Current and Future

Development of Open
Source Software
and
Latest Development in
ICT

NAME: MUHAMMAD NABIL BIN

MAHAT
FORM: 4 ANGSANA

I/C NO: 940331-01-5005

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Open Source Operating System

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form
for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright
holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and
improve the software. Open source licenses often meet the requirements of the Open
Source Definition. Some open source software is available within the public domain.
Open source software is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open-
source software is the most prominent example of open-source development and often
compared to (technically defined) user-generated content or (legally defined) open
content movements. The term open-source software originated as part of a marketing
campaign for free software..

2.0 THE LATEST OPEN SOURCE APPLICATION OPERATING

SYSTEM

2.1 MEANING OF OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM

Open source means that anyone is free to open and change or use parts of the code. A
normal OS (like Windows or the Apple OS's) is closed source, meaning that only they
can develop it.An open source program or OS normally has more features, and performs
better than their closed source competitors, because there are many hundreds of people
making the software better every day. There are many open-source operating system.
They include: NetBSD, OpenBSD, ReactOS, Haiku, AROS, FreeDOS, GNU HURD,
DARWIN, Oberon, Plan9, Contiki, Syllable, GeckOS and Lunix.

2.2 EXAMPLE OF OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM

a) LINUX

LINUX is what GNU aimed to be and it relies on the GNU toolset. But the Free Software
Foundation didn’t produce the kernel to go with that toolset until 1999, which was too
late. Other, similar efforts like FreeBSD and NetBSD have been technically successful
but never caught fire the way LINUX has: as this written in 2003, LINUX have
effectively swallowed all propriety Unixes except Solaris and is seriously changeling
Microsoft. It has already captured 41% of the Internet-Server market and over 25% of
general business servers. An earlier versions of this entry opined “The secret of
LINUX’s” success seems
to be that LINUX worked much harder early on to keep the development process open
and recruit other hackers, creating a snowball effect.
FreeBSD is probably second only to LINUX among open source operating systems in
popularity and community size. It’s a Unix-like free operating systems released under the
BSD license and derives from the code of the 4.2 BSD Unix operating system. FreeBSD
is today a reasonable desktop alternatives to Windows or LINUX , although its “user –
friendliness” is comparable to that of Debian or Slack ware distribution. Many of the
command line tools are similar and it supports the same graphical and desktop interfaces
of LINUX, including KDE and Gnome. Note that there is nothing like a FreeBSD
distribution as is the case with LINUX –the whole development is more centralized, and
the word “FreeBSD” refers to the whole OS, not only to the Kernel. There are some spin-
offs that have been developed recently such as FreeSBIE, a live CD or FreeBSD in the
fashion of Knoppix. DragonFly is another example and PicoBSD was a sort of “BSD on a
floppy” that have been around ever longer. The Debian project is also beginning to work
on aDebian distribution based on the FreeBSD Kernel. NetBSD is anotherBSD-derived
UNIX-like operating system. It is similar to FreeBSD but is focused on portability. In
fact, NetBSD can run on a striking variety of hardware platforms, including the
Playstation Game console! OpenBSD is a fork of NetBSD. OpenBSD releases try to be
“secure by default”, developing and using clever advanced technologies like W^X and
using ProPolice by default in its inclusion of GCC to successfully avoid common security
problems.
b) MACINTOSH(mac os)

Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of graphical user interface-based operating
systems developed by Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer, Inc.) for their Macintosh
line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing
the graphical user interface. The original form of what Apple would later name the "Mac
OS" was the integral and unnamed system software first introduced in 1984 with the
original Macintosh, usually referred to simply as the System software.
Apple deliberately downplayed the existence of the operating system in the early
years of the Macintosh [citation needed] to help make the machine appear more user-
friendly and to distance it from other operating systems such as MS-DOS, which was
more arcane and technically challenging. Much of this early system software was held in
ROM, with updates typically provided free of charge by Apple dealers on floppy disk. As
increasing disk storage capacity and performance gradually eliminated the need for
storing much of the advanced GUI operating system in the ROM, Apple explored clones
while positioning major operating system upgrades as separate revenue-generating
products, first with System 7.1 and System 7.5, then with Mac OS 7.6 in 1997.

