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x mani x writes "Due to recent Apple postings, I noticed something new on their site no one has mentioned yet: 11mbit radio-based NICs and hubs. Of course, something clever like this could only have been developed by Lucent. Oh, they don't cost an arm and a leg either. " I don't see an x86 version, but we need Linux drivers. My 2mbit ZoomAir lan is addictive, but 11mbs will make my mp3s stream in so much quicker :) (Unrelated: This page actually has pics of the new iBook macs too)

Krakus Irus wrote in with the alert that Apple has released the specs on the new Powerbook G3. Up to 400 mhz, USB, firewire, 20% thinner then the previous machines and two pounds lighter. 14.1 display-it looks nice. What we're waiting on is the news about the new consumer portable-that will be coming out today. Check the rumours about the new consumer book. Update: 07/21 03:19 by H : It's been announced. The new iBook-and it looks /really/ nice. Comes out in Sept. at 1599$US.

Krakus Irus wrote in with the alert that Apple has released the specs on the new Powerbook G3. Up to 400 mhz, USB, firewire, 20% thinner then the previous machines and two pounds lighter. 14.1 display-it looks nice. What we're waiting on is the news about the new consumer portable-that will be coming out today. Check the rumours about the new consumer book. Update: 07/21 03:19 by H : It's been announced. The new iBook-and it looks /really/ nice. Comes out in Sept. at 1599$US.

Krakus Irus wrote in with the alert that Apple has released the specs on the new Powerbook G3. Up to 400 mhz, USB, firewire, 20% thinner then the previous machines and two pounds lighter. 14.1 display-it looks nice. What we're waiting on is the news about the new consumer portable-that will be coming out today. Check the rumours about the new consumer book. Update: 07/21 03:19 by H : It's been announced. The new iBook-and it looks /really/ nice. Comes out in Sept. at 1599$US.

Apple has released the source to their Open Source Streaming Server. It now supports Linux in addition to MacOS X, which can only help Linux in the server market. The software has been released under the APSL, and can support 2000 connections on a(n admittedly loaded) G3. Does anyone know if Apple is working on modifying the APSL to meet the concerns about the revocation clause expressed by many people in the free software community?

Apple has released the source to their Open Source Streaming Server. It now supports Linux in addition to MacOS X, which can only help Linux in the server market. The software has been released under the APSL, and can support 2000 connections on a(n admittedly loaded) G3. Does anyone know if Apple is working on modifying the APSL to meet the concerns about the revocation clause expressed by many people in the free software community?

A reader writes "Apple has made available a binary release of Darwin on its public source server. They also released the rest of the Darwin source code which should finally let it compile out of the box. On top of that Apple has published a third Open Source project dubbed OpenPlay. OpenPlay is a network abstraction layer designed to simplify the task of creating programs which communicate across multiple computers. "

Shishigami writes "Apple has released the latest Star Wars trailer at a higher resolution - 640 pixels wide. They probably figured it was the best way to get people to download Quicktime 4.0. My favorite is the requirement for playback - a 300mhz G3, or a 400mhz Pentium II. " I bet my 400mhz P2 won't play the trailer.

blaster writes "Apple has released version 1.1 of the APSL which has revisions to the notification and termination clauses. " Can we sic debian-legal on it? Hopefully, Apple has addressed all the concerns of the community, but I am no lawyer, and that thing looks waaay too long.

ZDNN reports that Larry Ellison doesn't want to pay the $1 million bet when he challange MS last comdex regarding Oracle 8 (each company accused the other of misrepresentations), and if you're looking for a job, then Apple is looking for Linux Technology Manager (Credit goes to Linux Today)

Several people followed up the today's earlier apple Open Source article by pointing us to Apple's Official Website on Open Source. Features Yet Another License, the Apple Public Source License but requires a login to get much more than the license and a faq. Update: 03/16 07:52 by CT : Virtually unrelated, thanks to darren wilson, the original creator of the crystal apple icon there.

