Monthly Archive:: April 2007

Learn How UNIX Multitasks

Submitted by BlueVoodoo 2007-04-09 Unix 17 Comments

"On UNIX systems, each system and end-user task is contained within a process. The system creates new processes all the time and processes die when a task finishes or something unexpected happens. Here, learn how to control processes and use a number of commands to peer into your system."

Gaim Has Been Renamed Pidgin

Adam Scheinberg 2007-04-08 Internet 59 Comments

Gaim, the ubiquitous open source instant messaging program, in order to settle a lawsuit with America Online, was renamed "Pidgin" last week. The derivative projects, libgaim and gaim-text will be renamed libpurple and Finch respectively. The new website is at pigdin.im, but it's currently pointing to the Gaim sourceforge site. Pidgin 2.0.0, in development for well over a year, is expected this week.

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 Released

Submitted by AhmadH 2007-04-08 Debian 82 Comments

"The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0, codenamed etch, after 21 months of constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system which supports a total of eleven processor architectures and includes the KDE, GNOME and Xfce desktop environments. It also features cryptographic software and compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.1 of the LSB. Using a now fully integrated installation process, Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 comes with out-of-the-box support for encrypted partitions. This release introduces a newly developed graphical frontend to the installation system supporting scripts using composed characters and complex languages; the installation system for Debian GNU/Linux has now been translated to 58 languages." Update: Debian 3.1r6 has also been released. Update II: Screenshots, and how to upgrade to it.

DesktopBSD 1.6-RC2 Released

Submitted by detonator 2007-04-08 BSD & Darwin 13 Comments

DesktopBSD 1.6-RC2 has been released. "Primary changes since 1.6-RC1: improved video detection; no more annoying package database messages when an installation/upgrade failed; upgrading from 1.0 should work fine now; cups problems are hopefully gone; KDE 3.5.6; K3B 1.0."

Thurrott: Microsoft Has ‘Absolutely No Plans’ to Ship Windows XP SP3

Submitted by rx182 2007-04-07 Windows 155 Comments

Paul Thurrot writes about Windows XP SP3: "If you were looking for any glimpse into the mind of Microsoft, this is it: the company has completely abandoned Windows XP, and it has absolutely no plans to ever ship an XP SP3. My guess is that Microsoft will do what it did with the final Windows 2000 Service Pack: claim years later that it's no longer needed and just ship a final security patch roll-up. This is the worst kiss-off to any Microsoft product I've ever seen, and you'd think the company would show a little more respect to its best-selling OS of all time."

Beryl, Compiz Communities Reunite

Submitted by SEJeff 2007-04-06 Wayland 42 Comments

"After several weeks of discussion the leaders of Compiz and Beryl have agreed that the two communities shall reunite. This decision is supported by both David and Quinn and represents the majority decision of the administrators and developers in each community."

WebCore From Safari 2.0 Branch Imported in GTK+-WebCore

Submitted by dylansmrjones 2007-04-06 GTK+ 62 Comments

Kimmo Kinnunen wrote yesterday on the GTK+-WebCore developer mailing list that he has imported the Safari 2.0 WebCore branch into GTK+-WebCore. "This means that from the webcore/javascriptcore part, the code is mostly the same as in current Safari. So if there are any crashes, they're not from webcore/javascriptcore part of the codebase with very high probability, rather my code."

IceWM: a Desktop for Windows Immigrants

Submitted by michuk 2007-04-06 Desktop environments 26 Comments

"IceWM is perfect for Windows' 'immigrants' especially for users with older computers. IceWM will be suitable for advanced users who are looking for a lightweight and simple window manager." More here.

OpenBSD bcw: Possible GPL Violation Issues

Submitted by detonator 2007-04-06 OpenBSD 183 Comments

"I, Michael Buesch, am one of the maintainers of the GPL'd Linux wireless LAN driver for the Broadcom chip (bcm43xx). The Copyright holders of bcm43xx (which includes me) want to talk to you, OpenBSD bcw developers, about possible GPL license and therefore copyright violations in your bcw driver. We believe that you might have directly copied code out of bcm43xx (licensed under GPL v2), without our explicit permission, into bcw (licensed under BSD license)." The entire thread can be found here.

