Monthly Archive:: August 2007

Sun Slots Transactional Memory Into Rock

Submitted by diegocg 2007-08-22 Oracle and SUN 7 Comments

"Hoping to improve the state of server software, Sun Microsystems has confirmed that it will include support for transactional memory with the first generation of its Rock processors due out in the second half of next year. Sun's research and development teams have spent years working on a type of transactional memory that combines software and hardware aids. Now, the company looks set to be the first mainstream chip maker to build transactional memory hooks into its chips."

Submitted by Rahul 2007-08-21 Linux 37 Comments

"Who's afraid of SELinux? Well, if you are, you shouldn't be! Thanks to the introduction of new GUI tools, customizing your system's protection by creating new policy modules is easier than ever. In this article, Dan Walsh gently walks you through the policy module creation process."

Submitted by SK8T 2007-08-21 macOS 15 Comments

Apple, which last week asked that developers provide feedback on their experiences using pre-released builds of Mac OS Leopard, has followed up by seeding a significant stability update to the next-generation system software. The latest seed, labeled Mac OS X Leopard 9A500n, arrived via Leopard's Software Update mechanism as a 'recommended' update for all developers running Mac OS X Leopard build 9A499.

Submitted by SEJeff 2007-08-21 Privacy, Security 90 Comments

Jeff Jones has published another one of his vulnerability scorecards comparing various operating system offerings. As always, these figures just list the patched vulnerabilities over the designated period of time; they do not take into account any unfixed or undisclosed vulnerabilities. Hence, these reports are not proper measurements of security - they are just that, a tally of fixed vulnerabilities. Any conclusions like "x is more secure than y" cannot be drawn from this data set. As always, do with it as you please.

Syllable Gets Gnash Flash Player

Submitted by Kaj de Vos 2007-08-21 Syllable, AtheOS 41 Comments

Kelly Wilson ported the Gnash Flash player clone to Syllable , enabling the playing of Adobe Flash content. It uses the Boost C++ libraries, the SDL and Anti-Grain Geometry libraries for graphics rendering and FFMPEG for multimedia decoding. Work on the player is continuing to add the FreeType library and make the player native to Syllable, so it can be integrated in the web browser. Also, on some Adobe Flash news, an upcoming update will be supporting native h.264 videos, HE-AAC audio support, as well as hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced full screen video playback.

Windows Home Server Released Into the Wild

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-20 Windows 49 Comments

"With Bill Gates' announcement earlier this year that Windows Home Server would be available as a 'system builder' product (that means 'OEM' to most hardware geeks), enthusiasts and system builders alike have been looking forward to its release. With several different rumors being floated last week regarding when Windows Home Server would hit store shelves, we checked in with Microsoft to get the full and somewhat-confusing story. The short version is: it's already out in the wild, but catching a copy from your favorite reseller may prove tricky for at least two more weeks."

‘Freespire Aspires, But Fails to Inspire’

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-20 Linspire 42 Comments

"Freespire, the free as in beer version of the Linspire Linux distribution, this month released Freespire 2.0, the first version of the operating system based on the popular Ubuntu distribution, and the first to contain proprietary codecs and drivers. Despite its attractive appearance, it left me with mixed feelings."

Submitted by Kishe 2007-08-20 General Development 23 Comments

Bruno Souza, the NetBeans Community Manager for Sun, wrote: "As you all know, we are working hard for the release of NetBeans 6.0. The new release will bring exciting technical features and this is a great time to consider what else can we do to empower the NetBeans Community. As a result of requests from the comunity, we are considering the potential adoption of a new license model. We are considering releasing a future early access version of NetBeans 6.0 under a dual licensing scheme of CDDL and GPL v2 with Classpath exception. A move like this would be well received by many of the NetBeans contributors, and will benefit the community at large."

MIT Startup Raises Multicore Bar with New 64-Core CPU

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-20 Hardware 34 Comments

"A new startup out of MIT emerged from stealth mode today to announce that they're shipping a 64-core processor for the embedded market. The company, called Tilera, was founded by Dr. Anat Agarwal, the MIT professor behind the famous and venerable Raw project on which Tilera's first product, the TILE64 processor, is based. Tilera's director of marketing, Bob Dowd, told Ars that TILE64 represents a "sea change in the computing industry", and the company's CEO isn't shy about pitching the chip as the "first significant new chip architectural development in a decade". So let's take an initial look at what was announced about TILE64 today, with further information to follow as it becomes available."

Can Other Vendors Implement Microsoft’s OOXML?

