OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

NooFace: In Search of the Post-PC Interface

Submitted by Thijs Stalenhoef 2002-11-17 Graphics 12 Comments

My good friend Thijs Stalenhoef (from the BeOS/BeNews days) sent me a link to the NooFace web site, which is "in search of the Post-PC Interface". There are a lot of interesting articles to find there, so make sure you have a look at their archives as well.

Lycoris Build 62 Beta Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-17 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 14 Comments

Lycoris Build 62 Beta was released. Joseph Cheek, main developer at Lycoris, wrote a quick changelog: "Kernel printk fix; Mozilla form submit bug fix; Mozilla .rpm mime type fix; new gimp-print, cups 1.1.15; added chown/chmod for give/takeconsole; added newer Gatos ATi drivers; upgraded Autoconf to 2.54 and Automake to 1.5; added Gui devtools install". Report bugs here.

Here’s the Plan for Software

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-17 Microsoft 11 Comments

"If there's one thing an effective empire builder needs, it's a good map. Microsoft's map for reshaping and reviving the world of business software can be found on floor two of Building Four on the company's campus, in the office of a technology strategist named Norm Judah. The map itself doesn't look like much. If anything, it resembles a microchip design or possibly an org chart gone mad. But this poster-sized piece of cardboard is nothing less than a schematic of how business works. Not how Microsoft works. How business works." Read the article at Fortune.

Gartner: Linux Poised for Desktop Failure

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-16 Linux 91 Comments

"Linux will be deployed on no more than five percent of desktops over the next two to three years because of a lack of viable applications, claimed Gartner research director Phil Sargeant on Thursday evening at the Gartner Symposium and ITXpo." Read the article about the Gartner Group's analysis.

Andrew Morton on Linux 2.5’s Performance Improvements

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-16 Linux 12 Comments

In a reply on Linux kernel maling list to Aaron Lehmann's praising of the contest results of the latest 2.5-mm kernel Andrew Morton explains some of the important performance and design differences between the 2.4 stable series and the 2.5 development series accompanied by illustrating benchmarks. Read the report at KernelTrap.

MorphOS in Detail

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-15 Morphos 24 Comments

Nicholas Blachford has written an interesting article about MorphOS. It covers the history of MorphOS, its structure and the inner workings of this new and interesting OS.

MacOSX Journaling: What it is, who Needs it

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-15 macOS 17 Comments

"The journaling operation itself does impose a performance penalty on disk writes. Mac OS X Server alters the sizes of certain buffers used for file transactions when journaling is enabled, which mitigates much of the performance hit, reducing it from the 10-15 percent range down to the 2-5 percent range, for a system with 512MB of RAM. The more RAM you have, the more buffering can be used, so your performance hit decreases accordingly. This buffering does not occur on "regular" OS X, which is one reason why Apple is not supporting or recommending its use on non-OS X Server systems." Read the article at WorkingMac.

Today’s Unix: New All Over Again

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-15 Unix 11 Comments

"It used to be that Unix was for the geeks, while the rest of the world used less command-intensive, and usually less powerful, operating systems such as Windows or the Mac OS. Even with the advent of native GUIs such as the X11 system, Unix was not for the uninitiated." Read the article at OnLamp.

Linux, Open Source have ‘more security problems than Windows’

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-15 Privacy, Security 36 Comments

According to a report published November 12 by Aberdeen Group, "Security advisories for open source and Linux software accounted for 16 out of the 29 security advisories - about one of every two advisories - published for the first 10 months of 2002 by Cert." Read the report at NewsForge.

Red Hat Wins Over Windows Convert

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-15 Red Hat 25 Comments

Linux seller Red Hat--which chiefly looks to displace Unix rivals--announced today it has landed a customer that is bumping aside Microsoft Windows in favor of Red Hat software for its database servers. Read the report at News.com.

Lycoris and Ericom Software Deliver Desktop/LX InterConnect

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-15 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 3 Comments

Lycoris and Ericom Software team up to release Desktop/LX InterConnect, a simple corporate desktop with full office suite and host connectivity tools. Desktop/LX InterConnect features Ericom Software's native Linux PowerTerm InterConnect software, the Lycoris ProductivityPak office suite, and the Lycoris Remote Desktop Client.

