Linked by David Adams on Sat 11th Oct 2008 16:48 UTC, submitted by IndigoJo
General Development Eric Raymond is working on an essay, putatively titled "Why C++ Is Not My Favorite Programming Language". In his announcement, he calls it "an overcomplexity generator", "bloated, obfuscated, unwieldy, rigid, and brittle", and alleges that these characteristics appear in C++ applications also. I contend that many of the complaints about C++ are petty or are aimed at specific libraries or poor documentation and that many of the features commonly regarded as unnecessary (and excluded from intended replacements) are, in fact, highly useful. C++: the Ugly Useful Programming Language

 

Linked by David Adams on Sat 11th Oct 2008 16:38 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
OSNews, Generic OSes HP has released a roadmap outlining future development of OpenVMS, the operating system that commercialized many features that are now considered standard requirements for any high-end server operating system. (Such as Integrated networking, Symmetrical, asymmetrical, and NUMA multiprocessing, including clustering, distributed file system (Files-11), Integrated database features, support for multiple computer programming languages, hardware partitioning of multiprocessors, etc). With over 30 years of development, OpenVMS has stood the test of time and has continued to evolve as one of the most secure and trusted mission critical OS's of our time.

 

Linked by Rahul on Sat 11th Oct 2008 04:47 UTC
Red Hat We each behave according to our nature. It should come as no surprise, then, to learn that while a virtualization supplier believes that the operating system is, effectively, a feature, an operating system vendor would argue that the converse is true. The philosophical differences between Red Hat and VMware could not have been more apparent during their respective events - September’s VMworld gathering in Las Vegas and yesterday’s Red Hat analyst day held at the New York Stock Exchange.
E-mail Print r 0   6 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Rahul on Sat 11th Oct 2008 04:43 UTC
Mozilla & Gecko clones Mozilla Labs recently offered a sneak peak and download of Geode. Geode is one of the first applications to use the new W3C geolocation specification API. It is currently available as a plug-in for Firefox 3 (and seems to only support Windows and Mac systems at this time). Mozilla Labs indicates it will likely be a new feature integrated in an upcoming browser release.
E-mail Print r 0   1 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Rahul on Sat 11th Oct 2008 01:53 UTC
Linux PolishLinux has an interview with the KPackageKit developers. PackageKit is a abstraction layer over the different Linux package management tools. It is primarily designed to unify the graphical tools and provide a consistent distribution neutral framework for application developers to install add-ons as well. This project was initiated and continues to be maintained by Red Hat developer Richard Hughes who also wrote the initial GNOME frontend to it, called gpk-application. Multiple backends currently exist and it is the default for Fedora and Foresight Linux already. Other distributions including Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Mandriva, and Gentoo are actively participating in the development of different backends. A KDE interface has been under rapid development recently and just did a 1.0 release last week. This interview provides more details.

 

Linked by Rahul on Sat 11th Oct 2008 01:39 UTC
Features, Office Michael Meeks who leads the OpenOffice.org development team within Novell has taken a detailed look at contributions associated by metrics to OpenOffice.org and makes the case that Sun's tight control over the codebase and the lack of enough volunteer contributors leaves the development slowly stagnating over a period of time. Michael Meeks has recently started strongly advocating the position that Sun needs to setup a more independent OpenOffice.org foundation or otherwise allow more relaxed policies for commit access and be less rigid about assignment of copyright to itself for the development community of Openoffice.org to thrive beyond Sun developers.
E-mail Print r 4   · Read More · 31 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Rahul on Fri 10th Oct 2008 23:06 UTC
Linux Linus Torvalds who has recently started blogging, writes about the new 2.6.27 release. The developer's viewpoint on releases tend to be different from end users. Some interesting bits...
E-mail Print r 4   · Read More · 5 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 10th Oct 2008 09:06 UTC, submitted by diegocg
Linux Linux 2.6.27 has been released. It adds a new filesystem (UBIFS) for "pure" flash-based storage, the page-cache is now lockless, much improved Direct I/O scalability and performance, delayed allocation support for ext4, multiqueue networking, data integrity support in the block layer, a function tracer, a mmio tracer, sysprof support, improved webcam support, support for the Intel wifi 5000 series and RTL8187B network cards, a new ath9k driver for the Atheros AR5008 and AR9001 chipsets, more new drivers, and many other improvements and fixes. Full list of changes can be found here.
E-mail Print r 12   23 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 9th Oct 2008 21:46 UTC
Windows The Engineering 7 blog continues its trend of detailing the real issues that people deal with when it comes to Windows. We have already covered their insights, usage data, and mea culpas concerning the taskbar, as well as their musings on window management. The latest entry on the E7 blog deals with a controversial Windows issue: User Account Control. The usage data has some interesting results, to say the least.
E-mail Print r 3   · Read More · 59 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 9th Oct 2008 21:04 UTC, submitted by ganges master
General Development Python 2.6 has been released on October 1st. The major theme of this release is preparing the migration path to Python 3.0, a major redesign of the language. Whenever possible, Python 2.6 incorporates new features and syntax from 3.0 while remaining compatible with existing code by not removing older features or syntax. See the what's new docs for more details.

