Linux Development Kernel Gets Bluetooth
"Support for Bluetooth has been added to the Linux development kernel, a step toward native Bluetooth support in upcoming releases of the Linux operating system." Read the report at ZDNews.
Rediscovering Object Orientation
"Does anyone really know what "object oriented" means? Does the phrase signify anything, or are the words just strung together because of an historical misnomer? One thing is clear. No one understands what the phrase "object oriented" means when they first hear it. While it does appear to be a juxtaposition of two ordinary words, its meaning does not jump out at you." Read it at CobolReport.
Editorial: Reviewing Linux Mandrake 8.x
I keep reading review after review after review of the current crop of linux distributions. And everytime I'm annoyed at the end. I'm not annoyed by the style, or the comments, but more at the way they always end far too soon? One of the latest reviews of Lycoris is a prime example. What is this a review of? It's a review of the installation, and a quick insight into some of the packages found. To compare, it's like reviewing the opening cinematic sequence of game. You need to review the way the game plays as well! And people need to start reviewing how the distributions function over a period of time greater than a day or two. So here's my Mandrake 8.x experience.
The Commercial Feasibility of a Next-Generation User Interface
There's a new personal e-zine, The Idea Basket, that's debuting today with an editorial on the commercial feasibility of a next-generation user interface. The editorial talks about the state of current user interfaces, software such as Apple's iPhoto that is pushing the envelope of interface design, reasons why there has recently been such a lack of innovation and research in the field of interface design, and some ideas that both consumers and developers can employ to help bring computer software to the next level of usability.
Mac vs. PC: Which is Better for Digital Video Editing?
Slackware 8.1 RC1 Now Available
"The first release candidate for Slackware 8.1 is now available on ftp.slackware.com (and hopefully some mirrors by now). Recent additions to -current include Mozilla-1.0rc3, KDE-3.0.1, and gcc-3.1. This is all leading up to what we're hoping will be the best Slackware release ever!" Changelog, mirrors.
Securing MySQL on FreeBSD
Jason Lam has submitted a step by step guide (PDF format) to securing MySQL on FreeBSD, which he recently wrote for FreeBSD 4.5, to fulfill his SANS GCUX certification. The original submission can be found at BSDForums.org.
Doom III In-game Footage
XP-Erience.org carries the news about the release of an in-game footage of Doom III. The 37 MB video is in the DivX format (captured by a camera, so the quality is not great, but it is more than enough to show the impressive lighting effects in the game). Real screenshots can be found at Avault. ExtremeTech reported that the demo was running on a Pentium4 2.2 GHz, with an unreleased ATi graphics chip, codenamed R300. In other graphics news, Microsoft has just released the SDK of DirectX 9 Beta 1 to their beta testers.
Dual-Booting FreeBSD-STABLE and FreeBSD-Current
"I'm one of those people who is sacrificing a small portion of their mental health to the greater good, by testing FreeBSD-current. Now that we're approaching FreeBSD 5.0, the FreeBSD Project needs people to test -current in a wide variety of installations and environments." Read the tutorial at OReilly.
Apple Aims to Boost Bandwidth with 1.5 GHz G4s
"Recent word from sources close to Motorola confirm that a significant speed bump will be timed for MacWorld Expo in July, raising current bus speeds, and seeing new 7470-based G4s raise frequencies to as high as 1.5Ghz. What of the G5? That's still on course for volume production early next year, in the form of what's codenamed the 7500. Public Motorola roadmaps describe this as a processor that conforms to the e500 Book E G5 spec, and it's been rated stable at 2.4GHz internally at Motorola. But to get a handle on this it's worth paying attention to the internals, as this indicates an important rethink in the Megahertz wars." Read the report at TheRegister.
Is Microsoft Losing the Console Game?
"For the software publishing industry, video games are a numbers game. And for now, Microsoft is on the losing end. That's the upshot from the Electronics Entertainment Expo, the game industry's main trade show, where new games for Microsoft's Xbox have largely been limited to "me too" titles--games already appearing on other consoles. Microsoft has said it expects to have more than 200 games for the Xbox by the end of the year, but less than two dozen of those will be exclusive Xbox titles from third-party publishers." Read the story at ZDNews.
