Slashdot Mirror

TopSpin writes "Alcatel-Lucent has authorized The University of California, Berkeley to 'release all Plan 9 software previously governed by the Lucent Public License, Version 1.02 under the GNU General Public License, Version 2.' Plan 9 was developed primarily for research purposes as the successor to Unix by the Computing Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs between the mid-1980s and 2002. Plan 9 has subsequently emerged as Inferno, a commercially supported derivative, and ports to various platforms, including a recent port to the Raspberry Pi. In Plan 9, all system interfaces, including those required for networking and the user interface, are represented through the file system rather than specialized interfaces. The system provides a generic protocol, 9P, to perform all communication with the system, among processes and with network resources. Applications compose resources using union file systems to form isolated namespaces."

jacoplane writes "You may remember Rob Pike from his Slashdot interview. Since his interview, his two-dimensional text editors have experienced many improvements and ports including license improvements. A port to Inferno has been around for awhile. Recently a standalone version has been made for Windows based on the Inferno port. Linux users are in luck as the native port is now legally distributable."

jacoplane writes "You may remember Rob Pike from his Slashdot interview. Since his interview, his two-dimensional text editors have experienced many improvements and ports including license improvements. A port to Inferno has been around for awhile. Recently a standalone version has been made for Windows based on the Inferno port. Linux users are in luck as the native port is now legally distributable."

Tarantolato writes "A new preliminary public release of the Inferno distributed operating system is now available for downloading from Vita Nuova's website. Inferno is meant to be a better Plan 9, which was meant to be a better Unix. It can run as a standalone OS, as an application on top of an existing one, or even as a browser plugin. Also, all of its major components are named after things related to hell."

Tarantolato writes "A new preliminary public release of the Inferno distributed operating system is now available for downloading from Vita Nuova's website. Inferno is meant to be a better Plan 9, which was meant to be a better Unix. It can run as a standalone OS, as an application on top of an existing one, or even as a browser plugin. Also, all of its major components are named after things related to hell."

Tarantolato writes "A new preliminary public release of the Inferno distributed operating system is now available for downloading from Vita Nuova's website. Inferno is meant to be a better Plan 9, which was meant to be a better Unix. It can run as a standalone OS, as an application on top of an existing one, or even as a browser plugin. Also, all of its major components are named after things related to hell."

SeanIBaby asks: "I was wondering if anyone used Plan 9, and Inferno/Charon for a web browser. Are there any other web browsers for Plan 9, or do you have to code your own? I've noticed that Inferno's company sells Plan 9 boxed sets for $150US. I guess this is because they include the Inferno/Charon binaries with the image, even though they let you download Inferno for free from their website. Plan 9 is free from Bell Labs."

Little-Fat-Sheep writes: "Lots of talk on Slashdot and elsewhere lately about the future of Operating Systems being massively distributed. Well, the technology exists for years now in the two operating systems offered by Vita Nuova: Plan9 and Inferno. OSNews features today an interview with Vita Nuova's CEO, Michael Jeffrey."

woggo writes: "I just got the Vita Nuova newsletter for February. It appears that they are planning a port of Plan 9 and Inferno (the recently open-sourced operating systems from Bell Labs) to the Hitachi SH3 and SH4. I quote: "It would be good to hear from readers that have a suitable board to target for a reference port. Failing that, we have got our own ideas!)" Guess it's time to vote for everyone's favorite $99 MIPS computer...." According to the Vita Nuova site, "First, we are working on a port of the compiler suite to generate code for the SH series [of Hitachi chips]. Once that is done, we can start on an Inferno port (it being easier to port Inferno than Plan 9)." Update: 02/07 04:15 PM by T : Mitch Davis of the Linux on SuperH team wrote:"[this] article called the DreamCast "everyone's favorite $99 MIPS computer". Just so you know, the DreamCast is powered by a Hitachi SuperH processor, not a MIPS." Thanks for the correction, Mitch.

woggo writes: "I just got the Vita Nuova newsletter for February. It appears that they are planning a port of Plan 9 and Inferno (the recently open-sourced operating systems from Bell Labs) to the Hitachi SH3 and SH4. I quote: "It would be good to hear from readers that have a suitable board to target for a reference port. Failing that, we have got our own ideas!)" Guess it's time to vote for everyone's favorite $99 MIPS computer...." According to the Vita Nuova site, "First, we are working on a port of the compiler suite to generate code for the SH series [of Hitachi chips]. Once that is done, we can start on an Inferno port (it being easier to port Inferno than Plan 9)." Update: 02/07 04:15 PM by T : Mitch Davis of the Linux on SuperH team wrote:"[this] article called the DreamCast "everyone's favorite $99 MIPS computer". Just so you know, the DreamCast is powered by a Hitachi SuperH processor, not a MIPS." Thanks for the correction, Mitch.

anothy writes: "Vita Nuova has released a preliminary version of their Inferno plug-in for Internet Explorer (other browsers and OSs pending). this embeds Inferno, a small OS built around good security, a virtual machine, and an extention of the Unix "everything is a file" model, right into your browser. The plugin itself is 719Kb (smaller than Flash or RealPlayer) and provides most general OS services, including I/O, text manipulation, floating point functions, and graphics, including a Tk (no, it's not Tcl/Tk) implementation. These are the exact same Dis files that run on native Inferno (on raw hardware) or emulated on various other OSs. They also provide additional info on the plugin, including a little info on writing Inferno applications. Inferno's originally from the same lab at Bell Labs that gave us Unix, C, and Plan 9." See our previous article.

