Articles, notes and random thoughts on Software Development and Technology
I donwloaded Java SE 6.0 Beta at the weekend and played around with some of the new Desktop Integration features. The one feature that I’ve found interesting so far is the Windows and Linux SysTray integration.
The API to get a Java app to register and apear in the SysTray is also surprisingly simple. Take a look at my sample app here.
Netbeans 5.0 has been getting a lot of news coverage on the net recently since it’s 5.0 release, and in fact I don’t think I’ve noticed any significant Eclipse related news for some time now.
Netbeans 5.0 is probably the most likely IDE at this current time that has any chance of taking a share of Eclipse current install base. I think the Sun and Netbeans community guys also know this, and have an aggressive roadmap for where they are going with the IDE on their website, detailing new features that will be added through 5.5 and 6.0 releases.
Alienware, longtime PC manufacturer of high-end high-powered machines aimed primarily at gaming enthusiasts, has been bought by Dell. This will surely give Dell’s machines a credibility boost amongst the gaming community, if they can keep manufacturing the machines to the same quality.
Alienware products will continue to sell through their own website and will not be promoted on the Dell site.
Linux Fedora Core 5 is now available for download from the Fedora porject site.
As well as the usual upgrades to the kernel, Gnome and KDE, there are some interesting new features added, particularly the addition of the virtualization software Xen, which allows you to host multiple installed OSes on one install of Linux (similar to VMWare).