Monthly Archive:: October 2008

Why Windows 7 Will Suck Less Than Vista

Submitted by Jeremy13 2008-10-29 Windows 26 Comments

Loyd Case over at ExtremeTech attended Microsoft's technical briefing of Windows 7 and can't help but compare how the new operating system will be better than Vista. Key features are better user support, stability, performance, and many other things. Sounds like a broken record? Probably, but Microsoft learned a lot after Vista launched, and they'll be careful not to repeat a lot of the same mistakes twice.

More Details on HP’s Virtualization Efforts

David Adams 2008-10-29 Unix 1 Comment

OSNews recently ran a story on UNIX virtualization functionality which was a bit shallow on technical details. HP's Christophe de Dinechin (who had already begun working on virtualization at HP when we interviewed him several years ago, but couldn't talk about it then) contacted us to tell us he'd gone into more technical detail on his blog here and here saying, "They are a bit long, and probably boring to a general audience, but since your readers are generally more interested in OS technology than the average population, I thought I'd bring these to your attention."

Torvalds: Real Quality Means Taking it Personally

Guest post by Rahul 2008-10-29 Linux No Comments

The Linux Foundation (LF) has posted a ten-minute video interview with kernel coordinator Linus Torvalds. Held during the Linux Foundation's recent Linux Kernel Summit, the interview reveals the Linux founder speaking out on issues ranging from kernel/userland interactions to why Linux has so many interfaces.

Sinofsky Demoed Windows 7 on a Netbook

Thom Holwerda 2008-10-28 Windows 21 Comments

I've been running Windows Vista Ultimate on my Acer Aspire One netbook (with 1.5GB of RAM, and a 30GB hard drive) for a while now, without any problems or performance issues. I have the full Aero Glass experience, and I didn't need to do any performance tweaking or fiddling with services. I even made a few very crappy videos to show it all off. Apparently, Steven Sinofsky thinks Vista - and therefore, Windows 7 - can run just fine on a netbook too, and that's why he demonstrated Windows 7 running on a netbook this morning during the Windows 7 keynote. In an interview with Ars he gave a little more details.

Overhauling the Windows Interface

Thom Holwerda 2008-10-28 Windows 75 Comments

Windows 7 is out and about. Microsoft has been unusually secretive about Vista's successor, but now that PDC is under way, they have unveiled the various enhancements to the user interface. Windows 7 might not have any significant under-the-hood changes (in fact, all your applications and devices will still work), but on the outside, Windows 7 represents the biggest change for the Windows user interface ever since Windows 95 came out.

Exploring Oslo’s Modeling Language Promises

Submitted by estherschindler 2008-10-28 General Development No Comments

Microsoft is sharing bits of Oslo at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this week. Learn what's new in M, the company's language for creating domain-specific languages, and why Microsoft thinks it's such a big deal. (Oh yeah. And M will be made available under the open specification promise. Open source developers... ready set GO!)

Inside Windows 7 Pre-Beta

Submitted by DigitalDame 2008-10-28 Windows 20 Comments

The new OS includes major new user interface updates, and promises to work much better with third-party hardware and software. Can the latest version of the OS wash away the sour taste of Vista? Here's a detailed report and a slideshow of Windows 7 screenshots.

The Four Biggest Open Source Innovations

Submitted by M-Saunders 2008-10-28 Open Source 51 Comments

Free Software/open source often gets a bad rap for innovating. It just rips-off the work of commercial developers, right? Not so, as this Linux Format piece argues. FLOSS has pioneered, or been a catalyst in, some notable changes in the computing world. Several of these innovations are OS-related.

SDK Released for Microsoft Surface

Submitted by Caffeine Deprived 2008-10-28 Microsoft 2 Comments

Microsoft offered a software development kit for Surface, the company's tabletop computer, to about 1,000 people at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. The article features a some details on apps already available for Surface. (For example, designers at Vectorform have built an application that lets people can "carve" a jack-o'-lantern on the Surface by using their fingers to trace a design in an image of a pumpkin.)

Unintentional Windows 7 Preview

David Adams 2008-10-28 Windows 5 Comments

It seems that Microsoft may have unintentionally leaked certain details about its upcoming Windows 7 feature set in a privacy supplement that was posted on its homepage. Driver protection, dynamic update, Homegroup, People Near Me, and Trusted Platform Model are all features mentioned (and described) in this document that will be new to Windows 7 that hadn't previously been publicized.

Ubuntu 7.04 to 8.10 Benchmarks: Is Ubuntu Getting Slower?

Thom Holwerda 2008-10-28 Ubuntu 42 Comments

With the release of Ubuntu 8.10 only a few days away, Phoronix decided to take a look at the performance figures over the past releases - from Ubuntu 7.04 to Ubuntu 8.10. Phoronix used its own extensive test suite on fresh installations, with the same parameters, on the identical hardware. The results are rather surprising. Update: I've added some more information about this, gathered from the Ubuntu mailing list. You can find it in the 'read more'.

