fishboy writes "There are updates to apple's product line and, most significantly, a significant update to OS X-- 10.1 that features improved performance, dvd support and a seamless client for windows-based networking." Here is coverage of the keynote from macnn.com and info about OSX.1 on apple's site (quicktime required to read much beyond the homepage). Looks like wireless setup might be fixed up (hazah!) but mainly those speed improvements are needed.

jeffy124 writes "ZDnet has an interesting article on how OpenOffice, Sun's Open-Source version of StarOffice, needs some serious help in being ported to the Macintosh OS-X. With Microsoft about to release Office 2001 for OS-X and demo it at next week's MacWorld Expo, support in getting a Mac OS-X port out for OpenOffice is critical to keeping a Microsoft dominance of yet another operating system's office suite to a minimum. The project is need of someone to step up to the plate as a project lead."

Jack Moffitt writes: "I just bought one of the new apple iBooks, which I then proceeded to install debian on. There are some installation problems, but it works well. I wrote up my thoughts and notes here. Sound isn't working, but I've started driver research and work. This is probably the best Linux laptop one can buy right now, so go get one!" He includes an excellent rundown on installing Debian, and talks about what's known (and what's being worked on) to get sound to work. Does this mean that Ogg Vorbis tracks will soon play through the new iBook's speakers?

BorrisYeltsin writes " Old news but Apple have released Darwin 1.3.1. You can get both PowerPC and i386 iso's (i386 gzipped iso) from their site. Installation notes are available for Intel also. Lets hope Darwin now supports my MVP motherboard :) " Dial-up users may prefer to order a CD from DaemonNews instead ;)

bac_mit writes: "I guess we all saw this coming with the dismal sales, but Apple has finally decided to stop making the cube. There's an article about it here. It's always sad to see a beautifully designed product die." A year ago, the Cube was being hyped like crazy. What happened?

gagganator writes: "Machack (that 72 hour nonstop hacking contest) has ended, and here are the hacks voted most interesting. also, Steve Wozniak spoke about everything from phone phreaking to the future of computing." Sounds like a fun event -- does anyone have any other first-hand stories about this year's Machack?

mbishop writes: "There's an article over at MacCentral about this years MacHack keynote where all the original creators of the Macintosh got together to talk about OS X and what they think about Steve Jobs." And if the early days of the Mac are too recent for you, Tom Owad writes to say that "the Apple I Owners Club, founded in 1977 by Joe Torzewski, is back, along with the most extensive reference to the Apple I in existence. The site contains over 120 pages detailing the Apple I computer."

yuck72 writes: "According to an article http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/News/2001-06-15.0 1.html on Stepwise, Apple has apparently open-sourced their mod_hfs (and others) for Apache which provides a fix for the HFS security hole that was discovered last week." Source code for the Apple-created modules is released under the APSL, while the other fixes are under the GPL.

$hy_guy asks: "I hope you guys can give me a hand here. I wanted to purchase a new Power Book but I want to be able to still connect to my office via a VPN connection. I am not going into why I'm going to purchase a Power Book but I'm looking for some solutions. Is there anything available for OS9 or OSX, I would assume that there would be a better possiblitiy with OSX. I also rather not run a Windows emulator within OS9 or OSX to do this."

rschroeder writes: "Apple has opened their Common Data Security Architecture framework, which "contains an expandable set of cryptographic algorithms to perform code signing and encryption operations while maintaining the security of the cryptographic keys." Lots of good info in addition to the code."

infiniti99 writes: "Looks like Trolltech made a port of their popular cross-platform GUI toolkit, Qt, (not to be confused with the QuickTime movie player) for the Mac. Here is a link to the announcement. There are a couple of screenshots and a demo application is available. Good stuff! Will this further solidify Qt's position as the de facto way to develop cross-platform applications?"