 

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 9th Oct 2008 20:22 UTC, submitted by AdamW
Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris Mandriva has today released Mandriva Linux 2009, the new major release of the popular distribution. 2009 is a bold release which brings the new KDE 4 as the default desktop, along with a re-designed installer and Mandriva Control Center and many other new features. Other significant updates include GNOME 2.24, OpenOffice.org 3, Mozilla Firefox 3, and kernel 2.6.27. Key features include new graphical in-line upgrade capability, netbook compatibility, class-leading hardware support, and further improved support for working with mobile devices. For more details, see the Release Tour and the Release Notes. Get it at the download page, or go straight to the torrent list.
E-mail Print r 12   57 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 8th Oct 2008 22:32 UTC, submitted by Eric Masson
X11, Window Managers Most of you will be familiar with Silicon Graphics, Inc., once the proud leader in the graphics workstations market with their high-end MIPS workstations, running the UNIX System V based IRIX operating system. The company has been in steady decline for a long time now, and two years ago it put an end to its MIPS product line, favouring processors from Intel. Back to IRIX - it has many assets and good features (XFS, for instance), and the IRIX Interactive Desktop was certainly one of them. Sadly, it never properly made its way out of IRIX, but this is now being worked on, with the full support from SGI.
E-mail Print r 4   · Read More · 25 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Wed 8th Oct 2008 20:12 UTC
Slackware, Slax "Slackware remains Slackware. It's been around for a very long time and it has a very loyal following. It's an excellent choice for the Linux hobbyist who wants to build, configure, and tweak their system to the nth degree. Slackware certainly gives you absolute control over your system. Nothing is made to be easy or user friendly", writes Caitlyn Martin.

 

Linked by Flatland_Spider on Wed 8th Oct 2008 12:41 UTC
AMD AMD finally fleshed out the "Asset Smart" strategy it has been talking about since, at least, last December. The result: AMD is now fabless.
E-mail Print r 4   · Read More · 71 Comment(s)

 

Written by Thom Holwerda on Tue 7th Oct 2008 17:04 UTC
Graphics, User Interfaces This is the tenth article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. Fitting for this rounded number, part X will detail the window.
Email Print r 1   · Read More · 11 Comment(s)

 

Linked by snydeq on Tue 7th Oct 2008 17:04 UTC
Windows InfoWorld pays tribute to the humble Windows bug -- ground zero for several of the most colossal security meltdowns IT has ever endured. From share-level password flaws, to Web server traversal vulnerabilities, to overflow after overflow, the past decade of Windows flaws and patches and exploits has given IT one hot cup of hell after another -- all while giving rise to entire industries built around protecting users from malware authors who themselves have matured their practices to juvenile pranks to moneymaking criminal enterprises. Microsoft has been noted as the fastest vendor to patch OS flaws, to be sure, but the hits keep on coming. Perhaps it is high time for another OS vulnerability scorecard.

 

Linked by David Adams on Tue 7th Oct 2008 15:46 UTC
Hardware, Embedded Systems An EE Times straw poll of embedded device makers in Europe found that while last year 50% said they planned to use Linux, that number had dropped to 33%. 26% said they planned to use a commercial OS, up from 15% a year ago.

 

Linked by David Adams on Tue 7th Oct 2008 15:20 UTC
Privacy, Security, Encryption "Denial of Service attacks aren’t new, yet they persist in being effective methods of denying access to resources on the Internet. Now meet Sockstress, the newest version of DoS attacks and potentially the most devastating of the bunch."
E-mail Print r 2   7 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 7th Oct 2008 10:27 UTC
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu Sunday we reported on an interview with an MSI manager, who stated that internal research had shown that the return rate for the Linux version of MSI's Wind netbook was four times as high as that of the Windows XP version. He claimed that the unfamiliarity of people with Linux was the culprit. This claim sparked some serious discussion around the net, but now MSI's statement is being repeated by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu.
E-mail Print r 7   · Read More · 92 Comment(s)

 

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 7th Oct 2008 09:40 UTC, submitted by Michael Steil
Microsoft Pagetable.com has an interesting article on a Microsoft easter egg. "If you type 'WAIT6502,1' into a Commodore PET with BASIC V2 (1979), it will show the string 'MICROSOFT!' at the top left corner of the screen. Legend has it Bill Gates himself inserted this easter egg 'after he had had an argument with Commodore founder Jack Tramiel', 'just in case Commodore ever tried to claim that the code wasn't from Microsoft'. In this episode of Computer Archeology, we will not only examine this story, but also track down the history of Microsoft BASIC on various computers, and see see how Microsoft added a second easter egg to the TSR-80 Color Computer - because they had forgotten about the first one."
E-mail Print r 5   7 Comment(s)