Several people followed up the today's earlier apple Open Source article by pointing us to Apple's Official Website on Open Source. Features Yet Another License, the Apple Public Source License but requires a login to get much more than the license and a faq. Update: 03/16 07:52 by CT : Virtually unrelated, thanks to darren wilson, the original creator of the crystal apple icon there.

mrlament wishes to know about the following: "I've been a long time Linux user, but I keep finding myself having to switch over to my Windows box in order to view videos. I've tried xanim, and have yet had it properly handle a single video, aside from the real player, I cannot seem to find a single decent player for MOVs, AVIs and MPGs. Does anyone know of any, or are there just not any out there?" I posted this up here because I get a lot of this from people outside of Ask Slashdot, so I figure there are people out there that want this information. Hit the link for more. In all honesty, I don't think Linux is going to get very far beyond Indeo Video 3.2 support since IV4, IV5 and the I263 codecs are VERY proprietary and (so I've heard) it costs a lot of money just to become a developer. I would love support for AVIs under more than just Windows, but it's been a couple of years since IV4 was released and I just haven't seen support for it materialize anywhere else (if I'm wrong, someone PLEASE correct me!).

I'm surprised that there ISN'T more visible QuickTime support, but that's Apple's bailiwick. Intel and Apple have also begun to crosslicense technology as Apple now gets Intel Video 4.4 support for QuickTime. Of course as far as I can tell, QuickTime is still only available for Macs, 95/98 and NT.

MPG video files are more crossplatform than any of the others. I expect this format is supported under more platforms than any other, however I don't have any information on a LINUX player. If someone has a helpful link, please post it.

As an aside, MainConcept has one of the best movie players I have seen and supports a wide range of formats. It's been the mainstay viewer under OS/2 for a while, and it looks like they've taken an interest in Linux as they are attempting to port their Video Editor over.

Update: 02/13 01:16 by C : I've started a discussion, and someone has already answered my question regarding IV4 and IV5 on Linux. It appears that the only people who can offer support on these codecs is Intel themselves. With their support of Linux in recent times, who knows, this might actually happen. A cordial letter writing campaign might be in order to see if we can get them to port these codecs sooner rather than later?

Juan Fernando writes "Mac OS Rumors is reporting that Apple's long anticipated OS 10 Server (formerly known as OS X Server which is formerly known as Rhapsody) has reached Golden Master, and should be available mid-month thru the Apple Store."

Juan Fernando writes "Mac OS Rumors is reporting that Apple's long anticipated OS 10 Server (formerly known as OS X Server which is formerly known as Rhapsody) has reached Golden Master, and should be available mid-month thru the Apple Store."

Juan Fernando writes "Mac OS Rumors is reporting that Apple's long anticipated OS 10 Server (formerly known as OS X Server which is formerly known as Rhapsody) has reached Golden Master, and should be available mid-month thru the Apple Store."

Rustless Walter writes "In a series of articles starting here, John Martellaro discusses how Linux represents a threat to Apple's OS market share, but claims that, after Linux has peaked, Apple will be the next wave. Martellaro is a Linux user, and has experienced NT's instability firsthand. Some of his predictions make sense, but he seems to be convinced that people care more about what their computers look like than how well they work. " Hmmm...hasn't Apple been the next big thing for a while? Or was that Java? I always get confused.

gman has started a new site, linuxhardware.net in an effort to create help newbies learn and share information about Linux and Hardware. nickm an insane link designed to bring arts and culture to the Unix community. Apparently Dogman has created a hilarious page entitled "Installing a network PostScript printer on a Sun workstation running SunOS As illustrated through interpretive dance. Whoever said learning can't be fun never saw this. Or maybe they did and just created a mental block so they didn't have to think about that guy dancing. Jerome ALET sent us a link to the Linux Slogans Database Matthew Astley wrote in to where you can buy 25x25mm self-adhesive domed plastic badges featuring Tux to attach to your computer case in that little logo spot. The Phly sent in links to a new Bible for Linux page is up. jgalun wrote in to send us a link to a Washington Post that comapres Sys Admin Salaries average system admin salaries, in which they note that Mac sys admins seem to make very little. Hmm, wonder why...Also noted is that Linux sys admins had the greatest pay raises last year. More to come, hopefully! darius sent us a link to the new apple ad campaign which features the one, the only, HAL 9000. BigZaphod wriote in to announce a new games site:Legions. And rounding in to the more tasteless part of the quickies, kweiheri sent us an great parody of realdoll.com- except this one is (ahem) realhamster.com. What is this world coming to? GraZZ wrote in to send us an amusing parody of Star Wars and the Starr Thing.

pavewrld sent in a couple of links. The first is over at MacWorld Online and announces the new PowerMac G3's, which look similar to the iMac. The second announces the new iMac's, which now come in a variety of colors. Also in Apple news, NikT wrote in to say that Mac OS X server was announced, and it will include Apache and BSD 4.4. Finally, Ethan Butterfield wrote in to let us know of Steve Jobs' keynote address at MacWorld Expo. Apparently Apple has licensed OpenGL from SGI, and John Carmack demoed Quake 3 Arena on one of the new G3's. You can read more at Macintouch. Phew! With MacWorld Expo going on, the Apple news is nonstop.

