Biz bods: Tile-tastic Windows 8? NOOO. We lust after 'mature' Win 7

Tired corporates prefer predecessor, says analystWindows 8 won't become an enterprise IT standard as customers dump Microsoft's legacy PC operating system XP. Instead, corporate IT departments will stick to what they know and install Windows 7.…

Microsoft: Next WinPhone 8 update to arrive this summer

Won't be 'Blue,' but will include important featuresWe still don't know for sure what changes will arrive in Windows 8.1, the big OS update that's expected to ship as a preview in late June, but Microsoft _has_ begun teasing a few details of the next update to Windows Phone 8.…

Microsoft: YES! You can have your desktop back again for FREE!

No, no, no need to thank us - we love you allMicrosoft has confirmed that it will issue its Blue update to Windows 8 without charge, with first code scheduled at the company’s Build conference starting on June 26.…

Android is a mess and needs sprucing up, admits chief

Can Google really fix it? It isn't in control any moreComment Android looks unstoppable, and it's a mess. The first fact tends to eclipse the second observation, but Android's new supremo diplomatically acknowledges as much in an interview.…

Windows 8 'sales' barely half as good as Microsoft claims

Don't even mention the XP/Vista sales comparisonsMicrosoft claimed last week that it's made '100 million' Windows 8 sales and the claim has been widely repeated. But channel feedback and the experience on the ground point to a very different picture.…

Torvalds unveils first Linux 3.10 release candidate

Download, then be nice to your mother, Linux Lord advisesThe first release candidate for version 3.10 of the Linux Kernel is upon us.…

Microsoft honcho pleads with media: 'Stop picking on us!'

'Windows 8 is a good product ... really!'Updated Microsoft has taken quite a pounding in the press over Windows 8, and it has only intensified the rumors that the planned update to the OS might roll back some of its more controversial features. But Redmond has had quite enough now, and it wants it all to stop.…

Good news: Debian 7 is rock solid. Bad news: It's called Wheezy

If you want to be 20 miles from the bleeding edge, come on inReview Debian, the daddy to many a Linux distro including Ubuntu and Mint, has been updated for the first time in more than two years.…

Windows Blue preview to land at end of June

Redmond also plans Android access to Office WebAppsStart-button refugees wandering through the wasteland of Windows 8 trying to find a way to open an application can circle June 24th in their calendars, after Microsoft let it be known that a “public preview” of Windows Blue will emerge at the end of June.…

Microsoft: All RIGHT, you can have your Start button back

We blew it but now we're gonna Blue it, says RedmondBig changes to "key" parts of Windows 8 are coming after Microsoft admitted it “could and should have done more” on its big answer to Apple’s iOS for tablets.…

Debian 7 debuts

Wheezy wheels out with extra cloud powerDebian 7, which glories in the code name “Wheezy”, is officially upon us.…

Japan's XP migration solution: Remove network cable

Security problems solved the old-fashioned way...A Japanese local government has come up with a rather unusual solution to the problem of Windows XP migration – keep the venerable OS but disconnect the remaining PCs running it from the internet.…

Linux kernel 3.9 lands

Power management, new processors, SSD caching and moreLinus Torvalds has unleashed version 3.9 of the Linux kernel.…

Apple's next OS X said to be targeted at 'power users'

Tabbed Finder windows, multiple display improvements, moreApple's next version of OS X may provide welcome relief to users dismayed by the company's seemingly inexorable evolution from computer manufacturer to consumer-electronics company, if unnamed sources speaking to _9to5Mac_ are to believed.…

Ubuntu without the 'U': Booting the Big Four remixes

Raring Ringtail without the OS X/Unity stuffReview It's the end of April, so that means that there's a new release of Ubuntu. Well, actually, no - it means that there are eight of them. Don't like standard Ubuntu's Mac-OS-X-like Unity desktop? Here's where to look.…

Ubuntu 13.04: No privacy controls as promised, but hey - photo search!

