Monthly Archive:: March 2010

The GNOME team has released version 2.30 of their open source desktop environment. "The GNOME Project's focus on users and usability continues in GNOME 2.30 with its hundreds of bug fixes and user-requested improvements. The sheer number of enhancements makes it impossible to list every change and improvement made."

"ScaraOS is a 32bit mutiboot OS kernel for IA32 (PC/AT) systems. I wrote it to teach myself OS fundamentals and just to have a bit of fun. It already has PCI support, the beginnings of a paged memory management system, and the start of a VFS layer. It supports the basic PC/AT stuff such as timer, PIC, keyboard, floppy."

I guess this is what some people would call "karma". Apple may shout off the rooftops that it invented multitouch, and that anyone else using it is clearly stealing it from them - but another company has taken offence to that, and has slapped the Cupertino giant with a patent infringement suit over multitouch.

As geeks, we're well aware of the importance of running as a normal user instead of as root (UNIX/Linux/BSD) or administrator (Windows). However, while this should be common knowledge to anyone reading OSNews, it's often hard to illustrate just how important it is - until now, that is. A report by BeyondTrust looked at how many security bulletins issused by Microsoft are mitigated by simply... Not running as administrator.

It's time for bed over here, but before I turn in with a nice cup of tea and a Gilmore Girls episode, we've got some good news for you: SCO has been dealt yet another major blow in its baseless lawsuit against Novell. A jury has ruled that Novell owns the UNIX copyrights - not SCO.

"KDE has released a new version of the KDE Software Compilation. This month's edition of KDE SC is a bugfix and translation update to KDE SC 4.4. KDE SC 4.4.2 is a recommended upgrade for everyone running KDE SC 4.4.1 or earlier versions. As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. Users around the world will appreciate that KDE SC 4.4.2 multi-language support is more complete. KDE SC 4 is already translated into more than 50 languages, with more to come." Impromptu poll: Windows Phone 7 Series or KDE Software Compilation 4.4: which of the two rolls off the tongue the worst?

Red Hat has updated its virtualization platform, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, to include support for desktop virtualization. The beta version of REV 2.2 will include a number of new programs that will allows customers to run a virtualized desktop infrastructure.

It appears that Oracle has lost interest in supporting the Solaris port for IBM SystemZ machines: "The SystemZ port of Solaris is dead. Oracle pulled all plugs and refused to further help the authors." In two years, the project has been downloaded only 1000 times.

"Windows XP became the most effective Microsoft Bob deployment tool ever developed. And if you go way back into your closet, dig out your copy of Windows XP, and can somehow channel the right spirits to mash your hands on the keyboard in exactly the right way, then out of your encryption program will come a copy of Microsoft Bob."

"One game on the Web has been accused of being little more than an elaborate scam designed to bilk gamers out of their money. The game, Evony, has an extensive Web presence that has gained a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons, and that's just the beginning of the bad press surrounding the title. Accusations of shady business practices, legal bullying, and physical intimidation surround the game; some of these claims are easy enough to parse, while others are practically impossible to figure out because the real story has become so convoluted that it's a Gordian Knot of facts."

"Hot on the heals of Oracle's revamp of Solaris support, the licensing agreement for free downloads of Solaris 10 have changed. Here is the bit in question: "...Please remember, your right to use Solaris acquired as a download is limited to a trial of 90 days, unless you acquire a service contract for the downloaded Software". So far the OpenSolaris license has not changed, it's still CDDL."

The PlayStation 3 Slim already had an ability penalty of -35 Geekiness because of its lack of the "Install Other OS" option, and now the regular PlayStation 3 will follow in its footsteps. A PS3 firmware update, scheduled to land April 1, will disable this option on regular PS3s as well. This, dear readers, is what we in the business call a "testicle move", especially since only a few weeks ago, Sony bold-facedly claimed the feature would not be removed.

This is a little bit off the beaten track for OSNews, but hey, it's about science fiction and it's funny. "This month, 'Battlefield Earth', the blockbuster bomb based on the novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, won the Razzie for 'Worst Movie of the Decade'. J.D. Shapiro, the film's first screenwriter, accepted the award in person. Shapiro, who also wrote the screenplay for 'Robin Hood: Men in Tights', 'We Married Margo', and is developing a King Arthur spoof called '524 AD', explains what it's like to be attached to one of Hollywood's most notorious flops."

And this is why we love the web, this is why we love Russia, and this is why we want to marry the web+Russia. While Microsoft has already dashed any hopes of the HTC HD2 ever getting Windows Phone 7 Series support, Russian hackers have simply taken the WP7S developer tools apart, more specifically, the emulator, and now have Windows Phone 7 Series running on the HD2 - months and months before the first device is expected to hit the shelves.