OSnews

Bww bitwise works has announced the fitfh beta of its Firefox port to OS/2 and eComStation. Bww bitwise works also announced that they are makking progress porting SWT/Eclipse, and that they are starting to work on porting a newer version of VirtualBox to OS/2.

Did you know that The Verge delivers you to around 20 companies for advertising & tracking purposes? I didn't. That might foul up your web experience a little bit. Maybe we should try something different.The Verge obviously isn't alone in this. There's a reason I use an ad blocker.

Aside from the app void and the questionable value of Scopes, Ubuntu Phone is a bit of a nightmare to use the majority of the time. Something's often refreshing in the background, causing the phone to slow down. Apps take longer to load than they should, and even then you're probably waiting on a web app. The gesture-based navigation is unrefined; there are bugs and glitches all over the place; and in general, many core experiences are severely lacking in polish. Despite years of development, Ubuntu Phone still feels like an early beta, and I think Canonical needs to think long and hard about the implementation of Scopes and bump native apps up the agenda. There's nothing wrong with trying to be different, but there's a reason Android/iOS are so popular. Ignoring the headway they've made in refining the mobile experience is, in my mind, setting yourself up for failure.It's taking Canonical way, way too long. If the much further along Sailfish and Jolla can't really make a serious dent into anything, it's easy to imagine this won't go anywhere either.

With the permission of Electronic Arts, Inc. the Computer History Museum is pleased to make available, for non-commercial use, the source code to the 1986 version I of DeluxePaint. There are 89 files of C language source, comprising almost 17,000 lines of code in about 474 KB of text.The CHM keeps on doing awesome stuff like this. Also thanks to EA for releasing this historic code.

NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the "habitable zone" around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another "Earth."All the recent successes in space - Philae/Rosetta, New Horizons, the never-ending stream of discoveries from Keppler, like this one - actually make me sad, because it makes me wonder how much more we could've achieved and discovered has we not developed this anti-science and pro-war climate we've been living in for a while now.Maybe these new achievements will reignite the hunger for space. We can hope.

Apple needs to change its priorities for the Mac App Store or just shut the whole thing down. As it now stands, developers who are tired of being second-class citizens are making that decision for them and leaving on their own.Even as a mere user the Mac App Store is a horrible experience. It's slow, has a crappy user interface, and many developers ignore it anyway. They might as well shut it down.

The change should help end the annual frustration experienced by app developers when users running beta versions of iOS discovered a third party app wasn't compatible with the beta software and then left a 1-star rating on the App Store. Poor reviews on the App Store can hurt sales, and developers often can't do anything to fix the problem because they can't submit software built for the new versions of iOS whilst it remains in beta, and the bug could be one for Apple to fix, not the developer.Good move, although it ook them way too long.

Rupert Loman, owner of Gamer Network which boasts Eurogamer, Games Industry, Rock Paper Shotgun, VG247 and more within its network of sites, says that ad-blockers are a real threat to the future of journalism."Ad blocking is probably the biggest existential threat to the future of online games journalism," he told MCV.Cry me a river.

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA is holding a two day event celebrating the Amiga, and other events will be held around the world. The museum's event will include exhibits of Amiga machines and other computers of the era from Commodore, Apple and Atari, speakers, rare artifacts and art, and a special showing of a new Amiga documentary.

Got an Xperia Z3 and a home address somewhere in the Kingdom of Sweden? Sony wants your help with testing its next round of software updates for Android, which the company has rounded up in an initiative it's calling "Android concept." The goal, says Sony, is to develop new software "from the ground up," meaning no additional Google Play apps like YouTube on the test build, just the core Google communications software and Sony's stack of custom apps like Camera, Music, and Xperia Lounge.Yet another random, disparate, limited, little, and utterly insignificant 'effort' to merely test bringing regular updates to Android devices. This is pointless. This is not what Android needs. At all.Android needs Google to step up and reign its OEMs in.

At some point, enough is enough. That time has come for me - Apple Music is just too much of a hassle to be bothered with. Nobody I've spoken at Apple or outside the company has any idea how to fix it, so the chances of a positive outcome seem slim to none.As if all of that wasn't enough, Apple Music gave me one more kick in the head. Over the weekend, I turned off Apple Music and it took large chunks of my purchased music with it. Sadly, many of the songs were added from CDs years ago that I no longer have access to. Looking at my old iTunes Match library, before Apple Music, I'm missing about 4,700 songs. At this point, I just don't care anymore, I just want Apple Music off my devices.I trusted my data to Apple and they failed. I also failed by not backing up my library before installing Apple Music. I will not make either of those mistakes again.Wait, you mean entrusting your data blindly to a company without managing your own local backup is a bad idea? I am so surprised.The cloud should never be your only storage medium. It should be an additional storage medium. How on earth do supposedly tech savvy people make such a stupid mistake?

