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Development

DOSEMU reaches version 1.4.0

The DOSEMU project allows MS-DOS applications to be run under Linux:

DOSEMU stands for DOS Emulation, and allows you to run DOS and many DOS programs, including many DPMI applications such as DOOM and Windows 3.1, under Linux.

DOSEMU runs under Linux, NetBSD and (possibly) FreeBSD according to the HOWTO document. DOSEMU only works on X86 compatible hardware. It is able to access the host system's graphics display, mouse, serial ports, parallel ports, game port, network port, removable drives, and sound card via a Sound Blaster 16 emulator. DOSEMU also includes DPMI (DOS Protected Mode Interface) support. In short, DOSEMU encapsulates a 1980s vintage DOS machine inside of a modern operating system running on modern hardware.

DOSEMU can run an authentic version of Microsoft DOS, the commercial DR-DOS or an open-source DOS equivalent such as FreeDOS, which is packaged with DOSEMU:

FreeDOS is a free DOS-compatible operating system for IBM-PC compatible systems. FreeDOS is made of up many different, separate programs that act as "packages" to the overall FreeDOS Project.

DOSEMU has been around for a long time, it can be considered a mature project. Releases have been infrequent in recent years. This has changed with the announcement of version 1.4.0. The DOSEMU developers have apparently been very busy adding new capabilities to the software.

A few highlights of this release include:
  • A new native 64-bit port for the x86-64 architecture.
  • The FreeDOS boot process no longer requires user interaction.
  • The X window system interface is now the default.
  • It is possible to reboot the virtual machine with Ctrl-Alt-Del, other Ctrl-Alt key combos are also supported.
  • Linux commands can be run within DOSEMU using the unix.com utility.
  • Numerous improvements have been made to the DPMI system.
  • Numerous improvements have been made to the CD-ROM system.
  • Windows 3.1 is now natively supported.
  • External himem drivers like himem.sys are now supported.
  • Long filename support has been added.
  • Numerous bug fixes and performance improvements have been added.
  • Security fixes have been added.

Just for fun, your author downloaded the new versions of DOSEMU and FreeDOS, dusted off some old floppies and tried out some old DOS applications. A few simple text-mode .exe applications were run without any trouble.

Getting more adventurous, your author decided to try running the old Z80mu CP/M (8080 architecture) emulator under DOSEMU. The example screen shows one emulator running another, Z80mu was able to assemble an old macro assembly language file with no troubles. On a 3 Ghz Athlon 64 processor, the double emulation process ran quite a bit faster than it used to on a native 4 Mhz Z80 system.

The test of the graphics and sound capabilities was not as successful, an early version of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards crashed DOSEMU with: ERROR: EMU86: error 103. No fun was to be had for Larry. The official DOSEMU screenshots page shows that it is possible to run more advanced graphical applications, but your author had no other titles handy for testing.

If you have some old DOS applications that you just can't live without, DOSEMU can be a useful tool. An entire 1980s DOS system can easily be encapsulated and stored in a small part of a modern computer's disk system. Binaries and source code for DOSEMU and FreeDOS are available for download here.

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System Applications

Database Software

PostgreSQL Weekly News

The May 6, 2007 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is online with the latest PostgreSQL DBMS articles and resources.

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Interoperability

Test version of Samba clustering available

Andrew Tridgell has announced that the first test version of CTDB, a scalable clustered Samba implementation, is available. Those who would like to test the software, but don't happen to have a spare cluster sitting around, can still emulate a cluster using loopback interfaces. See the CTDB setup page or the slides from a recent talk [PDF] by Andrew for more information. (Thanks to Nick Piggin).

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Web Site Development

mnoGoSearch 3.3.3 released

Version 3.3.3 of mnoGoSearch, a web site search engine, is out with performance improvements and bug fixes. See the change log for release details.