anothy writes: "Vita Nuova has released a preliminary version of their Inferno plug-in for Internet Explorer (other browsers and OSs pending). this embeds Inferno, a small OS built around good security, a virtual machine, and an extention of the Unix "everything is a file" model, right into your browser. The plugin itself is 719Kb (smaller than Flash or RealPlayer) and provides most general OS services, including I/O, text manipulation, floating point functions, and graphics, including a Tk (no, it's not Tcl/Tk) implementation. These are the exact same Dis files that run on native Inferno (on raw hardware) or emulated on various other OSs. They also provide additional info on the plugin, including a little info on writing Inferno applications. Inferno's originally from the same lab at Bell Labs that gave us Unix, C, and Plan 9." See our previous article.

anothy writes: "Vita Nuova has released a preliminary version of their Inferno plug-in for Internet Explorer (other browsers and OSs pending). this embeds Inferno, a small OS built around good security, a virtual machine, and an extention of the Unix "everything is a file" model, right into your browser. The plugin itself is 719Kb (smaller than Flash or RealPlayer) and provides most general OS services, including I/O, text manipulation, floating point functions, and graphics, including a Tk (no, it's not Tcl/Tk) implementation. These are the exact same Dis files that run on native Inferno (on raw hardware) or emulated on various other OSs. They also provide additional info on the plugin, including a little info on writing Inferno applications. Inferno's originally from the same lab at Bell Labs that gave us Unix, C, and Plan 9." See our previous article.

anothy writes: "Vita Nuova has released a preliminary version of their Inferno plug-in for Internet Explorer (other browsers and OSs pending). this embeds Inferno, a small OS built around good security, a virtual machine, and an extention of the Unix "everything is a file" model, right into your browser. The plugin itself is 719Kb (smaller than Flash or RealPlayer) and provides most general OS services, including I/O, text manipulation, floating point functions, and graphics, including a Tk (no, it's not Tcl/Tk) implementation. These are the exact same Dis files that run on native Inferno (on raw hardware) or emulated on various other OSs. They also provide additional info on the plugin, including a little info on writing Inferno applications. Inferno's originally from the same lab at Bell Labs that gave us Unix, C, and Plan 9." See our previous article.

Whaddya wanna hear? a) Microsoft's licensing practices, while never to everyone's taste, perhaps, seem to have mellowed at least a bit from the projected future of pay-per-reinstall. 2) The SDMI boycott you read about here lately has lost a key proponent; the reasons are unclear and so is the eventual outcome. iii) If Linux is too cool, BSD too smug, Windows too ridiculous, perhaps you need ... a truly infernal OS. N) Yet more proof that Carnivore and its ilk may be annoying and a threat to the average user, but hardly a sting to a wired criminal worth his salt. All below.

Frankly, this would have been just too silly. steveha writes: "Microsoft just changed their 're-imaging' payment policy. Companies buying computers that come with Windows installed can once again re-image the system hard disk without Microsoft demanding an extra license payment. Here is the official Microsoft document. Computer Reseller News had the story."

Burn baby burn. rpeppe writes: "briefly, you can download Inferno here, for free.

you might remember from a month or so back that the UK firm Vita Nuova obtained rights to Inferno, a next-generation virtual/embedded OS created by the likes of Rob Pike, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Inferno uses many of the ideas from Plan9 but, unlike Plan 9, there are no restrictive hardware requirements - it runs as a "virtual OS" under Linux, Windows, Plan 9 and others, mapping the resources provided by the host OS into a standard form for programs running within Inferno, which will run without change on any platform running it (including on bare hardware, such as SA1100 or MIPS)

we've just made free downloads available (for any use) for Linux, Windows and Plan 9. the actual kernel is not open source, but the download includes open source for all the user-level code in the system (applications, libraries, etc), plus unix-style documentation so there's plenty to tinker with.

this is a system that is genuinely trying to address the problems that are "too deep for unix to fix" and includes all sorts of interesting takes on some of the original unix philosophy (after all, it represents 30 years of evolution from the unix original). plus it's a really nice environment in which to write genuinely (and elegantly) portable programs."

Taking the meat from the jaws of Carnivore. An unnamed correspondent writes "Found a nice article on the circumvention of Carnivore which details steps one can take to avoid big brother. Article is nicely written which has a strange reference to the NSA's Verona project of World War II."

Nothing here may be all that new or surprizing to those already interested in online privacy or cryptography in general, but if you ever need ammunition in an argument about the nice government versus slithering heroin-dealing kiddie-porn terrorists, it'd be nice to point out how accessable these methods are to all involved.

OK, who has what up their sleeves, and why? Fervent writes "Interesting twist in the SDMI boycott -- Don Marti's backing down a bit. Apparently he and Leonardo Chiariglione, executive director of the SDMI, talked and found ways to get along about secure music. The article is here."

I'll be impressed if the music industry or anyone else can come up with a high-quality music format which can't be effectively copied with a modicum of hassle. "Anything that can be read," etc. Thta's not about to stop them from trying on both technological and legal fronts. Of the two, I'll take technological any day.

Whaddya wanna hear? a) Microsoft's licensing practices, while never to everyone's taste, perhaps, seem to have mellowed at least a bit from the projected future of pay-per-reinstall. 2) The SDMI boycott you read about here lately has lost a key proponent; the reasons are unclear and so is the eventual outcome. iii) If Linux is too cool, BSD too smug, Windows too ridiculous, perhaps you need ... a truly infernal OS. N) Yet more proof that Carnivore and its ilk may be annoying and a threat to the average user, but hardly a sting to a wired criminal worth his salt. All below.

