Monthly Archive:: June 2008

EFiX Promises to Simplify OSX86 Installation

Submitted by eMalware 2008-06-15 macOS 38 Comments

We all know about PsyStar, the company that sells an unofficial Macintosh clone running Mac OS X Leopard. While the device runs Leopard fine, it has its shortcomings in that operating system updates have to go through PsyStar testing first, becuase they might break your installation. While this problem isn't addressed with this product, EFiX aims to simplify installing Mac OS X Leopard on your non-Apple machine.

Yahoo, Google Sign Ad Deal

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-13 In the News 10 Comments

There's a battle going on in the technology world over Yahoo, the search and advertising company. Microsoft wants to buy it, and Google wants to sign deals with it. Microsoft has so far failed in buying the company, but Google has inked a deal with Yahoo this morning, which means Google will supply Yahoo with some search ads.

‘OpenSolaris Still Has Some Linux Copying to Do’

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-13 Solaris 34 Comments

The Register has reviewed OpenSolaris, and concludes: "Sun has made good on its promise to deliver OpenSolaris, the company's Unix-based answer to Linux, with a company-supported, commercial update arriving in mid-May. Although far from a complete product, the latest OpenSolaris is impressive and in the long run could prove a viable alternative to Linux."

Using the Bourne Again Shell Effectively

Submitted by pkrumins 2008-06-13 General Development 3 Comments

Peteris Krumins has written a three-part article series on his blog about using Bash effectively. The three parts are Editing commands in Emacs editing mode, Editing commands in Vi editing mode, and Definitive guide to Bash command line history. All three articles come with 'cheat sheets' in .pdf and .txt format so you can memorise the commands and shortcuts easier.

Meet the Dell E and E Slim

Submitted by TheIdiotThatIsMe 2008-06-13 Hardware 25 Comments

Dell has finally released a few glimpses on their upcoming Eee 900 competitor, called the Dell E (name subject to change). The Dell E sports an 8.9 inch display with three variations of configurations: Dell E, E Video, and E Video+, with one increasing the specifications respectively. Dell is also launching a second MID, the Dell E Slim, with a larger 12.1 inch display and two configurations: E Slim, and E Slim+. Both devices will run Linux and Windows XP.

Microsoft: No External Code in DLR

Submitted by wakeupneo 2008-06-13 .NET 11 Comments

"It's official: Microsoft will not accept any external code contributions to its planned Dynamic Language Runtime, which will run Microsoft's new scripting languages for the web and Silverlight content on .NET. Microsoft will, though, continue to accept source-code contributions to its slowly emerging implementation of Ruby for .NET, IronRuby. Contributions are helping to build IronRuby and shepherd the language towards the first-full release. The Register has learned, meanwhile, that Microsoft will start accepting external contributions to its other great scripting language project, putting Python on .NET - IronPython - in the "near future". The promise by Microsoft IronRuby lead John Lam comes nearly a year after the topic was first raised. The reason Microsoft decided to leave the DLR closed, despite taking contributions to the languages that will run inside it, is to protect itself from unwanted licenses and IP claims."

Terra Soft Launches Spiritual PowerMac G5 Successor

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-12 Hardware 41 Comments

Apple's PowerMac G5 has been out of sale for nearly two years now, which some find a sad thing. As we all know, the desktop PowerPC market is more or less dead by now, which means getting your hands on a PowerPC workstation is either difficult, or very expensive. Terra Soft Solutions, the company behind Yellow Dog Linux, is about to launch its YDL PowerStation, the unofficial successor to the PowerMac G5. "Not just a simple replacement, but a well designed, perfectly packaged, readily upgradable, and far, far, more open source friendly system. The YDL PowerStation is four cores of unleashed Power in a solid, affordable package."

Anatomy of Linux Journaling File System

Submitted by LinucksGirl 2008-06-12 Linux 23 Comments

Journaling file systems used to be an oddity primarily for research purposes, but today it's the default in Linux. Discover the ideas behind journaling file systems, and learn how they provide better integrity in the face of a power failure or system crash. Learn about the various journaling file systems in use today, and peek into the next generation of journaling file systems.

The A-Z of Programming Languages: ASP

Submitted by fairynomo 2008-06-12 General Development 11 Comments

Computerworld is undertaking a series of investigations into the most widely-used programming languages. Previously they have spoken to Alfred v. Aho of AWK fame, Chet Ramey about his experience maintaining Bash, and S. Tucker Taft on the Ada 1995 and 2005 revisions. In this article they chat to Microsoft about its server-side script engine ASP and web application framework ASP.NET, used to build dynamic Web sites, applications and Web services.