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Plone 3.0-beta2 is out

Version 3.0-beta2 of the Plone web content management system is out for testing. "I'm happy to be able to announce the Plone 3.0-beta2 release. This is the second beta release and hopefully the last beta release before we move to release candidate status."

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Web Services

Secure, Reliable Web Services with Apache (O'Reilly)

Kyle Gabhart introduces WSO2 on O'Reilly's XML.com. "Open source computing has gained a tremendous degree of momentum in the last few years. Nowhere is this more evident than in the area of web services and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The Apache Foundation alone has more than 20 SOA/WS projects. One of the common obstacles for large enterprises to adopt open source solutions for key systems is the lack of administrative infrastructure and standardized glue for pulling together complementary projects. Essentially, the lack of a true open source "platform" (along with professional consulting and training services) limits more extensive adoption of open source technology. One group that has successfully addressed this open source platform gap is the JBoss Group. Until recently, however, no such group existed to establish a platform around Apache SOA projects. Enter WSO2 (WS "Oh" 2)."

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Desktop Applications

Audio Applications

eSpeak 1.24 released

Version 1.24 of eSpeak, a text to speech synthesis converter, is out with new Czech and Greek language support.

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Business Applications

ADempiere ERP 3.2 released

Version 3.2 of ADempiere, an Enterprise Resource and Planning application, is out. "ADempiere becomes first true open source production grade ERP With the release of ADempiere MayDay (ADempiere 3.2) today, ADempiere is now the first true open source ERP with production grade quality."

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project-open 3.2 released

Version 3.2 of Project Open, a project management and collaboration application, is out. "The main feature of the new version is an integration with GanttProject, the no. #1 open-source project management application. Together, the two applications form an integrated open-source based application stack covering the complete project cycle for IT departments and IT companies from definition and planning to execution, tracking and invoicing."

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Desktop Environments

GNOME Software Announcements

The following new GNOME software has been announced this week: You can find more new GNOME software releases at gnomefiles.org.

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KDE Games Taking Shape for KDE 4.0 (KDE.News)

KDE.News covers the plans for KDE games in KDE version 4. "On May 1st, the KDE games developer community held its monthly IRC meeting. This time the major topic was discussing which games would stay in the kdegames module for KDE 4 and which ones would have to be removed because they don't meet our self-imposed quality standards. Read on for a discussion of this decision."

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KDE Commit-Digest for 6th May 2007 (KDE.News)

The May 6, 2007 edition of the KDE Commit-Digest has been announced. The content summary says: "Atlantik, KFouleggs, Klickety, KPoker, Kenolaba, KAsteroids, KSnake, KSokoban, KJumpingCube and KTron move to playground/games. KDE 3.90.1 (KDE Alpha 1) is tagged to be released. General improvements in KTorrent. Progress in the generic music store support in Amarok. KFTPGrabber begins the port to KDE 4. The phonon-solid-sprint branch is merged back into trunk. BluRay and HD-DVD support in Solid...."

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KDE Software Announcements

The following new KDE software has been announced this week: You can find more new KDE software releases at kde-apps.org.

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Xorg Software Announcements

The following new Xorg software has been announced this week: More information can be found on the X.Org Foundation wiki.

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Encryption Software

GnuPG 2.0.4 released

Stable version 2.0.4 of GnuPG is out with minor enhancements. "The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is GNU's tool for secure communication and data storage. It can be used to encrypt data, create digital signatures, help authenticating using Secure Shell and to provide a framework for public key cryptography. It includes an advanced key management facility and is compliant with the OpenPGP and S/MIME standards."

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Fonts and Images

Linux Libertine 2.5.9 released

Version 2.5.9 of the Linux Libertine font family is out. "And we are proud to announce our first LaTex-package of the family. You'll find all information at our website http://linuxlibertine.sf.net."

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Games

Cyphesis 0.5.12 released

Version 0.5.12 of Cyphesis has been announced on the WorldForge game site. Some of the changes include: "The server now warns if the character needs food. The weather has been enhanced to provide more varied rain, and variable visibility. Dependency failures are now reported much more clearly. More tool types are now available for sale at the too merchant. Database functionality is now handled more dynamically, and the server will run when no database is available."