For its part, Vector Graphic went on to become one of the best known PC makers of the late 1970s. Like Apple, it was one of the first computer companies to go public, and like Apple, it set its products apart from the crowd with its attention to industrial design.But unlike Apple, Vector vanished from the face of the earth. It faded from our collective memory because it did not survive the massive industry upheaval brought about by the release of the IBM PC in late 1981. Very few PC makers did. But the story of how the Vector trio went from nothing to soaring success - and then collapse - is a tale worth retelling.There must be so many local computer companies in all corners of the world that have been nearly forgotten. A treasure trove of fascinating stories.

Beats 1 radio wasn't the only Apple service to temporarily go down during the MTV's VMA nominee announcements. As TechCrunch first reported and Apple's own status page confirmed, many more of Apple's services experienced issues Tuesday morning that stretched into the afternoon. Normal service was restored just before 2PM ET. The outages appeared limited to services related to Apple's online storefronts, but "limited" here is a relative term as many popular services are apparently tied in: Apple Music, Apple Radio, the App Store, Apple TV, the Mac App Store, iTunes Match, and even OS X Software Update all suffered problems. The outage wasn't universal, but still proved an unexpected headache for users.From what I understand, iTunes Music was having problems for European users since late last week.The cloud is the future.

The Jolla phone recently got its long-awaited keyboard 'other half', and Jolla Users just published a long video detailing this new addition to the Jolla family. The Other Half Keyboard, as it's officially called, was a Kickstarter project completed in someone's garage - figuratively speaking - and the video does indeed show that while clever, the product is a bit unwieldy and too large for my tastes. I do admire the whole project, though - it's quite something to build a product from nothing all the way to shipping to users, especially something as niche as this.Realistically speaking, however, this is not the product for those of us looking for a modern smartphone with a real keyboard.

With Google Drive, you can keep all your important files in one place, then open them with your choice of apps and devices. Building on this open approach, we recently made it possible to launch your favorite desktop applications directly from Google Drive. And today we're taking it a step further by bringing Google Drive to Microsoft Office. Using the new Google Drive plug-in, people using Office for Windows can now open their Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents stored in Drive, then save any changes back to Drive once they're done.There's an interesting bit of speculation making the rounds about recent activity between Microsoft and Google. Microsoft is, step by step, selling off or shutting down all parts of the company that directly compete with Google - ads, maps, and even Windows Phone seems to be contested right now - which may mean nothing, or, it may mean closer cooperation between the two companies is afoot. Bing is interesting exception, but even that may be sold off in some way sooner rather than later (although Microsoft will most likely retain at least several crucial parts of it for Cortana).Don't be surprised when you see more Microsoft-oriented software from Google in the near future.

Now, your reaction to this might be, "How could this possibly work? You are just randomly ignoring instructions!" But the strange thing is, this idea was so crazy it actually worked, or at least worked a lot of the time. You might have to hit Ignore a dozen times, but there's a good chance that eventually the bad values in the registers will get overwritten by good values (and it probably won't take long because the 8086 has so few registers), and the program will continue seemingly-normally.Your random periodic reminder to read The Old New Thing.

The FTC has launched an investigation into Apple's dealings with competing music streaming services in its App Store, according to multiple sources. The investigation is targeting Apple's 30 percent fee charged to subscription services who sign up new users through the App Store. This has been a major point of conflict between Apple and rival music services as The Verge reported back in May.The FTC's inquiries have picked up over the recent weeks, on the heels of its initial investigation into whether Apple pressured labels to kill Spotify's free streaming tier. Sources with direct knowledge of the matter tell The Verge that the FTC has already issued subpoenas to music streaming services as it gathers more information to determine whether Apple's App Store rules are anticompetitive.The sooner they crack open the App Store, the better.

Ashley Madison, an online dating website that specifically targets people looking to have an affair, has been hacked by a group that calls itself Impact Team. A cache of data has been released by the Impact Team, including user profiles, company financial records, and "other proprietary information." The company's CEO, Noel Bilderman, confirmed with KrebsOnSecurity that they had been hacked, but did not speak about the extent of the breach.I'm really surprised by the amount of comments online stating that this is not a problem, because they're just "cheaters" anyway, so they don't deserve privacy, right?Cheating on your "loved" one is despicable, low, and disgusting (and an immediate, unequivocal relationship/friendship termination in my book), but one, it's not illegal, and two, even if it were, mob justice is not the way to go. This hack and possible release of personal information is just as bad as any other hack.

