OSnews - Exploring the Future of Computing

Darwin/Mac OS X: The Fifth BSD

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-14 BSD & Darwin 29 Comments

Lance M. Westerhoff has written an interesting article over at AppleLust.com, regarding the history of the BSD UNIX. The article talks about the first versions of BSD and continues with the story of BSDi, NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD and it concludes with Darwin and MacOSX.

BeGeistert 008 Review

Submitted by Nicholas Blachford 2002-04-14 Haiku 21 Comments

BeGeistert is a biannual meeting of BeOS users and developers held in Germany. BeOS developer and frequent OSNews writer Nicholas Blachford, wrote a review of the meeting and also reveals some news having to do with a possible come back from YellowTab and some working code presented by OpenBeOS members. Nicholas also includes a small mpeg video and many pictures of the meeting.

Why Free Software Usability Tends to Suck

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-13 Graphics 32 Comments

"I’ve been having a discussion with someone from IBM about whether it’s ever possible for Free Software to have a nice human interface. In theory, I think it is possible. But in practice, the vast majority of open-source projects are also volunteer projects; and it seems that the use of volunteers to drive development inevitably leads the interface design to suck. The reasons are many and varied, and maybe one day I’ll turn this into a long and heavily-referenced essay. But in the meantime, here’s a summary." Matthew Thomas, a Mozilla contributor, explains why not many of the Free applications feature a good UI like most of their commercial counterparts do.

FSF asks Lindows, “Where’s the source?”

Submitted by Dave Poirier 2002-04-13 Linspire 23 Comments

Bradley Kuhn, vice president of the Free Software Foundation, says the organization is contacting LindowsOS representatives because the company has not included source code with its "sneak preview" releases. Lindows CEO Michael Robertson says his company will comply with the GPL when the product is released to the public. Read more in the NewsForge article. Update by ELQ: Open letter to Lindows' CEO Michael Robertson from Bruce Perens has just been published at NewsForge.

Why Linux Made Inroads at Financial Institutions

Submitted by Dave Poirier 2002-04-13 Linux 2 Comments

When the loss of about 1,000 computer servers in the World Trade Center attacks put Lehman Brothers in the market to buy millions of dollars of systems, it looked at Linux. American Banker tells the story.

OEone HomeBase Offers Computing, Simplified

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-13 In the News 12 Comments

The Open For Business web site features a review of the OEone Homebase 1.3 operating system. OEone is based on Red Hat, however its user interface is brand new, it has been written from scratch (in the Mozilla XUL API). The company behind OEone also sells machines with their software pre-installed, a software developed in such a way to resemble something between an Internet Appliance and a light iMac-like office workstation. OEone is something to definately check out, since they offer more than IAs do, however they are built in such a way to be simplistic, just like IAs. An older review of both the OEone machine and software can be found at NewsForge.

There May be Trouble Ahead for Java

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-12 Java 28 Comments

The editor in chief at Java Developer's Journal has published a piece debunking the three more spreaded myths about C#, in a wake up call effort for the Java community, trying to show that .NET is not to be underestimated and C#, technically-speaking, is not "bad" as some Java-heads think it is. On a related article, Joel Spolsky, from the JoelOnSoftware fame, wrote an article about where his company and himself personally stand on the Microsoft proposition for a new global API, the .NET Framework.

.Net Server Release Candidate Ready

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-12 Windows 1 Comment

The first release candidate for Microsoft's Windows .Net Server software family will be released this quarter, with a final release of the product set for the end of the year. Microsoft released the third beta for the product in late October and has been receiving extensive feed back from testers since then. The release of this server family has been pushed back twice, with the last delay being attributed to Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" initiative, which resulted in development being halted and all code being reviewed.

AmigaOne Pictures

Guest post by Mike Bouma 2002-04-12 Amiga & AROS 36 Comments

The reporters of a French Amiga magazine called AmigaPower have been so kind to post some pictures of an AmigaOne computer running TurboLinux. Initial AmigaOne ATX motherboards come with a soldered 600 MHz G3 PowerPC CPU, built-in 10/100 ethernet, USB, AGP (2xSpeed), AC97 Soundchip, MC97 modem, UDMA100 IDE controller and costs 600 Euros (ex. VAT). A more expensive version is expected to be released later this year, having a socketed CPU and a 4xSpeed AGP bus, which will allow the installation of one or two G4 processors. Boards can be pre-ordered from Computer City, KDH Datentechnik and Vesalia.

Why Web Services will Kill HTTP – Eventually

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-12 Internet 1 Comment

"Is Microsoft out to get HTTP? That was the implication of a news article that appeared a couple months ago, but the story overstated matters a bit. As Microsoft XML Web services architect Don Box said in a conversation with me, HTTP is way too pervasive not to dominate Web services for some time now. But it's still a less-than-ideal protocol for much of what's planned for Web services." Editorial at ZDNews.

