Tag: Operating systems

May 17, 2017

Ransomware attacks are all the rage these days among hackers, and many people are worried about becoming victims. Are Linux users secure against such attacks? This topic came up recently in a thread on the Linux subreddit, and the folks […]

May 9, 2017

WE ALREADY KNEW that Google was working on a third OS dubbed Fuchsia, and now we can finally see what the firm’s potential Android replacement looks like. Unlike Android and Chrome OS, Fuchsia OS – which first broke cover, albeit barely, last August – […]

May 5, 2017

OH MICROSOFT, I really don’t want to hate you. Really, I don’t. You’ve given the world so much. Zune. Windows Vista, DOS 4.0…. and then there’s the good stuff. But it just seems lately that every time you seem to […]

May 3, 2017

Chrome and Firefox have both been at the top of the heap when it comes to browsers. But these days it seems like Chrome has become the king of browsers, with many Firefox users having switched over to it. But […]

May 1, 2017

Microsoft desperately needs to simplify its patching process, but the latest change to how it rolls out updates for Windows 10 adds little to the mix except more confusion. Earlier this week Microsoft patching honcho Michael Niehaus published details of new update options […]

April 27, 2017

MICROSOFT HAS committed to banal updates to the Windows Operating System in March and September. Sorry. That should read ‘biannual updates’. The company has basically been doing this for a while and we knew that after the Creators Update (Redstone […]

April 13, 2017

Yesterday I wrote a story about millions of Samsung IoT that are vulnerable to attacks due to zero-day security holes. I have been extremely critical of IoT vendors ignoring the importance of updates and security, putting millions of users at […]

April 13, 2017

Windows Vista, one of the most disliked versions of Microsoft’s operating systems, is being killed off today. As reported last month, April 11 marks the End of Life day for the old OS, meaning it will no longer receive any […]

April 12, 2017

Google has introduced a patent licensing initiative called the Android Networked Cross-License Agreement that it hopes will foster peace in the often litigious world of technology-based intellectual property. The initiative, dubbed PAX for short (the word pax is Latin for […]

April 4, 2017

Microsoft has released KB 3191855, a patch that’s designed to fix the bug in this month’s KB 3178690 security patch. You may recall that the March 14 security patch rendered Excel 2010 pretty much useless. According to the KB article, […]

March 29, 2017

As a desktop OS, Linux leaves a lot to be desired compared to OS X or Windows. But one thing we’re always hearing about is the Linux community, a frequently-sweary place likeminded geeks can gather and work towards the greater good. […]

March 24, 2017

Linux is so quietly ubiquitous that many people don’t realize how often they interact with it. Servers running Linux are churning away every Google search, or Facebook message posted, and all Android phones are powered by a modified Linux kernel. […]

March 23, 2017

Linux as your main gaming OS? Linux gaming has come a very long way from where it started, and Linux gamers have much to celebrate. But how many people use Linux as their main gaming operating system? This question was […]

March 21, 2017

Many patches don’t go through the usual Windows Update channels. As I explainedearlier today, even the patch that fixes Microsoft’s botched security update KB 3177725 is only available in the Windows Update Catalog. That fix, KB 3187022, has been available […]

March 17, 2017

Flatpak, sponsored by the Freedesktop project and engineered mainly by Alex Larsson at Red Hat, is a single application package containing everything needed to run an app across multiple distributions. But it also comes with partial dependency on a Red Hat […]

March 17, 2017

SourceForge alienated many Linux users and developers a while back when the site was plagued with malware ads and other problems. Now SourceForge has a new owner, but is it too late for SourceForge to regain credibility with the open […]

February 13, 2017

Windows 10 peddler Microsoft has admitted that its lofty goal of Windows 10 running on one billion machines by 2018 is unlikely to happen. The company made the announcement last year to much fanfare, using it as a marker of […]

February 3, 2017

A Linux subsystem in Windows? What sounded like an April Fools’ gag has turned out to be one of the biggest signs of Microsoft’s widening acceptance of open source and strategic cooperation with Linux. It’s also created a veritable playground […]

January 11, 2017

There’s a reason that Roy in The IT Crowd is famous for his ‘have you tried turning it off and on again?’ catchphrase. In a large number of cases this is all you need to do in order to fix […]

December 19, 2016

It’s raining patches. This week we’ve seen a barrage of updates to Windows 10 (pick your flavor), nine security bulletins, 28 security patches for Office, and a killer patch for Windows Journal on Win10. Combined that with last week’s 40-odd […]