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Review of Hancom Office 2.01 Standard for Linux

Hancom Office 2.01 is the latest version from the Korean company Hancom Linux, released only a few days ago. The company used to offer a Windows version of their product, but they have since completely focused on the Linux platform, even though their product is pretty portable as it is based almost solely in the Qt 3 tooklkit. In latest news, Hancom has canned their Professional version of their office suite (contained more applications in assosiation with TheKompany), and they now going with the Standard version, which is the version we review today. Update: From the Hancom press release: "200 Million Arabic Speakers Finally Have an Affordable, High-Quality Alternative to Microsoft - And Save 90% in the Process."

Microsoft Fears Hype and IBM, but not Sun

"Microsoft has admitted its biggest worry over the roll out of its flagship .Net strategy is the potential backlash from angry customers once they realise today's web services are mainly hype. And according to Charles Fitzgerald, global director of strategy for the .Net platform at Microsoft, his firm is also much more worried about IBM's Websphere than the widely perceived battle between .Net and Java." Read the rest of the stoy at Yahoo! News.

Mandrake 8.2 and SuSE 8.0 Now Available in Retail

MandrakeSoft, today announced the availability of the boxed versions of Mandrake Linux 8.2 through a number of retail outlets worldwide and also online. Mandrake Linux 8.2 for PowerPack and ProSuite are the first Linux distributions to include StarOffice 6.0, the new office suite from Sun Microsystems which is compatible with Microsoft Office documents. Customers are provided with three packaged versions of Mandrake Linux 8.2 to choose from: ProSuite ($149.99), PowerPack ($69.99) and Standard ($39.99). OEM versions, targeted at hardware manufacturers, are due out later this month. In the meantime, SuSE 8.0 also hits the retail market today. SuSE's prices start at $39.95 for the SuSE Linux 8.0 IA32 Personal and go up to $79.95 for the SuSE Linux 8.0 IA32 Professional.

Take Advantage of WMI within Managed Code With System.Management

Visual Studio .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK provide a new set of APIs and tools that let you consume Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) data and events from managed .NET applications. After presenting an overview of what's new for WMI in the .NET Framework and the Visual Studio .NET environment, the author provides an in-depth exploration of the Management Extensions in Visual Studio .NET for Server Explorer. These extensions help you develop management-aware software and come in handy in a variety of distributed application development scenarios.

Linux and Open Source Idealogy

KernelTrap features three interesting articles - first, second and the newest -, round ups of the Linux kernel mailing list, where some of the developers are fighting against the use of the proprierty BitKeeper, while the rest are evangelizing regarding the "best tool for the job". When emails like "Rot in hell, closed mind" emerged in the list, Linus replied: "Quite frankly, I don't _want_ people using Linux for ideological reasons. I think ideology sucks. This world would be a much better place if people had less ideology, and a whole lot more 'I do this because it's FUN and because others might find it useful, not because I got religion'". Our Take: Personally, I am on Linus' side. He rocks on this particular subject.

A Closer Look at the i-Mode

Recently i-mode was unleashed onto the Dutch and German markets. This internet service is hugely popular in Japan, where it connects over 30 million people to the internet through mobile phones. Read more to get to know its features and see two screenshots of the devices.

Free Software and Good User Interfaces

"Many people have argued that free software has trouble creating good user interfaces. Recently Matthew Thomas posted a nice example of this argument, which I found on Joel's web site. It was cool to find mpt's article, because it nicely articulates what's gone wrong with many projects - including past versions of all the major Linux/UNIX desktops." Read the rest of the editorial at Havoc Pennington's site.

The Coldfire Amiga Project

OSNews reader Rodney, writes: "The Amiga Coldfire project announced a radical move to create a 100% compatible classic Amiga that shall take advantage of modern technologies such as PCI, AGP and of course the Coldfire CPU. It is thought the project will first create a Coldfire accelerator card for the A1200, which will then aid the developers in creating a standalone motherboard which should than be ready for the general community. There has been a non-technical FAQ posted @ Amiga.org and a mailing list created. To avoid confusion, this has nothing to do with the AmigaOne from Eyetech and is not made to run the new operating system AmigaOS4, but as a replacement for OLD Amiga’s and to run the OS3x series of AmigaOS. In other words, a hobbyist’s machine!" Update: Fred Horvat wrote: "There's a similar project under way for the Atari computer platform."

Microsoft is Preparing High-End Windows

"Microsoft is building a high-end feature into Windows for speeding up data access in multiprocessor servers--a feature that to date has been available only in high-end Unix servers, the company said Tuesday. The Redmond, Wash.-based software company is working on support for a technology called non-uniform memory access, or NUMA, one method for designing large servers crammed with processors, said Sean McGrane, program manager for Microsoft's top-end Datacenter server. The support will be available in two versions of the next edition of Windows for servers, .Net Enterprise Server and .Net Datacenter." The report can be found at Yahoo! News.

