Apple begins testing Mac OS X 10.7.3 with focus on iCloud storage
Apple on Tuesday began widespread testing of Mac OS X 10.7.3, the third maintenance update to its relatively new Lion operating system that will improve upon iCloud's Documents in the Cloud, among a handful of other areas.
People familiar with the first external build of the forthcoming update -- labeled OS X Lion 10.7.3 build 11D16 -- say the Mac maker has requested developers to focus their evaluation efforts on iCal calendars, Mail, AddressBook and iCloud's document storage. Read more...
openSUSE 12.1 Released
openSUSE, the community developed Linux distribution sponsored by SUSE, has released version 12.1 today. At first glance, openSUSE 12.1 is pretty much in line with recent releases from Fedora and Ubuntu: GNOME 3.2, systemd, etc. But a closer look starts to reveal some real divergence between the various Linux offerings today. For example, while Fedora 16 allows you to choose btrfs for your filesystem, openSUSE 12.1 uses btrfs by default. There’s a number of other interesting advancements packed in this release, too.
The filesystem features provided by btrfs are enhanced on openSUSE 12.1 with Snapper, a user-space utility to take, compare, and revert snapshots of files. This has huge potential to make life better for users. Read more...
Microsoft unveils Windows 8
We're live from Microsoft Windows president Steven Sinofsky's keynote at D9, and there's something rather exciting on stage -- a pair of experimental Windows 8 dev boards running an OS that looks very much like Windows Phone 7's Metro UI. All Things D actually sat down with the man earlier today and got a sneak peek at what to expect starting with the live tiled screen you see above -- and yes, like Windows Phone 7, this OS is designed for touch. Read more...
Windows 7′s malware infection rate climbs, XP’s falls
Data released today by Microsoft showed that Windows 7's malware infection rate climbed by more than 30% during the second half of 2010, even as the infection rate of the 10-year-old Windows XP fell by more than 20%.
"Infection rates have jumped [for Windows 7]," admitted Jeff Williams, the principal group program manager with the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC). "We attribute that to the increased presence of malicious software attacks out there."
For the second half of 2010, 32-bit Windows 7 machines were infected at an average rate of over 4 PCs per 1,000, a 33% increase over the approximately 3-per-1,000 infection rate during the first half of the year.
PCs running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 fared slightly better, with an infection rate of 2.5 per 1,000 during all of 2010.
The infection rates were tabulated from scans conducted by the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), a free utility updated monthly and pushed to Windows users via Microsoft's update services. MSFT detects and deletes selected malware, including fake antivirus programs, worms, viruses and bot Trojans. Read more...
Natty Narwhal: the First Linux for Newbies?
Whenever a new version of an operating system is released, it's common to see a wave of reviews following on its heels, assessing how the software compares with what came before it and weighing its new pros and cons.
That's certainly been the case with Canonical's Ubuntu 11.04, or "Natty Narwhal," which was officially released last week. This time, however, it seems fair to say the scrutiny has been more intense than usual.
For those who haven't been following it closely, Natty Narwhal is the first desktop Ubuntu Linux release to use the Unity desktop shell by default--a major, ground-shaking departure from the software's traditional use of GNOME. It's also the place several other significant decisions for the free and open source operating system can be seen, such as the adoption of the Compiz window manager. Read more...
Puppy Linux 5.2.5
Launched on Saturday, version 5.2.5 of the flagship Lucid Puppy Linux distribution--also known as "Lupu"--improves upon the release from early this year with a raft of updates and new features, making it "the most leading-edge Lucid ever," in the project's own words.
Now included in the easy-to-use software, for example, is version 4.1.0 of the Bash shell, replacing the previous version's Bash 3. Version 4.03 of the Syslinux bootloader replaces Syslinux 3, Read more...
Google: Android 3.0 Needs More Work to Be Smartphone Ready
Google will not release the source code for Honeycomb, the version of its Android mobile OS optimized for tablets, until it completes work to make the software better for smartphones and other devices, the company said Thursday.
"Android 3.0, Honeycomb, was designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes and improves on Android favorites... While we're excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones," Google said in a statement. Read more...