AROS Gets Themeing Support, USB Keyboard Driver

Submitted by Ola Jensen 2007-04-06 Amiga & AROS 20 Comments

The AROS team has published a new status update with a list of improvements. Another important step in AROS customization has been done. Darius Brewka and Georg Steger have added a new decor system to Wanderer, allowing user to edit and change themes. Damir Sijakovic's ICE theme has been used as an example and it is now the default theme for AROS nightly builds. In addition, a USB keyboard driver has been committed, among other things.

Windows Longhorn Server April CTP Available

Submitted by Andrew Higgins 2007-04-06 Windows 5 Comments

Microsoft has just made the Windows Longhorn Server April CTP available for download to tech beta testers. It features several improvements to the core and has implemented a lot of new features to fill in the holes present in the February CTP.

FreeBSD Project Integrates ZFS

Submitted by binarycrusader 2007-04-06 FreeBSD 33 Comments

Pawel Dawidek announced today that the ZFS filesystem is now part of the FreeBSD operating system. iSCSI, booting, ICLs, and extended attributes are not supported yet.

30 Days with Vista

Submitted by netpython 2007-04-05 Windows 75 Comments

Comparisons, conjecture, and controversy. Microsoft's new operating system is here, but is it ready for primetime? We spent 30 days with Windows Vista to see if it's worth the leap or if Microsoft should go back to the drawing board.

Mandriva Flash 4GB Released

Eugenia Loli 2007-04-05 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 24 Comments

Mandriva today launches the 4GB version of Mandriva Flash, its live flash drive. Mandriva Flash 2GB, which was released in December 2006, has been a true success for Mandriva. It was sold out in less than two weeks! Mandriva has listen to user feedback and decided to develop a new version of its best seller flash drive.

A First Look at SimplyMEPIS 6.5

Submitted by editingwhiz 2007-04-05 Ubuntu 9 Comments

This review at DesktopLinux.com takes a quick look at the just-released, Ubuntu-based SimplyMEPIS 6.5 Linux distribution. The author finds it to be easy to install and configure, and a solid desktop platform to use, but notes that the distribution's Beryl 3D graphics support can be challenging to get working.

Apple’s Mac OS X May Gain Multi-Sized Icon Interface

Eugenia Loli 2007-04-05 macOS 32 Comments

Apple Inc. has developed an enhancement to its Mac OS X Finder user interface that will allow for different-sized icons within the same window as a means of representing their importance, a recent patent application has revealed.

The Top 5 Things I Hate About Linux

Submitted by Matt H. 2007-04-05 Linux 71 Comments

"Even though I enjoy using my Linux boxes a great deal for the most part, there are still those little annoyances that are enough to drive a guy batty. After all, even something as elegant and as effective as the top Linux distributions can still do certain things to drive you nuts from time to time." More here.

FSF Releases New Draft of LGPL

Submitted by FreeRhino 2007-04-05 Open Source 3 Comments

The Free Software Foundation has released the second draft of version 3 of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). In addition to general editing, the new draft ties the LGPL more closely to the GNU General Public License (GPL), introduces the concept of a "linked version," and adds a new option for distributing combined works.

Europe’s Microsoft Case Goes Too Far

Submitted by jeanmarc 2007-04-05 Microsoft 46 Comments

In a spat over royalties, the European Commission has declared war on accepted global conventions regarding intellectual property rights.

High Availability with Open Source

Submitted by drhigh 2007-04-05 General Development 3 Comments

In the article High Availability with Open Source, Josh Kuo looks at three of the popular Open Source projects to implement High Availability redundancy (failover): Heartbeat, keepalived, and CARP. The article talks about where each of these three excels and some implementation ideas. Josh also mentions the DRBD utility to sync two remote filesystems to aid in an advanced High Availability setup.