Slashback: OS Xi, Sarge, Statistics

Slashback is back from vacation with updates on the Apple switch to Intel,a now-fixed glitch in the recent release of Debian 3.1, a hyper-efficient Honda, and the real numbers on online music networks. Read on for the details.

It still feels like a strange dream that they're really switching. An anonymous reader writes "With our latest Unix (MacOS-X) vendor's switch to x86, I figured now would be a fine time to revisit an old MIT Graduate Student Beer announcement from 2001."

Also, samchung writes "CoolTechZone has its latest article up that discusses the possibilities of Apple's protection on x86 hardware to prevent users from running the Mac OS X on non-proprietary hardware."

More fuel: Reality Master 101 writes "Michael Robertson, CEO of Linspire posted an editorial talking about his disappointment that Apple wasn't embracing generic hardware. But the really interesting part was that he states, "My sources say that Jobs is going to use Intel's cryptographic technology called LaGrande to make sure OS X will only boot on Apple-branded hardware. This is a similar technique to the one that Microsoft used to make sure Linux could not be loaded on Xbox..." I'm still not sure how they'll do this with an open source Kernel." They're clearly part of the Linspire marketing effort, but Robertson's messages, including this one, are usually pithy and worth reading.

Hey, you could always wait for a service pack. An anonymous reader submits "Because of an error in a configuration file, Debian Sarge, released June 6th, does not have security updating enabled by default. ZDNet Australia reports that after several years of testing, the release team's error caused a significant delay in deployment. Steve Langasek, of the release team, says, 'Whoops, don't go pressing those 10,000 copies of [3.1] just yet.' Fortunately, the error may be fixed quite easily, and an update is expected within several days. OSNews also covers the story.

Sticker shock alone could defeat the other drivers. josemunizn writes "Remember the Honda FCX, from a Slashdot article in '03? Well the New York Times has an automotive review of a week-long, unsupervised test drive of the Honda. Choice quote: 'In most important ways, the FCX feels ready for prime-time combat on the world's roads.'"

Carry the one, subtract 5, voila! An anonymous reader writes "WinMX and Limewire are the most popular P2P apps? That's what NPD group claims in its research on iTunes covered on Slashdot yesterday. But as Jon Newton points out on P2Pnet and MP3 Newswire, the entire premise that more people use iTunes over the file sharing networks is 'nonsense.' With sites like Slyck.com reporting eDonkey alone has over 4.5 million concurrent users and P2P research firm BigChampagne saying in the U.S. in May an average of 6,290,327 people were logged onto the p2p networks at any given moment, how can iTunes' 1.7 million downloads over an entire month put them anywhere near the top? Zeropaid has also chimed in on these claims and even CNET is now questioning the results it reported in its original article on the NPD research."

Catching up to the 3rd parties who have caught up with the competition. An anonymous reader writes "For the impatient or those few not ready to adopt Firefox, there is now another option to get tabs. BetaNews reports, 'Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser will not have to wait until IE7 to experience tabbed browsing. MSN has shipped a new build of its MSN Search Toolbar that adds basic tabbed browsing support to IE6. But the feature is not fully integrated into the browser, instead relying on the toolbar to create tabs.' Here's an article including a screenshot.

Comments

No thanks

[mincognito]

Thanks for trying but we'd rather have one good story rather than five crappy ones.

Apple's next claim to be proved false...

[callipygian-showsyst]

Apple used to claim that a Pentium was like a snail. They can't do that anymore.

Apple still claims that OS-X never crashes. Mac users will say the same thing in public. However the Big Secret is that on Mac-centric bulletin boards (like this, for instance) you see that there are many "kernel panics" (the equivalent of a Windows BSOD).

I give Apple credit for putting up a nice, friendly message that "your computer needs to be restarted" instead of a blue screen with scary numbers on it. That way, Mac users believe that they simpley have to reboot because Macintosh said so, and there's nothing "Wrong."

Re:OSX on generic Intel HW

[GoRK]

If you go through life always buying the least expensive product, you will have nothing but cheap crap when you die. If you truly follow this philosophy then take a look at that jicky pressed wood desk (or similar junk furniture) that your keyboard is sitting on and tell me that will still be there looking good in 10 years -- if it's not already looking like crap, that is. How many cars have you been through in the last 30 years (since you bought a VW Beetle, Yugo, Geo Metro etc. after previous vehicles did themselves in)

The point is that the best solution is seldom the cheapest. This holds true for many things including the purchase decision for computers. If you want to download OS X and run it on your dell laptop, be my guest, but it's really tough to argue your point about 'whichever is cheaper' when you are stealing one of them. If you stole yourself a mac computer too it'd be a hell of a lot cheaper than any Dell!