OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

PostgreSQL 7.3.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-23 Databases 3 Comments

The major PostgreSQL news this week is the upcoming release of 7.3.1, which will provide some fixes for early adopters of 7.3. In other SQL news, the Firebird team is pleased to announce the release of the Firebird v1.0.2 update for Win32 and Linux.

My Take on Knoppix Linux

Guest post by Stan Brone 2002-12-23 Linux 49 Comments

Have you ever been in situations which made you think "I wish I had Linux running right now", or are you a person who just would like to try Linux quickly? Knoppix Linux might just be your thing!

34 Papers on Real-time Linux

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-23 Linux No Comments

LinuxDevices.com is pleased to publish the proceedings from the Fourth Real-Time Linux Workshop held December 6-7, 2002 in Boston, MA at the Computer Science Department, Boston University. The conference was organized by the Real-Time Linux Foundation.

Whither the BeOS?

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-23 Haiku 38 Comments

In an article for OSOpinion, Mike Berman has a thing or two to say about the past, present, and future of the BeOS. Although he makes some acute observations in an effort to generate discussion, he doesn't mention any of the developing BeOS replacements, Zeta, OpenBeOS, or BlueEyedOS. Read the article here.

FreeBSD 5.0 RC2 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-22 FreeBSD 56 Comments

FreeBSD 5.0 RC2 has been released and the final release is scheduled for January 17th 2003.

Bochs 2.0 Released

Submitted by Igor Shmukler 2002-12-22 OS News 24 Comments

Bochs 2.0 x86 emulator was released today with many new features and support for MMX/SSE/SSE2 and more modern operating systems in graphics mode.

GTK+ 2.2 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-21 GTK+ 45 Comments

The stable version of GTK+ 2.2 was released today, along with GLib2 2.2.0 and Pango 1.2.0. This version of the GTK+ libraries will be used in the upcoming Gnome 2.2 release, which is the first version truly geared towards end-users.

Mono and .Net: The Odd Couple

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-21 Rumors 21 Comments

In the Brazilian martial art capoeira, it can be hard to tell if the participants are fighting or dancing. Players cooperate and compete, and spend as much energy trying to impress the crowd and one-up each other as they do in combat. Read the article at ZDNews.

Virtual PC 6 for Mac Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-21 OS News 31 Comments

The new version of Virtual PC has speed improvements up to 25% faster on Mac OS X, Mac OS X Dock integration, enhanced back-up support in Mac OS X, improved USB printing support for increased compatibility, video support for Apple's monitors, including the 23" Cinema Display Self-contained configurations; makes installation on several machines a snap. According to Connectix test, optimal performance requires Mac OS X - version 10.2.3 (Jaguar), L3 cache, NVIDIA Ge Force or ATI Radeon video card.

OS X December 2002 Developer Tools

Submitted by SkeeterMac 2002-12-21 macOS 16 Comments

Apple released the December 2002 Developer tools update today, available for download for ADC Members. Among the list of updates is Project Builder 2.1 with "better CVS support".

Red Hat to Stop Support for Alpha, Sparc

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-21 Red Hat 16 Comments

Red Hat has stopped official support for all its Linux releases for the Alpha and Sparc architectures, according to an official posting to the Bugtraq mailing lists.

IRIX Binary Compatibility, Part 5

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-21 NetBSD 1 Comment

"Welcome back to our series on IRIX binary compatibility. In this part, we will study IRIX and NetBSD threading models. We will also examine how it is possible to emulate IRIX native threads on NetBSD, though NetBSD does not support a similar feature for its native binaries." Read the article at OnLamp.

A Newbie Tackles Red Hat 8.0 on a Laptop

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-20 Red Hat 40 Comments

"Well Red Hat came out with 8.0 and I was cautioned about trying out a new release and that maybe I should wait for 8.1 to come out. I was going to follow that advice but I got tired of my sound not working so I decided it's either going to be Red Hat 8.0 or back to Windows XP, but one way or the other my sound was going to work." Read the full article at Linux Orbit.

Windows 2000 SP4 Beta Leaked

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Windows 18 Comments

Adek wrote in to tell us about the leaked Windows 2000 SP4. The file weighs in at a about 136 MB. The preview release of the SP4 beta will run for approximately 1 month, according to WinBeta, who first reported on the release. More, including the download, can be found at techconnect.com.

Mandrake in Financial Crisis?

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 49 Comments

Jackson was one of many who wrote to tell us about an e-mail from MandrakeSoft, makers of the popular Linux-Mandrake desktop Linux distribution. The press release can be read online or here at OSNews.com. Update: An interview with Gael Duval at ofb.biz.

DirectX 9.0 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-20 3D 39 Comments

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX 9.0 includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX 9.0 APIs.Update: SDK download listing.

The Consequences of Open Source Arrogance

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-20 Open Source 144 Comments

"The Open Source community's answer is to ignore Microsoft's incredible technological lead - because it is proprietary and not a standard - and instead focusses on their own cool thing and self-gratifying cool features, because they think they can do better (which is where the ignorance combined with ego comes in)." Join the discussion at Advogato.

Suse Linux 8.1 Professional Review

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-20 SuSE, openSUSE 19 Comments

"Over the last ten years, SuSE's distribution has matured into a polished product for the professional user. It is the fine detail which sets this distribution apart from the rest -- the little touches that make the system easier, and more enjoyable to use. 10 years ago, few dreamt that SuSE, and Linux, would be where they are today -- so, with that in mind, SuSE can look forward to the next ten years with a solid product base on which to build." Read the review at LinuxFormat.co.uk.

Distrowatch Takes on Slackware

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Slackware, Slax 21 Comments

CRM wrote in to tell us that the folks at Distrowatch have tried Slackware on for size. The review can be found in its entirety here. Conclusions are not surprising: impressive, stable distro, but if you like bells and whistles, stay away.

Showdown: The Penguins Prepare for a Shootout

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-20 Oracle and SUN 10 Comments

Timothy R. Butler writes "The goal is tough, the reviewers tougher, and while the lineup of contenders are all worthy the award, only one will receive it. In this report, Open for Business' Timothy R. Butler grills Xandros in the first of a multi-part series to find out which vendor has created the best GNU/Linux distribution in town. Read the full story at ofb.biz."