Monthly Archive:: August 2011

Over the past few days, Microsoft has been talking about improvements made to Windows 8 on its 'Building Windows 8' blog at MSDN. Strangely enough, the improvements mentioned were either dealing with the classic desktop, or were demonstrated using the classic desktop - and not the fancy Metro user interface which is supposed to be Windows 8's big new thing. Today's post finally gives a little more detail about how the classic and Metro UI work together, but questions still remain.

We're living in crazy times, that's for sure. Less than two weeks ago, HP announced it was going to quit making webOS devices. To get rid of existing stock, HP drastically cut the price of the TouchPad to a mere $99 - and this has resulted in a massive run on the device. Lines formed everywhere, and the device is now completely sold out. So, HP has just announced it is going to... Build an additional limited run of TouchPads.

"While the Mandriva Linux distribution lost most of its charm when many of the developers left to form Mageia Linux and the remaining stakeholders switched to just doing one official release per year, the 2011 final release was published on Sunday. While Mandriva no longer carries the popularity it did in its early days or back in the Mandrake days, the 2011.0 release is an improvement. Mandriva 2011.0 provides the mandriva Package Manager (a new package manager under heavy development), MandrivaSync (a cloud service for Mandriva that's similar to DropBox, iCloud, and Ubuntu One), LibreOffice 3.4, and adopts the system service manager."

InfoWorld's Neil McAllister examines the challenges and opportunities ahead for Linux as it enters its third decade, and finds that the rise of cloud computing and mobility could elevate the open source OS to a level of unprecedented dominance. 'The last 20 years haven't always been easy. Linux has made a few enemies, Microsoft foremost among them. It has faced its share of challenges, too, both technical and legal, and there are more hurdles ahead. Nonetheless, as Linux enters its third decade, its opportunities have never been greater. Computing is changing, and Linux is not only benefiting from this change but is enabling it. Thanks to a shift beyond the PC, Linux is poised to become more than just an OS, but one of the most transformative forces in computing history — and it's happening right under everyone's nose.'

"X.Org Server 1.11 was officially released this Friday evening. X.Org Server 1.11 was originally planned for released in mid August, but then the unfortunate passing of Keith Packard's mother (the X.Org release manager) led to a one-week delay. Our condolences go out to Keith Packard and his family. After numerous belated releases from X.Org in the past, a one week delay is nothing to complain about, especially considering the sad circumstance. While this is a new major X.Org Server release, it's mostly about bug-fixing. X Input 2.1 was delayed (with its touch-related features) to the next X.Org Server release (or later), there isn't any RandR extensions (after RandR 1.4 was restarted), and just nothing to get too excited over, besides addressing outstanding issues. Regardless, it's an improvement that incorporates six months of enhancements."

I thought OSNews would be a good forum to talk about a matter that has been weighing on my mind lately primarily because the site has been so focused on Apple's patents and litigation as of late. The news that HP, the largest PC manufacturer in the world is spinning off or getting out of this business is what really prompted me to write this article.