Keep OSNews alive by becoming a Patreon, by donating through Ko-Fi, or by buying merch!

Monthly Archive:: September 2005

Avoid XML Pollution with Safe Coding Practices

Strong error handling translates into more reliable applications. When you load an XML document, it is best to catch errors early, before they have a chance to damage other data. I have noticed that many companies and developers make the same mistakes when they adopt XML technology. Learn how to avoid common XML coding errors when you design and implement error handling in XML applications.

10 Days as a Windows XP User: A GNU Perspective on Things

"I do not consider Windows ready for the desktop. I found it difficult to use, buggy and lacking in security. I also found technical support lacking. While Windows captured a significant portion of the desktop market, the product is clearly not a good fit for consumers who do not understand the risks associated with logging on to the Internet. The costs of providing aftermarket products can run higher than the price paid for the hardware."

The Realities of Software Testing

Unfortunately, in the real world you will never see a project perfectly follow any of the development models. You will never be given a thoroughly detailed specification that perfectly meets the customer’s needs and you will never have enough time to do all the testing you need to do. It just doesn’t happen. This chapter will help you understand that software testing doesn't alway go perfectly, and help you prepare for that eventuality.

KDE 4 Promises Radical Changes

"As the dust settles from aKademy 2005, the annual KDE conference, it's a good time to take a look at what the KDE developers are working on. Though KDE 3.5 isn't even out yet, developers are already working on KDE 4. Plenty of work has already gone into porting existing code to Qt4, the GUI toolkit upon which KDE is based, and KDE developers are working on projects that could radically change how works."

Torvalds Concerned About Linux Dev Processes

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux and the maintainer of the development kernel, expressed concerns that the kernel development process may need to be changed to make sure that Morton is not overworked. "One issue is that I actually worry that Andrew will at some point be where I was a couple of years ago - overworked and stressed out by just tons and tons of patches," said Torvalds. "If Andrew burns out, we'll all suffer hugely."

Genesi To Develop Dual PPC970MP Server; Dual-Core G4 Delayed

Two interesting newsbits from the PPC world. Firstly, Genesi has announced that it will develop a dual 970MP (dual-core G5) server, named Open Server Workstation, following their Open Desktop Workstation. Secondly, Freescale has said that their dual-core G4 processors have been delayed until the second half of 2006. Update: "Libfreevec is a free (LGPL) library with hand-optimized replacement routines for GLIBC, such as memcpy(), strlen(), etc. These routines have been written specifically to take advantage of the AltiVec, and will only work on processors that include this unit."

Treo 700w with Windows Mobile Announced

As expected, Palm has announced the Treo 700w, a Windows Mobile powered smartphone with a square 240x240 resolution. Top brass from Palm, Microsoft (including Bill Gates) and Verizon Wireless gathered in San Fransisco this morning to launch the device. Palm noted that this project has been in the works for, "a couple of years" and that it was one of the worst kept secrets in the industry. In addition, here (.pdf) are some Windows Mobile UI design tips and tricks. Update: Here is the official press release.

Ubuntu: Derivative or Fork?

"Ubuntu never positioned itself as a Debian derivative, like Xandros, Mepis, or Knoppix. Ubuntu publicly acknowledges its relationship with Debian, and Canonical, through its recently founded Ubuntu foundation, hires some Debian developers. All this should be good news; but for some it's not. Whether on Distrowatch or on forums, voices whisper that Ubuntu has a dirty secret you may not want to hear: they don't keep the compatibility with Debian, and they want to fork away from their mother distribution."

Computer Market Relegated to Prefab and Hypnosis

"I have noticed these days that the computer market is either falling into some sort of dictatorship or some other power of influence that is forcing the computer market into a no choice market where the choice is handpicked by either some monopoly or by a misperception made by the wrong decision makers in today's computer industry. The computer market of today as we know it is being prefabricated by influence while hypnotizing the public of that influence."