Monthly Archive:: June 2012

The average computer user might think that the number of languages their operating system supports is pretty long. OSX supports 22 languages, and Microsoft claims to support 96, but they're counting different regional dialects multiple times. But there are over 6000 languages, and though many of them are spoken by a dwindling few, there are some languages that are spoken by millions of people that are supported very poorly, if at all, by computer operating systems. The reason for the support being poor is that the people who speak those languages are poor, and are not good "markets." It's only because of the efforts of a few dedicated people that computing support for languages such as Burmese, Sinhalese, Pali, Cambodian, and Lao have been as good as they are, but the trends for the future are not good.

OSNews' server had a RAID controller go kaput earlier today. It's fixed and we're back up. Thanks to Jon Jensen and the guys at Endpoint for taking care of us.

"All major operating systems, from Windows to OS X to iOS to Android, are all fully customizable and manageable using either first- or third-party tools. Google's Chrome OS is no exception. As part of our ongoing check-in with the revamped operating system and new, more robust Chrome hardware, today we'll be spending some time with the Chrome OS management console, looking at whether it makes Chrome OS a viable choice for businesses."

I'm not sure if such a thing exists anymore (what, with both Firefox and Chrome doing the release-all-the-time thing), but browser season 2012 has been opened! Opera 12 has just been released, bringing with it all sorts of updates and improvements. She may not be the most popular of the pack, but she sure has the most loyal fanbase.

"The Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation is poised to 'define and promote an open, standards-based approach to heterogeneous computing that will provide a common hardware specification and broad support ecosystem to make it easier for software developers to deliver innovative applications that can take greater advantage of today's modern processors.' The HSA Foundation goes without Intel's support." Interesting.

The BBC interviews Torvalds. I like this bit: "For me, Linux on the desktop is where I started, and Linux on the desktop is literally what I still use today primarily - although I obviously do have other Linux devices, including an Android phone - so I'd personally really love for it to take over in that market too. But I guess that in the meantime I can't really complain about the successes in other markets." Linux on the desktop is quite passe. Phones and servers is where it's at.

So, iOS 6 will make its way to devices all the way back to the 3GS... But many key features are not available at all on the 3GS, and even the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 are seeing features held back. "Some features, like the VIP List for email, the Offline Reading List, and Shared Photo Stream won't work on the iPhone 3GS. Even flagship iOS features like Flyover, turn-by-turn navigation, and FaceTime over cellular won't work on recent devices like the iPhone 4 or the iPad 2 - not to mention the iPhone 3GS." Pretty scummy and misleading.

Bitrig, a fork of OpenBSD, has surfaced. It aims to be less conservative than OpenBSD by being less loose with new features and only supporting modern architectures. Bitrig has also converted over to using LLVM's clang rather than GNU gcc for it's toolchain/compiler. A roadmap for Bitrig is also available.

Apple held its keynote speech just now, kicking off its developer conference. The company announced minor refreshes for its laptop line, introduced a stunning new laptop with a Retina display, and gave a sneak peek of iOS 6, which will launch in the Fall.

So, I've been sitting on this one for a few days now, since I decided to let the sensationalist headlines pass by before I took a stab at it. Developer Christina B. has started - and released code for - an amazingly intriguing project: implementing Darwin/BSD on top of the Linux kernel. Just to make this absolutely clear: it's not her intention to allow iOS applications to run on this new, hybrid system. Let me reiterate: it's not her intention to allow iOS applications to run on this new, hybrid system. This, however, does not make this project any less interesting.

So, Google has made it very hard to install Chrome extensions outside of the Chrome Web Store - out of security concerns. In addition, they sprung this on users and extension developers without much consultation or consideration for their concerns. As always - understandable to protect users, but the handling has an almost Apple-like bluntness to it. Next up: how to jailbreak your browser?

"I've lost track of the many reasons that have been given for the switch to Intel, but this I know for sure: no one has ever reported that, for 18 months, Project Marklar existed only because a self-demoted engineer wanted his son Max to be able to live closer to Max's grandparents." Amazing.

Two weeks ago, my grandmother passed away - the last grandparent I had left. As those of you with experience in dealing with deceased family members know, the funeral is only the start; the next part is taking care of the deceased's affairs, which includes going through all their belongings to determine what to do with them. I took care of my grandmother's extensive book collection, and while doing so, I hit something that fascinated me to no end: a six-volume Christian Encyclopaedia from 1956. In it, I found something I just had to share with OSNews.

"A few weeks ago, we shared our plans for the Express editions of Visual Studio 2012. As we've worked to deliver the best experience with Visual Studio for our platforms with Windows 8, Windows Phone, and for Web and Windows Azure, we heard from our community that developers want to have for Windows desktop development the same great experience and access to the latest Visual Studio 2012 features at the Express level. Today, I'm happy to announce that we will add Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop to the Visual Studio 2012 family. This will bring to the Visual Studio Express family significant new capabilities that we've made available in Visual Studio 2012 for building great desktop applications."