There is many ways these days to run Windows applications in Linux, or the other way around. You can run Wine to emulate Windows in Linux or QEMU to actually run Windows in Linux, but what about just making a totally new OS that can handle Windows applications?
I remember I read the idea on a forum a few years ago. And great as it sounded, I didn`t have much believe that anyone would ever have the time and effort to go through with it. Well, now it looks like someone is able to prove me wrong. ReactOS is a new OS (currently only in alpha) that does exactly this. Too good to be true? Well read on.
Currently, there isn`t too many applications you can use. But some games like Unreal Tournament and Quake is getting more and more stable, and more apps will work over time. But for now, it isn`t worth jumping in the roof for. Installing Linux with an emulator would give you better results. So then the an other question arises. Will they get anywhere close to usability of Win XP before Vista is out? Will there be any need for ReactOS after Vista is out and stable?
Well there is probably more then one answer to this. Even if they don`t there is still a bunch to learn from this project. ReactOS is open source, so you can now have a look at one version of the Win32 API, even if it was not Microsoft that wrote it this time.
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Way too many security alerts:
My Tags:
OS,
ApplicationTechnocrati Tags: OS, Application
Published: 01.06.2006 by
I have for a long time read articles about the annoying amount of security alerts in Windows Vista, without paying much attention to it. I guessed they where similar to those you get in IE today where you get an option to turn them off, and they where not that anoying. But after looking at this attempt to delete a shortcut , I think I have to reconsider. Wow.
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An entire OS in .NET?:
My Tags:
OS,
ProgrammingTechnocrati Tags: OS, Programming
Published: 09.05.2006 by
Discussions has been kicking back and forth on the Internet lately about why Vista will not be built entirely in .NET as Microsoft might have made users believe earlier.
There is some obvious reasons, why this was not done. First of all C# as we know it today relies on the .NET framework. And the framework has to be built in something. And that can`t be in C#. Entirely safe C# code can not reach deep enough into your hardware to perform all tasks an OS needs it`s programming language to do.
Then again, it always comes up speed issues in discussions about the .NET framework. And people often point at that as the biggest reason. But with today`s rapid hardware development, wouldn`t it make a lot of sense to trade some speed for more reliable OSes? Less blue-screen, and harder for viruses and Trojans to affect your PC.
That`s when I read about Singularity . A new research OS from Microsoft that is indeed more or less written entirely C#. "So it is possible?", you may ask. Well with some trade-offs and some asm code it actually is. Singularity is becoming a proof of it. It is important to understand that this is not a OS you will have the possibilities to buy soon, or if at all ever. It is a research project, where testing new ways of making a more secure OS with new paradigms is at least if not even more important than the fact that it is more or less written in C#.
But as mentioned there is small parts of Singularity that is not written entirely in safe C#. Most noticeably is the garbage collector. But incredible enough parts of the kernel like the memory system, scheduler, and manages devices is primarily written in safe C#, though there are parts written in unsafe C# and a HAL written in C++.
If you think you now can go an download the new OS somewhere, I have to disappoint you. But if you would like to know more about this project I discovered that Channel 9 has an interview with Jim Larus and Galen Hunt , which is really interesting. There is also a great article in the June version of MSDN Magazine which caught my interest in the project.
But if this project will lead somewhere is not sure yet known, but if Minix led to Linux, then why shouldn`t Singularity lead to a new type of Windows never seen before.
Comments 0
There is some obvious reasons, why this was not done. First of all C# as we know it today relies on the .NET framework. And the framework has to be built in something. And that can`t be in C#. Entirely safe C# code can not reach deep enough into your hardware to perform all tasks an OS needs it`s programming language to do.
Then again, it always comes up speed issues in discussions about the .NET framework. And people often point at that as the biggest reason. But with today`s rapid hardware development, wouldn`t it make a lot of sense to trade some speed for more reliable OSes? Less blue-screen, and harder for viruses and Trojans to affect your PC.