A lot of stuff's missing, but the tweaks make a difference, honestFirst the bad news: most of the big new features planned for Ubuntu 13.04, or Raring Ringtail, haven’t made it – they’ve been pushed back to 13.10, due in October. Despite this, the Ringtail is actually rather good.…

Microsoft hoists ZTE onto the Android patent bandwagon

Huawei and Googorola still holding out on licensing dealsChina's ZTE has become the latest firm to sign a licensing deal with Microsoft for its Android and Chrome patent portfolio.…

Google's Page drops the A-bomb: Google Glass runs Android

Chief Googler confirms choice of techno-goggle OSGoogle chief exec Larry Page has confirmed his company's techno-spectacles Google Glass will run some form of Android.…

Linux in 2013: 'Freakishly awesome' – and who needs a fork?

Features, performance, security, stability: pick, er, fourLCS2013 If there was a theme for Day One of the Linux Foundation's seventh annual Linux Collaboration Summit, taking place this week in San Francisco, it was that the Linux community has moved way, _way_ past wondering whether the open source OS will be successful and competitive.…

Windows 7 'security' patch knocks out PCs, knackers antivirus tools

Job done, lads. Now no one's getting infectedWindows 7 users should uninstall a security patch Microsoft issued on Tuesday because some PCs failed to restart after applying the update.…

Tick-tock! 40% of PCs start Windows XP malware meltdown countdown

In 365 days, you'll be on your own against the hackersWith one year to go until Microsoft kills free support for Windows XP, if you haven’t got a migration plan in place it’s time to start doing something about it... but don't panic, say the migration experts.…

Windows XP support ends a year from … now!

_Official_ support ends April 7th, 2014, zombie support available at huge priceWindows XP, we hardly knew ye! Yet by this time next year, the adolescent operating system will be headed for the big Recycle Bin in the sky, thanks to Microsoft's planned obsolescence policy and the inevitable march of progress.…

Microsoft to slap 9 patches on Windows junkies on Tuesday

Nurse, prep the critical IE update and Windows Defender fixMicrosoft is lining up nine patches - two critical - as part of the April edition of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle.…

Got a BlackBerry? It may be telling your friends when you watch pr0n

Show what I'm listening to: 'I have come to clean your pool'Using a Blackberry Z10 for a little one-handed surfing might be more public than desired, as the social-sharing baked into the OS likes to share, um, everything.…

Microsoft gives away Windows 8 to Mac devs

Sells out in hoursMicrosoft has decided the best way to get Mac-using developers to use Windows 8 for web compatibility testing is to give it away.…

Microsoft's summer update will be called Windows 8.1

'Windows Blue' to see return of old-school version numbersMicrosoft has thought long and hard about what to officially call the forthcoming Windows 8 upgrade package codenamed "Windows Blue", and the verdict is ... Windows 8.1.…

Patent shark‘s copyright claim could bite all Unix

Cook Islands entity claims rights to code present in *nix, MacOS, WindowsApril Fool A company registered in minor league tax haven the Cook Islands, but with a subsidiary in Delaware, lawyers in the patent-troll heaven of East Texas and an office in Sydney, Australia, has asserted intellectual property rights over all versions of Unix and “Unix-like derivatives” and plans to seek royalties fro

Spanish Linux group files antitrust complaint against Microsoft

Claims UEFI Secure Boot is anticompetitiveA Spanish open source software users' association has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, claiming that the company's implementation of UEFI Secure Boot stifles competition.…

Next from Microsoft: 'Blue', the Windows 8 they hope you don't hate

People are used to a blue screen with Windows, right?Vid Windows Blue - the supposedly leaked sequel to Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system - will apparently look a lot more like Windows Phone 8 and allow users to further personalise their computers.…

Ubuntu support periods slashed

Non-LTS releases to get only nine months after version 2014's 13.04Ubuntu's Technical Board has decided nine months is long enough to support some new releases of its operating system.…