In the News Archive

News Pot-Pouri Around the Web

"Is this the end of Netscape? So much for Netscape 8.0" C|net says. Where does that leave the Mozilla project? After Apple and Microsoft, Real and Amazon get into online music business. IBM launches Lotus admin Kit resources for Win/Linux/Mac. How-to animation in SDL. 3D UI for Windows Desktops. Revolution 2.0 development tool released. New Gnumeric screenshot. Review of Poseidon USB, a USB stack for Amiga/MorphOS, plus a benchmark of AmigaONE against Pegasos and AthlonXP.

A Quick CeBIT Report

I just came back from the CeBIT, the anual fair in the Messehalle in Hannover Germany. It is one of the biggest computer and communications technology fairs in the world and certainly the biggest in Europe. Here's my mini report (which also includes information about YellowTAB's Zeta).

News Soup: Safari, Gecko, C# Vs Java, SCO Vs IBM, Linux Releases

Safari Beta 0.64 was given to beta testers and it has some nice additions as ThinkSecret reports. Builder.com invited some current and former CNET developers to weigh in on the C# vs. Java debate. Big Blue is hitting back against SCO's charges that it misappropriated Unix trade secrets and used them in Linux. SuSE says it's "greatly disappointed" by SCO's actions. 'Browser Innovation, Gecko and the Mozilla Project' is the article Mitchell Baker of the Mozilla project posted. Blogger installs Lycoris on Dell Latitude CPi D266XT and writes down his experiences. Two new commercial releases for Linux: Moho 4.1 and the TextMaker word processor (works with FreeBSD 4.x when Linux ABI is installed). Update: A SCO editorial, this time from OfB: "Why SCO Needs to Go". Update 2: Mono 0.23 is out.

News Soup: Opera, Camino, Syllable, Mono, SkyOS, DirectX

Opera Software recently released version 6.11TP of its Opera browser for the Solaris operating system. Additionally, Chimera for MacOSX changed its name to Camino and released version 0.7 of the popular Mac Gecko-based browser. Rick Caudill from Syllable uploaded a screenshot showing changes he made for the desktop of 0.4.4 version of Syllable OS. Also, the Mono project just released version 0.22 which incorporates a number of bug fixes, while SkyOS had its share on new features, drivers and fixes. Finally, Microsoft unveils new DirectX 9 enhancements: high-Level Shader Language integrated into DX.

Microsoft To Buy Connectix To Enter Server Consolidation Market

Microsoft plans to take a giant leap into the server consolidation space this week by announcing the acquisition of virtual server software company Connectix. The software giant, which is expected to formally unveil the deal Thursday, will use the technology to allow customers to carve out multiple partitions on a single Intel-based server, allowing them to run multiple instances of a single operating system and multiple workloads. Update: Read more for info on the fate of the MacOSX version.

FOSDEM Publishes Interviews with OSS Luminaries

In preparation for the Free and Open Source Software Developers' Meeting (FOSDEM), to be held in Brussels next week, the event organizers have published interviews with several people who will be speaking at the conference. This week, they interviewed Jon Maddog Hall, who discusses Linux and the role of Linux International, and Havoc Pennington, who covers free standards and platform interoperability.

Microsoft to Buy Rational and Borland?

"According to a Reuters report that crossed the wires late today, the speculation is that Microsoft will make bids to buy both Rational and Borland. Shares of both Rational and Borland are up on the news, and so far both IBM and Microsoft have no comment on this report." This from Java Developer news. I've been digging around but haven't been able to get a confirm or deny from MS sources.

Q&A: Post-Microsoft, Quantum’s Belluzzo Free to Tout Linux

"I wasn't a believer in Linux at Microsoft -- I couldn't be a believer at Microsoft. But Linux is clearly the biggest competitive challenge that Microsoft has ever faced. It's unlike anything before -- there's not a company behind it. It's very elusive, in a way. I don't think Linux is going to be successful as a desktop replacement. But Linux is going to surround new appliances and new segments, and really affect Microsoft through prevention of Microsoft from moving into new segments effectively." Read the interview at ComputerWorld.

OSNews Helps with Your Holiday Shopping

When it comes time for you to buy toys for all the good little boys and girls on your shopping list, don't forget OSNews' price comparison engine. It will help you find the best price on electronics and computer stuff, even factoring in shipping charges. There's even a new feature that allows you to search for mail-in rebate information. If you've never used the price comparison engine before, give it a try, and let us know what you think.

Pepper Donations to Return Back; Pepper to Stay Commercial

J. Todd Slack emailed in and asked us to inform everyone that their donations towards the FreePepper project will be returned to all who contributed. The contributions from the community were a bit above $500 USD and that was obviously not enought as $11,000 were needed to open source Pepper. "I have come up with the funds privately to buy Pepper and I will be returning everyone's donations in the next few days. I thank everyone who donated" Mr Slack said. Pepper will stay commercial and it will not be open sourced.

Technology After the Bubble

"Having spent more than $1.2 trillion on information technology in the United States alone from 1995 to 2000, companies now want to wring the elusive productivity and bottom-line gains from this massive outlay. If buyers are glad to end their spendthrift ways, IT providers of course have a different perspective: After years of heady sales growth, they are now engaged in bare-knuckle competition as the industry confronts sated customers and overcapacity." Read the article at C|Net News.