OS News Archive

VMWare 4.5.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-22 OS News 12 Comments

VMWare 4.5.1 includes updates and fixes include changes to the EULA, a more reliable SCSI implementation, better support for Linux guest operating systems using kernels in the 2.6 series, and support for Windows 95 guest operating systems on high-speed processors. Some of the new features are an increased memory range up to 3.6GB per virtual machine (4GB to all vms), experimental support for Longhorn, support for PXE on virtual network hardware, and support for Novell NetWare 5.1, 6, and 6.5 and SUSE LINUX 9.0.

Business Process Virtualization, Outsourcing & Process Reengineering

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-22 OS News 6 Comments

Reengineering left a bad taste in many managers' mouths, and Business Process Virtualization looks very similar on the surface. However, as Martha Young and Michael Jude explain, BPV can deliver the benefits that reengineering promised, but never delivere. They also illustrate the differences and similarities of BPV to two earlier approaches: process reengineering and outsourcing.

Mobius Release 5 Available

Submitted by DanO 2004-03-19 OS News 9 Comments

Release 5 of Mobius (an open-source operating system for the IA-32 platform) is now available.

A Look at Win4Lin 5.1

Guest post by Daniël de Kok 2004-03-17 OS News 36 Comments

As a student I am quite often confronted with (closed-source) Windows programs. These days there are a few tools that can help running Windows applications on Linux. One of these tools is Win4Lin, Win4Lin allowsone to install Windows 95, 98 and ME under Linux. The Windows NT branch is not supported yet, because Win4Lin sets up a special DOS environmentin which Windows runs.

Whitepaper: “Queueing Calculations for Real-Time OS Users”

Submitted by David Kalinsky 2004-03-15 OS News 4 Comments

This technical whitepaper by veteran real-time instructor David Kalinsky examines the queueing calculations that should be done as part of the design of application software for embedded systems using a real-time operating system. These calculations serve to properly configure message queues, linked lists, ring buffers, memory pools and partitions. Both capacity and queueing time issues are discussed, with emphasis on practical examples rather than mathematical proofs.

Introduction to MIR-OS

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-11 OS News 43 Comments

MIR-OS is a 32-bit multi-tasking GPL Operating System for the i386+ developed completely from scratch by a group of programmers in India. Some of the OS's features include full software multi-tasking, Memory Management (slab allocator), Modularized kernel (ELF module support), Semaphores, FAT12 filesystem, VESA graphics and many other features. Currently the OS is in version 0.0.4.

Some Implications of Software Commodification

Eugenia Loli 2004-03-07 OS News 17 Comments

This article explores the concept of commodification in a historical context while also seeking to discover lessons that might be applied to contemporary open source business efforts. I also wrote a similar editorial a few weeks ago.

VMware Workstation 4: More Virtual PCs, More Functionality

Submitted by Tudy Parghel 2004-03-05 OS News 20 Comments

Imagine not one, but two, three or more separate operating systems loaded on a single PC, each of which functions as a separate OS on a separate physical machine. VMware Workstation 4 does just that by creating and managing one or more virtual machines on a single, physical host PC. Every virtual machine is a full-fledged virtual PC, where you can install a guest operating system of your choice, with network configuration and a full suite of PC software. Read the article at TomsHardware.

Introduction to NachOS

Guest post by Werner "murphee" Schuster 2004-03-01 OS News 16 Comments

You want to build a thread system? Experiment with an OS with memory protection and virtual memory? You want to do that without a lot of rebooting, Bochs/VMWaremagic and writing drivers? Well, then Nachos (Not Another Completely Heuristic Operating System) is for you. Nachos is an Operating System simulator. Hmm... . If you're a bit like me, you'll be wondering what in the world that is.

Commodore 64 is Alive and Well

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-27 OS News 38 Comments

Believe it or not, Commodore 64 is still being used for commercial purposes. Analogik has discovered this truly rare occurrence at MYER Centre main bus station terminal - Brisbane, Australia. How reliable C64 is proves the fact that it is still being used to inform travelling people of 21st century.

Tutorial: “Architecture of Embedded Device Drivers”

Submitted by David Kalinsky 2004-02-23 OS News 2 Comments

This technical tutorial by veteran real-time instructor David Kalinsky examines the high-level design of driver software to operate hardware devices that are interfaced to embedded computers. It begins with a discussion of basic issues such as mutual exclusion of device access, and synchronous vs. asynchronous input/output models. Then it goes through a series of structural models for device driver design with RTOS interaction, going from simple to more complex.

Disk Images Now Available for NewOS

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-21 OS News 15 Comments

NewOS now features automatically created bootable images on its web site. Users who would like to try out the latest version of the NewOS kernel can easily rawrite/dd it on a floppy disk and boot with it. NewOS is the preffered kernel for OpenBeOS, but OpenBeOS uses a modified older version of NewOS.

Review: VMware Workstation 4.0.5

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-18 OS News 8 Comments

"Part of what I do involves trying out and working with a large number of Linux distributions. It's important for me to know what's out there and how it compares with other products. When I'm not being a writer, I run a small computer consulting business that makes similar demands. My customers expect me to support and work in a number of different environments and operating systems." Read the rest of the article at UnixReview.

eCosCentric partners with SSV Embedded Systems

Submitted by eCosCentric Limited 2004-02-17 OS News No Comments

eCosCentric Limited announced their partnership with SSV Embedded Systems to deliver an eCosPro(tm) Starter Kit for the DIL/NetPC DNP/5280 embedded controller board.

Trion Operating System 0.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-16 OS News 16 Comments

The Trion Object Oriented Operating system is an OS that is designed to meet the needs for the 21st century, with a kernel written in C++ and modelled in UML. The project is ran by a team of OSDev.org community members and version 0.1 was released recently.

GEOS Available for Download

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-13 OS News 21 Comments

Slashdot reports in the release of the GEOS to the public. Check also our search page for links to the AppleII version and a past interview with an ex-GeoWorks employee.

Unununium gets official Scitech SNAP port

Submitted by Dave Poirier 2004-02-10 OS News 19 Comments

Scitech officially announced today a port of their SNAP graphic interface to the Unununium Operating System, read the white paper written by Richard Fillion, part of the Unununium main developers.

Introducing the Robotic Operating System

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-06 OS News 5 Comments

The Robotic Operating System, or ROS (download), is intended to operate at the center of behavior-based robotics systems. ROS is an operating system within an operating system, running as a normal program on UNIX-like systems and acting as an operating system for a set of other normal UNIX programs and scripts. ROS is used only to start, stop, and provide other services to behaviors, but without behaviors would perform no function. While a behavior might, technically, run without ROS, it would not fit into a system of behaviors and so would not be useful.

An Introduction to Virtualization

Eugenia Loli 2004-02-05 OS News 5 Comments

The purpose of this document can be informally stated as follows: if you were to use virtualization in a an endeavor (research or otherwise), here are some things to look at.

Athene 3.3 Released

Submitted by Paul Manias 2004-02-03 OS News 11 Comments

Rocklyte Systems has made Athene 3.3 available with a number of new features including an updated file manager, music player, and find files program. There are 11 updated and new UI gadgets, improved multi-lingual support and a revised SDK. The graphics performance has improved further since 3.2 by using XDGA to give a 25% performance boost when in X11 full-screen mode. Read more for the changelog and screenshots.