UnitedLinux Group Plans Tuesday Surprise

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-15 Linux 3 Comments

SuSE Linux, the SCO Group (formerly Caldera International), Conectiva and Turbolinux are all expected to launch on Tuesday the latest versions of their Linux enterprise distributions powered by the UnitedLinux core, according to industry sources late Thursday. Read the report at eWeek.

JBoss Responds to McNealy’s Hammering of Open Source Marketing

Submitted by Hans Speijer 2002-11-15 Java 29 Comments

"On the contrary, I would argue that Open Source and JBoss in particular are already Sun's best defense against Microsoft .NET. Only Open Source has proven uniquely resilient to a Microsoft onslaught. In the same way that Linux has prevented MS NT from dominating the server operating system, JBoss will prevent .NET from making serious inroads into the application server tier, the crucial gateway to enterprise software applications." Read the article at Jboss.org.

Mac vs. PC, Part III: Mac Slaughtered Again

Submitted by Prognathous 2002-11-14 Rumors 176 Comments

This time, DigitalVideoEditing is comparing the fastest (and cheaper) P4 released today, at 3.06 GHz, versus the fastest currently available Mac at 2x1.25 GHz. Has everyone noticed that Apple stoped using extensively the slogan "Mhz don't matter" for months now?

Mandrake Linux 9.0, Desktop Magic

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-14 Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 37 Comments

"Are you looking for a desktop Linux that you can use right out of the box? If so, give Mandrake Linux 9.0 a quick spin. Whether you are an experienced Linux user, a Microsoft Windows user, new to computers, or an IT-IS manager, Mandrake Linux 9.0 could be the operating system (OS) for you or your organization." Read the review at MozillaQuest.

Perspective: Moving Beyond Creative Cloning

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-14 Linux 28 Comments

"Why isn't GNU/Linux taking the desktop market by storm? After all, when you make a feature comparison, Linux has a lot going for it. With Windows, the operating system is just a start; you must add applications to make it functional. Many Linux distributions provide a desktop look similar to Windows and include an extensive assortment of applications, programming tools and games. Installing Windows and sundry applications can take most of a day. Contrast that with Linux, where the process typically takes less than 60 minutes." Read the article at News.com.

Apple Releases Sherlock 3 SDK

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-14 Apple 9 Comments

Apple has released a SDK for Sherlock 3, the company's Web Services tool. "Everything required to develop a channel is provided in the Sherlock 3 Channel SDK. The SDK includes technical documentation, a sample channel, a Project Builder template, and an Interface Builder Sherlock palette," according to Apple. In the meantime, Watson 1.6 was released and includes integration with the EyeTV DVR, iCal, and the MacOSX Address Book. On other important for the Mac platform releases, WebObjects 5.2 and BBEdit 7.0 was released. Get more OSX software from VersionTracker.

Release Announcement: LindowsOS 3.0

Submitted by dave_sn 2002-11-14 Linspire 40 Comments

DistroWatch is reporting about an announcement from Lindows about the imminent release of LindowsOS 3.0 on Monday. If you pre-order before Saturday, you can get a better deal, while this time the OS comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. Please note that LindowsOS 3.0 comes out only 2 months after LindowsOS 2.0 was released (our review is here). This version scheme seems to work well marketing-wise for Lindows as big sites (e.g. news.com) get to report on it.

Qt 3.1 Released

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-13 Qt 16 Comments

Qt 3.1 introduces many significant new features and many improvements over the 3.0.x series. This provides an overview of the main changes since version 3.0.x. The Qt version 3.1 series is binary compatible with the 3.0.x series: applications compiled for 3.0 will continue to run with 3.1.

Opera 7 Beta 1 Released

Submitted by Mark Schenk 2002-11-13 Opera 94 Comments

Opera's code has been reworked from the rendering engine and up, it includes new features such as the new e-mail and news client, a sleek new interface, improved Hotlist, skinning or drag-and-drop and more. Download Opera 7 Beta 1 here.