Frankly, this would have been just too silly. steveha writes: "Microsoft just changed their 're-imaging' payment policy. Companies buying computers that come with Windows installed can once again re-image the system hard disk without Microsoft demanding an extra license payment. Here is the official Microsoft document. Computer Reseller News had the story."

Burn baby burn. rpeppe writes: "briefly, you can download Inferno here, for free.

you might remember from a month or so back that the UK firm Vita Nuova obtained rights to Inferno, a next-generation virtual/embedded OS created by the likes of Rob Pike, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Inferno uses many of the ideas from Plan9 but, unlike Plan 9, there are no restrictive hardware requirements - it runs as a "virtual OS" under Linux, Windows, Plan 9 and others, mapping the resources provided by the host OS into a standard form for programs running within Inferno, which will run without change on any platform running it (including on bare hardware, such as SA1100 or MIPS)

we've just made free downloads available (for any use) for Linux, Windows and Plan 9. the actual kernel is not open source, but the download includes open source for all the user-level code in the system (applications, libraries, etc), plus unix-style documentation so there's plenty to tinker with.

this is a system that is genuinely trying to address the problems that are "too deep for unix to fix" and includes all sorts of interesting takes on some of the original unix philosophy (after all, it represents 30 years of evolution from the unix original). plus it's a really nice environment in which to write genuinely (and elegantly) portable programs."

Taking the meat from the jaws of Carnivore. An unnamed correspondent writes "Found a nice article on the circumvention of Carnivore which details steps one can take to avoid big brother. Article is nicely written which has a strange reference to the NSA's Verona project of World War II."

Nothing here may be all that new or surprizing to those already interested in online privacy or cryptography in general, but if you ever need ammunition in an argument about the nice government versus slithering heroin-dealing kiddie-porn terrorists, it'd be nice to point out how accessable these methods are to all involved.

OK, who has what up their sleeves, and why? Fervent writes "Interesting twist in the SDMI boycott -- Don Marti's backing down a bit. Apparently he and Leonardo Chiariglione, executive director of the SDMI, talked and found ways to get along about secure music. The article is here."

I'll be impressed if the music industry or anyone else can come up with a high-quality music format which can't be effectively copied with a modicum of hassle. "Anything that can be read," etc. Thta's not about to stop them from trying on both technological and legal fronts. Of the two, I'll take technological any day.

Whaddya wanna hear? a) Microsoft's licensing practices, while never to everyone's taste, perhaps, seem to have mellowed at least a bit from the projected future of pay-per-reinstall. 2) The SDMI boycott you read about here lately has lost a key proponent; the reasons are unclear and so is the eventual outcome. iii) If Linux is too cool, BSD too smug, Windows too ridiculous, perhaps you need ... a truly infernal OS. N) Yet more proof that Carnivore and its ilk may be annoying and a threat to the average user, but hardly a sting to a wired criminal worth his salt. All below.

Frankly, this would have been just too silly. steveha writes: "Microsoft just changed their 're-imaging' payment policy. Companies buying computers that come with Windows installed can once again re-image the system hard disk without Microsoft demanding an extra license payment. Here is the official Microsoft document. Computer Reseller News had the story."

Burn baby burn. rpeppe writes: "briefly, you can download Inferno here, for free.

you might remember from a month or so back that the UK firm Vita Nuova obtained rights to Inferno, a next-generation virtual/embedded OS created by the likes of Rob Pike, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Inferno uses many of the ideas from Plan9 but, unlike Plan 9, there are no restrictive hardware requirements - it runs as a "virtual OS" under Linux, Windows, Plan 9 and others, mapping the resources provided by the host OS into a standard form for programs running within Inferno, which will run without change on any platform running it (including on bare hardware, such as SA1100 or MIPS)

we've just made free downloads available (for any use) for Linux, Windows and Plan 9. the actual kernel is not open source, but the download includes open source for all the user-level code in the system (applications, libraries, etc), plus unix-style documentation so there's plenty to tinker with.

this is a system that is genuinely trying to address the problems that are "too deep for unix to fix" and includes all sorts of interesting takes on some of the original unix philosophy (after all, it represents 30 years of evolution from the unix original). plus it's a really nice environment in which to write genuinely (and elegantly) portable programs."

Taking the meat from the jaws of Carnivore. An unnamed correspondent writes "Found a nice article on the circumvention of Carnivore which details steps one can take to avoid big brother. Article is nicely written which has a strange reference to the NSA's Verona project of World War II."

Nothing here may be all that new or surprizing to those already interested in online privacy or cryptography in general, but if you ever need ammunition in an argument about the nice government versus slithering heroin-dealing kiddie-porn terrorists, it'd be nice to point out how accessable these methods are to all involved.

OK, who has what up their sleeves, and why? Fervent writes "Interesting twist in the SDMI boycott -- Don Marti's backing down a bit. Apparently he and Leonardo Chiariglione, executive director of the SDMI, talked and found ways to get along about secure music. The article is here."

I'll be impressed if the music industry or anyone else can come up with a high-quality music format which can't be effectively copied with a modicum of hassle. "Anything that can be read," etc. Thta's not about to stop them from trying on both technological and legal fronts. Of the two, I'll take technological any day.

Whaddya wanna hear? a) Microsoft's licensing practices, while never to everyone's taste, perhaps, seem to have mellowed at least a bit from the projected future of pay-per-reinstall. 2) The SDMI boycott you read about here lately has lost a key proponent; the reasons are unclear and so is the eventual outcome. iii) If Linux is too cool, BSD too smug, Windows too ridiculous, perhaps you need ... a truly infernal OS. N) Yet more proof that Carnivore and its ilk may be annoying and a threat to the average user, but hardly a sting to a wired criminal worth his salt. All below.

