Archive for the ‘Software’ Category
Let’s face it, Linux has come a very long way. I recently installed Linux on my little brother’s old computer and the only thing he said about it was that “Windows” was running much faster and that it looks different now. What he thought was a different looking, newer Windows XP was actually Linux Mint 4.0.
Once I explained what Linux was, and how it was a completely free alternative to Windows, it was as though he felt like he had the inside scoop on how to get the best speed out of his computer while sticking it to ‘the man’ at the same time.
Through my journey to discover the right Linux distro to install on his computer, I tried nearly every reputable distro I could find.
These are 7 of the best Linux distros out there, especially if you are looking to install this for someone new to linux. The best part is that you can try one by running it off of the LiveCD without having to install anything. (more…)
Have you noticed lately the upsurge in sub-compact notebooks? The Asus Eee line, the MSI Wind, HP and Dell’s new offerings… In a time when gas and food prices continue to rise, nearly everyone’s budgets are being tried, every dollar is being stretched further. Perhaps economics is one reason for these tiny machines sudden proliferation, but one of the ways these sub-compact notebooks keep the prices down is by bundling them with open source software.
Canonical, the company behind the Linux-based OS Ubuntu, plans to seize the moment by creating its own version of the popular distro for sub-compact notebooks called Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which it recently revealed at Computex earlier this week. The OS is a trimmed down and optimized version of its regular OS, with an interface that’s better attuned to the sub-compact market. The interface is sleek even at this point in development (if a bit brown), and includes features like tabbed window navigation, and optimization for Intel’s new Atom mobile processor line.
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If you haven’t seen them yet, where have you been?
Psystar, the controversial company that created the Mac clones (called the Open Computer), has allegedly begun shipping their Open Computers to users. The Mac clones use off-the-shelf hardware to run a patched version of Mac OS X, taken from the OSX-86 Project. (more…)
In response to the rising adoption of Linux in low-cost laptops like the Asus Eee PC, Microsoft is now offering a steep-discount of Windows XP Home in order to gain a foothold in the lucrative budget notebook industry.
Only low-cost machines that have the following specifications qualify for the Windows price-cut:
- Less than 10.2″ Display Size
- Less than 1Ghz Single Core Processor
- Less than 80GB of Storage
- Less than 1GB of RAM
- No Touchscreen
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With Mac OS 10, the numerous flavors of Vista, the endless Linux distributions and the old stalwart Microsoft XP, there are any number of operating systems that you may need to use on a day to day basis.
Partitioning off your hard drive and rebooting into another OS is a tedious process. A much more efficient method is to install an emulator that lets you travel freely between the operating systems like normal applications.
There are a number of different excellent commercial products such as VMware, BootCamp or VirtualPC. However Sun Microsystems has just updated their free and open source virtualization package, the Sun xVM Virtual Box 1.60.
The new version is a major upgrade featuring over 2000 changes including full support for Mac OS X in addition to Windows and Linux distributions. (more…)
The next update due out for Windows XP, Service Pack 3 (SP3), was originally supposed to be publicly available April 29th.
Well Microsoft tried, but they were not able to meet that deadline causing them to delay the release of SP3.
Here is what Microsoft’s Chris Keroack had to say:
In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience, we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to the web. (more…)
The latest Windows update for XP, known as SP3 has already been sent to manufacturers for testing and it should be released to the public within days. As of now it is scheduled for April 29th.
So you might be asking what you can expect with SP3, and if it is even worth updating?
Well according to Microsoft:
This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system.
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Bill Gates was speaking before the Inter-American Development Bank when he said “Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version” of Windows, aka Windows 7.
Although many people thought he was referring to a final release version, he was actually referring to an alpha or beta version of Windows 7.
Windows 7 is the successor to Windows Vista, which has underperformed in comparison to previous versions of Windows. (more…)
Apple has released the 7.4.1 update for their Quicktime software to patch an existing security vulnerability.
Quicktime is commonly used to play media on the web, and the vulnerability could be exploited when a user simply visits a malicious website designed to take advantage of earlier versions of the Quicktime software. (more…)
If you didn’t know already, Microsft Vista’s system requirements state that you will need 15GB just to install it. That is drastically more than what was required for Windows XP.
Luckily there is now a Vista configuration tool that allows you to modify the installation files in many ways, including making the size requirements much smaller.
It’s called vLite, and according to the vLite website it will even make Vista run faster. (more…)
