Monthly Archive:: May 2008

Browser Benchmark: IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari

Submitted by Jaikrishnan Janardhanan 2008-05-31 Benchmarks 31 Comments

The first webpage was served off a NeXTcube at CERN, Switzerland, developed by Tim Berners-Lee. He also wrote the first web browser, confusingly named WorldWideWeb - the world of web browsers has come a long way since then, more or less turning into a platform of their own. This puts increasing pressure on web browsers to be really really good pieces of software, and as such, ZDnet has a 7-page comparison of the world's major web browsers, comparing Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Understanding Metacity Themes

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-31 Gnome No Comments

Thomas Thurman of Metacity fame has written a lengthy blog post on how Metacity themes work. "This is an article about how to theme Metacity. It is a work in progress, and I have had to dig deeply to find some answers. GNOME lets you theme a bunch of different things, but we’re only talking about window border themes here, which some people call Metacity themes."

Amiga Forever 2008 Released

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-31 Amiga & AROS 9 Comments

Cloanto has released Amiga Forever 2008, the latest version of their emulation package. Amiga Forever allows you to launch various instances of different AmigaOS versions, as well as various old Amiga games. The operating systems' ROM files are provided on the disk.

‘You Already Have MinWin’

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-30 Windows 99 Comments

We have learnt quite a lot about Windows 7 this week, and one of the things was that Windows 7 would not get a new kernel. The call for a new kernel has been made a few times on the internet, but anyone with a bit more insight into Windows' kernel knows that there is absolutely no need to write a new kernel for Windows - the problems with Windows lie in userland, not kernelland. While the authenticity of the Shipping Seven blog is not undisputed, the blogger makes some very excellent points regarding the kernel matter.

5 Ways the End-User Desktop Will Look Different in 5 Years

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-30 Office 16 Comments

eWeek's Debra Donston has penned down five ways the end user desktop in enterprises will look different in five years. While some of her ideas and predictions make a low of sense, there are a few things which are slightly debatable. Mostly, the reliance on virtualisation and web applications.

Free Book Explains Windows CE Development

Submitted by DeviceGuru 2008-05-30 Windows 3 Comments

Microsoft has published a free 335-page book in .pdf format that explains all the details of developing for the Windows CE platform. "The kit, implemented as a 335-page book, provides valuable technical information for developers wanting to know more about Windows CE, regardless of whether they plan to take Microsoft's certification exam. The book is available for download - without cost or registration - as nine PDF files."

The A-Z of Programming Languages: BASH

Submitted by fairynomo 2008-05-30 General Development 31 Comments

Tuesday, we linked to an interview with one of the creators of AWK, over at ComputerWorld. From the same series comes an interview with Chat Ramney, maintainer of BASH, the Bourne Again Shell. BASH is the default shell on most UNIX systems, and has been ported to Windows, MS-DOS, the Amiga, and just about everywhere else.

Reviews: Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring

Submitted by AdamW 2008-05-29 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 27 Comments

Two Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring reviews came out in the last couple of days. ZDNet notes that "Mandriva Linux is popular with developers and enthusiasts, and there's a thriving community ready and able to help with problems" and concludes that "overall we liked what we saw. Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring may not be the best distro for the newcomer moving over from Windows, but if you're used to the way Linux works and want to try something different, give it a try". Linux.com praised the hardware support and the Control Center, and declared that "despite a few minor glitches, after several weeks of testing the two Mandriva flavors, I have finally come across a distro that gives you the best of the GNU/Linux and proprietary worlds in terms of ease of use, range of software, and stability on hardware that ranges from old Celerons to newer multi-core machines".

Ars: ‘Plasma Continues to Advance in KDE 4.1 Beta 1’

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-29 KDE 67 Comments

Tuesday, we reported that the KDE project had released the first beta of KDE 4.1, the release that is supposed to be ready to replace KDE3 on normal users' desktops. The information and marketing speak in the press release sure was promising, so Ars decided to take the KDE 4.1 beta out for a spin.

Google Demonstrates Android

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-29 Google 67 Comments

Multitouch and touchscreens really are all the rage these days, especially in mobile devices. Apple's iPhone set the bar, and now it's up to the rest to either catch up to Apple, or outdo them. Google is trying just that with its Android mobile phone operating system, and it has demoed the capabilities of its new mobile phone operating system.