James Rooker writes " MacOS Rumours has a posting today about Apple possibly making MacOS X (Yellow Box) Libraries available for linux after they release MacOS X -- apparently the idea is gaining currency within Apple -- They give an email address of leadership@apple.com as a means of putting your .02 to the Apple big-wigs about this."

Maccentral is running an interesting article about the devel of Netscape 5 for the Macintosh. After making IE the default browser on Macs, Netscape obviously had some lost ground to cover. But apparently based partly on the Open Source evangelizing of Mozilla, Netscape was able to get them to come around. Things went so well that Apple is even donating some of the code: ColorSync, Key Chain support, and NSL. The story features the requiste talk about NGLayout as well, for those interested. Check out the actual story for more information.

Quicker writes " Terra Firma Design and Terra Soft Solutions founder Kai Staats takes his company into previously uncharted territory by doing what "they" say couldn't and shouldn't be done: trusting their mission critical services to the Mac running MKLinux. "

Eric Davis sent us a link to some pictures at Apple showing the floors where iMac's are being built. No matter what you think about that iMac, it sure does look cool to see gigantic stacks of non intel computers getting ready for sale.

XosE wrote in to send us a link to the MkLinux Status File in which they announce that DR3 of MkLinux is up. CDs shall ship RSN. Existing users only need to download "new stuff" (25 megs worth). Sounds like a lot unless you realize the whole thing doesn't even fit on a single CD.

Apple, the company that couldn't, or more to the point, didn't, has posted a profit for the 3rd straight quarter. This is a good thing. With the Macworld Expo coming up, a slew of info on the profits and what's going on over there is available.

A bit old, but the Taiwanese computer maker Umax has officially declared that it will be quitting the Macintosh clone market, after losing somewhere in the range of 1.1$TW billion (~40$US million). This announcement of the losses came 22/5, and the depature from the market has already come. It's too bad that in some ways Apple waited so long to do clones that it didn't make any real difference.

Alieneyes wrote in with a summary of the Apple WWDC. Hit the link below to read up on what's happening with Jobs & Co. Some nutty stuff has been happening at Apple lately, so if you're not up to speed, read this. The following is a summary by Slashdot Reader Alieneyes

Apple WWDC Summary

I must admit I have not been a long time slashdot.org reader but I feel that I am in a great position to give a general summary of the Rhapsody/MacOS summary, having been at WWDC all week.

The Steve Jobs keynote was confusing to say the least, leaving a lot of Mac developers in utter confusion. It took multiple sessions over several days to clear the OS strategy which I have summarized below:

OSes
MacOS X will essentially be Rhapsody but for branding (ie marketing) purposes, the name will remain the same. It was also quite clear that application vendors who have current legacy code gave tremendous resistance to the absolute switch to YellowBox, rendering their current applications effectively dead, which gave rise to Carbon (see below). Rhapsody and MacOS X WILL converge at some future date into a cohesive OS to which most applications should move seamlessly.

YellowBox, Carbon, BlueBox
The YellowBox is a BIG part of MacOS X. It is the Apple recommended development API for all new projects, especially cross platform ones. The way this works under MacOS X is that it is an "application environment", basically a system DLL, as is Carbon and as is the legacy environment (a boxless BlueBox). The Carbon API as stated before will take advantage of the new multi threading, protected memory, etc, while all boxless BlueBox applications will exist in a single process.

BSD
BSD support will exist in MacOS X, although hidden from the end user. Sockets will apparently be in there and OpenTransport should make an appearance although probably layered on the socket interface.

I see Rhapsody as a release to help keep the NeXT developers on board since there is a good (relatively speaking) business presence they have built. It will also be a test bed for new technologies for MacOS X.