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GUI Packages

Qt Jambi Released Under GPL (KDE.News)

KDE.News reports on the GPL release of Qt Jambi. "Yesterday Trolltech released the second beta of Qt Jambi, the Qt API for Java. With this release we also released the source code including the Generator under GPL, opening the option for making KDE libs accessible to Java. Though it does not work together with gcj, it does work together with the open source Harmony Virtual machine and runtime."

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Mail Clients

Claws Mail 2.9.2 released

Version 2.9.2 of Claws Mail has been announced, it features a new printer icon and lots of bug fixes.

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Music Applications

buzztard 0.2.0 released

Version 0.2.0 of buzztard has been released. "The buzztard team has release version 0.2 "sunrise" of its buzz-alike music composer. This version has lots of UI usability improvements, bug fixes, more instant apply settings and introduces some interactivity features (interaction controller and upnp playback controller)."

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PHASEX 0.10.1 released

Version 0.10.1 of PHASEX, an experimental softsynth for Linux/ALSA/JACK systems, is out. "PHASEX-0.10.1 is a buildfix and bugfix release, highly recommended for anyone who currently has 0.10.0."

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Video Applications

Boxtream 0.996 is out

Version 0.996 of Boxtream is out, this release works with "Boxtream is both an audio and video encoder and streamer and an assembly of audio and video hardware, forming a mobile video streaming studio. It is designed to easily record and stream live presentations including a presenter and synchronized slides, or slides only, or presenter only, and was built to stream live courses over the Internet for distance learning students." This version now works with a single firewire device, eliminating the need for expensive video hardware.

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DJV Imaging 0.6.1 beta announced

Version 0.6.1 beta of DJV Imaging is available. The project description states: "Digital imaging software for movie playback, image processing, and monitor calibration."

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Languages and Tools

Caml

Caml Weekly News

The May 8, 2007 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with new Caml language articles.

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Haskell

Haskell Weekly News

The May 7, 2007 edition of the Haskell Weekly News is online. This week sees the release of Atom, a hardware description language embedded in Haskell, along with the usual suite of new libraries and tools. In addition, The Monad.Reader Issue 7 was released, and the Hackage upload festival continues unabated.

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Java

Sun makes Java SE development kit available

Sun Microsystems has announced that the Java SE development kit has now been released under version 2 of the GPL. "This announcement represents one of the largest source code contributions to the free software community and the open source release of one of the industry's most significant and pervasive software platforms. Available immediately at the OpenJDK project on java.net (http://openjdk.java.net), is all the unencumbered source code for Sun's future implementation of Java SE 7, as well as binary plugs for the remaining few instances of encumbered code."

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PHP

PHP 5.2.2 and PHP 4.4.7 released

Versions 5.2.2 and 4.4.7 of PHP have been announced. "These releases are major stability and security enhancements of the 5.x and 4.4.x branches, and all users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to it as soon as possible."

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Python

Python-URL! - weekly Python news and links

The May 7, 2007 edition of the Python-URL! is online with a new collection of Python article links.

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Tcl/Tk

Tcl-URL! - weekly Tcl news and links

The May 7, 2007 edition of the Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.

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UML

Introduction to UML (IT Manager's Journal)

Chad Files introduces UML in an IT Manager's Journal article. "When you're designing and developing new software systems, it is often hard to see how all the pieces are suppose to fit together. Unified Modeling Language (UML) is one tool that allow developers and architects to ease the process and create a big picture before committing to a particular technology. UML is simply a language, as its name suggests. It can be used, along with a working development methodology, to aid in designing and describing a software system."

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Version Control

monotone 0.35 released

Version 0.35 of monotone, a distributed version control system, is out. "The set of changes since last release is fairly small, but contains needed fixes."

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