99BottlesOfBeerInMyF - Slashdot User

Submission + - Parallels 3.0 Announced, 3D graphics included (blogspot.com)

Submitted by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF on Friday June 01, 2007 @03:00PM

99BottlesOfBeerInMyF writes: For some time now a lot of us having been waiting to see who managed to bring 3D graphics to a Windows emulation/virtualization solution. It looks like Parallels is going to be the winner. They announced today an RC of Parallels 3.0, the final to be available "in a few weeks." For anyone else tired of bootcamp or rebooting to play a Windows game, it look like the answer is finally here.

I'm not counting out VMWare entirely. Obviously it will depend on how soon they can catch up and the relative quality of the solutions, but there is some serious first-mover advantage here. There is also some speculation on the forums that Parallels is rushing this out in order to sell product before Apple steals their thunder with virtualization support in Leopard (but I think that a bit unlikely). In any case, it looks like one more roadblock for switchers has just been knocked down.

Submission + - Leopard Security Enhancements

Submitted by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF on Wednesday October 25, 2006 @12:18PM

99BottlesOfBeerInMyF writes: A few days ago Apple quietly provided developers with overviews of some of the new features to be in Mac OS X 10.5, including two new security features that may help them maintain their reputation for security. The first is a Mandatory Access Control framework similar to that in SELinux from the NSA. The overview describes it as follows: "This framework, original developed for TrustedBSD, provides a fine-grained security architecture for controlling the execution of processes at the kernel level. This enables sandboxing support in Leopard. By sandboxing an application, using a text profile, you can limit an application to being able to just access only the system features, such as disk or the network, that you permit."

The second feature is even more briefly described: "Also new in Leopard is code signing. This means that Leopard will be able to identify applications by using digital signatures and then use that identification to base trust decisions on."

With these sparse details we can only speculate, but could Apple be planning a user friendly version of application level controls in Mac OS X 10.5? Will unsigned applications be sandboxed by the MAC framework by default? This could make implementing spyware, trojans, and worms a whole lot harder than any current mainstream offering. Will this bring fine grained security permissions to the masses, or will this be another technology that sits in the background with lots of potential but little real world use?

Also included in the overview are mentions of resolution independent displays, OpenGL 2.1 implementation, using multiple cores to drastically increase graphics performance, and other tidbits.

Submission + - Apple Releases OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Info

Submitted by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF on Tuesday October 24, 2006 @01:53PM

99BottlesOfBeerInMyF writes: Apple has posted some info for developers about the architecture and features of their upcoming Leopard version of OS X. Highlights include, resolution independence, OpenGL 2.1, offloading GPU feeding to a different core, Mandatory Access Controls framework, code signing framework, Open Directory, and Ruby on Rails tools.

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