Web Service Security: Proposed Architecture and Roadmap

Submitted by Jeff 2002-04-12 IBM 1 Comment

One of the biggest complaints these days about Web services is the security issues within a Web service environment. IBM and Microsoft just released specifications describing Web Services Security (WS-Security). There is an developerWorks overview document and a whitepaper describing this model that supports, integrates and unifies several models, mechanisms, and technologies.

Jython Tips for Python Programmers

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-12 General Development 7 Comments

In his first article about Jython, Noel Rappin discussed the features of the Python scripting language and its Jython implementation that would be of greatest interest to Java programmers. Jython is a complete implementation of the Python programming language written in 100% pure Java, and allows easy access to Java libraries. This article contains 10 tips for using Java objects in Jython.

Securing Small Networks With OpenBSD, Part 2

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-12 OpenBSD 2 Comments

"Like almost all things in life, good security costs good money. It has to be that way, because there are simply not enough skilled security specialists to look after all of the networks that need their attention. An unfortunate result of low supply and high demand is the migration of highly skilled personnel to clients who can meet their salary requirements. This leaves a lot of small and underfunded networks in the hands of less experienced administrators, who might not know how to design, configure, and monitor these networks' safety mechanisms." Read the second part of the article at OReillyNet. First part, here.

System Panics, Part 2: Recovering and Debugging

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-12 FreeBSD No Comments

This is Part 2 in a two-part series on system panics. In his first column, Michael Lucas talked about how to prepare a FreeBSD system in case of a panic. In this column, he talks about what to do when the worst happens.

GTK# Enhances GTK+ with C# Bindings

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-11 GTK+ 2 Comments

Mike Kestner announced today his C# bindings for the well-known GUI Toolkit, GTK+ 2.x. To compile the examples you will still need a Win32 machine with the (freely available on Microsoft.com) .NET Framework installed (137+20 MB for the SDK, 20 MB for the runtime), as the project is not yet self-hosted under Linux. What this means is that developers soon will be able to write C# applications for GNOME.

Microsoft Has Shelved Its Internet ‘Persona’ Service

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-11 .NET 15 Comments

"Microsoft has quietly shelved a consumer information service that was once planned as the centerpiece of the company's foray into the market for tightly linked Web services. The service, originally code-named Hailstorm and later renamed My Services, was to be the clearest example of the company's ambitious .Net strategy. It was intended to permit an individual to keep an online persona independent of his or her desktop computer, supposedly safely stored as part of a vast data repository where there could be easy access to it from any point on the Internet. At the time of the introduction of My Services, Microsoft also proclaimed that it would have a set of prominent partners in areas like finance and travel for the My Services system. However, according to both industry consultants and Microsoft partners, after nine months of intense effort the company was unable to find any partner willing to commit itself to the program." Read the rest of the report at Yahoo!News. It's worth noting that this is quite a setback for Microsoft's overall .NET strategy.

Countdown on Mozilla Nears Zero

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-11 Mozilla, Gecko 23 Comments

"Mozilla, the long-awaited open-source version of the Netscape browser, is to release its first beta-test version aimed at a broad audience in the next few days. The three-year-old project has begun to finalize a version of the Mozilla code for wider testing release, which could lead directly to the release of version 1.0 of the software. Previous beta, or test, versions have been aimed at the developer community." Read the report at ZDNews. In related news, Opera has just released Opera 6b1 for QNX.

Microsoft Chooses Sides in DVD War

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-10 In the News 20 Comments

"Microsoft has decided to support one of two competing formats for popular DVD recording technology , a decision that is intended to make the storage devices as easy to use as current CD burners and floppy drives. At its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), Microsoft plans to demonstrate software and to provide technical documentation for incorporating the DVD+RW format into its Windows operating system, according to a Microsoft Web site detailing the schedule for the conference." Read the rest of the report at ZDNews.

Red Hat Bitten by Linux’s Low Cost

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-10 Red Hat 18 Comments

"Here's the riddle: If Linux is gaining more market share among big-spending corporate customers, why have sales at Red Hat -- the undisputed Linux leader -- been creeping steadily downward? Red Hat now has 90 percent of its 630 employees working to lure corporations looking to move their computing platform from expensive systems running on the rival Unix operating system to Linux, widely considered to be the more cost-effective choice. But it might be the cost-effective part that comes back to haunt Red Hat. With the Linux operating system available for free, Red Hat has struggled to find a way to secure paying customers. After a year of adjusting the focus at Red Hat away from smaller businesses and e-commerce applications, the company now needs to prove that it can translate Linux's growing popularity into stronger sales." Read the rest of the story at NewsObserver.

LindowsOS Sneak Preview 2: Some Good stuff, but I’m Still Root

Eugenia Loli 2002-04-10 Linspire 14 Comments

"On April 9, Michael Robertson announced the release of LindowsOS sneak preview 2. "Lindows.com is not about selling an operating system," the Lindows CEO says in the press release. "It's not too different from needing a car. Nobody says, 'I need an engine,' they say, 'I need a car,' and most times, what they really mean is that they need transportation. It's the same with a computer." I think I know what he's getting at." Read the rest of the mini-review at NewsForge.