There is also some really cool low level stuff that can be done for Rhapsody/MacOS X like writing plugins for the VFS and custom memory paging routines.

I trust this clears things up!

Is it just me, or has today been looong as heck? Allright, first off, the Slashdot Q&A thing is still coming, and we have a (ahem) Victim to start routing questions. Contact Clifton Wood with your questions. Linux, or other. Easy or Hard, Bring it on. We'll post it, and let the Slashdot Readers try to answer it! Next, Sam Smith sent me A Psion 5 Review thingee. It's funny and interesting if you need a distraction. Lastly, Matthew Miller Sent us a link to some interesting info about MacOS 10.

Apple announced today at its Worldwide Developer Conference that MacOS and Rhapsody will merge. In 1999, Apple will release MacOS X, or MacOS 10. MacOS X will be able to preemptivley multitask and supports protected memory. In the interim, MacOS 8.5 (aka "Allegro") will ship.

Apple announced today at its Worldwide Developer Conference that MacOS and Rhapsody will merge. In 1999, Apple will release MacOS X, or MacOS 10. MacOS X will be able to preemptivley multitask and supports protected memory. In the interim, MacOS 8.5 (aka "Allegro") will ship.

Well it's a new desktop line. Integrated Monitor/PC in a transparent case, 233Mhz G3, 4gig HD 32 megs of RAM, for $1300. No complaints from over here. You may want to swing over to Apple and take a look for yourself. Sure wouldn't be a bad little Linux box...

beleriand wrote in to tell us that something a bit crazy seems to be coming up in a few hours on Apple.com... Updated Well the big hype was a trippy, extremely cheap ($1300) mac. 233Mhz G3, 32 Megs RAM, 4gig HD- looks like a decent Linux box to me.

Benjamin K. writes "Apple seems to have created a very intrusive license agreement for Quicktime 3. It is creating quite a buzz in the Macintosh community. The license requires that to distribute QT3, a developer either pay $1 per copy of the program, or must copy an advertisement to the desktop EVERY time the program is run. This could be bad. Furthermore, the new movieplayer has fewer features (in the free version) than the old version. I wonder what Apple was thinking!" With Microsoft's new video formats coming out, it seems like now would be a good time for Apple to try to gain market share instead of doing stupid stuff like this.

A 1499$US G3 has been delivered by Apple. This deal is for schools only, a clear sign that Apple is desperately trying to hold on to its market share in that key area. The price is all inclusive for all parts needed to run the machine-yes, even the monitor.

Apple has publicly stated that there is no deadline on Steve Jobs' position within the company. The Board has made it clear that they hope that Jobs will stay at Apple for "a long time", a clear statement of support.

Eddis Jefferson wrote in to tell us that it looks as if Intel might sue Apple over the recent (extremely funny) commercials that have been aired. You can read more here. Personally I thought the ads were great- the G3 hardware is great. To bad it has MacOS8 on it reducing it to a snails pace. Rhapsody, Be or Linux will make that machine killer.

Apple is reportedly going to ask Steve Jobs, whether or not he plans on staying at Apple in the board meeting on Tuesday. Jobs role has been relatively undefined since his return to the company, and the board is looking to naildown exactly what his role will be at the company. It is rumored that if he stays on, the board will give him an 8% stake in Apple, a not unconsiderable amount of money.

Apple continues their quest for money and market, and few secrets have leaked out about their new product. Apparently the new one is perhaps their first attempt at a NC, but may be a settop design, with the ability to play CDs, DVD--although details are still sketchy. Looks interesting however, and somehow it feels a little bit like the innovative spark that started the whole thing.

Apple has rolled out the first of their G3 servers. They come in 233 and 266 mhz flavors, featuring the usual gooides-RAID complaint etc. The prices are ranging from 3749-4999$US.

Bart Schuller wrote in to tell us that Apple has officially announced that it is discontinuing Newton OS. Nice to know that Steve is making the hard choices over there- Newton is a good product, but not competitive. Apple needs to trim fat and as cool as the newton is, it is fat. Check out what apple has to say about it.

Bart Schuller wrote in to tell us that Apple has officially announced that it is discontinuing Newton OS. Nice to know that Steve is making the hard choices over there- Newton is a good product, but not competitive. Apple needs to trim fat and as cool as the newton is, it is fat. Check out what apple has to say about it.