After 22 years, 2 months, 2 days and 2 hours since System 6.0.1 was released, this is a summary of the visible changes. There have been many bugs fixed and many features added that are not immediately visible - they will enable developers to create better future products. Be sure to also read the Shortcuts file on the SystemTools3 disk for more information.Crazy.

Nilay Patel, writing for The Verge:But man, the web browsers on phones are terrible. They are an abomination of bad user experience, poor performance, and overall disdain for the open web that kicked off the modern tech revolution. Mobile Safari on my iPhone 6 Plus is a slow, buggy, crashy affair, starved for the phone's paltry 1GB of memory and unable to rotate from portrait to landscape without suffering an emotional crisis. Chrome on my various Android devices feels entirely outclassed at times, a country mouse lost in the big city, waiting to be mugged by the first remnant ad with a redirect loop and something to prove.With The Verge itself being the poster child for how slow the mobile (and non-mobile) web can be, this article did leave a bit of a funny taste in my mouth. Luckily, The Verge's parent company - Vox Media - is going to put its money where its mouth is, and focus entirely on performance - with solid promises we can hold them to. Very nice.

Today, I am excited to announce that Visual Studio 2015 and .Net 4.6 are available for download.These releases are the next big step in the journey we outlined last November to bring the productivity of Visual Studio and .NET to any developer working on any kind of application while also delivering a new level of innovation in developer productivity for all Visual Studio developers.

A significant new development as Haiku continues pushing towards a stable release.Since the switch to our package manager, there was no longer a way to influence the boot process at all. The only file you could change was the UserBootscript which is started only after Tracker and Deskbar; the whole system is already up at this point.The launch_daemon gives the power back to you, but also allow software you install to automatically be started on system boot as well. You can also even prevent system components from being started at all if you so wish.A summary of features:Furthermore, it allows for event based application start, start on demand, a multi-threaded boot process, and even enables you to talk to servers before they actually started.Read the full article for a detailed description.

Ladies and gents, meet Smart Boy, the Game Boy-inspired smartphone. Designed by Pierre Cerveau, it has everything a Nintendo lover could dream of giving a phone, from power-saving 8-bit mode to a 'Game Bat' controller that basically turns the thing into a DS. I might actually cry because this beautiful phone will probably never be made.Probably a bit too retro for most, but if Nintendo made this, I would be all over it.

With this week's update to the entire iPod lineup, many have been asking "Who are iPods even for these days?" Well, I worked the last 3 years managing an electronics department for Target, and have sold a lot of Apple devices over that time. Since Apple doesn't break down demographics for who is buying each device, I thought I would share my experience.Kind of exactly as you expect it to be.

Microsoft will force Windows 10 Home users to download and install updates to its operating system without any options to turn them off. A final version of the OS, distributed to testers this week, contains a clause in the end user license agreement (EULA) that reveals Windows 10 users will receive "automatic updates without any additional notice." The changes have left some Windows users concerned.We'll get some registry switch within a matter of weeks or even days I'm sure, but the prospect of forced automatic updates is an odd one - I've had some issues with Windows updates not working out very well in the recent past, and as such, I kind of like to retain control over how and when updates are applied.That being said, I'm sure it's great news for the huge loads of outdated, insecure machines you have to fix on holidays while visiting family.

Ars Says, "Remember how, a decade ago, we told you that the Internet was running out of IPv4 addresses? Well, it took a while, but that day is here now: Asia, Europe, and Latin America have been parceling out scraps for a year or more, and now the ARIN wait list is here for the US, Canada, and numerous North Atlantic and Caribbean islands. Only organizations in Africa can still get IPv4 addresses as needed. The good news is that IPv6 seems to be picking up the slack."

As Jolla hinted earlier this month, it announced the first Sailfish licensee at Mobile World Congress Asia as being Intex. Intex is claimed by Jolla to be India's second largest smartphone manufacturer, and manufactures in both India and China, and has a range of Android phones sold under the Aqua brand. The phone should appear by the end of the year.

