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Monthly Archive:: June 2007

Shuttleworth: No Negotiations with Microsoft in Progress

Ubuntu 91 Comments
"There's a rumour circulating that Ubuntu is in discussions with Microsoft aimed at an agreement along the lines they have concluded recently with Linspire, Xandros, Novell, etc. For the record, let me state my position, and I think this is also roughly the position of Canonical and the Ubuntu Community Council though I haven't caucused with the CC on this specifically. We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements."
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Theo de Raadt Points Out Sun’s ‘Duplicity’

  Submitted by Oliver Rumors 60 Comments
"There's been a lot of talk on lists and blogs about an exchange between Linus Torvalds, Jonathan Schwartz and Theo de Raadt regarding licensing and documentation. It all started with a 'cynical' message from Linus about Sun's motivation with regard to Open Source. Jonathan Schwartz responded by extending Linus a dinner invitation. What? The romance was briefly interrupted by a message from Theo pointing out the doublespeak."
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DragonFly BSD: UNIX for Clusters?

  Submitted by _DoubleThink_ BSD & Darwin 16 Comments
"Matt Dillon, one of the FreeBSD kernel developers, decided that several of the approaches being used in the 5.x series were dead-ends, and in July 2003 forked the stable 4.x codebase to form DragonFly BSD. The 4.x FreeBSD Foundation meant that DragonFly has been a solid platform from the start. DragonFly, like the other BSDs, imports code from other members of the family when it makes sense, such as the malloc() security features from OpenBSD, parts of the WiFi subsystem from FreeBSD, and USB code from NetBSD. In spite of this, development has been pushed in some unique directions."
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Linus on the GPL, BSD, Tivo, FSF

  Submitted by prymitive Open Source 212 Comments
A lengthy debate that began with a suggestion to dual license the Linux kernel under the GPLv2 and the GPLv3 continues on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. Throughout the ongoing thread Linux creator Linus Torvalds has spoken out on the GPLv2, the upcoming GPLv3, the BSD license, Tivo, the Free Software Foundation, and much more. During the discussion, he was asked we he chose the GPLv2 over the BSD license when he's obviously not a big fan of the FSF.
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Intel Readies Massive Multicore Processors

  Submitted by cragnotil Intel 32 Comments
Researchers at Intel are working on ways to mask the intricate functionality of massive multicore chips to make it easier for computer makers and software developers to adapt to them. These multicore chips will also likely contain both x86 processing cores, as well as other types of cores. A 64-core chip, for instance, might contain 42 x86 cores, 18 accelerators and four embedded graphics cores. In addition, Intel has updated its Itanium roadmap.
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Report: Microsoft’s TechEd 2007

Microsoft 8 Comments
TechEd is Microsoft's flagship technical training conference. This year, over 13,000 IT professionals and developers attended the event, where new Microsoft technologies were shown off to people who might be interested. I attended in the capacity of a Tablet PC developer, but there was so much to do and see, I had plenty of time to look around.
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Leopard Drops 64bit Carbon, G3 Support

  Submitted by Jeremy Fox macOS 85 Comments
Carbon will not be 64bit in Leopard. "At last year's keynote, Apple had claimed that both Carbon and Cocoa would be 64-bit, adding to the 64-bit fundamentals that Tiger had laid. However, according to the latest on Apple's website, Leopard's 64-bit frameworks will include the POSIX and math libraries found in Tiger, Cocoa, Quartz, OpenGL, and X11 GUI framework. In addition, Apple confirms that Carbon will not be 64-bit on the Carbon Developer mailing list." In addition, the readme file included with Leopard's developer preview says G3 support will be dropped from Leopard.
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Apple Clarifies ZFS Status – Again

macOS 57 Comments
The yes-no-yes-no saga concerning ZFS in Leopard continues as Apple has released a new statement concerning the availability of ZFS in Leopard. So, let's recap: in April 2006, Apple expresses its interest in Sun's ZFS for the first time. After a first hint, the first screenshot popped up which showed ZFS on Leopard, followed by the definitive proof Leopard could create ZFS disk images. Fast forward six months, and Sun's Jonathan Schwartz announces that ZFS would be Leopard's default filesystem; a statement contradicted by an Apple official yesterday. In fact, this Apple official said ZFS would not be in Leopard at all. Then we arrive at today, and we have Apple stating that ZFS will in fact be included as a limited option in Leopard, only from the command line, read-only. Let's see what tomorrow will bring.
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Zen Yourself Free: a Windows Defector Discovers ZenWalk

Linux 59 Comments
I have so much to thank Bill Gates for: introducing me to the baffling joys of consumer computing with Windows 95; teaching me the meaning of fear and dread with Windows 98; leading me to the sunlit uplands of Windows XP; getting me out of Microsoft altogether with the arrival of Vista. I hardly know where to start. And if I hadn't flown into a high-minded anti-Microsoft, down-with-Bill-Gates fury at the start of this year, would I ever have stumbled upon ZenWalk? I doubt it.
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Torvalds: Solaris Could Nudge Linux to GPL 3

  Submitted by Nixomayor Open Source 69 Comments
Linux leader Linus Torvalds has finally found something that could convince him that the forthcoming version 3 of the General Public License is worth adopting: open-source Solaris. "If Sun really is going to release OpenSolaris under GPL 3, that may be a good reason" to move Linux to the new license, Torvalds said in a posting to the Linux kernel mailing list on Monday. "I don't think the GPL 3 is as good a license as 2, but on the other hand, I'm pragmatic, and if we can avoid having two kernels with two different licenses and the friction that causes, I at least see the reason for GPLv3."
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Review: 17″ MacBook Pro

Apple 19 Comments
Ars has reviewed the new MacBook Pro. "The latest MacBook Pros are a solid upgrade from their predecessor, thanks to the new Santa Rosa platform. If you already have a 17" MacBook Pro and aren't dying for the higher-resolution display, don't bother upgrading. If, however, you have been sitting on the fence with an old G4 or Core Duo laptop, this is a worthy upgrade. If you like your laptops large and in charge, I strongly recommend the 17" MacBook Pro."
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