.

Submitted by Varg Vikernes 2005-07-27 Mozilla, Gecko 40 Comments

Yesterday Firefox's dowloads reached it's 75 million mark. That's 25 million downloads in less then 3 months, well above all previous expectations. Due to its imense popularity and the upcoming release of Firefox 1.5, the team is hoping to reach 100 million downloads in the next 2 months.

Official Windows Vista Beta 1 Screenshots

Submitted by Qwerty 2005-07-27 Windows 97 Comments

Microsoft has released some official screenshots of the just released beta 1 of Windows Vista, their upcoming Windows version. Microsoft has passed a major milestone with the release of its first full test version of Windows Vista, the next generation of its flagship operating system.

Submitted by Manny 2005-07-27 IBM 14 Comments

IBM just announced a new line of z9 mainframes and new version of their operating systems. This time the focus is on security. There is an interesting news article from Reuters: Analyst Bob Djurdjevic of Phoenix-based Annex Research said key selling points of the z9 mainframe are not that it is faster and cheaper -- something it has been becoming for decades -- but rather the mix of hardware and software that give customers control over machines.

Steve Jobs and NeXT

Submitted by Saad 2005-07-27 Apple 52 Comments

After his departure from Apple, Steve Jobs created NeXT Computer, a company which has had a large impact on the design of operating systems today. NeXT was the creator of the first commercially viable object oriented operating system, the first hybrid microkernel, and numerous other notable innovations. Read the whole story at Braeburn.

Sony PSP 2.0 Update Released; New Web Browser Out and About

Eugenia Loli 2005-07-27 Games 29 Comments

Sony announced that version 2.0 of the PSP system software will be available for download today. The user agent is "Mozilla/4.0 (PSP (PlayStation Portable); 2.00)" (in contrast to the older hacked web browser's "SCEJ PSP BROWSER 0102pspNavigator"). If you can upload a picture of the new PSP web browser rendering the HTML version of OSNews, please post a link below.

Vector Linux 5.1 Standard Released

Submitted by Vector 2005-07-27 Linux 23 Comments

After three months of testing via two beta releases and two release candidates Vector Linux has released version 5.1 of its Slackware-derived operating system. This release is an important milestone as there is now a working dependency package management system inside a Slack-based distro.

Smartphones Up, Handhelds Down Globally in Q2 2005

Eugenia Loli 2005-07-26 Wireless 21 Comments

The global market for smart mobile devices continued its rise in Q2 2005 according to estimates released by research firm Canalys. Nokia once again saw its smart phone shipments increase at more than twice the average market rate. Palm still leads the handheld segment, with 31% market share, but its handheld shipments declined 32% year on year, resulting in a 1% unit decline overall. Handheld shipments fell in most regions, with North America down by 36%, while Latin America and Asia Pacific fell 12% and 21% respectively.

FreeBSD Ported to XBox

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 FreeBSD 43 Comments

FreeBSD has been ported to the XBox. "Over the last 2 weeks, I have been working on a port of FreeBSD for the XBox. The port is fully functional. The framebuffer is fully supported, same goes for sound and USB devices (such as an USB keyboard). Only ethernet is missing, currently." The FreeBSD on XBox website is here, downloads included.

Miguel de Icaza on Mono

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Mono 48 Comments

Mono is an open-source implementation of Microsoft's .NET for Linux and other operating systems. In this article, Tim Anderson interviews project leader Miguel de Icaza. Why is Mono now partnering with Mainsoft to ease migration to J2EE?

Submitted by jeanmarc 2005-07-26 Intel 24 Comments

The Extensible Firmware Interface, which could speed the boot-up process for PCs, has been handed over to a group that will promote and standardize it.

Windows Vista Beta 1 Due Tomorrow

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Windows 48 Comments

Beta 1 of Windows Vista, formerly known as Longhorn, will be released coming wednesday. The download will be available to beta testers an hour after the official announcement.

Two Million Solaris 10 Licenses in 6 Months

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Solaris 34 Comments

Sun Microsystems has distributed more than two million registered licenses for the Solaris 10 Operating System since the software became available on January 31st. These numbers, coupled with a record number of visitors to the Sun website during the last six months, highlight the incredible demand for the freely available operating system.

Microsoft Lowers the Boom on Illegal Windows Copies

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Windows 82 Comments

Microsoft is tightening the noose for those people running illegal or pirated copies of its Windows XP/2000 software on their systems. Starting Tuesday, it will be mandatory for users of this Windows software to certify that their software is a genuine and legal copy before they will be able to receive any updates except security patches.

Apple Unveils Faster iBooks, Mini Macs

Thom Holwerda 2005-07-26 Apple 132 Comments

Apple has updated the iBook/Mini product lines, increasing standard RAM to 512MB on all models. Contrary to many rumors, the new iBooks do not sport widescreen. All iBooks and two of the now three Mac Minis contain AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth. My take: Not a word on better harddrives in the Mini Macs, which is something I personally hoped for.

Boot Fedora Linux Faster

Submitted by improvedsource 2005-07-26 Fedora Core 34 Comments

Everyone wants a quick boot time, from the beginner user to the advanced user, this is a issue that bothers us all. As Linux has advanced it has increasingly become slower to boot. So I decided to look into reducing the time it takes to boot my current setup, which is Fedora 4. In doing so I was able to reduce the boot time of my Fedora 4 installation to less than 25 seconds.