Frankly, this would have been just too silly. steveha writes: "Microsoft just changed their 're-imaging' payment policy. Companies buying computers that come with Windows installed can once again re-image the system hard disk without Microsoft demanding an extra license payment. Here is the official Microsoft document. Computer Reseller News had the story."

Burn baby burn. rpeppe writes: "briefly, you can download Inferno here, for free.

you might remember from a month or so back that the UK firm Vita Nuova obtained rights to Inferno, a next-generation virtual/embedded OS created by the likes of Rob Pike, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Inferno uses many of the ideas from Plan9 but, unlike Plan 9, there are no restrictive hardware requirements - it runs as a "virtual OS" under Linux, Windows, Plan 9 and others, mapping the resources provided by the host OS into a standard form for programs running within Inferno, which will run without change on any platform running it (including on bare hardware, such as SA1100 or MIPS)

we've just made free downloads available (for any use) for Linux, Windows and Plan 9. the actual kernel is not open source, but the download includes open source for all the user-level code in the system (applications, libraries, etc), plus unix-style documentation so there's plenty to tinker with.

this is a system that is genuinely trying to address the problems that are "too deep for unix to fix" and includes all sorts of interesting takes on some of the original unix philosophy (after all, it represents 30 years of evolution from the unix original). plus it's a really nice environment in which to write genuinely (and elegantly) portable programs."

Taking the meat from the jaws of Carnivore. An unnamed correspondent writes "Found a nice article on the circumvention of Carnivore which details steps one can take to avoid big brother. Article is nicely written which has a strange reference to the NSA's Verona project of World War II."

Nothing here may be all that new or surprizing to those already interested in online privacy or cryptography in general, but if you ever need ammunition in an argument about the nice government versus slithering heroin-dealing kiddie-porn terrorists, it'd be nice to point out how accessable these methods are to all involved.

OK, who has what up their sleeves, and why? Fervent writes "Interesting twist in the SDMI boycott -- Don Marti's backing down a bit. Apparently he and Leonardo Chiariglione, executive director of the SDMI, talked and found ways to get along about secure music. The article is here."

I'll be impressed if the music industry or anyone else can come up with a high-quality music format which can't be effectively copied with a modicum of hassle. "Anything that can be read," etc. Thta's not about to stop them from trying on both technological and legal fronts. Of the two, I'll take technological any day.

Whaddya wanna hear? a) Microsoft's licensing practices, while never to everyone's taste, perhaps, seem to have mellowed at least a bit from the projected future of pay-per-reinstall. 2) The SDMI boycott you read about here lately has lost a key proponent; the reasons are unclear and so is the eventual outcome. iii) If Linux is too cool, BSD too smug, Windows too ridiculous, perhaps you need ... a truly infernal OS. N) Yet more proof that Carnivore and its ilk may be annoying and a threat to the average user, but hardly a sting to a wired criminal worth his salt. All below.

Frankly, this would have been just too silly. steveha writes: "Microsoft just changed their 're-imaging' payment policy. Companies buying computers that come with Windows installed can once again re-image the system hard disk without Microsoft demanding an extra license payment. Here is the official Microsoft document. Computer Reseller News had the story."

Burn baby burn. rpeppe writes: "briefly, you can download Inferno here, for free.

you might remember from a month or so back that the UK firm Vita Nuova obtained rights to Inferno, a next-generation virtual/embedded OS created by the likes of Rob Pike, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Inferno uses many of the ideas from Plan9 but, unlike Plan 9, there are no restrictive hardware requirements - it runs as a "virtual OS" under Linux, Windows, Plan 9 and others, mapping the resources provided by the host OS into a standard form for programs running within Inferno, which will run without change on any platform running it (including on bare hardware, such as SA1100 or MIPS)

we've just made free downloads available (for any use) for Linux, Windows and Plan 9. the actual kernel is not open source, but the download includes open source for all the user-level code in the system (applications, libraries, etc), plus unix-style documentation so there's plenty to tinker with.

this is a system that is genuinely trying to address the problems that are "too deep for unix to fix" and includes all sorts of interesting takes on some of the original unix philosophy (after all, it represents 30 years of evolution from the unix original). plus it's a really nice environment in which to write genuinely (and elegantly) portable programs."

Taking the meat from the jaws of Carnivore. An unnamed correspondent writes "Found a nice article on the circumvention of Carnivore which details steps one can take to avoid big brother. Article is nicely written which has a strange reference to the NSA's Verona project of World War II."

Nothing here may be all that new or surprizing to those already interested in online privacy or cryptography in general, but if you ever need ammunition in an argument about the nice government versus slithering heroin-dealing kiddie-porn terrorists, it'd be nice to point out how accessable these methods are to all involved.

OK, who has what up their sleeves, and why? Fervent writes "Interesting twist in the SDMI boycott -- Don Marti's backing down a bit. Apparently he and Leonardo Chiariglione, executive director of the SDMI, talked and found ways to get along about secure music. The article is here."

I'll be impressed if the music industry or anyone else can come up with a high-quality music format which can't be effectively copied with a modicum of hassle. "Anything that can be read," etc. Thta's not about to stop them from trying on both technological and legal fronts. Of the two, I'll take technological any day.

Read on for clarification about the alleged Gnome/KDE collaboration reported a few days ago, which ... ain't. And about the project to put Linux on the Royal DaVinci, which promises slow but steady progress. There's also infernally good news for anyone intrigued by the recent open-source Plan 9 release.