Harvey is an effort to get the Plan 9 code working with gcc and clang. According to the team: "Our aim is to provide a modern, distributed, 64 bit operating system that does away with Unix's wrinkles and allows for new ways of working. At this point we have an AMD 64 bit kernel with many changes and improvements. For example, a new modern, simplified syscall system. We use gdb to investigate problems and we can compile in Linux or OSX using Harvey's headers and libs; no need to change anything else. It's fast compiling the whole system and boots quickly. Though we are working in many other features, all Plan 9 traditional userland is available. At this moment, we are working to move console and mouse out of kernel, ttyfs file server in user space, and improved ANSI/POSIX environment where gcc or clang can live, and we plan to add X11 with rio-like multiplexing, bash and other shells and many other well known things that people want in their machines. We are focusing in server set up for now, but keeping in mind end-user. All of this, of course, keeping classic and beautiful distributed features of old Plan 9."

The battle for Smart TV dominance continues to ratchet up, with Google and Firefox now both wading into the same connected space. The former has reignited its living room ambitions via Android TV, while open source rival Firefox has partnered with Panasonic. You might reasonably expect both to be cut from much the same cloth, but having lived with new tellies from each camp, I can reveal thereâs a world of difference. One is lithe, intuitive and fun to use. The other isnât.

"Security researchers at Trend Micro's Trend Labs have uncovered a trick in a sample of a fake news application for Android created by the network exploitation tool provider Hacking Team that may have allowed the company's customers to sneak spyware through the Google Play store's code review. While the application in question may have only been downloaded fewer than 50 times from Google Play, the technique may have been used in other Android apps developed for Hacking Team customers--and may now be copied by others trying to get malware onto Android devices." OSNews readers would have never fallen for this ruse, since the name of the app was BeNews. Once we noticed there was nothing about BeOS in these, we discern its nefarious intent.

For one year, Microsoft is allowing consumers and some businesses with systems running Genuine Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 a free upgrade to Windows 10. But when we asked: Once you upgrade for free to Windows 10, is it possible to downgrade back to Windows 8 or 7 without having to buy a new OS license? Microsoft said those who upgrade to Windows 10 for free will have one month to revert back to the old OS on their device.

A Hong Kong-based startup run by former Mozilla President Li Gong aims to take on Android with its new Web-based operating system, H5OS. Similar to the Firefox operating system from Mozilla, H50S is based on HTML5, a website development language that tries to give Web apps the same capabilities as so-called native applications that are downloaded to a device like the iPhone. More on H5OS here.

After cutting 7,800 staff and taking a $7.6bn loss on its Windows Phone division, Microsoftâs chief executive Satya Nadella intends to ramp up the companyâs invasion of iPhone and Android with its apps and services. While the write-down has been seen as effectively neutering the remainder of the smartphone business Microsoft bought from Nokia in 2012, Nadella insists that his company is not exiting the smartphone market.

If the name "Commodore" conjures up images of clicking keyboards, beige boxes, and blinking command lines rather than buttery smooth ballads, this one's for you. Yes, that mainstay of '80s home computing is back, this time as a mobile phone. The Commodore PET--which shares its name with the iconic all-in-one computer released in 1977--might not run Commodore BASIC, but it does feature a customised version of Android 5.0 Lollipop, a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS display, and a pair of emulators for running old Commodore software. Update: It's not quite as stylish as the Macintosh phone.

From Linux Voice: "Perl 6 has been 15 years in the making, and is now due to be released at the end of this year. We speak to its creator to find out whatâs going on."

Microsoft will be holding Windows 10 launch events for "people who played a role in developing Windows 10, at special events in 13 cities around the world. The celebrations will feature experiential demos, hands-on training and even entertainment. Microsoft has also partnered with retailers, including Best Buy, Staples, and Walmart, to roll out easy upgrade programs. And Tech Bench services will offer support and data Relevant Products/Services migration services to consumers who are upgrading. Some Microsoft Stores, meanwhile, will offer prizes on July 29, along with free in-store workshops."

How can we pass up a title like that? The article takes an interesting approach on practicality. Linux's pros: it runs on so many kinds of hardware, installing software is easy, variety of file managers and desktop environments. The Mac is popular because is has "strong software titles" and good support. The kicker: "If Linux distributions had the same level of consumer tech support available that Windows and OS X does, we'd see adoption number exploding." To be blunt, I find this essay unpersuasive. However, if you look at the examples where Linux has been successful in the market, such as embedded systems like set-top boxes and heavily customized OS variants with their own software ecosystem like Android, it's precisely Linux's esoteric strengths that made those platforms' developers choose it. And what did those platforms have that made them successful? Strong software running on top of the OS along with a worry-free onboarding and maintenance process, usually with professional support for end-users. What do you know?

A few days ago, Apple released documentation on how any user can download and use the latest iOS beta. Apple doesn't usually run public betas, so it puts users in an interesting position. Should you do it? The Independent reviews the pros and cons.

