Items tagged with Operating System
In an effort to lessen its dependence on established operating systems, including Android and iOS, Facebook is developing its own from the ground up. One reason why this is important to Facebook is because it is so involved with hardware in the virtual reality space, with its acquisition of Oculus and future plans. The situation sort of reminds me of how Valve viewed Microsoft with the release of Windows 8. There was fear that Microsoft would build a walled garden, and Valve reacted by developing SteamOS based on Linux. It was part of a broader strategy that also included Steam Machines, which never really became the massive success Valve had hoped. Facebook finds itself in a different spot,...
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Huawei finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place, as it pertains to its goal of building a mainstream presence in the United States and the blow back the company has faced from major wireless carriers that, at the behest of US intelligence agencies, have avoided partnering with the Chinese telecom. With the pressure mounting to avoid certain Chinese brands, Huawei may say, 'Screw it!' and build its own operating system to use in place of Android. Citing "people familiar with the matter," the South China Morning Post says Huawei is doing exactly that as it puts into motion a plan that was initiated by company founder Ren Zhengfei as a sort of 'worst case scenario' strategy. As the thinking...
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Windows 10 might be the last monolithic release of Windows ever, but that doesn't mean the engineers in Redmond are suddenly out of work. Just the opposite, they're busy building new features in to Windows 10 that will be doled in updates, some big like the recent Anniversary Update and some small. One of the things they're working on is a tweak to its Delivery Optimization feature that allows users to grab updates from other PCs on the same local network. That's now being expanded to include other PCs on the Internet. It's part of the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview Build (14915), and if you're subscribed to the Fast ring, you can download and install it right away. "Starting today, Windows...
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If you're a Linux fan, then you should know that this week is a very special one. On August 25, 1991 - 25 years ago - Linus Torvalds shot out a simple message to a Minix usergroup which stated that he was working on a Minix replacement. Within, he famously said that his creation wouldn't "be big and professional like GNU". Not even Linus Torvalds could have predicted what his OS - eventually called Linux - would become. While it might have taken a little while to get off the ground in a big way, Linux was a pet project that had no goals of world domination, but over time, that eventually happened anyway. To say that Linux is "everywhere" would be accurate. Android users are using a variant of...
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Earlier this month, the Linux Mint developer team released the Xfce edition of Linux Mint 18 'Sarah', which followed the main release at the end of June. But now it's time for some Plasma action, with a beta release of the upcoming Linux Mint 18 KDE edition. It's worth noting that all three Linux Mint 18 editions are LTS releases (long-term support), with a promise to be supported until 2021. For that reason, these releases don't include bleeding-edge software, but instead software that can be assured to be stable right-out-of-the-box. Tying into that, the recently released KDE 5.7 isn't bundled here; instead, KDE 5.6 is. Unless you're looking for richer Wayland (X window system replacement)...
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Time is quickly running out if you're planning to take Microsoft up on its offer to upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 to Windows 10 for free. Yes, it's been a full year already since Windows 10 released to the public. But don't fret if procrastination's gotten the better of you, there's still several hours left to upgrade at no cost. Microsoft says you have until midnight tonight UTC-10 before the deal is off the table. If you live in the U.S., that means the expiration on Microsoft's offer is technically July 30, albeit you'll have to upgrade by 5:59 am ET (2:59 am PT). For those of you living in other parts of the world and time zones, you can find your specific deadline by going to The...
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Windows 10 continues to gain ground on Windows 7 in the race for market share dominance. Though the gap between the two is still rather large, Windows 10 has managed to find its way onto more than 19 percent of the world's PCs, according to the latest data from Net Market Share. That's up from 11.85 percent at the beginning of the year. It's been a steady climb for Windows 10, which released to the public a year ago this month. The OS got off to a fast start, hitching a ride on 5.21 percent of PCs in its first month of availability and nearly doubling its position by the end of the year with a 9.96 percent share of the desktop market. That momentum continued into 2016 with Windows 10 gaining...
