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Monthly Archive:: September 2007

MikeOS 1.0 released

MikeOS 1.0 has been released. It is an open source PC operating system, designed as a tutor for basic OS design and x86 assembly language. "MikeOS is a 16-bit operating system for x86 PCs, written in assembly language, which boots from a floppy disk or CD-ROM. It features a text-based dialog-driven user interface, a command-line, support for FAT12 (DOS) floppies and PC speaker sound. It can load external programs and has over 30 system calls. Basic DOS .COM program support is also included." This version includes a complete Handbook with a whole section on writing your own OS.

Google Welcomes ISO Decision on OOXML

Google has released a statement regarding the decision not to fast-track Microsoft's OOXML for certification. "Google welcomes the ISO decision to not approve the fast track of Office Open XML proposed standard DIS 29500 (ECMA 376). Our engineers conducted an independent analysis of the OOXML specification and found several areas of concern, which we communicated both to the ISO and to the public."

Image Compression: Seeing What’s Not There

"The HTML file that contains all the text for this article is about 25000 bytes. That's less than one of the image files that was also downloaded when you selected this page. Since image files typically are larger than text files and since web pages often contain many images that are transmitted across connections that can be slow, it's helpful to have a way to represent images in a compact format. In this article, we'll see how a JPEG file represents an image using a fraction of the computer storage that might be expected. We'll also look at some of the mathematics behind the newer JPEG 2000 standard."

Open-Source Developers Speak Out About AMD

AMD started delivering on their word of providing GPU specifications to the open-source community without a Non-Disclosure Agreement, and now with the 2007 X Developer Summit having come to a close, we asked several key members of the X.Org community on how they judge AMD's recent move. They were also asked if they believe NVIDIA will follow suit in helping the open-source community. Those that responded were David Airlie, Daniel Stone, Jerome Glisse, Stephane Marchesin, and Oliver McFadden. Mark Shuttleworth had also previously commented on AMD's efforts.

BSD-Licensed C Compiler Added to NetBSD, OpenBSD

Anders Magnusson's BSD-licensed pcc compiler has been imported into NetBSD's pkgsrc and OpenBSD's src tree. Anders wrote to NetBSD's tech-toolchain list: "It is not yet bug-free, but it can compile the i386 userspace. The big benefit of it is that it is fast, 5-10 times faster than gcc, while still producing reasonable code. The only optimization added so far is a multiple-register-class graph-coloring register allocator, which may be one of the best register allocators today. Conversion to SSA format is also implemented, but not yet the phi function. Not too difficult though, after that strength reduction is high on the list."

The USD 100 Laptop Now the USD 188 Laptop

The vaunted 'USD 100 laptop' that Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers dreamed up for international schoolchildren is becoming a slightly more distant concept. The USD 100 laptop has many innovative features including a pull cord for recharging by hand. Leaders of the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child that was spun out of MIT acknowledged Friday that the devices are now slated to cost USD 188 when mass production begins this fall. The last price the nonprofit announced was USD 176; it described USD 100 as a long-term goal.

Why You Should Adopt Python to Manage UNIX Systems

As a system administrator, you run across numerous challenges and problems. Managing users, disk space, processes, devices, and backups can cause many system administrators to lose their hair, good humor, or sanity. Shell scripts can help, but they often have frustrating limitations. This is where a full-featured scripting language, such as Python, can turn a tedious task into an easy one. Python is a scripting language that looks like it was made for system administrators.

SCO Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Yahoo reports that SCO has filed for bankruptcy in order to protect assets. "The SCO Group today announced that it filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. SCO's subsidiary, SCO Operations, Inc., has also filed a petition for reorganization. The Board of Directors of The SCO Group have unanimously determined that Chapter 11 reorganization is in the best long-term interest of SCO and its subsidiaries, as well as its customers, shareholders, and employees." Groklaw has a story on it, too.

Atheros Driver Developments

"Reyk and I have decided to show something from the private handling of this Atheros copyright violation issue," OpenBSD creator Theo de Raadt began in a posting to the OpenBSD -misc mailing list referring to the recent relicensing of OpenBSD's BSD licensed Atheros driver under the GPL. He noted, "it has been like pulling teeth since (most) Linux wireless guys and the SFLC do not wish to admit fault. I think that the Linux wireless guys should really think hard about this problem, how they look, and the legal risks they place upon the future of their source code bodies." He stressed that the theory that BSD code can simply be relicensed to the GPL without making significant changes to the code is false, adding, "in their zeal to get the code under their own license, some of these Linux wireless developers have broken copryright law repeatedly. But to even get to the point where they broke copyright law, they had to bypass a whole series of ethical considerations too."

The 0.11 Linux Kernel

According to this KernelTrap article, the 0.11 Linux kernel was released on December 8th, 1991. Among the 'features' advertised in that release, Linus noted that the console was now capable of producing beeps, Linux gained native mkfs, fsck and fdisk utilities, and the com ports finally had adjustable line speeds. However, if you managed to get Linux booted you were immediately dropped into a root bash shell as Linux lacked a login system. It also lacked support for SCSI devices, and support for swapping to disk meaning it required at least 4MB of RAM to be useful.

Jeos: Canonical’s Virtualisation-Specific Ubuntu Linux

"Ubuntu sponsor Canonical announced a version of its Linux software stripped down for use just on virtualized environments. The version, called Jeos for 'Just Enough Operating System' and pronounced 'juice', is now available." That's what ZDnet and News.com report, but Jeos is nowhere to be found on the Ubuntu website. El Reg claims: "Canonical is still in the midst of deciding whether not to make JeOS wildly available, since it's mostly meant as an ISV thing."

Legal Summits To Tackle Linux

The Linux Foundation, custodians of the Linux trademark, have announced two summits to deal with legal issues surrounding Linux and open-source software. Attendees will focus on building a legal defense structure for Linux and policies designed to support intellectual property rights within open development.

Open Source Risks and Responsibilities

The widespread acceptance of open source continues to grow as a cost-effective alternative to traditional network deployments. Well-known projects such as Linux have proven themselves to be in the enterprise environment, helping to dispel the fear, uncertainty and doubt preceding open source implementations. In the past two years, the industry has begun to shift from a total dependence on proprietary applications to a desire for more cost-effective, scalable and collaborative solutions.

ReactOS 0.3.3 Released

ReactOS 0.3.3 has been released. "The Win32 subsystem is in the beginning of a total overhaul to make it completely compatible with NT5 which may introduce various drops in application compatibility from time to time, however in the 0.3.3 release it has had a positive impact on stability and compatibility with Win32 applications. As a generic result of these internal changes, the system feels a lot more stable in comparison to previous releases, and could be run on a real hardware (though usual limitations still apply - no USB, SATA, NTFS)." The screenshots page has been updated as well.

Sun To Become Microsoft’s OEM Partner

Having recently rediscovered itself as a systems company, Sun Microsystems has been welcomed into Microsoft's vast and growing family of OEM partners. Expanding the companies' three-year-old interoperability pact, Sun has agreed to ship Microsoft's dated but important Windows Server 2003 operating system pre-installed on its x64 machines. The companies will also co-operate on go-to-market activities for the machines. Ars Technica has more.

Overview: Asus’ EeePC

Unicap has an article on the Asus EeePC. "In spring 2007, Asus announced the EeePC, a low cost, small sized mobile computer, which is expected to be available to the public in October 2007. The system is equiped with a 900 Mhz ultra low power Intel CPU, a 7'' LCD monitor, 512 MBytes of RAM and uses flash memory as permanent storage. On the software side, the system comes with a custom version of Xandros Linux preinstalled."