Time for Linux Geeks to Move Over
"Sometimes it seems that Linux fanatics are the open source movement's own worst enemy. Perhaps it is time that the "revolution" started to employ a few marketing people." Read the editorial at ITWeb. Our Take: I agree with the author. There were many times that I asked articles, interviews, screenshots and other "marketing" material from maintainers of open source projects and they either never replied, or they replied... months later, or their reply was rushed and half-baked. Real companies or people who understood the importance of marketing, were truly responsive. Marketing is important, and each major open source project needs at least one good marketing/PR person.
XP Makeover Highlights Antitrust Tweaks
"Microsoft is finalizing a major makeover for Windows XP that makes it easier for consumers to choose third-party software over Microsoft's own products. The software giant plans to begin testing within a few weeks Service Pack 1 for Windows XP, the first major update to the operating system, which was launched in October. Some of the more significant changes to the operating system, such as those allowing consumers and PC makers to override Microsoft's default products, are a direct response to the continuing antitrust case against the Redmond company." Read the the story at News.com.
GNOME vs. KDE Revisited
"I understand there are several different philosophies of application development. Some people prefer GTK not because it is the better tool kit, but because the approach makes more sense to them, because GTK is more granular than Qt, prefer C to C++, or another reason. I cannot address all of these factors, but I will try to take them into account wherever they matter." Part I and Part II at LinuxWorld.
Programming for GNOME with C++: Murray Cumming
"If you have followed GNU/Linux for the last few years you know that GNOME has long been a stronghold of C, Perl and Python GUI programming. With Ximian's work on Mono, C# seems also to be a language that will see wide use in GNOME. Sun's involvement should also make Java applications integrate strongly with GNOME. But what about C++? Even in the GNU/Linux and Unix world this language has received many advocates and developers. I sat down with Murray Cumming, lead developer on the gtkmm and gnomemm C++ bindings for GTK+ and GNOME to get some information on the status of C++ development in GNOME." Read the interview at LinuxOrbit.
SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional Review
"I was prepared for this review of SuSE 8.0 Professional to be a no-brainer. I had last used SuSE at version 6.4 before switching to Mandrake. I was basically happy with it then, and figured it had only improved since then. What I've seen after using SuSE's latest and greatest for the past two weeks has surprised me, and not all in a good way." Read the review at LinuxLookup.
Mozilla RC3 Released
Mozilla Release Candidate 3 has been released. According to the Mozilla website, this is to be the last release before 1.0. Looking at the what's new, the team has squashed 143 bugs since RC2.
Quartz Extreme Demo Movie Available
Get it while it's hot (translation: before the Apple laywers take the site down)! MacNytt has put online an exclusive video showing Quartz Extreme's capabilities, the new 3D graphics acceleration technology used for the 2D desktop of MacOSX 10.2. Our Take: Let's hope that the brand new iBooks that feature a 16 MB Radeon Mobility AGP graphics card will be able to run Quartz Extreme at 1024x768 at 60 Hz. Depending on the resolution you run your desktop, you will need either 16 MB or 32 MB and above of VRAM and AGP 2x (PCI won't cut it because its bus is times slower). For anything above 1024x768 though, you should be considering upgrading to an AGP card with lots of bandwidth and lots of memory.
KDE Project Ships KDE 3.01
The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.0.1, the third generation of KDE's free. KDE 3.0.1 is primarily a translation release for KDE 3.0, which shipped in early April. In addition, KDE 3.0.1 offers a number of performance and usability enhancements. For an extended list of changes since KDE 3.0, please see the change log. Our Take: I spent most of the day yesterday compiling KDE 3.01 from source on my Red Hat 7.2 box. Here's a screenshot.
Will Sun’s Solaris 9 shine?
"Sun releases Solaris 9, along with a plan to integrate its Sun One Java application server software into the operating system. Could the move change the competitive landscape in a lucrative market?" Read the extended series of articles at ZDNews about the release of Solaris 9.