The Home Computer as Nerve Center for a House

David Adams 2008-10-27 OS News 14 Comments

As part of our ongoing series, "Building the Wired Home," we've been experimenting with what could be a sea-change in the whole concept of a home computer. Home computers, of course, have long ago become commonplace, and computers have even taken on some roles that used to be delegated to standalone consumer electronics, such as audio and video storage and playback. They've gone from being exotic oddities to ever-more-useful home appliances. Interestingly, though, as our home computers have become more powerful, sophisticated, and useful, they have also become decentralized and have, in most inefficient fashion, been chopped up and redistributed around the house. "Read more" to learn how our experiment worked out.

Canonical’s Revenues Grow, But Not Yet Profitable

2008-10-27 Ubuntu 34 Comments

From the get-go, the company behind the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu - Canonical - has backed Ubuntu with Mark Shuttleworth's money. The big question has always been if Canonical is actually making any money. We have a rather clear and definitive answer to that one now.

AROS: Self-Compile Bounty Almost Completed

Guest post by saimon69 2008-10-27 Amiga & AROS 5 Comments

Stanislaw Szymczyk has been working on the AROS self-compiling bounty since April. The job, according to its website, has been not a trivial task. Now that some issues with soft links and the SFS file format have been resolved, the job is almost finished.

Battle of the Thumb Drive Linux Systems

Guest post by Rahul 2008-10-27 Linux 10 Comments

Lifehacker reviews some of the popular Linux distributions that have provided tools to make Live USB keys, a easy task. These include Damn Small Linux, Fedora with it's cross platform liveusb-creator , Puppy Linux and Xubuntu. All systems were tested with UNetbootin except for Fedora which was run using it's own liveusb-creator. For every distribution, the minimum requirements, image size, boot time, features, things that need improvement and which users it is recommended for, is listed.

Microsoft Announces Windows Azure Cloud Services

Adam Scheinberg 2008-10-27 Windows 15 Comments

Microsoft today announced Windows Azure, a cloud services platform. According to the website, "Windows Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host and manage web applications on the internet through Microsoft data centers."

Open Source Essential to Secure E-Voting

Guest post by snydeq 2008-10-27 Legal 22 Comments

The mounting irregularities of closed-source proprietary e-voting systems clearly show the need for a new approach to securing elections in the U.S. -- one centered on the use of open source technologies, writes Paul Venezia. 'It's time for us to make good on the promise of open elections and open our e-voting systems as well,' Venezia writes, outlining the technical blueprint for a cheap, secure, open source e-voting system. The call for open voting systems has grown louder as of late, with several projects, such as Pvote and the Open Voting Consortium, demonstrating how the voting booth could benefit from open source code. Such systems are already securing elections in Australia and Brazil.

Interview: Fedora 10’s Better Startup

Submitted by Rahul 2008-10-27 Fedora Core 10 Comments

For a long time now, GNU/Linux distributions have been criticised by desktop and laptop users for starting up too slowly. More recently, within the Fedora community particularly, there have been increasing numbers of complaints about the amount of 'flicker' that happens as the system switches from Grub to RHGB to GDM, etc. Fedora 10 is going to change all of that, and to talk us through this feature, Adam Jackson, Red Hat Desktop Engineer, agreed to an interview.

Support Grows for Intel’s Mobile Linux Despite Delay

Submitted by Moochman 2008-10-27 Linux 2 Comments

El Reg reports: While Intel's Moblin 2.0 platform has been delayed from November 2008 to the first half of 2009, it looks like its arrival will provide quite the boost to the netbook scene. "Start-up Good OS has announced a relationship with MiTAC International to deliver its gOS Gadgets Linux operating system on a netbook based on Intel's Moblin 2.0. David Liu, founder and chief executive of gOS, told The Reg the machine planned with MiTAC would be among the first to be released on the as-yet unfinished Moblin 2.0. Ahead of completion, vendors have been working with Moblin 1.0 and so-called 'Moblin optimizations'. These are portions of the Moblin spec that have been picked up and incorporated into either hardware or software design. Xandros and Asus have, for example, added changes to their systems from Moblin that provide a 25 per cent improvement in battery life. Liu said Moblin was 'getting more and more ready for mainstream use' with features such as an extra-fast boot time of five seconds."

Google, Apple Openly Support Fight Against ‘Proposition 8’

Submitted by SK8T 2008-10-25 In the News 87 Comments

In a rather unusual move, both Google and Apple have publicly backed the fight against "Proposition 8", both by words as well as by donation. Proposition 8 is an initiative measure in the state of California that would ban same-sex marriages in California by amending the Constitution of the state to include that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California". Both companies gave out their reasoning for supporting the fight against 'Prop 8'.

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