Submitted by vhaarr 2007-08-20 Microsoft 67 Comments

"This paper examines whether OOXML can be fully implemented by vendors other than Microsoft and concludes that a number of application specific and undisclosed behaviours (as well as a number of other technical flaws) in the proposed standard make this impossible. Also while Microsoft has waived patent claims for the explicit and required parts of the specification it is clearly stated that this does not extend to the undisclosed behaviours or ambiguous definitions, providing a legal as well as technical barrier to OOXML's implementation."

Syllable Development Build, Ports, Decorator

Submitted by Kaj de Vos 2007-08-19 Syllable, AtheOS 25 Comments

The first development build after Syllable 0.6.4 is here, with the new USB and scanning subsystem. The project was contacted by the Python project concerning support for the upcoming Python 3, so far resulting in an upgrade of the Syllable Python port to the latest release version 2.5.1. Also this weekend, Syllable got a new window decorator in Vista style , 7-Zip, UnRAR and UnACE.

Review: Apple iWork’s Numbers

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-19 Apple 61 Comments

"Apple's iWork '08 boasts improvements to the software suite's word processing and presentation applications, but - more importantly - it fills the suite's spreadsheet hole with Numbers. eWEEK Labs ran Numbers through its paces, and found it to be a strong addition to the productivity software market and a promising alternative to Microsoft Excel."

A Trip Down Computer Memory Lane

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-19 Hardware 10 Comments

"Can you imagine a computer history museum that has to be packed up and put away each winter and then unpacked each summer, and which has three potbellied pigs as its mascot? I can, because I've just visited the DigiBarn, a wonderful trip down silicon memory lane that's nestled into a 19th-century farmhouse deep in the Santa Cruz mountains, about 90 minutes south of San Francisco."

OSI List Gets Catty Over Microsoft’s Permissive License Request

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-18 Open Source 128 Comments

The OSI License-Discuss mailing list has been ablaze for the past few days since Microsoft submitted its Permissive License to the OSI for official open source license approval. Jon Rosenberg, source program director for Microsoft, posted, "Microsoft believes that this license provides unique value to the open source community by delivering simplicity, brevity, and permissive terms combined with intellectual property protection."

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0r1 Released

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-18 Debian 44 Comments

"The Debian project has updated the stable distribution Debian GNU/Linux 4.0. This update adds security updates to the stable release, together with a few corrections to serious problems. As always, the first point release also corrects a few issues that have been noticed too late in the release process to stop the release, but still should be fixed."

IBM Bolsters Security of Mainframe OS

Thom Holwerda 2007-08-18 IBM No Comments

IBM has introduced a release of its z/OS mainframe operating system with new features that increase the system's security for online commerce and business transactions. IBM officials said the new operating system release is in line with what the company has been calling the renaissance of the mainframe. And as mainframes run a vast portion of the world's financial services, retail and other large businesses, security was a major concern for this latest release, IBM officials said, in Armonk, N.Y.

Review: The Linux-based Motorola RAZR2 V8

Eugenia Loli 2007-08-17 Wireless 49 Comments

PureMobile sent us in the brand new Motorola handset, second generation RAZR: the Linux-based V8. One of the most sleek and most-wanted phones in the market, and we take it for a serious spin.

GNOME 2.19.90 Released

Submitted by Philipp Esselbach 2007-08-17 Gnome 27 Comments

Both GNOME and GARNOME 2.19.20 have been released. "This is our seventh development release on our road towards GNOME 2.20.0, which will be released in September 2007. New features are still arriving, so your mission is simple : Go download it. Go compile it. Go test it. And go hack on it, document it, translate it, fix it."

Submitted by sharkscott 2007-08-17 IBM 11 Comments

An interview with IBM's Vice President of Open Source and Standards about their Open Source Strategy, the recent pledge of its patents for more than 150 open software standards, his take on the ODF vs. XML issue, and much more in The LXer Interview of Bob Sutor.

Microsoft Opens Up Windows Live ID

Submitted by randommsdev 2007-08-17 Privacy, Security 52 Comments

Microsoft has announced the release of Windows Live ID Web Authentication. This means that WLID (formerly known as Passport) is now opened to third party websites to use as their authentication system. Any Windows Live user can potentially log in to a website that implements Web Authentication. Interestingly sample implementations are available in the Ruby, Python, Perl, and PHP open source languages amongst others -- tested on openSUSE 10.2 but expected to work on any platform that supports these languages. More details are available in the SDK documentation.