Monthly Archive:: April 2007

System Maintenance with Windows Vista

Submitted by CIozzio 2007-04-11 Windows 24 Comments

"We often wonder if we are getting the most out of our computers, especially as we sit drumming our fingers waiting for some process to begin or end. But what can you do get the system into shape and keep it that way? " Here's what you need to know about Vista's performance tools, the new Windows Experience Index, Problem and Health Reports, and routine maintenance (including Disk Cleanup and Defragmenter), to get your OS humming along.

Submitted by ShlomiFish 2007-04-11 General Development 84 Comments

"What makes programming languages are suitable or unsuitable as introductory languages? Which languages are better learnt first and at which order? And why what the masses think is the most suitable introductory programming language is not in fact that. This paper examines several approaches to which programming language is the best, and afterwards gives several useful relations for which languages should come first. Finally it gives a final verdict, defends it and then gives some other good food for thought."

Submitted by Flatline 2007-04-11 Windows 66 Comments

"Anyone else remember when Microsoft used to talk about making Windows Vista (or Longhorn, as it was then known) a fast-booting operating system. Fast, as in cold boots that were 50 percent faster than those possible with Windows XP? Something obviously went awry. As Computerworld is reporting, a number of Vista users are none too happy about Vista boot-up times. Some are questioning whether Microsoft is advocating that users just put Vista into sleep mode, as opposed to shutting down systems on a daily basis, to mask the sluggish boot up."

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5: Some Assembly Required

Thom Holwerda 2007-04-10 Red Hat 25 Comments

"Version 5 of Red Hat's Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system hit the streets last month, complete with a truckload of updated open-source components and brand-new support for server virtualization - 0courtesy of the Xen hypervisor project. eWEEK Labs tested RHEL 5 with a particular focus on its new virtualization features. While we think that Red Hat is off to a good start with its Xen implementation, companies in search of an out-of-the-box server virtualization solution shouldn't expect it from RHEL 5."

Sun CEO Shows Off Rock Ahead of Fujitsu Launch

Thom Holwerda 2007-04-10 Oracle and SUN 10 Comments

So, it's April 2007 and Sun Microsystems has just popped one of its 16-core Rock chips on CEO Jonathan Schwartz's desk. Schwartz posted pictures of the Rock silicon on his blog, bragging that 'the chips are running billions of instructions already'. Sun's customers must be encouraged by the Rock display, having suffered from about five years of delayed UltraSPARC chips. Servers based on the Rock family - Boulder and Pebble - should begin shipping in 2008.

Dell Discontinues Axim Handheld Line

Thom Holwerda 2007-04-10 Wireless 17 Comments

Dell has stopped selling its Axim line of handhelds and is not planning a new product in the category, the computer maker said on Monday. "The Axim X51 family is no longer being offered, and we have no plans for a follow-on product at this time," Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said in an email. Camden noted that the company does sell handhelds from other makers on its website, including GPS devices and smartphones.

Submitted by michuk 2007-04-10 Graphics 43 Comments

"Red Hat has recently shared with the world the first ISO images of the system that is supposed to be installed on the OLPC laptops. I suddenly felt an irresistible temptation. I downloaded 291 MB ISO, burned it on a CD and started testing. Here is what I got."

Xfce 4.4.1 Released

Thom Holwerda 2007-04-10 Xfce 7 Comments

The Xfce project just announced the first maintenance release of the Xfce 4.4 branch, Xfce 4.4.1. There is a changelog, and you can download it from the Sourceforge download page. In case you lived under a rock the past few years: "Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for unix-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use."

JLG: No Agreement Between YellowTAB, Palmsource

Thom Holwerda 2007-04-10 Zeta 100 Comments

A new development in the Zeta legality issue: BeOSFrance says to have written confirmation from Jean-Louis Gassee that to JLG's knowledge, YellowTAB did not have an agreement with Palmsource . My French isn't exactly what it should be (I should've paid more attention during high school), but with the help of Adam and others we managed to translate the most important bit: "The impropriety and absence of an agreement between yellowTAB and PalmSource (at the time, still the owner of the BeOS IP) had been confirmed to me in writing by the person best-placed to talk about it in those circumstances: Jean-Louis Gassee."

A Critical Look at Ubuntu Feisty Beta

Submitted by Charl P. Botha 2007-04-10 Ubuntu 44 Comments

"This is a more critical than usual mini-review of Ubuntu Feisty beta on an HP NC8430 laptop. It practically examines some of the problems laptop users will run into when trying to run Feisty on their hardware."