News from Around the Web

We will first start with the 1.0 release of the free word processor, AbiWord, for many different platforms, including Linux, FreeBSD, Win32, MacOS and QNX. Mozilla RC-1 was released also a few days ago and its developers appreciate any bugs people can submit before the final 1.0 release. OSNews reader "Number9" submitted the news about the world's fastest computer, at NYTimes (free registration required). The computer is about 5 times faster than IBMs (previous world fastest) computer at a national lab. Another very interesting article can be found at PCMag. Given the hullabaloo around the Tablet PC, PC Magazine roundups six new tablet PCs from ACer, Fujitsu, HP, and others while it also investigates the past of such devices. The Menuet OS project released a new version and a new screenshot. Also, KlipFolio 1.0 for Windows is now released (more platforms are coming soon) and the OSNews news klip is installed by default! Thank you Serence!

C# Example of MSN Messenger on Windows and FreeBSD

From DaemonNews: "François Jacques and Jean-Claude Batista have an article on macadamian.com on writing a tiny version of the MSN messenger client on Windows and FreeBSD . The example is available in source code form for free." Our Take: It feels a bit strange to have software compile for the .NET Framework under FreeBSD. It is definately a welcoming addition to FreeBSD, but it still feels a bit strange. We'll get used to it, I guess.

Windows .NET Server Delays Complicate Longhorn Schedule

"Jim Allchin, Microsoft group vice president for the platforms group, confirmed at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle this week that the "Longhorn" release will come later than originally planned. Longhorn first emerged as an interim operating system release between Whistler, which later became Windows XP and the Windows .NET Server family, and Blackcomb, a major rev of the operating system that is supposed to revolutionize the user interface and fully embrace XML Web services." Read the report at ENT-News.

Why Do New iMacs Surf So Slowly?

"They're here, they're slow, get used to it. At least for now. One of Apple's top goals for its new flat-panel iMacs is to get home consumers to switch from Windows PCs. But some who rushed to order the attractive new computer sight unseen say they have been disappointed: For Web browsing -- still the biggest time use of home computers after e-mail -- the new iMacs are notably slower than a PC. Yep, even an older, cheaper one." Get the story at Wired. Some G4 benchmarks against the PCs and commentary can be found here.

Using Threads With C#

This article over at MSDN explains the different models of threading — single, apartment, and free — and the use of each model. It also introduces a code sample in C# that uses threading to help you write applications that will take advantage of threading. The article also discusses important issues involved in multithreading code.

SuSE Linux 8.0 Beta Review at LinuxPlanet

Kurt Wall writes for LinuxPlanet: "I'm a minimalist when it comes to my Linux boxes. They all run Slackware and XFCE, with nary a single bit of KDE or GNOME to be seen. Why? Because I want to save my RAM, CPU, and disk for real computing, not eye candy. So, as I began my review of SuSE 8.0, I was skeptical that it would have much that really wowed me. And, to be clear, I finished my review as firmly entrenched in my minimalism as when I started. Naytheless, SuSE impressed me, especially the painless, perfect installation -- an element difficult to get right during a beta. Those of you who prefer or rely on feature-rich, beautiful desktops won't be disappointed in SuSE 8.0."

The DirectX API Now on MacOS

Coderus, a UK-based company is now offering MacDX, an OpenGL wrapper API for MacOS based on Microsoft's DirectX gaming API. While the company have not make public any technical details as to which parts of DirectX are actually supported, it might be safe to assume (and this is just a guess), based on the fact that their package only takes 10 MB of hard disk space as opposed to 120+ MB of Microsoft's full DirectX SDK, that only the critical and most used parts of DirectX have been wrapped so far. On a similar note, the open source DirectX OpenGL Wrapper from Real-Tech for Windows, Mac and Unix enjoyed a new released version just a few days ago.

Microsoft Sees What’s in Tech’s Future

"Microsoft shipped its Windows XP operating system just six months ago, but the software giant is already preparing for the next wave of computing. Microsoft has identified a handful of technology trends likely to reshape PCs and is working to define how Windows XP and its successors will take advantage of them, said Chris Jones, vice president of the Windows client team." Read the story at ZDNews. "Microsoft invites engineers to converge in Seattle for WinHEC to hear the latest ideas about DVD, audio, video and other consumer computing technology. Bill Gates' dream that people will build a PC first, then design a home to fit may be just around the block." Read the special feature at ZDNews.

Metrowerks Ships CodeWarrior Development Tools for intent

Metrowerks is shipping a new set of tools which enables application and content development for Tao Group's intent, a high performance, portable media platform. These tools don't come cheap. However an intent/AmigaDE Software Development Kit costs only 100 dollars is already enough to get you started. And if you want to use powerful dynamic graphic scaling capabilities, you need to sign a SDA with Amiga. Then your software will be able to scale properly from handheld to STB/Desktop resolutions. On TechTV Amiga already demonstrated the technologies' flexibility and performance.