Roberto Brega writes: "Steve Jobs, key-note-ing the World-Wide Apple Developer Conference (WWDC), announced that Apple is going to drop CRT monitors alltogether, in favour of all-digital TFT displays in 15-inches, 17-inches (new) and 22-inches (cinema) configurations." And with that 22" costing $2500, you can just imagine how many people will buy their monitors elsewhere. Perhaps that's the whole idea -- maybe Apple wasn't able to turn a profit on CRTs. The real downside to all of this is games. Ever try playing a 640x480 game on a 1024x768 laptop LCD? Yucko. Also, apparently OS X is default for all new Macs.

gabeman-o writes: "The Grupo de Lasers e Plasmas has created the fastest Apple G4 cluster. The cluster runs on 16 Dual PowerPC G4/450, 32 processors, 12GB of RAM, .5TB of space, and Mac OS 9. Apparently, they have utilized the AppleSeed technology developed by UCLA. According to the website, the cluster will be used for simulating plasmas. Not too shabby!"

PowerMacDaddy writes: "Apple's Darwin project is gaining momentum. Aside from finally having a mascot and an approved OSI license, Darwin now has some serious programming resources behind it. According to this article over on ZDnet, Monkey Byte CEO Lane Roathe is now heading the development of networking communications tools for Darwin-compatible games. Apparently, Roathe is currently working on versions of NetSprockets and OpenPlay for Darwin. Is it time for Slashdot to add another topic just for Darwin news?"

gralem asks: "There is some frustration in the OS X community about Apple's release of updates. Apple has basically been releasing updates to OS X every 2-3 weeks. The updates aren't ground-breaking. They don't add all the features the users expect (CD burning ended up being only from within iTunes, instead of system-wide). They also don't fix all of the known bugs of the system. But I think Apple is doing the right thing by keeping lots of updates flowing. I haven't seen anything 'broken' by the updates, and each time the system runs faster and smoother. Does it matter that OS X is such 'new technology' as far as Apple is concerned, as opposed to W2K and Microsoft's update schedule?" Keeping the updates flowing is one thing, but forcing users to update every 2-3 weeks? That might be a bit too much. I don't know much about OS X, but if the upgrades system can be configured to the users taste, and said configuration done in a user-friendly way, then maybe monthly updates might not be a bad thing ...

Thought the GPL was a nice license for your software project, one that fit with your thoughts about software freedom? Perhaps the BSD license was more to your taste? Well, even if you confine yourself to the ones approved by the Open Source Initiative, you can now choose from a grand total of 23 different licenses. Two new licenses have been blessed by the OSI: IBM's Common Public License Version 0.5, and the Apple Public Source License 1.2. Both may fit the OSI's definition of Open Source, but Free? Neither one uses that word. Richard Stallman isn't kidding when he says Open Source is not synonymous with Free Software. Clearly, there is nothing to stop every software company in the world from writing its own Open Source license. So here we are with at least 23, and rising.

Adam Attarian writes "And do we really need to answer the question? Apparently so, because OSOpinion asked, and they got an answer. It's not a surprising answer, is Mac OS X's 'UNIX' core is Darwin, which is based on NeXT Step, which is based on some wacky derivitive of BSD, which in itself isn't a registered UNIX system (nor is Linux). Even with this, I'm not sure I know too many people who would directly compare Linux/BSD with standard UNIX Systems like Irix, Solaris, etc. The article is short and sweet, and provides some good links."

Meltr writes: "Yahoo has a story about how Apple is using non-GPL'd open source software, making proprietary extensions, and giving nothing back to the community. 'Apple simply found a source of cheap high-quality systems software that it could make its own without needing to give back so much as a bug fix, let alone useful software projects.' Good stuff." Inflammatory, but some of it is hard to deny. On the other hand, there is Darwin on x86 already, and Apple would probably be as happy selling boxes destined to run Yellow Dog Linux as OS X.

A reader writes: "BusinessWeek is running an article about the new potential target for cracking - all those shiny new Mac OSXs, with their nice new Unix underbodies. Will crackers start to go after these machines too?" Well, to a certain extent, of course, yes. Anything that's easy - but will new tools be developed for these box? My only caveat is the use of the hack rather then crack - but that's a semantics thing.

acaben writes "Jason Haas, co-founder of LinuxPPC (and a semi-frequent topic of discussion on Slashdot) has announced he is resigning from the company to pursue a college degree and a life a little less hectic. Haas explained he was burned out, and that "Three or four years of trying to do as much as humanly possible will do that to you." There's more information available on his depature at MacSlash."