Pardon me, sir, are you in the market for a nice strong bridge? Aaron J. Seigo writes: "A letter from Mosfet can be found at knews.derkarl.org which clearly states the official KDE position regarding the recent "news" with regard to Gnome and KDE getting together on a common component model. Which is: It isn't happening. And for good reason.

KDE2 is in the final stages of preperation, so this is not the time to go messing with the foundations of things. Also, KParts wasn't designed on a whim. The KDE team put a lot of thought into it and came up with something that has some very real benefits to it (speed/overhead/etc). While interoperability would be nice, don't expect it on the component level just yet. Be happy with drag 'n drop and the like. For now."

Fair enough. Also on the KDE front, Joseph points you to knews.derkarl.org, which seems like a useful one for anyone looking for KDE updates.

Will a Linux PDA become their strong suit? jsinnema writes "News on the Linux Powered Royal daVinci from Wayland Bruns, CEO/CTO/Chief Geek CompanionLink Software at PDA Buzz Royal: 'Unfortunately, development is not on the timeline originally hoped. What's shaping out is two 16MB ROM/16MB Ram units, one 4 color grayscale for a low price, the other full color for a higher price. Size and weight are about the same as a Palm III. The color unit will have a flash slot.' and
'One of the interesting aspects of the project is that this is the first time we can directly compare performance of a particular app on both PC and PDA. I'm happy to report the PDA units are surprisingly powerful, except to note that memory access is relatively slow.'"

It sure would be neat if Linux becomes the default OS for palm-top computing; will Royal's project, though, stand a chance against the flashier ones which keep peeking like Monty Python animation over the horizon?

I'm sorry, but I'll have to call you back after I set my computer on fire. rpeppe writes "those who were intrigued by the Plan 9 release but don't have the appropriate hardware, or in fact anyone interested in new languages and OS's should be interested in the following:

vita nuova has released a new edition of the Inferno OS, source code and all, under a new licence, which allows distribution of core OS source code to inferno subscribers only, but unencumbered personal and commercial use of the binaries and the rest of the source code (including a javascript capable Web browser).

inferno is a cousin to Plan 9, but includes a virtual machine and a new language, limbo, and can run hosted under linux, free bsd, windows and other OS's, as well as natively on x86, ARM, MIPS, 68000, 68020 processors. because the whole operating system is virtualised, programs written for inferno are completely portable, something it would be difficult to say about java, for instance.

the language, limbo, deserves some attention - it's C-like, and OO in the deeper sense, but avoids the inheritance pitfalls that languages like java fall into. it's a joy to write in.

in my opinion, inferno was the coolest thing ever to have come out of bell labs CSRG - and we've now got exclusive rights to it, and intend to make as much of this excellent technology as we can. i hope others will too!"

Read on for clarification about the alleged Gnome/KDE collaboration reported a few days ago, which ... ain't. And about the project to put Linux on the Royal DaVinci, which promises slow but steady progress. There's also infernally good news for anyone intrigued by the recent open-source Plan 9 release.

Pardon me, sir, are you in the market for a nice strong bridge? Aaron J. Seigo writes: "A letter from Mosfet can be found at knews.derkarl.org which clearly states the official KDE position regarding the recent "news" with regard to Gnome and KDE getting together on a common component model. Which is: It isn't happening. And for good reason.

KDE2 is in the final stages of preperation, so this is not the time to go messing with the foundations of things. Also, KParts wasn't designed on a whim. The KDE team put a lot of thought into it and came up with something that has some very real benefits to it (speed/overhead/etc). While interoperability would be nice, don't expect it on the component level just yet. Be happy with drag 'n drop and the like. For now."

Fair enough. Also on the KDE front, Joseph points you to knews.derkarl.org, which seems like a useful one for anyone looking for KDE updates.

Will a Linux PDA become their strong suit? jsinnema writes "News on the Linux Powered Royal daVinci from Wayland Bruns, CEO/CTO/Chief Geek CompanionLink Software at PDA Buzz Royal: 'Unfortunately, development is not on the timeline originally hoped. What's shaping out is two 16MB ROM/16MB Ram units, one 4 color grayscale for a low price, the other full color for a higher price. Size and weight are about the same as a Palm III. The color unit will have a flash slot.' and
'One of the interesting aspects of the project is that this is the first time we can directly compare performance of a particular app on both PC and PDA. I'm happy to report the PDA units are surprisingly powerful, except to note that memory access is relatively slow.'"

It sure would be neat if Linux becomes the default OS for palm-top computing; will Royal's project, though, stand a chance against the flashier ones which keep peeking like Monty Python animation over the horizon?

I'm sorry, but I'll have to call you back after I set my computer on fire. rpeppe writes "those who were intrigued by the Plan 9 release but don't have the appropriate hardware, or in fact anyone interested in new languages and OS's should be interested in the following:

vita nuova has released a new edition of the Inferno OS, source code and all, under a new licence, which allows distribution of core OS source code to inferno subscribers only, but unencumbered personal and commercial use of the binaries and the rest of the source code (including a javascript capable Web browser).

inferno is a cousin to Plan 9, but includes a virtual machine and a new language, limbo, and can run hosted under linux, free bsd, windows and other OS's, as well as natively on x86, ARM, MIPS, 68000, 68020 processors. because the whole operating system is virtualised, programs written for inferno are completely portable, something it would be difficult to say about java, for instance.

the language, limbo, deserves some attention - it's C-like, and OO in the deeper sense, but avoids the inheritance pitfalls that languages like java fall into. it's a joy to write in.

in my opinion, inferno was the coolest thing ever to have come out of bell labs CSRG - and we've now got exclusive rights to it, and intend to make as much of this excellent technology as we can. i hope others will too!"