Multitouch, New Taskbar in Motion

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-28 Graphics 41 Comments

Yesterday, during the opening hours of the D6 conference, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher jointly interviewed Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates. While the interview dealt mostly with the past, Yahoo, and a bit of Vista, by far the most interesting part was the first ever public appearance of Vista's successor: Windows 7. Earlier today, the team behind D6 posted a video of the demonstration, which was conducted by Microsoft's Julie Larson-Green. From a graphical user interface point of view, there were some interesting things in there.

Please Fill Out Our Reader Survey

David Adams 2008-05-28 OS News 19 Comments

Our advertising partner, Cnet Networks, has posted a reader survey, and I promise that they really will give $2000 to three lucky survey respondents. Since they've chosen to place the survey request as an ad itself, and most OSNews readers wouldn't know why Cnet was doing a survey on OSNews anyway, I thought I'd mention that this survey, and the $2000 drawing, are legitimate, and encourage you to participate. They don't want me to link straight to the survey for some reason, but if you see the survey invite above, click on it. Update: I didn't realize this before, but the drawing is only open to US residents.

Mac OS X 10.5.3 Released

Submitted by Moulinneuf 2008-05-28 macOS 26 Comments

Apple has updated its Leopard operating system by releasing Mac OS X 10.5.3. "The Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update is recommended for Mac OS X 10.5, 10.5.1, and 10.5.2 Leopard. It includes general operating system improvements that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac."

Palm CEO Talks Next-Gen OS

Submitted by Dan Warne 2008-05-28 Wireless 8 Comments

Back in 1996, Palm released its first Palm Pilot PDAs onto the market, and quickly became a household name in the PDa business - so far as that Palm and Palm Pilot became synonyms for any PDA device. The company has hit some rough waters lately, but if it's up to CEO Ed Colligan, that's all going to change in the coming years.

Eee

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-28 Comics 12 Comments

Comic: "Eee".

Gains System-Wide Multitouch, Dock

Thom Holwerda 2008-05-28 Windows 59 Comments

I personally doubted that Windows 7 would make an actual appearance during the Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer joint interview up on stage at the D6 conference, but as it turns out, it has made an appearance. During an interview conducted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher about Ballmer and Gates' past, present, and future, a short demo was given of Windows 7.

VIA Unveils Open Source Notebook Design

Submitted by SReilly 2008-05-27 Hardware 21 Comments

The idea of open-source hardware is slowly slowly but surely gaining traction. VIA Technologies, Inc., joined in on the fun today by unveiling an open source reference platform for low power notebooks, based on its own processor technology (obviously). The CAD files have been released under a Creative Commons license. The machine is tentatively named OpenBook.

KDE 4.1 Beta 1 Released

Submitted by appel 2008-05-27 KDE 25 Comments

KDE 4.0 was released to mixed reviews; more or less everyone recognised the enormous potential of the still young platform, but some doubted whether or not the KDE project had made the right choice by releasing KDE 4.0 as, well, 4.0. The KDE developers were clear: just you wait for KDE 4.1. They released the first beta of KDE 4.1 today.

No New Kernel, Builds on Vista

2008-05-27 Windows 57 Comments

So far, Microsoft has been very tight-lipped about Windows 7, carefully trying to prevent another Longhorn PR disaster where the company promised the heavens and more for Longhorn, but in the end ditched Longhorn to make way for Vista. Chris Flores (Windows Client Communications Team) as well as Steven Sinofsky, has broken the silence a little bit to talk about Windows 7. In addition, it is believed Windows 7 will make its first official debut at the D6 All Things Digital conference today, during a keynote held by Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.

Screenshots Leaked?

Submitted by stonyandcher 2008-05-27 Windows 51 Comments

In spite of (or, thanks to?) Windows Vista, a recent release and all, Windows 7 has been getting a lot attention all over the web - even in the non-tech mainstream and print media. Since Microsoft is holding its cards close, people try to get by on little droplets of information, side remarks by Microsoft employees, slip-of-the-tongues, and, of course, plain-old forgery. PC World thinks these screenshots come from a scheduled May 2008 Windows 7 build, but if you look at them with a little more attention to detail, you will easily spot they are - at best - random mockups from Microsoft, or, - most likely - fake.

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