Intel admits it no longer controls the direction of x86
Remember x86S, Intel’s initiative to create a 64bit-only x86 instruction set, with the goal of removing some of the bloat that the venerable architecture accumulated over the decades? Well, this...
View ArticleT2 Linux takes weird architectures seriously, including my beloved PA-RISC
With more and more Linux distributions – as well as the kernel itself – dropping support for more exotic, often dead architectures, it’s a blessing T2 Linux exists. This unique, source-based Linux...
View ArticleWhat does APPEND do in DOS?
The working principle of APPEND is not complicated. It primarily serves as a bridge between old DOS applications which have no or poor support for directories, and users who really, really want to...
View ArticleNever forgive them
The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer...
View ArticleThe Moxie child support robot gets new lease on life through open source
It’s a Christmas miracle! The Moxie, that support robot thing for kids we talked about two weeks ago, seems to be getting a new lease on life. The start-up that makes the Moxie has announced it’s...
View ArticleCobolCraft: a Minecraft server written in COBOL
COBOL, your mother’s and grandmother’s programming language, is still in relatively wide use today, and with the initial batches of COBOL programmers retiring and, well, going away, there’s a market...
View ArticleASUS UEFI force-installs and reinstalls shovelware on Windows and it’s...
I didn’t have the time to post this one before Christmas, but it’s so funny and sad at the same time I don’t want to keep this from you. It turns out that in the days leading up to Christmas this...
View ArticleMicrosoft puts an “AI” in a shell’s split view
AI Shell is an interactive shell that provides a chat interface with language models. The shell provides agents that connect to different AI models and other assistance providers. Users can interact...
View ArticleThe Tasmania LAN party photos archive reminded me of my terrible teenage...
I’ve never been to a LAN party, not even back in the ’90s and early 2000s when they were quite the common occurance. Both my family and various friends did have multiple computers in the house, so I...
View ArticleA systemd-sysupdate plugin for GNOME Software
In late June 2024 I got asked to take over the work started by Jerry Wu creating a systemd-sysupdate plugin for Software. The goal was to allow Software to update sysupdate targets, such as base...
View ArticleEmulating HP-UX using QEMU
While we’re out here raising funds to make me daily-drive HP-UX 11i v1 – we’re at 59% of the goal, so I’m starting to prepare for the pain – it seems you can actually run older versions, HP-UX 10.20...
View ArticleIncludeOS: a minimal, resource efficient unikernel for cloud services
IncludeOS is an includable, minimal unikernel operating system for C++ services running in the cloud and on real HW. Starting a program with #include <os> will literally include a tiny operating...
View ArticleRunning NetBSD 10.1 on a 1998 Toshiba laptop
Here are my notes on running NetBSD 10.1 on my first personal laptop that I still keep, a 1998 i586 Toshiba Satellite Pro with 81Mb of RAM and a 1Gb IBM 2.5″ IDE HD. In summary, the latest NetBSD runs...
View ArticleChimera Linux enters beta
We’ve talked about Chimera Linux before – it’s a unique Linux distribution that combines a BSD userland with the LLVM/Clang toolchain, and musl. Its init system is dinit, and it uses apk-tools from...
View ArticleLineageOS 22.1, based on Android 15 QPR1, released
LineageOS, the Debian of the custom Android ROM world, released version 22 – or, 22.1 to be more exact – today. On the verge of the new year, they managed to complete the rebase to Android 15,...
View ArticleThe Windows CE Developer’s Kit from 1999
Rare, hard to come by, but now available on the Internet Archive: the complete book set for the Windows CE Developer’s Kit from 1999. It contains all the separate books in their full glory, so if you...
View ArticleRunning NetBSD on an IBM ThinkPad 380Z
Launched in 1998, the 380Z was one very fine ThinkPad. It was the last ThinkPad to come in the classic bulky and rectangular form factor. It was also one of the first to feature a huge 13.3″ TFT...
View ArticleThe GPU, not the TPM, is the root of hardware DRM
Do you think streaming platforms and other entities that employ DRM schemes use the TPM in your computer to decrypt stuff? Well, the Free Software Foundation seems to think so, and adds Microsoft’s...
View ArticleAROS centimeters closer to 64bit
We’ve just entered the new year, and that means we’re going to see some overviews about what the past year has brought. Today we’re looking at AROS, as AROS News – great name, very classy, you’ve got...
View ArticleWindows 2: Final Fantasy of operating systems
It is common knowledge that Final Fantasy could have been the last game in the series. It is far less known that Windows 2, released around the same time, could too have been the last. If anything,...
View Article