GNOME 3 Launchers Change Behaviour

Have you ever been bitten by accidentally loading multiple instances of the same application in GNOME? When you click on the launcher of an already-running application in GNOME, it will load up another instance of the same application, instead of switching to the already running one. This can lead to bugs and other unforeseen behaviour, which of course isn't desirable. In GNOME 3, this issue has been resolved. more

KDE 4.3.1 Released

In sync with its release schedule, the KDE team has released KDE 4.3.1, the latest and greatest in the KDE line. This monthly release includes fixes for many outstanding bugs, including several crash fixes, and support for transferring files over ssh via KIO::Fish. Those who use KDE can wait for it to be updated on its own or can always download it themselves. On a sadder note, a family member of one of the developers on the team recently passed away; this release is dedicated to her. "KDE 4.3.1 is dedicated to Emma Hope Pyne, the daughter of Michael Pyne. Emma Hope suddenly passed away last week. The KDE community feels incredibly sad about this loss and wishes Michael and the family and friends all the strength needed to cope with the loss of Emma Hope." Our best wishes go out to Michael and his family. more

'The Failure of the GPL'

David Chisnall casts a critical eye over the GNU General Public License and asks whether it's done more harm than good for the Free Software movement. "Looking back, has the GPL been a help, or a hindrance? And will it continue to be a help or hindrance in the future?" more

Windows Embedded Standard 2011 CTP Released

Yesterday, Microsoft released the first Community Technology Preview release of Windows Embedded Standard 2011, freely downloadable to play with. This is the first Windows Embedded release based on Windows 7, and therefore brings a whole number of Windows 7 technologies to the embedded Windows world. The final release is expected somewhere during the second half of 2010. more

What is new in Snow Leopard

Since 2001, the breakthrough technologies and rock-solid UNIX foundation of Mac OS X have made it not only the world’s most advanced operating system but also extremely secure, compatible, and easy to use. Snow Leopard continues this innovation by incorporating new technologies that offer immediate improvements while also smartly setting it up for the future.

64-bit computing used to be the province of scientists and engineers, but now this generational shift in computing gives all users the tools to apply the power of 64-bit to speed up everything from everyday applications to the most demanding scientific computations. Although Mac OS X is already 64-bit capable in many ways, Snow Leopard takes the next big step by rewriting nearly all system applications in 64-bit code and by enabling the Mac to address massive amounts of memory. Now Mac OS X is faster, more secure, and completely ready for the future.

More secure than ever.

Another benefit of the 64-bit applications in Snow Leopard is that they’re even more secure from hackers and malware than the 32-bit versions. That's because 64-bit applications can use more advanced security techniques to fend off malicious code. First, 64-bit applications can keep their data out of harm's way thanks to a more secure function argument-passing mechanism and the use of hardware-based execute disable for heap memory. In addition, memory on the system heap is marked using strengthened checksums, helping to prevent attacks that rely on corrupting memory.

64-bit applications in Snow Leopard deliver faster performance at common operations.

32-bit compatible.

To ensure simplicity and flexibility, Mac OS X still comes in one version that runs both 64-bit and 32-bit applications. So you don’t need to update everything on your system just to run a single 64-bit program. And new 64-bit applications work just fine with your existing storage devices, PCI cards, and Snow Leopard-compatible printers.

The Story of a Simple and Dangerous Mac OS X Kernel Bug

"Among other things, the update for Mac OS X 10.5.8 also fixed an interesting kernel bug related to the way the fcntl call is handled. The bug was identified as CVE-2009-1235 and the first exploit seems to be from June 2008. The variant that I discovered is much simpler and is, as far as I know, the one that really convinced Apple to solve the issue. The oldest kernel I was able to test the problem was Darwin 8.0.1 which corresponds to Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”. The Tiger was announce in June 28, 2004 but was released to the public on April 29, 2005 and it was advertised as containing more than 200 new features. The bug was closed on August 5, 2009 so the number of days the vulnerability was alive was 1599 days (4 years and 3 months)." more

Fedora Stirs in Moblin Technology

The next version of Fedora, Fedora 12, will integrate a Moblin Desktop Environment. It can be easily "groupinstalled" via the yum package manager. The environment has already been added to the Constantine alpha release of Fedora 12 and to Fedora's "Rawhide" development branch. They're seeking testers to "make it great" for the final release of Fedora 12, which will be released in early November. more