Archive for the ‘operating systems’ Category

File Under: operating systems

Jan

2009

Windows 7 Beta Preview for the Masses

By Scott Loganbill

If you were eager to beat the lines for the preview edition of Windows 7, you’ll be happy to know that thanks to eager beavers of the downloading kind, Windows 7 is now available to anyone with Internet Explorer.

Apparently Microsoft’s first attempt to release preview versions to the first 2.5 million developers didn’t go smoothly, so the company decided to make it available to everyone through January 24th.

Windows 7 is known to be the streamlined version of Windows Vista. For once, it’s the nuts and bolts version of its industry leading desktop operating system capable of running on most computers without an upgrade. The tradeoff to this streamlined version is a lot of functions and applications you probably barely ever used anyway.

Don’t bother trying to download with Firefox, Safari or Chrome, of course. The download requires an Akamai ActiveX control. From there, you’ll have to burn the downloaded .iso file to a DVD. There are several free applications to do this using a Google search.

It took me the greater part of the day, but Windows 7 is now running on my Mac using VMWare. The good news is that it is blazing fast and the permissions dialogs were kept at a minimum.

The icons are big, the start button is where you’d expect it. Like Vista, the Computer icon is missing by default, but you can get it back through system settings. In general, it took me less than 5 minutes to start-up, launch Internet Explorer 8, bypass all the setup features and download Google Chrome. Launching a web browser is 80% of what I use an Operating System for these days, so I’d call that a huge success.

Now the big question is whether it is competitive with Windows XP and whether Windows 7, with its Internet Explorer 8, is (finally) the version that will allow us all to finally ditch Internet Explorer 6 support once and for all. I’m leaning towards it being better for doing its thing well: launching applications safely, reliably and without hassle.

Head over to Microsoft’s Windows 7 beta site to grab yourself your own key and leave your comments below.

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File Under: Mobile, operating systems

Jan

2009

Palm Pre Ups Mobile Web Ante With WebOS

By Scott Loganbill

I never thought I’d say this past 2003, but it looks like Palm could be a contender. Last week, Palm threw its hat in the mobile web-enhanced smartphone ring with the Palm Pre.

There are a lot of touchscreen phones out there competing with the iPhone and Google G1. Believe it or not, the Palm Pre was the talk of the town at Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show conference last week. The big news? The entire software stack is a bundle based on HTML 5 and JavaScript.

That’s right. Forget iPhone’s Objective C or Android’s Java. The entire thing is based on something most developers know like the back of their hand already.

This is a platform stack Webmonkey can really get behind. No word on how integration with hardware, such as the built-in camera and GPS. The browser is built on Webkit (same as Android and iPhone). Web pages and applications will be built into the operating system. “Cards” will provide direct links to web applications. Messaging will be built-in to the address book. The prospect looks to be a promising leap forward for the mobile web and as a mobile access point to the web.

The hardware is impressive, of course. However, the big news here is the WebOS it is built on. Similar to the iPhone and Android competition, the ability to actually use the phone on devices far into the future is the big win here. For instance, I would love to see this WebOS or the iPhone and Android OS on a netbook.

Of course, anything this exciting would forego something so tangible as a launch date. On the bright side, the phone is bound for months of speculation and opinion. Welcome back to the limelight Palm.

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File Under: operating systems

Nov

2008

Fedora 10 Arrives with Better Audio, GNOME Updates and a new IM Client

By Scott Gilbertson

The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 10, the next generation of Fedora Linux. Fedora 10 brings many of the same improvements we saw in the latest version of Ubuntu — a better network manager and updated versions of GNOME and GIMP among others — but also packs in some unique new features.

The big news for Fedora fans in version 10 is the new “glitch-free” version of PulseAudio, which improves sound in Fedora 10, and, as the name implies, gets rid of the annoying latency and dropped audio problems that plagued early release of PulseAudio.

Fedora 10 is also notable for opting to using GNOME’s new Empathy instant messaging framework. Ubuntu passed on Empathy, and having tested Empathy in the Fedora 10 RC1, we can see why. While Empathy works well enough, the interface is a bit simplistic next to other GNOME IM apps like Pidgin.

Our favorite part of Fedora, PackageKit, remains largely unchanged in this release. If you’ve never encountered PackageKit, it’s worth taking the live CD for a spin to see how well PackageKit “just works.”

PackageKit will automatically search for and install any software you need to open a file. For example, say you download a ODF file, but don’t have OpenOffice install, PackageKit will step in and prompt you to install OpenOffice and any dependancies so you can open the file.

Obviously PackageKit has its limitations — download a file for which there is no open source software, say a Word file, and PackageKit will remain silent — but for the average use case it adds a nice layer of user friendliness to the Fedora desktop.

