Another week has passed, so it’s time for another Week in Review. It was a very Apple-ish week this week; their legal battle with Psystar, their loving relationship with Palm, and the FCC investigation. We also talked about openSUSE picking KDE as a default, and, of course, the biggest news of the week: Haiku has set a release date for the alpha!
Haiku Schedules First Alpha Release for September 14 – I had been following the mailing list for the Haiku project the past week with growing interest. The topic of discussion? Why, the alpha release, of course! What needs to be done, who needs to prepare what, and most importantly, what schedule are they going to settle on? Well, after numerous insightful back-and-forths, the community has settled on a schedule.
Apple Accuses Psystar of Destroying Evidence, Psystar Denies – The legal bickering between Apple and Psystar is almost getting uglier and grittier by the day. In a filing made last week, the Cupertino giant accused Psystar of destroying evidence, but today the clone maker has vigorously denied ever having done such a thing.
Snow Leopard Seeds Use 32bit Kernel, Drivers by Default – Even though Apple has been hyping up the 64bit nature of its ucpoming Snow Leopard operating system, stating it will be the first Mac OS X release to be 64bit top-to-bottom, reality turns out to be a little bit different so far. With the current Snow Leopard seed, only Xserve users get the 64bit kernel and drivers – all other Macs default to 32bit. By holding down the ‘6’ and ‘4’ keys during boot, you can to boot into full 64bit mode – that is, if your Mac supports it. As it turns out, some Macs with 64bit processors cannot use the 64bit kernel because the EFI is 32bit. Note: I should have included in the article that 64bit applications will run just fine (including benefits) on a 32bit kernel in Mac OS X. Since this was already possible in Leopard, I assumed people were well aware of that. Turns out some were not, so my apologies for that.
What Windows 7 Can Learn from Linux – Last week we talked about what Linux (well, okay, X) could learn from Windows Vista and Windows 7, focusing on the graphics stack. A short article over at TechWorld lists seven things Windows 7 should learn from the Linux world. Some of them are spot-on, a few are nonsensical, and of course, and I’m sure you have a few to add too.
Mozilla Not Satisfied with Microsoft’s Browser Ballot Proposal – Remember the very detailed proposal Microsoft submitted to the European Commission not too long ago about the browser ballot? This was quite the detailed proposal, covering just about every possible aspect of such a ballot screen. Responses were positive from within the EC, but now it seems that according to the Mozilla Foundation, the proposal is not good enough.
OSAlert Asks: How Do You Use Your Netbook? – The big thing in notebooks right now are netbooks. They’re cheap, more than powerful enough for day-to-day tasks, and small enough to actually carry around without anyone even noticing you’re carrying one (not a bad thing in some parts of the world). However, they also receive a lot of criticism, such as cramped keyboards and displays that are too small. So, at Kaiwai’s suggestion, here’s a question for you all: how do you use your netbook?
openSUSE To Default to KDE – On August 4 we discussed the possibility of openSUSE defaulting to KDE during the installation routine. This was raised as a feature request within the openSUSE community, and quickly gained the favour of many, become the most popular request. The openSUSE board and variousother leader within the project have discussed the issue, and have decided that yes, from now on, openSUSE will default to KDE during the installation process.
‘Palm Rejected Apple Proposal Not to Hire Each Other’s Workers’ – As it turns out, the relationship between Apple and Palm is even less amicable than we already thought it to be. Bloomberg got their hands on communications between Ed Colligan, then-CEO of Palm, and Steve Jobs in which Jobs made a proposal in which the two companies would promise to refrain from hiring each other’s employees. Colligan, however, rejected the proposal, calling it wrong and “likely illegal”.
Psystar Claims Schiller “Unprepared” for Testimony – Another week, and another set of filings in the Apple vs. Psystar case. And yes, the case continues to get grittier and grittier. Last week Apple accused Psystar of destroying evidence, and this week Psystar is kicking it up a notch. The depositions of key Apple employees are currently under way, and August 14, it was Phil Schiller’s turn. According to Psystar, Schiller was “wholly unprepared and unwilling to testify”. At the same time, Apple has suddenly told the courts it will no longer seek recovery of lost profits from Psystar, because that would require Apple to give out its profit margins – and Apple doesn’t want to do that.
Apple: Google Voice Alters “iPhone Distinctive User Experience” – Late last night, Apple, At&T, and Google answered the questions posed to them by the FCC about the rejection of the Google Voice application and Apple’s App Store policies. While the letters do provide a unique insight into the process, they also raise a number of questions. Note: Updates inside on the Google Contacts complaint.
It was a “very Apple-ish” week here on OSAlert and that was it. For the rest of the world was business as usual.