Most of us know what virtual machines are but for those don't know, virtual machines are the kind of software that allow users to run other operating system within current operating system. It's the favorite for everyone to taste other operating systems without going away from main operating system. In this article I'll show you how to installPicture VM VirtualBox 5.0 in Ubuntu 15.04/14.10/Linux mint Rafaela or other derivatives. Read more

It's been over 22 years since the last official version came out of Apple Computer. Some dedicated enthusiasts have made bug fixes and added additional features to create a new version of the operating system. More information and a link to the software can be found here.

Apple wants to make OS X El Capitan and iOS 9 less susceptible to attackers, so it's introducing a new two-factor authentication system to both operating systems. The new authentication system will be available in the public betas for both operating systems.

A fun-loving guy named Nick Lee got an Apple Watch running watchOS 2 to run MacOS System 7.5.5, using the Mini vMac Macintosh emulator. Not to be outdone, someone else got Windows 7 to run on an Asus Zenphone.

With the launch today of the watchOS 2.0 beta 3, Apple has officially confirmed that there is no way to downgrade to an earlier version of watchOS without sending your device into Apple.

The Microsoft corporation has become OpenBSD's first "Gold Level" sponsor after a large donation. (Facebook and Google are both silver contributors). The move is likely related to Microsoft's use of OpenSSH in future versions of Powershell. Meanwhile at the FreeBSD site companies LineRate, NetApp, Google, Hudson River Trading, and Netflix dominate the top sponsors. Noticeably absent was the Apple Computer Corporation who base their OSX and IOS systems off of the free software BSD systems. More info about OpenBSD's 2015 fundraising campaign here.

Oracle has released Virtualbox 5.0. Major improvements include: Paravirtualization support for modern Windows and Linux guests, xHCI controller to support USB 3.0 devices, Improved Drag & Drop support, Disk image encryption, Headless and Detachable start option, and numerous UI enhancements.

Microsoft is ceasing support for enterprise IT workhorse Windows Server 2003 on July 14th. Despite support reaching end of life, research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) suggests that at the end of 2014 61 per cent of businesses were still reliant on Windows Server 2003. A further study by Bit9 predicts 2.7 million Win2k3 servers will remain deployed post end-of-life. To give the OS a fitting send-off, Databarracks and the University of Surreyâs Electronics and Amateur Radio Society launched a Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM into the stratosphere in a weather balloon. You can watch the video at YouTube.

The design for the Micro Bit, the sequel to the venerable BBC Micro, has been finalized, and will be given to every 11- and 12-year-old British child in October. BBC Learning head Sinead Rocks said: "The BBC Micro Bit is all about young people learning to express themselves digitally. As the Micro Bit is able to connect to everything from mobile phones to plant pots and Raspberry Pis, this could be for the internet-of-things what the BBC Micro was to the British gaming industry." The Micro Bit's web site confirms it will include an ARM Cortex M0 process, bluetooth, motion sensors and a built in compass.

As with many things Linux-related, the variety of desktop environments is both a strength and a weakness. For new users, the decision of which DE to use can be a hard one. To help, the folks at Linux and Ubuntu have compiled a list of their top five. In typical fashion, partisans for the DEs that were left out were quick to advocate for their favorites in the comments. (I post this mostly to give OSNews readers the opportunity to opine on how wrong they are).

In a move that shouldn't surprise OSNews readers that much, Microsoft is writing off most of what it acquired from Nokia less than two years ago and will be laying off 7,800 people in its hardware division. According to Ars: "The hardware division includes the lionâs share of former Nokia employees, who became part of Microsoft last year. Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is leaving--this much we knew from last month--and Reuters says that Microsoft is also going to record an "impairment charge" of $7.6 billion dollars from the Nokia acquisition and perform a complete restructuring of its phone business. It's a shame, considering that Windows Phone has actually shaped out to be a pretty good OS, and a mobile OS landscape with only two players is good for neither consumers nor OS enthusiasts.

In a move that shouldn't surprise OSNews readers that much, Microsoft is writing off most of what it acquired from Nokia less than two years ago and will be laying off 7,800 people in its hardware division. According to Ars: "The hardware division includes the lionâs share of former Nokia employees, who became part of Microsoft last year. Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is leaving--this much we knew from last month--and Reuters says that Microsoft is also going to record an "impairment charge" of $7.6 billion dollars from the Nokia acquisition and perform a complete restructuring of its phone business. It's a shame, considering that Windows Phone has actually shaped out to be a pretty good OS, and a mobile OS landscape with only two players is good for neither consumers nor OS enthusiasts.