Read on for clarification about the alleged Gnome/KDE collaboration reported a few days ago, which ... ain't. And about the project to put Linux on the Royal DaVinci, which promises slow but steady progress. There's also infernally good news for anyone intrigued by the recent open-source Plan 9 release.

Pardon me, sir, are you in the market for a nice strong bridge? Aaron J. Seigo writes: "A letter from Mosfet can be found at knews.derkarl.org which clearly states the official KDE position regarding the recent "news" with regard to Gnome and KDE getting together on a common component model. Which is: It isn't happening. And for good reason.

KDE2 is in the final stages of preperation, so this is not the time to go messing with the foundations of things. Also, KParts wasn't designed on a whim. The KDE team put a lot of thought into it and came up with something that has some very real benefits to it (speed/overhead/etc). While interoperability would be nice, don't expect it on the component level just yet. Be happy with drag 'n drop and the like. For now."

Fair enough. Also on the KDE front, Joseph points you to knews.derkarl.org, which seems like a useful one for anyone looking for KDE updates.

Will a Linux PDA become their strong suit? jsinnema writes "News on the Linux Powered Royal daVinci from Wayland Bruns, CEO/CTO/Chief Geek CompanionLink Software at PDA Buzz Royal: 'Unfortunately, development is not on the timeline originally hoped. What's shaping out is two 16MB ROM/16MB Ram units, one 4 color grayscale for a low price, the other full color for a higher price. Size and weight are about the same as a Palm III. The color unit will have a flash slot.' and
'One of the interesting aspects of the project is that this is the first time we can directly compare performance of a particular app on both PC and PDA. I'm happy to report the PDA units are surprisingly powerful, except to note that memory access is relatively slow.'"

It sure would be neat if Linux becomes the default OS for palm-top computing; will Royal's project, though, stand a chance against the flashier ones which keep peeking like Monty Python animation over the horizon?

I'm sorry, but I'll have to call you back after I set my computer on fire. rpeppe writes "those who were intrigued by the Plan 9 release but don't have the appropriate hardware, or in fact anyone interested in new languages and OS's should be interested in the following:

vita nuova has released a new edition of the Inferno OS, source code and all, under a new licence, which allows distribution of core OS source code to inferno subscribers only, but unencumbered personal and commercial use of the binaries and the rest of the source code (including a javascript capable Web browser).

inferno is a cousin to Plan 9, but includes a virtual machine and a new language, limbo, and can run hosted under linux, free bsd, windows and other OS's, as well as natively on x86, ARM, MIPS, 68000, 68020 processors. because the whole operating system is virtualised, programs written for inferno are completely portable, something it would be difficult to say about java, for instance.

the language, limbo, deserves some attention - it's C-like, and OO in the deeper sense, but avoids the inheritance pitfalls that languages like java fall into. it's a joy to write in.

in my opinion, inferno was the coolest thing ever to have come out of bell labs CSRG - and we've now got exclusive rights to it, and intend to make as much of this excellent technology as we can. i hope others will too!"

Read on for clarification about the alleged Gnome/KDE collaboration reported a few days ago, which ... ain't. And about the project to put Linux on the Royal DaVinci, which promises slow but steady progress. There's also infernally good news for anyone intrigued by the recent open-source Plan 9 release.

Pardon me, sir, are you in the market for a nice strong bridge? Aaron J. Seigo writes: "A letter from Mosfet can be found at knews.derkarl.org which clearly states the official KDE position regarding the recent "news" with regard to Gnome and KDE getting together on a common component model. Which is: It isn't happening. And for good reason.

KDE2 is in the final stages of preperation, so this is not the time to go messing with the foundations of things. Also, KParts wasn't designed on a whim. The KDE team put a lot of thought into it and came up with something that has some very real benefits to it (speed/overhead/etc). While interoperability would be nice, don't expect it on the component level just yet. Be happy with drag 'n drop and the like. For now."

Fair enough. Also on the KDE front, Joseph points you to knews.derkarl.org, which seems like a useful one for anyone looking for KDE updates.

Will a Linux PDA become their strong suit? jsinnema writes "News on the Linux Powered Royal daVinci from Wayland Bruns, CEO/CTO/Chief Geek CompanionLink Software at PDA Buzz Royal: 'Unfortunately, development is not on the timeline originally hoped. What's shaping out is two 16MB ROM/16MB Ram units, one 4 color grayscale for a low price, the other full color for a higher price. Size and weight are about the same as a Palm III. The color unit will have a flash slot.' and
'One of the interesting aspects of the project is that this is the first time we can directly compare performance of a particular app on both PC and PDA. I'm happy to report the PDA units are surprisingly powerful, except to note that memory access is relatively slow.'"

It sure would be neat if Linux becomes the default OS for palm-top computing; will Royal's project, though, stand a chance against the flashier ones which keep peeking like Monty Python animation over the horizon?

