Day: September 13, 2007

ReactOS, as I have mentioned before, is an open source version of Windows… it is designed to be binary compatible with Windows, and it is not quite ready for prime time yet… but it is getting there!

ReactOS 3.3

Here’s some screen shots:

ReactOS Screen Shots

“As we have previously made you aware, we skipped the 0.3.2 release due to massive problems with old incompatible drivers resulting in blocker bugs we couldn’t resolve within the scheduled release time. With these issues now resolved, and along with a extensive amount of additional improvements, we are presenting the next minor release – 0.3.3. This is still labeled as alpha-stage release, so do not set your expectations too high: translating into a non-programmer’s language alpha-stage means: ‘You are lucky if it actually installs and runs for you outside of a virtual machine’. Kernel development came to a point where most of the base modules are largely compatible with NT5, and with these now working well, the kernel as a whole is now starting to expose compatibility bugs in other parts of the OS which is where the focus of development has moved to. The Win32 subsystem is in the beginning of a total overhaul to make it completely compatible with NT5 which may introduce various drops in application compatibility from time to time, however in the 0.3.3 release it has had a positive impact on stability and compatibility with Win32 applications. As a generic result of these internal changes, the system feels a lot more stable in comparison to previous releases, and could be run on a real hardware (though usual limitations still apply – no USB, no SATA, no NTFS support).

Summing up most important changes for this release:

* Kernel improvements bringing many areas closer to NT 5.2
* Improved hardware support
* Stability increase in many core modules, especially win32k
* Many changes to base system drivers, aimed at increasing compatibility and stability
* Rewrite of a number of kernel modules is finished, others are bug-fixed to improve stability
* Win32 application support : fresh screenshots say more than written words
* A download utility (unofficially called ‘ReactOS Package Manager’) now contains a set of applications (open source and shareware apps) which you can install right away in ReactOS with one click of a mouse. And those apps will actually work!
* Improvements to many of the core user mode applications and control panel applets”

Wow! A very hot place has frozen over. Sun Microsystems, that once sold only their own software and hardware (notably Sun Solaris) is now selling hardware with Windows 2003 Server installed!

Sun Becomes a Windows Server 2003 OEM

Sun Microsystems and Microsoft have significantly expanded their existing relationship in an agreement that makes Sun a Windows Server 2003 OEM that will sell, pre-install and support that server software across its entire server hardware line. Windows Server 2003 will be available on Sun x64 systems within 90 days, and Sun will also provide other utilities and value-added software offerings to server systems carrying Windows Server, John Fowler, the executive vice president of Sun’s Systems Group, said at a media briefing on Sept. 12. ‘Our entire server line will be available to come with Windows Server 2003 preloaded, and we are already open for early orders. Many of our customers want to use Sun’s platforms together with Microsoft Windows to solve their most difficult business computing problems,’ he said. Sun has become a single source for Solaris and Windows on the its x64 systems and storage products, and customers can now take advantage of the virtualization benefits of Windows and Solaris on Sun’s energy-efficient x64 systems, he said.”

Super Mario Bros. is 22 years old today. Wow… who’d thunk it?

Super Mario Bros.

“Super Mario Bros. is a video game released by Nintendo in late 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Universally considered a classic of the medium, Super Mario Bros. featured bright, expansive worlds that changed the way video games were created. Often wrongly credited as the first scrolling platform game (there are at least a half dozen earlier), it is the first console original in this genre to feature smooth-scrolling levels, which made it a landmark in home videogaming. Super Mario Bros. is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling video game of all time,[1] and was largely responsible for the initial success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as ending the two year slump of video game sales in the United States after the video game crash of 1983. It has inspired countless imitators and was one of Shigeru Miyamoto’s most influential early successes. The game starred the Italian plumber Mario and his slightly younger brother Luigi, the former who would eventually become one of Nintendo’s most well known mascots. The game was succeeded by a direct sequel in Japan (later retitled in North America), and by Super Mario Bros. 2, a Mario-themed port of Doki Doki Panic, elsewhere in the world.”