News
On January 25th the final version (2.2.0) of the Linux
operating system was released. New features of the kernel may make the OS more appealing
to users with high powered hardware - including multiprocessor systems, disk arrays etc.
The new version of the kernel can be downloaded from:
ftp://ftp.kernel.org
To learn more about the Linux OS follow these links:
www.linux.org or
www.slashdot.org
Paul Martiz, a Microsoft executive, acknowledges that
the software giant asked Netscape to stop the development of the web browser for Windows
OS. Employees from Bill Gates' company confessed that the corporation saw Netscape as a
threat of Microsoft's OS because it could be extended to a platform which could run a
variety of software, much like an OS does. The Netscape's CEO James Barksdale, testified
in court that his company had received a proposal form Microsoft which implied the
aforementioned allegations.
Oracle corporation announced that it will implement a
Java programming interface in it's new Oracle 8i database and JDeveloper tools which are
going to be released in the first quarter of the year.
More information about this can be found at
www.oracle.com
Lotus Development is preparing to launch a new release
of their office productivity software later this year. So named SmartSuite R10 is going to
be distributed to test users later in February or in the beginning of March. The new
edition will contain new versions of WordPro, the 1-2-3 spreadsheet, Lotus Approach
database, Organiser personal information manager, Freelance Graphics program, and speech
recognition technology for 1-2-3 and WordPro. Lotus plans to integrate SmartSuite with the
next version of Notes R.5 in order to allow better compatibility.
For additional information visit Lotus web site:
www.lotus.com
Hewlett Packard becomes the first major vendor offering
support and service for the free and rapidly growing operating system. HP acknowledged the
importance of Linux in the today's Internet community and expressed the desire to expand
the support of the operating system to it's Intel based NetServer. HP also plans to port
Linux on it's platform based IA64 architecture.
www.hp.com
On the 25th of January Sun unveiled their solution for
connect-anything-to-anything technology. Jini is a Java based software that lets devices
automatically announce their presence and say what they can do, once plugged into a
network. The people from Sun believe that this new technology will be welcomed not only by
average users and small businesses but also from the bigger ones in the industry.
More information about Jini can be found at:
Java.sun.com/features/1999/
01/jini_scenario.html
www.sun.com/980713/jini
Compaq Computer Corp., the second largest computer
producer announced that it plans to offer shares in its Alta Vista WWW search engine. Alta
Vista was acquired by Compaq together with the purchase of Digital Equipment Corp in June
last year. The company hasn't decided what amount of the stocks its going to offer to the
public yet, but most likely it will be just a small share.
In the first quarter of this year Intel is going to
introduce a new Pentium III processor. The corporation considers this new chip to be its
most advanced product which will help the Internet become alive. Multimedia features are
expected to be greatly improved. Intel also welcomes the new Pentium III Xeon processor
brand designed to satisfy the needs of mid-ranged and higher server and workstation
applications. Xeon processor will be presented later this year.
Later this month IBM went out with the decision to boost
its help to Windows NT. The corporation intends to focus on writing device drivers and
system components that will allow Windows 2000 to swap out defective memory, hard disks
end even CPUs without users having to shut their computer down.
www.ibm.com/News/1999/01/29.phtml
Next month, at the 1999 IEEE International Solid-State
Circuits Conference Intel will discuss its new 600MHz version of Pentium III processor. At
the same time IBM will reveal the new generation of PowerPC chip based on cutting-edge
production technology and a new 600MHz processor for their high performance servers. With
high interest, K7 - Advance Micro Devices (AMD) masterpiece chip, is expected by the
experts in this field and the predictions are that K7 will out-beat Pentium III on a
number of components.
On the 13th of January Corel Computers announced its new
NetWinder Group Server. The Corel's Group server offers a variety of Internet and Intranet
services together with easy configurable and user friendly packages. The server is powered
by Linux OS and runs on ARM RISC processor. The fact that fastest growing and also free of
charge OS on the net is chosen, rings the bells of reliability and cost-effectiveness of
the product.
www.corel.com/news/1999/
january/january_13_1999.htm
For nine months, crackers, most probably employed by the
government of Indonesia, tested East Timor(ET) virtual country domain for possible
vulnerabilities. The attack on the network begun last Thursday and within a week most of
the WAN was compromised. Eighteen attacks were counted, new domain hosts were set by the
crackers with the idea of fund-rising or propaganda against ET. ISP's in Japan and United
States were also subjects to similar attacks but the companies didn't recognize them
publicly because of fear of bad publicity.
Additional information about this story can be found at:
news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/
newsid_263000/263169.stm
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