Rumors Archive

A post by Torvalds on the linux-kernel mailing list suggests that Intel should be more than a little ashamed of itself when it announced its 64-bit extensions last week. Torvalds was replying to a post which asked whether there was any difference between X86_64 and X86-64. He said the real name for the instruction set should be X86-64, and always has been. Torvalds said he was "a bit disgusted" at Intel for not even mentioning AMD in its documentation or its press releases. Read more at the Inquirer.

"Sun's Java Desktop System joins Novell's Ximian XD2 as a tailored GNOME desktop that's aimed at cubicle workers in large enterprise settings, such as government offices and big educational institutions. In the future, Linux will be the desktop used by the most, and the least, computer-literate folks on the planet" says the shootout review at NewsForge.

Despite the relentless march of Linux, major vendors believe commercial Unix releases aren't ready for the scrapheap yet. As Linux evolves from its single-processor roots into larger-scale applications, many market watchers have predicted that it will eventually replace the remaining commercial Unixes: Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX, Sun Microsystem's Solaris, IBM's AIX and SGI's Irix. "It costs between $150 million and $200 million a year to generate your own Unix system and you then have to say to yourself 'Am I going to see that amount of extra revenue if I put in these features?'" Linux International executive office Jon 'maddog' Hall told iTnews. However, Unix vendors argue that the needs of large-scale enterprise users haven't yet been met by Linux.

PC Magazine has a review of several Server OSes targetted at the SMB market, ranging from MS Windows SBS 2003, to Novell, to SuSE Linux 9.0. Windows Server 2003 wins the editor's choice.

"In this article, I'm taking Linux (Debian and others), Macintosh OS X (Panther) and Windows XP and comparing them to find the ideal operating system for web design and development. After using Windows, Macintosh OS X and Linux (in various incarnations) each for extended periods of time over the last 4 1/2 years, here is what I've found." Read the article at MarcusVorwaller.com.

The International Telecommunications Union's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was last week. Of particular interest was a moderated debate on the issue of preferential treatment for open-source products in government procurement. John Carroll editorializes for proprietary software and RMS on the other side, against it.

Just as, in the Java world, there are many competing MVC frameworks for JSP development, so many Open Source developers - says LinuxWorld senior editor James Turner - "scratch the same itch." In this week's installment of LinuxWorld's "Point-Counterpoint" series, LinuxWorld editors James Turner and Steve Suehring slug it out over that most contentious of issues: does the Open Source community on occasion shoot itself in the foot? James says it does, constantly; Steve disagrees.

Red Hat and Novell are moving into an area where Microsoft is more vulnerable: Enterprise computing. Although many businesses run their computers on Windows, Linux is still a powerful presence in the Web-server market, and most enterprise computing is moving to a Web-based model.

This edition's education article focuses on the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, which may be the largest deployment of laptops in the world. Two elements that make this an extraordinary deployment is the fact that the laptops have been distributed to 7th and 8th grade students and that they are iBook laptops running OS X. Read it here.

In his new book "Illustrator CS for Dummies," Ted Alspach, Adobe's Group Product Manager for Illustration Products, advises new computer buyers to get a PC: "As of 2003, Windows systems have taken a decisive lead over Macs when it comes to performance. The difference is most apparent with graphics applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator, but you''ll notice it with other applications as well. If you?'re thinking of purchasing a new system, and speed and responsiveness is important (or at least more important than the feel of the OS, I suggest getting a zippy PC over a (comparably) sluggish Mac". This is not the first time Adobe (Apple's #1 third party software house) pushes its customers towards the PC. The previous time it ended with Apple's PR firing back at Adobe through the media.

"There are loads of things to consider when buying a PC or a Mac, things like API’s, software and hardware support, networking capabilities, usability and security then you have the major one, the price. You also have to consider that Mac’s are certainly aimed at the consumer market while Windows is aiming for both Consumer and Business users". Read the comparison at ActiveMac.

Well, you know... little girls & boys admire athletes, singers, actors... We, OS geeks, tend to respect and admire engineers (for the most part). Come in and vote for your favorite tech icon, let us see who is the "big tech star" these days!

Once Linux overtakes Unix, as Aberdeen analyst Bill Claybrook predicts, Linux and Windows "will be duking it out for everything." There will be "unbelievable competition between Windows and Linux" in areas like back-end database servers, he says.

One of the major roadblocks for Unix was the lack of one single standardized platform for applications. Linux seems to be following along the same line, although on a different parallel. To compete head-to-head with Microsoft, Linux advocates should standardize the platform, A. Russell Jones says.