You can grab the latest Fedora release from the Fedora site. By default the live CD will install GNOME so if KDE is your preferred desktop be sure to grab the KDE flavor.

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File Under: operating systems

Nov

2008

Unlock Hidden Features in Pre-Beta Versions of Windows 7

By Scott Gilbertson

If you’re one of the brave souls who’s grabbed a copy of the pre-beta version of Windows 7, which is currently burning up the torrent sites, you’ll want to have a look at the new “Blue Badge” hacking tool.

Windows 7 hacker Rafael Rivera has released a new version of Blue Badge which unlocks several of the very cool, but hidden features in early builds of Windows 7. Although the pre-release features seem to work just fine, Microsoft has an unusual lock in place — you need to be an Microsoft employee with proper clearance to use them.

Rivera’s software sidesteps that requirement by patching a number of files to remove any locks. The result is a more complete picture of Windows 7 — you can try out the new taskbar, Aero gestures (grab a window and shake it to hide other windows), the rotating desktop wallpaper and more.

One thing to keep in mind is that Blue Badge doesn’t back up your files before patching them, so you’ll want to do that before running the software. Rivera has a list of the files to backup on his blog.

Obviously, since Rivera’s software is a hack being applied to a pre-beta, unofficial release available only on torrent sites, don’t be surprised if you encounter some problems. Still, if you’ve got a copy of Windows 7 (specifically build 6801) and you want to try the new features, this is the easiest method we’ve seen.

If you give it a try, be sure to let us know what you think.

[via Lifehacker]

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File Under: operating systems, Software & Tools

Nov

2008

First Look: Parallels 4 Offers Mac Fans Blazing-Fast Windows Virtualization Tools

By Scott Gilbertson

The Windows-on-a-Mac virtualization race is heating up again. Parallels has just unveiled version 4 of its virtualization software for Mac OS X, which brings some much-needed speed boosts, better support for top-end Apple hardware, the ability to run Mac OS X Server and some 50 other changes and tweaks.

Parallels Desktop for Mac 4.0 represents a huge speed gain over its predecessor. Thanks to under-the-hood improvements and new features like the Adaptive Hypervisor — which improves the way Parallels load balances between the Mac OS and your virtual machines — this version is 50 percent faster than Parallels 3.0.

The Parallels team demoed the new app for Webmonkey last week and indeed the speed improvement is the most noticeable, and welcome, change. Having run Parallels 3 and its main competitor, VMWare’s Fusion for Mac, side by side, Fusion was the clear winner when it came to speed. However, this new release changes that, giving Parallels a decided edge in the speed department.

But speed isn’t the only major change in this release, Parallels 4 also ups the ante for high-end Macs allowing you to now dedicate up to eight CPUs and 8 GB RAM to each virtual machine. Naturally the number of processors and RAM available depends on your system, but the upper limit means that those of you with top-of-the-line Mac Pro workstations can now take advantage of all the power at your disposal.

Also new in this release is a new viewing mode by the name of Modality. Modality Mode offers control over the transparency of the guest system and allows you to resize the window — making it ideal for monitoring what’s happening in the background, without dedicating a full window to your virtual machine.

Parallels has also updated the ground-breaking Coherence mode, which lets Windows apps run right alongside your Mac apps. Coherence mode now moves all the Windows taskbar items up into your Mac menu bar for easier access. It’s a small change, but in practice it makes interacting with Windows much easier.

Although it isn’t part of this release, a Parallels spokesperson did say that adding support for Coherence mode with other OSes (Linux for instance) is “on the roadmap.” The company hasn’t given us any hint as to when it might arrive, but if it does it’ll offer a clear edge over Fusion.

Another small but welcome addition in the latest release is the ability to start Virtual machines in a new Safe Mode. All your apps will run as usual in Safe Mode, but any changes you make are not saved — perfect for testing beta software releases or other potentially system-damaging experiments. If something goes wrong, shut down the virtual machine, restart and you’re right back where you started.

As part of this release Parallels has backed in some new anti-virus and security software — Acronis Disk Director Suite, Acronis True Image Home and Parallels Internet Security powered by Kaspersky. That adds up to about $175 worth of software for free, which makes Parallels a bit more like buying a new PC, rather than just a virtualization suite.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac should be a welcome update for those of you using version 3.0. If you’re trying to decide between Parallels and Fusion, unfortunately for you, this release makes the decision even more difficult. Both are very capable. We like the new Parallels interface a bit more than Fusion, which feels outdated by comparison, and the additional anti-virus software make Parallels an excellent choice — especially if you’re nervous about Windows security issues.

Parallels for Mac 4.0 is available now for $80. There’s a free trial version you can use to test it out and upgrades from Parallels 3 are $40. Also note that if you bought version 3 on or after September 1, 2008, you qualify for a free upgrade to version 4.0.

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