Opera 9.5 Released

Submitted by Jarle Anfinsen 2008-06-12 Opera 55 Comments

Opera 9.5 has been released, beating Firefox 3.0 to the punch which is supposed to be released soon as well. The marketing speak: "Opera's cross-device expertise, support for open Web standards and commitment to speed and performance culminate to create the most powerful Opera browser yet. Making its desktop debut in Opera 9.5, Opera Link blurs the boundaries between computers and mobile phones by enabling a seamless Web experience from device to device." Get it from Opera.com.

Apple To Put P.A. Semi Chips in iPods, iPhones

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-11 Apple 20 Comments

We're continuing our detailed coverage of all the bits and pieces dripping from the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Fransisco. As you all might recall, Apple bought a chip company called P.A. Semi not too long ago, a maker of low-power PowerPC chips, fuelling rumours Apple might use them in its own products such as the iPhone and iPod. This has now been confirmed by His Steveness himself.

Snow Leopard To Be Intel-Only?

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-11 macOS 37 Comments

The original rumours concerning Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard stated that it would be available only for 64bit Intel processors, leaving PowerPC G4, G5, and early Intel Macs out in the blue. While Steve Jobs' keynote and the preview pages at Apple.com did not speak of any hardware cut-offs, Gizmodo got their hands on a hardware requirements document for the Developer Preview release of Snow Leopard, and it contains bad news for PowerPC users.

Apple Updates DTrace in Mac OS X 10.5.3

Adam Scheinberg 2008-06-11 macOS 11 Comments

Remember back in January when Sun engineer Adam Leventhal shared that Apple had "crippled" DTrace? Well, it appears that the latest point release of Leopard silently restored DTrace to full function. According to Levanthal, on 10.5.3, the output of DTrace is "exactly what one would expect". DTrace can be used right now on your updated Leopard install.

SkyOS Adds Native Mail Client

Submitted by Coldfirex 2008-06-11 SkyOS 21 Comments

"We are proud to announce that the next version of SkyOS will ship with a new Mail client. In contrast to the already available Mozilla Thunderbird mail client, the new Mail application completely integrates with SkyOS. For instance, all mails are stored as separate files with various attributes attach to it. So you can easily and quickly find every mail using the SkyOS Viewer and its query system."

GNOME in the Age of Decadence

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-11 Gnome 77 Comments

The KDE project saw the writing on the wall. They saw that they had reached a certain limit when it came to what could be done with the KDE 3.x series - they named it the "big friggin' wall", and decided that in order to get over that wall, incremental updates wouldn't do - they needed massive changes, a big jump, and they went for it. It's been a rough road, but it seems as if KDE 4.1 is showing signs of the vision becoming a reality. And it now seems as if several people within the GNOME community are seeing the writing on the wall too: GNOME 2.x has reached its goal - now what?

Apple Shows off Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-10 macOS 11 Comments

At the Worldwide Developer Conference currently underway in San Fransisco, Apple unveiled some of the new features coming in Mac OS X Server 10.6, Snow Leopard. Of course the new release gets the same improvements as the client version, but in addition to those, there are a few server-specific features underway too.

X Server 1.4.1 Is Released, No Joke

Submitted by capnix 2008-06-10 Wayland 24 Comments

Phoronix has up an article looking at the release of X Server 1.4.1. This maintenance release for X.Org, which many open-source operating systems depend upon for living in a graphically-rich world, is coming more than 200 days late and it doesn't even clear the BugZilla release blocker bug. According to Phoronix, there are more problems for X.org than just this one.

Linux Beats Windows 2008 Power-Saving Measures

Submitted by stonyandcher 2008-06-10 Benchmarks 26 Comments

Green, power reduction, and climate change are all the rage these days, and the world of computers is not off the hook on this one. Software and hardware manufacturers are trying hard to keep power consumption down - while first something for mostly mobile computers, desktops and servers are now part of the effort too. PC World tested Windows Server 2008 and two Linux server offerings and compared their power usage patterns.

‘The Future Is Bright for Linux Filesystems’

Submitted by sharkscott 2008-06-10 Linux 23 Comments

"In a recent article, Linux File Systems: Ready for the Future?, Henry Newman expands on what he feels are shortcomings in current GNU/Linux filesystems. Specifically, he believes current Linux filesystem technology cannot meet the demands that massive implementations of 100TB or larger require. He states he received some emotional responses trying to either refute his information or impugn his character, although those comments do not show on either of the article's pages. This prompted me to get the real scoop on how Linux filesystem technology is trying to keep pace with the ever-growing need for storage space."

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Preview

Thom Holwerda 2008-06-10 macOS 74 Comments

Earlier this month, we reported that The Unofficial Apple Weblog's as well as Ars Technica's sources said that Apple was working on the next version of Mac OS X, dubbed Snow Leopard. The news was that the new release wouldn't focus on new features, but on performance. During yesterday's WWDC 2008 keynote, Steve Jobs confirmed this rumour, and now Apple has published a preview page.

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