"OS race is over" so says OSNews

Image via Wikipedia

About 10 or so years ago, an operating system (OS) geek like me found the Mecca of websites OSNews.com, and promptly had the alternative OS market open up to me.  OSNews had all the goss and info on what was really happening with the emerging Operating Systems like BeOS, QNX, Mac OSX, and the new Ubuntu.  Of course, there was Windows and the other Linux dristros and the odd cloud OS technology that showed some innovation in the space.

Now over the past 5 years or so, things have been a-changing' in the OS world.  For the desktop, the industry has started to consolidate around the big three and leave the alternatives behind. By the big three, I mean Windows, Mac OSX and Linux, and there appears that there is not much call for anything else.

In a post from Thom Holwerda "Why OSNews Is No Longer OSNews", we get a great look at the OS industry and why the premier site for news on alternative OS's is talking more about HTML5 and smartphones.  To me though, I see their shift in focus to be the right move as the new alternative OS's and technologies are going to be in the mobile market and online.  All the hacking and geeking we used to do in the desktop space is going to be moving into the mobile and online space.

It is sad to hear Thom lay it out on the table and crush our dreams of a new BeOS or QNX desktop offering, but nice to see that OSNews is going to move with the industry and keep us up to-date.

Why OSNews Is No Longer OSNews (via OSNews.com)

Jason

...if it isn't Broken, install it with a different switch.

Peace and File-sharing: between Mac and Windows 7

Image by roychung1993 via Flickr

If you have or want a multi-platform home or office, the biggest question is "can we get the Mac's to talk to the PC's?"  Um, yes you can, but there is the messing around with the network if things don't work straight away.

It's normally enough to ensure a one platform network.  Though I have to say that with all the work Apple have been doing to bridge the gap, there shouldn't be too much hesitation anymore when working with both platforms.

Gizmodo.com proves this with a handy post "How To: Make Your PC and Mac Share Stuff Like Best Friends" where they run through all the manual setting up, with screen shots, for getting Mac's and PC's to talk.  This is really handy if you're trying to get your head around the changes in Windows 7 networking.

Jason Remnant

...if it's not Broken, go to the next step.