Canonical Opens Up Catalog of Linux-Friendly Components
Though hardware compatibility with Linux improves with each passing day, users of the free and open source operating system can still encounter problems with particular devices and components.
Aiming to help both manufacturers and users steer clear of any such remaining headaches, Canonical on Thursday opened up to the public its vast database of components that are certified to work with Linux in general and its own Read more...
5 Futuristic Microsoft Technologies
Microsoft execs love to brag that its researchers invented the technology that made Kinect and Windows Phone 7 possible -- but there's more than consumer technologies coming out of Microsoft Research (MSR). There are projects that could well drive whatever OS and browser succeed Windows and Internet Explorer. Not just that, MSR is also building leading-edge frameworks, tools and infrastructure for cloud computing. And in virtualization, MSR is experimenting with new and improved programming languages and tools.
Microsoft's pat answer, when asked about MSR projects, is that there's no guarantee if or even when they'll be commercialized. I've found most recent MSR projects to be anything but research for research's sake. Here are five I'm currently watching like a hawk. Read more...
Why WebOS Hasn’t Lived Up to Its Potential — Yet
When Palm first unveiled webOS in 2009, the new platform was supposed to be the next mobile messiah.
With its sexy user interface, a developer-friendly backend and a host of new features like multitasking and contact Synergy, everyone was certain webOS would be the platform to rejuvenate the once-prominent PDA pioneer company.
As of November 2010, Palm’s market share of U.S. mobile platforms weighed in at a paltry 3.9 percent, according to a comScore report. Sales of the Palm Pre — the flagship device on which webOS was first shipped — were lackluster, with numbers never breaking the 1 million mark in the first three months of the phone’s release. Weigh that against the iPhone 3GS, which launched two weeks after the Pre. One million of Apple’s handsets were sold in the first three days after release. Read more...
CrossOver Impersonator: Run Windows on Mac OS and Linux
CodeWeavers has released a major new version of its Wine-based CrossOver tool, which is designed to make it possible to run Windows applications and games on both Macintosh and Linux platforms. CrossOver Impersonator Edition boasts a brand new CrossTie feature, which enables users to install hundreds of Windows applications with a single click. It also incorporates over 4,500 patches that went into the latest release of Wine (1.3.9), and replaces all previous versions. Read more...
Hardware, Software Advances Help Protect Operating Systems from Attack
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed an efficient system that utilizes hardware and software to restore an OS if it is attacked.
At issue are security attacks in which an outside party successfully compromises one computer application (such as a Web browser) and then uses that application to gain access to the OS. For example, the compromised application could submit a "system call" to the OS, effectively asking the OS to perform a specific function. Read more...
Switching to Desktop Linux? 6 Ways to Ease the Migration
With all the many compelling reasons for a company to switch to Linux on the desktop, it's no wonder that businesses large and small are increasingly relying on the free and open source operating system. After all, it's free, flexible, reliable, and highly secure--to name just a few of the most attractive features.
No matter how good your reasons for switching from Windows to Linux, however, the fact remains that most of us don't like change. That--more than anything else--is why migrations of any kind can be painful.
One of the most common mistakes new desktop Linux users make is to give up too easily, often citing the frequently heard myth that "It's too hard." The truth, however, is that it's just different. It may be difficult to remember at this point, but Windows took some getting used to, too.
How can you make the desktop Linux migration process as easy as possible in your business? Here are a few suggestions.
1. Get Buy-In at the Top
This probably goes without saying, but executive buy-in is essential to business migrations of just about any kind. Users need to know that the change has been mandated from the top or they won't feel motivated to go along with it. Read more...
The State of Windows 8
Only Microsoft knows how the next version of its Windows operating system will look and what it will be called, but big changes could be ahead for the OS observers refer to as "Windows 8."
At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced that Windows 8 will support system-on-a-chip architectures using ARM processors. Unlike the x86 architecture that today's Windows laptops and desktops work with, ARM-based chips tend to run such low-power devices as tablets and smartphones.
In his CES keynote speech, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, "This announcement is really all about enabling a new class of hardware, and new silicon partners for Windows, to bring the widest possible range of form factors to the market." Read more...