OpenSUSE Hobbled by Microsoft Patents

Thom Holwerda 2007-04-10 SuSE, openSUSE 36 Comments

As reported by Slashdot, debate has risen over ClearType in Linux. OpenSUSE recently disabled this technology, saying "that this feature is covered by several Microsoft patents and should not be activated in any default build of the library". Other websites have picked up on this as well: "The strange thing is though: no matter the fact that Novell and Microsoft are now buddies, openSUSE still has to be concerned about the ClearType patents!"

Review: Debian 4.0

Submitted by luna6 2007-04-10 Debian 27 Comments

"With Etch you get the best package manager around in APT, a rock solid stable system, and the ability to tinker with the desktop all that you want - without having the procedure become too arcane. If you are familiar with Linux then I would strongly recommend you try out Debian Etch - just an awesome release by the Debian group."

Submitted by WillM 2007-04-10 Microsoft 57 Comments

"At first glance, the FSF and the Commission attacks on Microsoft appear to be unrelated. But the common thread is this: the attacks are based on a lack of faith that consumer demand will lead a market to where consumers want it to be. It is based on a faulty assumption that a company can use its intellectual property to harm competition rather than fuel it."

Submitted by surrounder 2007-04-10 Linux 6 Comments

TriedIT reviews CRUX 2.3, and concludes: "CRUX 2.3 is simple, but not from a user standpoint. It does require a lot of manual installation and configuration. It also doesn’t come with a bunch of pre-installed software either. But the distribution is meant for experienced users, after all. It is definitely simple from a system standpoint, however. There's no complex hardware auto-detection, or heavy weight desktop environments, 3D desktops or proprietary video card drivers. The package system is also pretty simple, but includes source-based package installation. There are no fancy GUI configuration utilities (or even console-based ones)."

Innovative Sunrise Browser Aids Mac Web Developers

Submitted by FreeRhino 2007-04-10 macOS 13 Comments

"Sunrise Browser is an open source Web browser for Mac OS X intended for use as a Web developer's tool. It is not a groundbreaking achievement in that regard, but it is worth checking out due to its innovative and often unusual user interface choices."

FreeBSD Quarterly Status Report

Thom Holwerda 2007-04-10 FreeBSD 9 Comments

"This report covers FreeBSD related projects between January and March 2007. This quarter ended with a big bang as a port of Sun's critically acclaimed ZFS was added to the tree and thus will be available in the upcoming FreeBSD 7.0 release. Earlier this year exciting benchmark results showed the fruits of our SMP work. Read more on the details in the 'SMP Scalability' report."

Palm Prepping Its Own Linux-Based OS

Eugenia Loli 2007-04-10 Wireless 20 Comments

Palm is finally getting ready to land its users onto a modern Palm-built OS. Ed Colligan, in his Investor Day keynote today, announced that Palm will be launching a homegrown Linux-based OS by the end of the year, with Opera for a browser and the recently acquired Chattermail for messaging.

Ubuntu: Who Needs Vista?

Eugenia Loli 2007-04-09 Ubuntu 197 Comments

"Back in my university days, when Netscape was the latest web browser on the scene and the Pentium MMX was the power user's processor of choice, UNIX was part of my everyday life. Since graduating, my chosen desktop operating system has been Windows of some variety. This is partly because it was the most readily available consumer desktop operating system and also because it served me well for the most part." More here. In other Ubuntu news, Automatix2 for Feisty is released.

Dreaming in the ‘Cloud’ with the XIOS Web OS

Eugenia Loli 2007-04-09 Internet 20 Comments

"Xcerion is a Swedish Internet startup whose founders include ex-Microsoft employees Lou Perazzoli and John Connors. The company will make headlines later this year when they officially unveil what they call an "Internet OS" dubbed XIOS that runs in a web browser. We took an early look at the XIOS concept and had the chance to talk about the project with the company's CEO, Daniel Arthursson."

Review: Sony’s Palm Sized Windows Vista Computer

Submitted by luna6 2007-04-09 Hardware 37 Comments

"Sony has recently updated their VAIO UX Micro PC line with the UX390N series. This little beast packs the power of a full blown Microsoft Windows Vista computer into a form factor of only 5.91"x3.74"x1.27"x1.50". When you first look at palm sized portable device you may guess it to be a souped up version of the Sony PSP, but if you take a look at the USD 2449.99 sticker price, you will probably guess it does a whole lot more. And that it does."