Monthly Archive:: October 2003

GCC 3.3.2 Released; Ported to WinCE

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-17 General Development 12 Comments

GCC 3.3.2 includes numerous new features, improvements, bug fixes, and other changes. Grab it here. Additionally, this interview at WindowsForDevices is with a young Russian programmer who earlier this year launched a project to port the open source GCC C/C++ compiler and supporting tools (library, manager, linker, etc.) to Windows CE and the Pocket PC platform.

Cinebench Benchmarks: Intel, AMD Vs G5 2GHz MP

Submitted by Kelly McNeill 2003-10-17 Benchmarks 62 Comments

BareFeats has compiled the results of a comparative test utilizing Cinebenc, the best cross-platform benchmarking application the market has to offer.It is interesting to see how the MP 2GHz Opteron and Intel Xeon 3.06 GHz MT compared against the MP 2GHz G5. Here is also a previous benchmark session at Barefeats which was updated recently.

On Longhorn’s Long Delays

Guest post by John O\'Sullivan 2003-10-17 Editorial 78 Comments

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." Bill Gates, 1981. "64 bit is coming to desktops,there is no doubt about that, But apart from Photoshop, I can't think of desktop applications where you would need more than 4 gigabytes of physical memory, which is what you have to have in order to benefit from this technology." It seems to me that by the time it ships, Longhorn will need 4 gigs of RAM.

Microsoft Clears its Own XP SP2 Confusion

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-17 Windows 17 Comments

Just three days after a Microsoft vice president--who is in charge of Microsoft.com and Windows Update--told thousands of delegates at a conference in Florida that Service Pack 2 for Windows XP would be available by the end of 2003, the company has effectively retracted the comments and said that customers will see only a beta version of SP2 this year. In the meantime, Microsoft debuts first Windows XP Security Pack.

Comprehensive Review of FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE

Submitted by Jem Matzan 2003-10-17 FreeBSD 41 Comments

There's a review of FreeBSD 5.1 at The Jem Report. It's a comprehensive review and offers a quick comparison with GNU/Linux.

Legal Impact on Windows/Linux Look-alikes

Submitted by José León Serna 2003-10-17 Legal 42 Comments

The XPde team has released a document on the legal impact of releasing Windows "lookalike" user interfaces in, specifically, Free Software.

First Impressions of iTunes for Windows

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-16 Multimedia, AV 395 Comments

Apple's iTunes 4.1.0.52 for Windows was released today. I downloaded it a few hours ago, and so here are my first impressions on the product. Screenshots included.

Gnome 2.4 and File Associations

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-16 Gnome 32 Comments

" I learned about Dropline Gnome, an optimized Gnome installation for Slackware. Anyway, the upshot was that my Gnome system was upgraded, my personal settings were retained but my Open Office file associations were broken. I could no longer open documents in Nautilus with an Open Office application." Read the tutorial at Linux-Universe.

Pegasos II PowerPC System Announced

Submitted by oGALAXYo 2003-10-16 Morphos 34 Comments

As shown here Genesi has announced the Pegasos II Systems. Get a closer look and enjoy.

The GNU/Fiwix Operating System

Guest post by Jordi Sanfeliu 2003-10-16 OS News 27 Comments

The GNU/Fiwix project began during the summer of 1997. In fact, even before than I had running around my head the idea to design and implement a new UNIX-like operating system. But it was not until 1997 that it started to become a reality.

SkyOS Integrates Preference Panels

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-16 SkyOS 18 Comments

All applications which were used to configure settings like graphic, audio, themes, network, devices, keyboard etc. on SkyOS were rewritten as DLLs and are accessible through one application now: the System manager. Check here for two screenshots too.

Remembering Multics

Submitted by Kelly McNeill 2003-10-16 OS News 9 Comments

Individuals who know what "Multics" is, raise your hand. Now, all individuals who know what a "Multician" is, raise the other hand. (Now lower your hands. Your coworkers are going to think you're a psychopath staring at your computer with your hands above your head.) For those without hands up, Multics is a historic 1965-2002-era operating system, which had a dramatic influence on computers as we know them today. osViews editorial contributor Kelly McNeill, authored an insightful and educational piece about the historic Multics operating system.

AmigaOne Review and Videos

Mike Bouma 2003-10-16 Amiga & AROS 11 Comments

AmigaOS4 beta-tester Elwood has written an AmigaOne review which includes some videos, including one of the alpha version of AmigaOS4 booting on his AmigaOne. Also NeRP recently uploaded a screenshot. And here is Amiga CTO's 21st Q&A session.

Bounty Hunters Search for Proprietary Code

Submitted by proclus 2003-10-16 BSD & Darwin 9 Comments

Find non-free code at GNU-Darwin, and get a reward from RMS. In preparation for this initiative, the team has greatly improved the software freedom status and GPL compliance of the newest free OS including the ports system, packages, on-line, and hard media offerings. It appears that the FSF wants GNU-Darwin to stay free. As always, many thanks to them, especially RMS, D. E. Evans, Eben Moglen, etc. It feels great to do the right thing, and that GNU-Darwin is finally inside the free software circle. There is also a longer article about this at Advogato.

Microsoft Communications Protocol Licensing

Submitted by OffTangent 2003-10-16 Microsoft 15 Comments

The Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP) makes available by license over 100 proprietary protocols that enable your server software to interoperate and communicate with Microsoft desktop client operating systems.

Introduction to Wings OS

Submitted by Mihai 2003-10-16 OS News 13 Comments

Learn about Wings OS. It's a 16bit multitasking unix-like (QNX-like) OS written for the C64 and Scpu.

Preview: What to Expect from Mac OS X Panther 10.3

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-15 macOS 155 Comments

I was able to try out and preview Mac OS X Panther 10.3 for the past few months after WWDC and for the last few days I am running a latest version. So, what to expect from Mac OS X when it comes out on the evening of October 24th? Come in and have a look in this preview article. Update: screenshots removed at request of Apple.

Microsoft Warns of 4 New Windows Flaws

Submitted by Matt Piechota 2003-10-15 Privacy, Security 63 Comments

Microsoft Corp. warned consumers Wednesday about four critical new flaws in its popular Windows software as the company shifted to monthly alerts for serious problems that could let hackers break into computers. In the meantime, Windows XP SP2 is to be getting backported security enhancements from the Longhorn codeline.

SkyOS: Don’t Miss the Chance to Innovate

Submitted by Jared White 2003-10-15 SkyOS 56 Comments

September 16, 2003 marked the dawn of a new era for SkyOS. After the UI design contest poll was closed and the SkyOS design team and lead developer cast their votes, a winner was chosen: a very forward-looking and professional design dubbed Wind UI.

The Most Popular Operating System in the World

Eugenia Loli 2003-10-15 OS News 13 Comments

ITRON, the first in a series of open-source specifications for the TRON architecture, answered a pressing need for Japan's electronics firms, which traditionally have written their own software for embedded systems. Read the article at LinuxInsider.