I'm sorry, but I'll have to call you back after I set my computer on fire. rpeppe writes "those who were intrigued by the Plan 9 release but don't have the appropriate hardware, or in fact anyone interested in new languages and OS's should be interested in the following:

vita nuova has released a new edition of the Inferno OS, source code and all, under a new licence, which allows distribution of core OS source code to inferno subscribers only, but unencumbered personal and commercial use of the binaries and the rest of the source code (including a javascript capable Web browser).

inferno is a cousin to Plan 9, but includes a virtual machine and a new language, limbo, and can run hosted under linux, free bsd, windows and other OS's, as well as natively on x86, ARM, MIPS, 68000, 68020 processors. because the whole operating system is virtualised, programs written for inferno are completely portable, something it would be difficult to say about java, for instance.

the language, limbo, deserves some attention - it's C-like, and OO in the deeper sense, but avoids the inheritance pitfalls that languages like java fall into. it's a joy to write in.

in my opinion, inferno was the coolest thing ever to have come out of bell labs CSRG - and we've now got exclusive rights to it, and intend to make as much of this excellent technology as we can. i hope others will too!"

Read on for clarification about the alleged Gnome/KDE collaboration reported a few days ago, which ... ain't. And about the project to put Linux on the Royal DaVinci, which promises slow but steady progress. There's also infernally good news for anyone intrigued by the recent open-source Plan 9 release.

Pardon me, sir, are you in the market for a nice strong bridge? Aaron J. Seigo writes: "A letter from Mosfet can be found at knews.derkarl.org which clearly states the official KDE position regarding the recent "news" with regard to Gnome and KDE getting together on a common component model. Which is: It isn't happening. And for good reason.

KDE2 is in the final stages of preperation, so this is not the time to go messing with the foundations of things. Also, KParts wasn't designed on a whim. The KDE team put a lot of thought into it and came up with something that has some very real benefits to it (speed/overhead/etc). While interoperability would be nice, don't expect it on the component level just yet. Be happy with drag 'n drop and the like. For now."

Fair enough. Also on the KDE front, Joseph points you to knews.derkarl.org, which seems like a useful one for anyone looking for KDE updates.

Will a Linux PDA become their strong suit? jsinnema writes "News on the Linux Powered Royal daVinci from Wayland Bruns, CEO/CTO/Chief Geek CompanionLink Software at PDA Buzz Royal: 'Unfortunately, development is not on the timeline originally hoped. What's shaping out is two 16MB ROM/16MB Ram units, one 4 color grayscale for a low price, the other full color for a higher price. Size and weight are about the same as a Palm III. The color unit will have a flash slot.' and
'One of the interesting aspects of the project is that this is the first time we can directly compare performance of a particular app on both PC and PDA. I'm happy to report the PDA units are surprisingly powerful, except to note that memory access is relatively slow.'"

It sure would be neat if Linux becomes the default OS for palm-top computing; will Royal's project, though, stand a chance against the flashier ones which keep peeking like Monty Python animation over the horizon?

I'm sorry, but I'll have to call you back after I set my computer on fire. rpeppe writes "those who were intrigued by the Plan 9 release but don't have the appropriate hardware, or in fact anyone interested in new languages and OS's should be interested in the following:

vita nuova has released a new edition of the Inferno OS, source code and all, under a new licence, which allows distribution of core OS source code to inferno subscribers only, but unencumbered personal and commercial use of the binaries and the rest of the source code (including a javascript capable Web browser).

inferno is a cousin to Plan 9, but includes a virtual machine and a new language, limbo, and can run hosted under linux, free bsd, windows and other OS's, as well as natively on x86, ARM, MIPS, 68000, 68020 processors. because the whole operating system is virtualised, programs written for inferno are completely portable, something it would be difficult to say about java, for instance.

the language, limbo, deserves some attention - it's C-like, and OO in the deeper sense, but avoids the inheritance pitfalls that languages like java fall into. it's a joy to write in.

in my opinion, inferno was the coolest thing ever to have come out of bell labs CSRG - and we've now got exclusive rights to it, and intend to make as much of this excellent technology as we can. i hope others will too!"

Read on for clarification about the alleged Gnome/KDE collaboration reported a few days ago, which ... ain't. And about the project to put Linux on the Royal DaVinci, which promises slow but steady progress. There's also infernally good news for anyone intrigued by the recent open-source Plan 9 release.

Pardon me, sir, are you in the market for a nice strong bridge? Aaron J. Seigo writes: "A letter from Mosfet can be found at knews.derkarl.org which clearly states the official KDE position regarding the recent "news" with regard to Gnome and KDE getting together on a common component model. Which is: It isn't happening. And for good reason.

KDE2 is in the final stages of preperation, so this is not the time to go messing with the foundations of things. Also, KParts wasn't designed on a whim. The KDE team put a lot of thought into it and came up with something that has some very real benefits to it (speed/overhead/etc). While interoperability would be nice, don't expect it on the component level just yet. Be happy with drag 'n drop and the like. For now."

Fair enough. Also on the KDE front, Joseph points you to knews.derkarl.org, which seems like a useful one for anyone looking for KDE updates.

Will a Linux PDA become their strong suit? jsinnema writes "News on the Linux Powered Royal daVinci from Wayland Bruns, CEO/CTO/Chief Geek CompanionLink Software at PDA Buzz Royal: 'Unfortunately, development is not on the timeline originally hoped. What's shaping out is two 16MB ROM/16MB Ram units, one 4 color grayscale for a low price, the other full color for a higher price. Size and weight are about the same as a Palm III. The color unit will have a flash slot.' and
'One of the interesting aspects of the project is that this is the first time we can directly compare performance of a particular app on both PC and PDA. I'm happy to report the PDA units are surprisingly powerful, except to note that memory access is relatively slow.'"

It sure would be neat if Linux becomes the default OS for palm-top computing; will Royal's project, though, stand a chance against the flashier ones which keep peeking like Monty Python animation over the horizon?