The International Standards Organization has officially choosen Apple's QuickTime format as the new standard for audio/video. More importantly for the future, developing the new MPEG-4 standard will be based on this, as a starting point. Good news for Apple, a company still underneath a dark cloud.

Simon Janes wrote in with a very interesting editorial for us to read. This marks the first time that someone besides me has had an Editorial posted on Slashdot, but this piece is so worth reading that I just had to post it. Simon writes about the hardware and software industry, and specifically Sun. His conclusions are "out there" but each time I read this thing, I think he's more and more right. Pay attention guys because this is a big one. Everything after this point is written by Simon Janes.

After reading The Washington Post today (" Sun's Lonely Battle", 8 Feb 1998 H1, H15), it struck home to me that Sun needs to be given hope against Microsoft and we all need some kind of hope for a good machine architecture in return. First look at what has happened to other processor architectures in the last 12 months:

Alpha Compaq has stated nothing about what it plans to do with Digital's Alpha making everyone wildly speculate about what is is going to do with it. Some do not like how Compaq has made its hardware very Windows specific or hard to administer at the bare-metal level (no BIOS? you mean I need a floppy disk with Compaq tools? how INCONVENIENT!)

PowerPC Motorola is retargetting PowerPC towards embedded applications because of Apple's monopolistic intents. Personally, I think Steve Jobs has a deeper plan of revenge against Apple, and is running it into the ground under the guise of being a saviour. Motorola was *just* about to come out with a line of G3 based PC's and Apple ruined it. I can imagine a lot of people at PowerComputing are so agry with Steve Jobs, that they would surely create an instant medical condition if they met Steve on sight. Motorola ate a $100M loss because of it-- which was really immature (the "we won't play your game anymore" game), Motorola & IBM should have sued the collective pants off of Apple for turning over the PowerPC apple-cart (the "we won't play your game anymore" game played the CORRECT way).

Intel Intel's offerings are increasingly getting proprietary, and proprietary means expensive. When and if the Merced processor based on IA-64 comes out, it will require a massive compiler re-engineering on the hands of the Free Software Foundation/Cygnus/LDC. On top of that Intel is targetting the Merced for "mainframes". Once you append the word mainframe to a computer, the price of that computer multiplys by several hundred percent. AMD and Cyrix are working hard to present alternatives to Intel, but in a market dominated by Intel and Microsoft, I fear that they will have limited sucess in this arena.

StrongARM A majority of the StrongARM design team have left their posts rather than work for Intel, who apparently now owns the rights to StrongARM. Granted, the StrongARM isn't your super-duper high performance server-class type of microprocessor, but I felt that it would have made for an excellent base for laptop computers.

MIPS MIPS machines sit there in the background. Acer at one time had a MIPS machine you could buy, but that disappeared into the chasm of Wintel. Cobalt Microservers is a start-up who could potentially turn MIPS around. Silicon Graphics is constantly in trouble with shareholder lawsuits so therefore has a cloud over its future.

Where is the hope then? I feel that it is with Sun. The SPARC and UltraSPARC have not had this kind of mayhem perpetuated on them. They are open specifications of which many other companies have implemented and sell-- however Sun is the largest, and most recognizable of them. Much of the hardware Sun has produced is still usable today so except for volume, Sun hardware has a similar history to that of Intel-based hardware (starting from the 386).

Sun needs help for this lonely fight, and it has one excellent place to turn to for it: The Linux Developer Community. Sun needs to follow the two-step method of world domination:

1. Officially support the Linux developer community (LDC) to support all grades of Sun hardware, from the low end (which are already pretty well supported) to the higher end (which are hard for the LDC to support because of lack of access and documentation. Sun needs to recognize that even though its Solaris is good, people love to have choices when it comes to what they run on their hardware. Sun, when it takes this first step, which Digital has already taken, must follow it with the step Digital has not taken--
2. Recognize and promote Linux as an alternative operating system for workstations and servers and ship it as a preinstalled option. I followed a banner advertisement yesterday from Wired news to Digital's little press story on the Titanic being rendered on Alpha hardware. Linux was not even mentioned ONCE in this press statement from Digital. This is not support of Linux on Digital's part, this is a cover-up. (If you go to Digital's Sucess Stories site to find customers who use Digital hardware, you will not even find Linux listed as an operating system option. Another coincidence?) When and if Sun takes the first step of supporting the LDC, it must also follow with the second step-- Promoting of the alternatives as well.