That`s when I read about Singularity . A new research OS from Microsoft that is indeed more or less written entirely C#. "So it is possible?", you may ask. Well with some trade-offs and some asm code it actually is. Singularity is becoming a proof of it. It is important to understand that this is not a OS you will have the possibilities to buy soon, or if at all ever. It is a research project, where testing new ways of making a more secure OS with new paradigms is at least if not even more important than the fact that it is more or less written in C#.
But as mentioned there is small parts of Singularity that is not written entirely in safe C#. Most noticeably is the garbage collector. But incredible enough parts of the kernel like the memory system, scheduler, and manages devices is primarily written in safe C#, though there are parts written in unsafe C# and a HAL written in C++.
If you think you now can go an download the new OS somewhere, I have to disappoint you. But if you would like to know more about this project I discovered that Channel 9 has an interview with Jim Larus and Galen Hunt , which is really interesting. There is also a great article in the June version of MSDN Magazine which caught my interest in the project.
But if this project will lead somewhere is not sure yet known, but if Minix led to Linux, then why shouldn`t Singularity lead to a new type of Windows never seen before.
Virus found bug on Linux:
My Tags:
OS,
Application,
ProgrammingTechnocrati Tags: OS, Application, Programming
Published: 19.04.2006 by
I had to laugh a bit when I started reading up about the new consept virus that has been in the media so much lately. Well in theory this sounds very interesting, or mayb scary, but it wasn`t before I read an article at NewsForge yesterday the fun began.
They got a hold of the virus and started testing. But for some reason they couldn`t make it work in some of the newer Linux kernels. And a mail to Linus Torvalds was sendt to see if he had any idea why the virus did not work.
And today the answer came. It seemed like a bug in the kernel that made it not work. An error that higher level language compilers never had found. Linus Torcalds made a patch, and new testing now shows that the virus is now also working on newer Linux kernels. So in the end, no one should blame Linux for not beeing fast at patching up errors in it`s code :)
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They got a hold of the virus and started testing. But for some reason they couldn`t make it work in some of the newer Linux kernels. And a mail to Linus Torvalds was sendt to see if he had any idea why the virus did not work.
And today the answer came. It seemed like a bug in the kernel that made it not work. An error that higher level language compilers never had found. Linus Torcalds made a patch, and new testing now shows that the virus is now also working on newer Linux kernels. So in the end, no one should blame Linux for not beeing fast at patching up errors in it`s code :)
Who do you trust now?:
My Tags:
Browser,
IE,
OS,
WebTechnocrati Tags: Browser, IE, OS, Web
Published: 28.03.2006 by
Three days, three security vulnerabilities found in Internet Explorer. It was really not a good week for IE users last week. And then Microsoft started to hint that they might not come out with a fix before mid april. Which will let those who want to exploit this get time to do so.
And so they did , and then again . So what to do now? Start using a new browser? Stop browsing the interenet? Or hope that someone else can help? Well the latter might be the save this time. A security company called eEye have released a patch that will temporary fix the most dangerous vulnerabilitie found last week in IE. But can you trust the help? Microsoft have never seen the code, you have not seen the code, so why should you trust them? Well, I`ll let that be up to you to choose, but in my case, I`ll just keep on using Firefox for now.
Yet again the the Linux communiteis and now also the growing Mac communities hope that these incidents will help people understand that Windows and Internet Explorer is not the only way to go. And since now Vista will be delayed which will also mean that Office and many other packages and applications will be delayed, they might get more help than expected. But again, only time will show.
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And so they did , and then again . So what to do now? Start using a new browser? Stop browsing the interenet? Or hope that someone else can help? Well the latter might be the save this time. A security company called eEye have released a patch that will temporary fix the most dangerous vulnerabilitie found last week in IE. But can you trust the help? Microsoft have never seen the code, you have not seen the code, so why should you trust them? Well, I`ll let that be up to you to choose, but in my case, I`ll just keep on using Firefox for now.
