It started out as a simple project: with the prospect that I'd be away from my desktop computer for a few weeks, I wanted to beef up my laptop's meager 256 megs of RAM. Having purchased my 12” PowerBook one release cycle before Apple boosted the RAM to the 512 megs it really should have had to begin with, it was long past time I embarked on opening up the case and upgrading. One thing was stopping me: I couldn't open it.
We've all had this nightmare. You turn on your functioning Windows/Linux PC, and all you get is a blank screen, or a message telling you that certain files are missing, or the kernel has panicked for some obscure reason. Nothing works, and you need the data on your machine. Yes, now's the time to whip out that trusty backup disk, and heave a sigh of relief that all the important stuff is backed up, right? Well, think again.
With all of the attention on dual core processors lately, it has been real easy to overlook the one application that might benefit more from multiple cores than any other; Linux. OK, so technically Linux isn't an application, but the kernel has supported SMP for nine years almost to the date. The road to SMP has not been an easy one for Linux, but in the last nine years, and particularly since 1999, Linux has received quite the attention as a 2-8 processor core operating system. If you need a reference, just look at how many Linux machines hold SPEC benchmark records in web serving and number crunching.
Novell Inc.'s SuSE Linux Professional 9.3 desktop gives not only other leading Linux desktop distributions like Xandros a run for their money, but also enterprise desktops such as Windows XP Pro.
Motorola announced a new step this week in its plan to remake most of its mobile phone line with Linux, expanding use of the open-source operating system to midrange phones.
Thinking on the issue of licensing and KDE, an old hymn came to mind. “As it was in the beginning, is now, And ever shall be…” Yes, the issue of licensing has been a perennial problem for the Free/Open Source desktop and I would suggest its biggest licensing issue remains: the GPL.
This time last year, we inaugurated the Tim's Gadgets column by looking at Skyrocket Software's excellent Digital FireworX (review) screen saver and stand alone application. Digital FireworX was and is an impressive screensaver that displays the largest collection of simulated fireworks I have encountered anywhere. But, what if it could get even better?
I love SPAM. No, really, I do. I buy it in the six pack from a wholesale club, and in a couple of days can eat a whole can of it by myself. You know, that pink stuff made by Hormel -- yummy! The other kind of spam nobody wants. Okay, 95% of Internet users don't want it, according to surveys. That kind of spam is also referred to as Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE).
Mandriva, formerly known as Mandrakesoft, the publisher of the popular Mandriva Linux distribution, today announced an agreement to purchase several assets from Lycoris, a major North American Linux distribution for home users. As part of this agreement, Lycoris' founder and CEO Joseph Cheek is joining Mandriva to develop a new and advanced Linux desktop product.
Sure, it has been rumored for years. Sure, any technology observer even slightly familiar with Apple knew that Mac OS X had been run in house on Intel. But, Apple parting ways with the processor it has spent all of these years promoting? If Apple was a few millennia older, without doubt this would have been prophesied as a sign of the apocalypse. The real apocalypse may not be here yet, but the computing world has just seen one of the biggest earthshaking announcements in years. Now Apple faces one of the hardest projects ever put forward for a computer company in its position: keeping backward compatibility.