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Microsoft is heavily invested in Windows 10. It was designed with the intention of providing a unified platform for different device categories, which in turn would make it easier for Microsoft to promote and monetize supplementary services like OneDrive, Skype, and Office 365. With so much riding on the success of Windows 10, you can bet that Microsoft is paying attention to market share data, which currently shows a slowed growth rate. After launching to the general public at the end of July, Windows 10 sprinted out to a 5.21 percent share of the desktop OS market during its first month of availability, according to data by Net Applications. But after that first month, the momentum slowed way...
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Nearly two months after launching to the general public, it's estimated that Windows 10 is now installed on more than 100 million machines. If that's even close to accurate, Microsoft can breath a sigh of relief knowing that its latest version of Windows -- and its last monolithic release -- won't follow in the same footsteps as Windows 8/8.1.To be clear, the 100 million claim isn't one made by Microsoft, not yet anyway. It's based on information that Petri's Brad Sams obtained from his "insider sources." However, it's not difficult to imagine Windows 10 surpassing the 100 million milestone, as the last official word from Microsoft has the OS boasting 75 million installs less than a month after...
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Apple announced a handful of products yesterday, including a new iPhone, a 12.9-inch iPad Pro that's better suited for productivity than its other iPad tablets, and a refreshed Apple TV set-top box. However, there's one thing that kind of flew under the radar, and that's the impending release of Mac OS X 10.11, otherwise known as El Capitan.The successor to OS X Yosemite was officially unveiled earlier this summer with a developer preview made available to Mac Developer Program members. At the time, Apple said the OS would release sometime "this fall," but didn't offer up a specific date. Now we have one.Apple slyly tipped September 30, 2015 as El Capitan's release date while previewing an email...
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It's been just over 10 months since Android 5.0 Lollipop was first made available to the general public, and in that time, it's found its way onto one out of every five Android devices. If you'd prefer to take the glass half empty approach, you can point out that four out of five Android devices are still waiting for Lollipop, Marshmallow be damned.According to the data by Android Developers, Android 5.0 is installed on 15.9 percent of Android devices, while Android 5.1 (also Lollipop) adds another 5.1 percent. That comes out to an even 21 percent.The majority of Android devices these days are rocking Android 4.4, otherwise known as KitKat. It holds a 39.2 percent share of the Android device...
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Do you remember what you were doing two decades ago? Depending on your age, you might have been waiting in a long line for Windows 95. Yes, there were lines to purchase Windows 95, the revolutionary operating system that launched at midnight on August 24, 1995, 20 years ago to the day. Codenamed Chicago, Windows 95 was a big upgrade over Windows 3.1. It was a 32-bit OS with a customized version of MS-DOS baked in to serve as a boot loader and a compatibility layer for legacy 16-bit device drivers. Enhanced multimedia features accompanied the dressed up graphical user interface, and so did built-in Internet support, a critical component as the Internet was just beginning to bloom.To run Windows...
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Amid all the praise Windows 10 is receiving around the web, there is one thing that's at the center of most complaints -- automatic updates. Windows 10 Home users generally don't have a choice in the matter, the updates are mandatory and sent out automatically. For some people with limited bandwidth, that policy is causing a problem.According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Windows 10 users in remote locations are getting hit with big bills resulting from forced updates pushing them beyond their data caps. One example is a woman who lives in the Cook Islands, an autonomous region associated with New Zealand. She said her bill was $NZ600, or around $395 in U.S. currency."In this context, where Internet...
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Anyone who possesses a valid Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 license is eligible to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. That includes owners of Sony VAIO machines, though if you're rocking a VAIO, you're strongly urged to put off upgrading. Sony says it hasn't worked out proper drivers for Windows 10 just yet and is asking owners to be patient for at least a couple of months."Although Microsoft is offering the Windows 10 upgrade, it is strongly recommended that you wait to install it until the drivers and installation instructions are available for your VAIO PC," Sony warns on its support page for VAIO systems.Sony's support page also contains a roadmap for when drivers and applications will be updated...
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