OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Review of Mandrake Linux at UnixReview

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 3 Comments

"Mandrake Linux has always been looked at as a desktop Linux. While Red Hat may be the star of the corporate server world, Mandrake's star rests firmly with the legion of Linux users who have abandoned the Windows world for their desktop needs. For Mandrake users, there hasn't been any question of whether Linux is ready for the desktop Mandrake is, has been, and continues to be. The loyalty and enthusiasm of the Mandrake community speaks volumes. It is with this knowledge that I embark on my review of Mandrake 9.0." Read the review at UnixReview. In the meantime, MandrakeSoft explains some non-free software they are favoring currently.

Interview with VectorLinux Developer Robert S. Lange

Submitted by Tony Brijeski 2002-12-19 Linux 1 Comment

There is an interview up at TinyMinds.org with the developer of the Slackware-based Linux distribution called VectorLinux. VectorLinux works great on both old and new hardware and yet it is very up-to-date in terms of software versions.

YellowTAB Zeta Reaches Beta 3

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Zeta 98 Comments

BeOSJournal.org reports that YellowTab's Zeta has reached Beta 3, and is on testers hands. According to Bernd, project leader, later this week a new beta will be ready. This version has many fixes and improvements over the previous version.

Arch Linux 0.4 (Dragon) Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-19 Linux 1 Comment

The project is pleased to present Arch 0.4 to the public for general consumption. The ChangeLog and package list are at their usual locations.

Beunited.org Announces Talks With Gobe

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-19 Haiku 20 Comments

As previously reported, over $10,000 dollars has been pledged to open source Gobe Productive. Today Beunited.org has announced that conversations with Gobe have begun. Beunited.org thanked everyone for their donations and requested that the community be patient while the disscussions are going on.

SciTech to Provide Future Support for Intel Chipsets on OS/2

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-19 OS/2 8 Comments

Chris writes: "According to this press release, SciTech software is effectively taking over all OS/2 graphics driver development, validation, and support for Intel integrated graphics chipsets from Intel as of January 1, 2003. Given that OS/2 isn't really "dead" (as some have claimed), this is a substantial fillip for SciTech."

Opera 7.0 Beta 2 Released

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-18 Opera 49 Comments

Opera has released Beta 2 of the new Opera 7. New features include the ability to import e-mails from Netscape versions 6/7, speed optimizations, a fifteen day banner free period and various other enhancements. Check out the changelog for a complete list of what's new.

Interview: Colin Walters of the Debian Desktop Subproject

Adam Scheinberg 2002-12-18 Debian 17 Comments

An anonymous reader wrote in to tell us, "DesktopLinux.com caught up with Colin Walters of the Debian Desktop subproject. Launched in late October, the project aims to simplify Desktop Linux. Walters discusses the project goal to offer "Software which Just Works" for home and office, new user and expert." The rest can be found at DesktopLinux.com.

Sony and Panasonic set to develop new Linux

David Adams 2002-12-18 Linux 30 Comments

Japanese consumer electronics giants Sony and Panasonic announced that they will be co-developing a Linux distribution for "digital home electronic devices." As consumer electronics devices increasingly take on the capabilities of computers, makers need a sophisticated operating system to run them, and many have already turned to Linux. (like Tivo). See the Press Release.

FOSDEM Conference Feb 8-9, Brussels, Belgium

David Adams 2002-12-18 General Development 4 Comments

FOSDEM, the Free and Open Source Software Developers' Meeting is coming soon, and in preparation, the organizers have published interviews with some of the participants: David Faure for KDE and Michael Meeks for GNOME.

Ydesktop Release Candidate 2

Submitted by Andreas Girardet 2002-12-18 Linux 28 Comments

Yoper Limited, the New Zealand Linux company, is proud to announce Release Candidate 2 of Ydesktop, the first part of 'Your Operating System that Yoper Limited' ("Yoper") is developing. This second public release contains dozens of fixes and updates from over 5000 downloads of Ydesktop-rc1.

100,000 i-mode Subscribers in the Netherlands

Guest post by Mike Bouma 2002-12-18 Wireless 27 Comments

KPN Mobile today revealed that the popularity of its new online i-mode service is sky-rocketing, gaining over 77,000 new Dutch mobile phone subscribers since mid-August. This month KPN is expected to introduce a third i-mode handset, the NEC n22i, in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Meanwhile KPN's main partner, NTT DoCoMo, has over 36 million i-mode subscribers in Japan.

Interview with Jiang Li, Project Leader at MS Research

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-18 In the News 11 Comments

Dr. Jiang Li joined Microsoft Research, Asia as Researcher in January 1999. His research interests include video compression, image processing, video broadcast and communication, peer-to-peer networking, realistic image synthesis and image based rendering. Read the interview at ActiveWin.

Mixed Messages for Embedded Linux

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-18 Linux 2 Comments

Companies selling Linux for embedded devices such as set-top boxes took one step back and one forward Tuesday as Motorola agreed to acquire once-hot Embedix, formerly called Lineo, and Toshiba invested in MontaVista Software. Read the articles at ZDNews and LinuxDevices.

Obituary: OS/2

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-18 OS/2 20 Comments

Another OS/2 article, this time from John C. Dvorak: "Born April, 1987. Died Dec. 10, 2002. Cause of death: neglect. Place of death: Armonk, New York. Next of kin: none. Attending funeral: nobody. Official announcement appeared on IBM Website."

Is .NET the Right Bet?

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-18 .NET 23 Comments

In the server OS market, Microsoft is dominant, and it wants to stay that way. With the coming release of Microsoft Windows .NET Server 2003, an upgrade from Windows 2000 Server, the company feels it can keep the competition comfortably behind. Read the article at PCMagazine.

Cybersecurity Plan for US Government?

Guest post by Kevin Adams, sumbitted by Nicholas 2002-12-17 Privacy, Security 5 Comments

Nicholas writes: "There's an interesting interview over at LinuxWorld about U.S. government and open-source security. Robert McMillan of LinuxWorld.com talks to Marc Sachs of the White House Cyberspace Security Office about the role of open-source software in the US government."

German Town Dumps Windows for Linux

Guest post by Kevin Adams, sumbitted by Nicholas 2002-12-17 Linux 34 Comments

Nicholas writes: "More signs that open source software has big appeal in Europe as a small town in Germany has opted to move its entire IT base over to SuSE Linux. Read the full story at InfoWorld.com."

Interview with Jordan Hubbard

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2002-12-17 FreeBSD 4 Comments

Stephen Beckwith writes: "Over at MacSlash, the "Last" interview with Jordan Hubbard, Mr. FreeBSD. Catch it while you can!" Read the full interview at MacSlash.

The Register Bids Farewell to OS/2

Guest post by Kevin Adams, sumbitted by Nicholas 2002-12-17 OS/2 25 Comments

IBM's recent announcement, then un-announcement that OS/2 will be no more has brought the exciting, then doomed, then revived, then doomed, then doomed, doomed, mourned, and doomed some more operating system back into the limelight for a swan song. The Register today remembers OS/2 fondly, and remarks on why it never got its chance.