OS News Archive

"Atomthreads is a free, lightweight, portable, real-time scheduler for embedded systems. It is released under the flexible, open source BSD license and is free to use for commercial or educational purposes without restriction. It is targeted at systems that need only a scheduler and the usual RTOS primitives. No file system, IP stack or device drivers are included, but developers can bolt on their own as required. Atomthreads will always be a small number of C files which are easy to port to any platforms that require threading by adding a simple architecture-specific file."

At the end of the year, mainly to shamelessly fill slow news around the holidays, OSNews usually asks the readers to share with all the other readers something about their computer setup. Since OSNews can be quite diverse when it comes to computing environments, these threads can often be quite interesting. This year, please chime in with the setup you use to read OSNews - computer, OS, software and maybe even provide screenshots or photos of your proud workspace. Has it changed a lot this year? Maybe switched browser, maybe switched OS even? Let everybody know!

OpenVMS Software Roadmap December 2009
Significant changes:

• OpenVMS V8.4 will be followed by a patch to support the next generation HP Integrity systems after they are available
• OpenVMS V8.4 to be supported on HP VM V4.2
• Storage Futures shows D2D, VLS De-Duplication, SVSP
• TCP/IP V5.7 (due in 2010) will not include IPSEC (it's not ready) but IPSEC will appear later (it's in the E8.4 Field test kit if you want to try it)
• CIFS V1.2 due in 2010
• Insight DynamicsVSE Suite of Products-Integrated solution to manage, analyze and optimize physical, virtual resources on Integrity & Blades - 2010
• Availability Manager v3.1-1 on OpenVMS (Alpha and Integrity) - 2010
• RTR 5.2 is available.
• Future releases planned for the compilers
• The OpenVMS Service Support Roadmap shows the versions on long term support (Alpha V6.2, V7.3-2 etc) supported at least through 2012

"An increasing number of machines are equipped with hardware that can be used to support trustworthy computing. Trustworthy computing enables applications to make strong assurances about their behavior. Existing operating systems do not provide the right execution environment for trustworthy computing, and so are unable to fully exploit this emerging opportunity. The Nexus is a new operating system for trustworthy computing. Its microkernel architecture greatly reduces the size of the trusted computing base (TCB) by moving functionality out of the kernel."

This holiday season it seems that everyone has forgotten the recession and has just decided to pretend to not be broke. In the US, somehow the retail industry has hoodwinked everyone into celebrating a shopping holiday the weekend after Thanksgiving, with the recent addition of "cyber monday" to encourage both irresponsible spending and doing personal shopping on company time while at work. Far be it from us to stand in the way of this Juggernaut. I personally do most of my shopping online, and much of it at Amazon.com, who over the years have proven a dedication to low prices and excellent service. Cyber Monday or not, if you're planning on shopping online this holiday season (or anytime), please consider using OSNews' shopping page, which gives you a good launching point to browse for products and compare prices, and supports OSNews by kicking back a small percentage of your purchase price. It doesn't cost you anything, but makes a big difference for us. So bookmark the page, and show the love all year round. We'd like to make some improvements to the OSNews Shopping launchpad. Please include your recommendations and suggestions in the comments.

A new version of the learning tool OS MikeOS is available, sporting a new BASIC interpreter with 24 instructions. You can run BASIC code from inside the text editor by pressing F8. See the App Developer Handbook for a guide to the BASIC dialect (somewhat similar to old 8-bit BASICs, nostalgia fans), and the User Handbook for info on running MikeOS from a USB key, floppy or CD.