Sun is fighting a lonely battle indeed, but the Linux Developer Cavalry is there, waiting in the woods for Sun's call. Sun, are you listening? Victory is two years away, shine in the next millenium.

Ok, now I'm (Rob) back with a few closing remarks. I think that RedHat has proven that you can take the Linux OS, treat the Linux Community good (RPM, RHAD) and produce a quality product that you can sell. Sun is in a similiar position- they control the hardware, but if they were to openly support and port to Linux, they could take advantage of the amazing power of the Linux Community. Then Sun could concentrate on the 'value added' stuff that makes their platform special. Sure, it means ditching Solaris, but it allows Sun to focus programmers on stuff that isn't already being done better, elsewhere. I'm sure a handful of specialists devoted to Sparc/Linux would produce an amazingly optimized Linux Kernel. This would produce the fastest possible Linux platform, and it woudl make the rapidly growing Linux Population buy Sun hardware instead of Digital.

It wouldn't be easy, but I suspect it could be done. What do you guys think?

Sorry if I've been out of touch (I watch The Simpsons and the X-files each week) but I finally caught the new Apple G3 Commercials with the P2 on top of the slug. Jasper _RedStar_ Nuyens wrote in with several interesting points about the commercial. Mainly he talked about the superior CPU being crushed by the amazingly bloated MacOS. So what is the answer? Since Rhapsody looks like it will be "Server" software, it appears that MkLinux is the best way to tap all that power.

In a striking blow to a resurgent Apple, BestBuy has declared that they will no longer be carrying Macintoshs, citing slow sales on the product. As Best Buy put it "Apple is targeted at the education market, while we are interested in the traditional consumer." Apple, who made a profit, but have a declining market share has yet to comment on this development.

James S. Blachly wrote in to talk about something that has been brought to my attention before, but you all should read this. He writes "The latest buzz on the linux-kernel mailing list is the copying of the Linux Logo, the Penguin. Apple is using the penguin as the new logo for Quicktime. An image can be seen either when installing the new quicktime 3.0 drivers or at www.apple.com/quicktime/. Apple is shamefully capitalizing on other peoples creativity. The linux penguin logo is originally by Larry Ewing. His terms of usage may be found here."

The similarities are extremely strong, but let's be honest, most cartoon stylized penguins look the same. "The Wrong Trousers" features a Tux-Like Penguin, and I seem to remember some old Warner Bros cartoons with somewhat similar birds as well. And it wouldn't surprise me if whoever created the Quicktime logo just didnt know. Only in the last 6 mos has Linux really become enough of a mainstream fixture that we would expect major companies to worry about conflicting mascots.

Colin Crisanti writes " Microsoft finds its way into the MacOS 8.01 where this link at Apple makes it well known that IE is being integrated into MacOS. So now that MacOS has IE Integrated into it will this provoke the DOJ to make Apple produce a version of their OS without IE as well?"

Interesting. In a sort of related note, Nick Davis wrote in to tell us that Bill Gates will be interviewed by Barbara Walters on 20/20. Let's see what "tough questions" she can ask him.

Colin Crisanti writes " Microsoft finds its way into the MacOS 8.01 where this link at Apple makes it well known that IE is being integrated into MacOS. So now that MacOS has IE Integrated into it will this provoke the DOJ to make Apple produce a version of their OS without IE as well?"

Interesting. In a sort of related note, Nick Davis wrote in to tell us that Bill Gates will be interviewed by Barbara Walters on 20/20. Let's see what "tough questions" she can ask him.

Apple, once upon a time the leading computer maker in the US, has admitted in it's annual filing with the SEC that it's market share is at 3.1%, a barebones remnant. Despite the hurrah over Apple posting a profit in the first time in over a year, Apple still has serious problems, given that it's market share was only 5.6 a year ago, and is 3.1 now.

In an announcement that surprised most, including Wall Street, Steve Jobs, the Baron von Richtofen of Apple and acting CEO said that Apple made almost 45$US million in the first quarter, ending in December. They cited lower costs, and higher gross margin. Perhaps Elvis has not yet left the building, but is loitering near the exit sign.