3.0 THE LATEST OF OPEN SOURCE APPLICATION SOFTWARE

3.1 MEANING OF OPEN SOURCE APPLICATION SOFTWARE

Open source application software, as its name implies, means providing the software
itself, along with the source code of it, free for distribution, compilation, modification
and reuse at no charge or restriction. Its the kind of initiative usually and volunteer work,
like the Firefox project, and the famous Apache Foundation.

3.2 EXAMPLES OF OPEN SOURCE APLLICATION SOFTWARE

a) Adobe Flash Player

The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing animations and movies using computer
programs such as a web browser. Flash Player is a widely distributed proprietary
multimedia and application player created by Macromedia and now developed and
distributed by Adobe after its acquisition. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created
by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other Macromedia
and third party tools.Adobe Flash, or simply Flash, refers to both a multimedia authoring
program and the Adobe Flash Player, written and distributed by Adobe, that uses vector
and raster graphics, a native scripting language called ActionScript and bidirectional
streaming of video and audio. Strictly speaking, Adobe Flash is the authoring
environment and Flash Player is the virtual machine used to run the Flash files, but in
colloquial language these have become mixed: "Flash" can mean either the authoring
environment, the player, or the application files.Flash Player has support for an
embedded scripting language called ActionScript (AS), which is based on ECMAScript.
Since its inception, ActionScript has matured from a script syntax without variables to
one that supports object-oriented code, and may now be compared in capability to
JavaScript (another ECMAScript-based scripting language).The Flash Player was
originally designed to display 2-dimensional vector animation, but has since become
suitable for creating rich Internet applications and streaming video and audio. It uses
vector graphics to minimize file size and create files that save bandwidth and loading
time. Flash is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded into web
pages.The Flash Player is available as a plugin for recent versions of web browsers (such
as Mozilla Firefox, SeaMonkey, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome) on selected
platforms. Adobe states that each version of the plugin is backwards-compatible, with the
exception of security changes introduced in Version 10.

b) AbiWord

AbiWord is a free and open source software word processor. It was originally started by
SourceGear Corporation as the first part of a proposed AbiSuite. Development stopped
when SourceGear changed their focus to Internet appliance. AbiWord was adopted by
some open source developers and AbiWord continued to be developed. The name
"AbiWord" (pronounced "Abby Word") is derived from the root of the Spanish word
"abierto", meaning "open".It runs on Linux, Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, Solaris,
AmigaOS 4.0 (through its Cygnix X11 engine), and other operating systems. However,
the Mac OS X port has been stuck in version 2.4 since 2005 .AbiWord is part of GNOME
Office, a collection of office applications with some degree of integration.

4.0 THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN ICT

4.1 HARDWARE

a) MICROPROCESSOR

The brain or engine of the PC is the processor (sometimes called microprocessor), or

central processing unit (CPU). The CPU performs the system's calculating and
processing. The processor is easily the most expensive single component in the system,
costing up to four or more times greater than the motherboard it plugs into. Intel is
generally credited with creating the first microprocessor in 1971 with the introduction of
a chip called the 4004. Today Intel still has control over the processor market, at least for
PC systems. This means that all PC-compatible systems use either Intel processors or
Intel-compatible processors from a handful of competitors.

NEW MICROPROCESSOR PREVIOUS

MICROPROCESSOR
Intel Core i7 Intel Core
Clock Rate 1.6 GHz - 3.33 GHz 1.06 GHz - 2.33 GHz
Number of Cores Six Single,Dual
Bus Speed Up to 2 × 6.4 GT/s 533 MHz, 667 MHz
L2 Cache 6x256 KB 2 MB
L3 Cache 12 MB -
Description As of 2010, Core i7 is the high Intel Core is a brand name used
end of the Core brand, which for various mid-range to high-
was introduced with the end consumer and business
Bloomfield Quad-core microprocessors.
processor in late 2008. In
 2009, new Core i7 models
In general, processors sold as
based on the Lynnfield desktop
Core are more powerful variants
quad-core processor and the
of the same processors marketed
Clarksfield quad-core mobile
as entry-level Celeron and
were added, and models based
Pentium. Similarly, identical or
on the Arrandale dual-core
more capable versions of Core
mobile processor have been
processors are also sold as Xeon
announced. The first six-core
processors for the server market.
processor in the Core lineup is
the Gulftown, which was
The current lineup of Core
launched on March 16, 2010.
processors includes the latest
Both the regular Core i7 and
Intel Core i7, Intel Core i5 and
the Extreme Edition are
Intel Core i3, and the older Intel
advertised as five stars in the
Core 2 Solo, Intel Core 2 Duo,
Intel Processor Rating.
Intel Core 2 Quad and Intel Core
2 Extreme lines.