Yet again the the Linux communiteis and now also the growing Mac communities hope that these incidents will help people understand that Windows and Internet Explorer is not the only way to go. And since now Vista will be delayed which will also mean that Office and many other packages and applications will be delayed, they might get more help than expected. But again, only time will show.
Your next OS online?:
My Tags:
OS,
Application,
Browser,
WebTechnocrati Tags: OS, Application, Browser, Web
Published: 20.03.2006 by
It is a lot of talk about Web 2.0 and all the whistles and bells it adds to web pages these days. Social bookmarks, tags and semantic web both here and there. But does it really change something?
Google has made a real hog in the internet market, and changed the way we look at a lot of web applications. Rumors has constantly been swirling about them making their own Browser, their own OS, and all other sorts of things. And when they came with their own chat client, then one of my friends only words was “It was inevitable” .
But in all these rumors I got the idea about an online OS. Why had no one seriously tried to make an online OS? Did no one think about it? No one dare to see if it could work? Or was the web just not ready for it yet?
I kept thinking about the idea for a couple of more months. I was thinking how handy it would be to be able to have all documents online, to be able to compile source code, or Latex, and just in general have a life without a local hard drive and a USB pen with me all the time.
Then thoughts kept on running wild and I thought about all the visions the Flock developers have. And I expanded their vision to add tight integration to an online OS. All these ideas seemed so nice, but then work took over and I totally forgot about it. Until I stumbled over eyeOS today.
My thought about an online world was back and swirling as ever before. I downloaded it and did some tests, and even if it is a bit slow on my web server, I am pretty impressed. It is a good start on my idea, even if it is far away from an online life style as I had imagined. I don’t think that will ever be possible before a bandwidth will be much higher, and maybe a browser vendor dares to pick up on it. Maybe Flock will be the browser to do something about it. You never know.
Comments 0
Google has made a real hog in the internet market, and changed the way we look at a lot of web applications. Rumors has constantly been swirling about them making their own Browser, their own OS, and all other sorts of things. And when they came with their own chat client, then one of my friends only words was “It was inevitable” .
But in all these rumors I got the idea about an online OS. Why had no one seriously tried to make an online OS? Did no one think about it? No one dare to see if it could work? Or was the web just not ready for it yet?
I kept thinking about the idea for a couple of more months. I was thinking how handy it would be to be able to have all documents online, to be able to compile source code, or Latex, and just in general have a life without a local hard drive and a USB pen with me all the time.
Then thoughts kept on running wild and I thought about all the visions the Flock developers have. And I expanded their vision to add tight integration to an online OS. All these ideas seemed so nice, but then work took over and I totally forgot about it. Until I stumbled over eyeOS today.
My thought about an online world was back and swirling as ever before. I downloaded it and did some tests, and even if it is a bit slow on my web server, I am pretty impressed. It is a good start on my idea, even if it is far away from an online life style as I had imagined. I don’t think that will ever be possible before a bandwidth will be much higher, and maybe a browser vendor dares to pick up on it. Maybe Flock will be the browser to do something about it. You never know.
IBM to go Linux:
My Tags:
OS,
ApplicationTechnocrati Tags: OS, Application
Published: 08.03.2006 by
Andreas Pleschek from IBM (Germany) announced that IBM will not upgrade their machines to Windows Vista, but in stead go over to Linux. If this means that only IBM Germany will do the switch or all of IBM is still unknown, but no matter what it will make a difference for other companies, and especially Microsoft. IBM is a big costumer, and losing them is not in Microsoft`s best interest.
Microsoft`s office pack looks like it will be replaced with the free Open Office package and can mark a big change in the whole market. If Vista will be the extra push that Linux needs to get one step closer is yet unknown. But the signs looks promising.
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Microsoft`s office pack looks like it will be replaced with the free Open Office package and can mark a big change in the whole market. If Vista will be the extra push that Linux needs to get one step closer is yet unknown. But the signs looks promising.
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