OS News Archive

QEMU, the free software PC emulator available, has a Win32 port (and another CygWin port) pending commit (screenshot). The port is "only" for the emulation of a complete x86 PC (QEMU supports two other modes too), and that is initially also the only mode considered.

Devicelogics, a company founded by former executives of Caldera and Lineo in Utah, says it has begun shipping version 8.0 of DR-DOS today. The company says the most significant enhancement in the latest version of this long-lived operating system is support for FAT32 large partitions, enabling DR-DOS "to keep up with market demand for DOS-based embedded solutions built on FAT32 platforms."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.