4.2 SOFTWARE

a) Opera web browser

Opera 10 Opera 3
Version 10 debuted in a first beta version Opera 3 was the first version of Opera
on June 3, 2009 and scored 100/100 on the with JavaScript support.[5] It was released
Acid3 test, but failed the smoothness for multiple operating systems on
criteria. There was also a preview build December 31, 1997.
that scored 100/100, released on March 28,
In 1998, Opera 3.5 was released, adding
2009. Among other features, it also came
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) supportand
with speed optimizations, inline spell
file upload capability.
checking for forms, an auto update feature,
HTML mail formatting, web fonts and
Since version 3.5, Opera has supported
SVG font support, alpha transparency
CSS, and Håkon Wium Lie, one of the
support using the RGBA and HSLA color
inventors of CSS, is the CTO at Opera.
models, and an updated version of the
Up to 6.0 Opera supported most common
Opera Dragonfly web debugger.
web standards, Netscape plugins and
some other recent standards such as WAP
The official release of Opera 10 occurred
and WML for wireless devices, but its
on September 1, 2009. A week after
implementation of advanced ECMAScript
release, 10 million downloads had been
(better known as "JavaScript") and the
recorded.
HTML Document Object Model was
The 10.5x versions also came with a new poor.
JavaScript engine, Carakan, and a new
Version 3.6 was released on May 12,
graphics backend, dubbed Vega, that have
1999.
increased its speed measurably.

5.0 PERVASIVE COMPUTING

5.1 MEANING OF PERVASIVE COMPUTING

The idea that technology is moving beyond the personal computer to everyday
devices with embedded technology and connectivity as computing devices become
progressively smaller and more powerful. Also called ubiquitous computing,
pervasive computing is the result of computer technology advancing at exponential
speeds - a trend toward all man-made and some natural products having hardware and
software. Pervasive computing goes beyond the realm of personal computers.

It is the idea that almost any device, from clothing to tools to appliances to
cars to homes to the human body to your coffee mug, can be imbedded with chips to
connect the device to an infinite network of other devices. The goal of pervasive
computing, which combines current network technologies with wireless
computing, voice recognition, Internet capability and artificial intelligence, is to
create an environment where the connectivity of devices is embedded in such a way
that the connectivity is unobtrusive and always available.

5.2 EXAMPLES OF PERVASIVE COMPUTING

a) HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION (HCI)

Is the study of interaction between people (users) and computers. It is often regarded as
intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, designs and several other fields of
study. Intersection between users and computers occurs at the users interface (or simply
interface), which includes both software and hardware, for example, general -purpose
computer peripherals and large –scale mechanical systems, such as aircraft and power
plants.
Ambient Devices produced an “orb”, a ”dashboard”, and a “whether beacon”: these
decorative devices receive data from wireless network and report current events, such as
stock prices and whether.
“Dangling String”, installed at Xerox PARC. This was a piece of string attached to a
stepper motor and controlled by a LAN connection: network activity caused the string to
twitch, yielding and peripherally noticeable indication of traffic.
b) SMART PHONES

A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-

like functionality. There is no industry standard definition of a smartphone. For some,
a smartphone is a phone that runs complete operating system software providing a
standardized interface and platform for application developers. For others, a
smartphone is simply a phone with advanced features like e-mail, Internet and e-book
reader capabilities, and/or a built-in full keyboard or external USB keyboard and
VGA connector. In other words, it is a miniature computer that has phone capability.

6.0 CONCLUSION

Computer system includes not only the computer, but also any software and peripheral
devices that are necessary to make the computer function. Every computer system, for
example, requires an operating system. The system specification documents the technical
requirements for the system and its configuration prior to installation in the test
environment and conducting the IQ. This template provides instruction and examples on
how to document the existing hardware and software platform and the configuration of a
computer system. The system specification is used as the basic for the IQ, for detailed
documentation of the system as validated, and as the blueprint for rebuilding the system
in case of a need to replicate or store the system as validated.

REFERENCE

1)http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080719211451AA9NFvs
2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software
3) http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Meaning_of_pervasive_computing