I'm sorry, but I'll have to call you back after I set my computer on fire. rpeppe writes "those who were intrigued by the Plan 9 release but don't have the appropriate hardware, or in fact anyone interested in new languages and OS's should be interested in the following:

vita nuova has released a new edition of the Inferno OS, source code and all, under a new licence, which allows distribution of core OS source code to inferno subscribers only, but unencumbered personal and commercial use of the binaries and the rest of the source code (including a javascript capable Web browser).

inferno is a cousin to Plan 9, but includes a virtual machine and a new language, limbo, and can run hosted under linux, free bsd, windows and other OS's, as well as natively on x86, ARM, MIPS, 68000, 68020 processors. because the whole operating system is virtualised, programs written for inferno are completely portable, something it would be difficult to say about java, for instance.

the language, limbo, deserves some attention - it's C-like, and OO in the deeper sense, but avoids the inheritance pitfalls that languages like java fall into. it's a joy to write in.

in my opinion, inferno was the coolest thing ever to have come out of bell labs CSRG - and we've now got exclusive rights to it, and intend to make as much of this excellent technology as we can. i hope others will too!"

Read on for clarification about the alleged Gnome/KDE collaboration reported a few days ago, which ... ain't. And about the project to put Linux on the Royal DaVinci, which promises slow but steady progress. There's also infernally good news for anyone intrigued by the recent open-source Plan 9 release.

Pardon me, sir, are you in the market for a nice strong bridge? Aaron J. Seigo writes: "A letter from Mosfet can be found at knews.derkarl.org which clearly states the official KDE position regarding the recent "news" with regard to Gnome and KDE getting together on a common component model. Which is: It isn't happening. And for good reason.

KDE2 is in the final stages of preperation, so this is not the time to go messing with the foundations of things. Also, KParts wasn't designed on a whim. The KDE team put a lot of thought into it and came up with something that has some very real benefits to it (speed/overhead/etc). While interoperability would be nice, don't expect it on the component level just yet. Be happy with drag 'n drop and the like. For now."

Fair enough. Also on the KDE front, Joseph points you to knews.derkarl.org, which seems like a useful one for anyone looking for KDE updates.

Will a Linux PDA become their strong suit? jsinnema writes "News on the Linux Powered Royal daVinci from Wayland Bruns, CEO/CTO/Chief Geek CompanionLink Software at PDA Buzz Royal: 'Unfortunately, development is not on the timeline originally hoped. What's shaping out is two 16MB ROM/16MB Ram units, one 4 color grayscale for a low price, the other full color for a higher price. Size and weight are about the same as a Palm III. The color unit will have a flash slot.' and
'One of the interesting aspects of the project is that this is the first time we can directly compare performance of a particular app on both PC and PDA. I'm happy to report the PDA units are surprisingly powerful, except to note that memory access is relatively slow.'"

It sure would be neat if Linux becomes the default OS for palm-top computing; will Royal's project, though, stand a chance against the flashier ones which keep peeking like Monty Python animation over the horizon?

I'm sorry, but I'll have to call you back after I set my computer on fire. rpeppe writes "those who were intrigued by the Plan 9 release but don't have the appropriate hardware, or in fact anyone interested in new languages and OS's should be interested in the following:

vita nuova has released a new edition of the Inferno OS, source code and all, under a new licence, which allows distribution of core OS source code to inferno subscribers only, but unencumbered personal and commercial use of the binaries and the rest of the source code (including a javascript capable Web browser).

inferno is a cousin to Plan 9, but includes a virtual machine and a new language, limbo, and can run hosted under linux, free bsd, windows and other OS's, as well as natively on x86, ARM, MIPS, 68000, 68020 processors. because the whole operating system is virtualised, programs written for inferno are completely portable, something it would be difficult to say about java, for instance.

the language, limbo, deserves some attention - it's C-like, and OO in the deeper sense, but avoids the inheritance pitfalls that languages like java fall into. it's a joy to write in.

in my opinion, inferno was the coolest thing ever to have come out of bell labs CSRG - and we've now got exclusive rights to it, and intend to make as much of this excellent technology as we can. i hope others will too!"

shawk writes "Vita Nuova today announced that it has obtained the exclusive, worldwide rights to the Inferno Operating System from Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs and that it is to publish the Inferno source code under inexpensive, commercial licence terms. Vita Nuova has also announced that Lucent Technologies and a UK investor have invested equity capital into Vita Nuova to develop and market Inferno. Personal Inferno Subscriptions cost $300 with a 50% discount for academics and students. Corporate subscriptions cost from $1000 for five developers. You can order your Inferno boxed set including CD, programmer's manual and papers today. Full details can be found at the Vita Nuova."

shawk writes "Vita Nuova today announced that it has obtained the exclusive, worldwide rights to the Inferno Operating System from Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs and that it is to publish the Inferno source code under inexpensive, commercial licence terms. Vita Nuova has also announced that Lucent Technologies and a UK investor have invested equity capital into Vita Nuova to develop and market Inferno. Personal Inferno Subscriptions cost $300 with a 50% discount for academics and students. Corporate subscriptions cost from $1000 for five developers. You can order your Inferno boxed set including CD, programmer's manual and papers today. Full details can be found at the Vita Nuova."

Joined by dozens of other readers, johnmullin writes: "Bell Labs has made the third release of its Plan 9 computer operating system available on the World Wide Web under an open-source agreement. Anyone interested in using Plan 9 may download the system, including source code and documentation, from http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/. Check out the full story here here." Note for the lazy: An English company called Vita Nuova will also be selling "a full boxed set with CDs and manuals." Surely, systems research is not dead ...