Operating Systems

Operating systems news, solutions, and analysis for IT professionals, covering desktop, server, and mobile operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, and iOS

Easy fixes using perl

Posted May 28, 2012 - 9:57 am

Save yourself some time by taking advantage of Perl's easy ability to manipulate text. When it comes to Perl, if you can describe it, you can do it.
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SUSE preps its own cloud launch

Posted May 23, 2012 - 2:00 pm

As SUSE redefines itself post-acquisition, building a new cloud solution is at their top of their priority list.
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When an Android upgrade goes nowhere but down

Posted May 21, 2012 - 11:52 am

I once had two friends who were fairly happy with their Droid X Android phones. But after I showed them how to grab an official, over-the-air upgrade to Android 2.3, or “Gingerbread,” they were much less happy with their phones, with Android in general, and almost certainly with me.
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Mandriva SA cedes control to Mandriva community

Posted May 18, 2012 - 7:41 am

Just days after the Mandriva community started its own plans for the next release of the French Linux distribution, its commercial sponsor has formally announced that the community will take the lead on all Mandriva Linux development moving forward.
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An epic battle of good and bad (rumor sources)!

Posted May 16, 2012 - 1:57 pm

Your dad’s Wall Street Journal was the sheet that aimed to tell you everything you needed to know that morning to face the many-headed, irrational beast known as The Market. Your Wall Street Journal? It wants to have the very best sourcing on what your next iPhone is going to look like, and it usually succeeds.
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Mozilla retreating on Linux?

Posted May 16, 2012 - 12:19 pm

Mozilla is resisting app marketplace support on Linux. Is this the beginning of a trend that will see Firefox knocked off the Linux hill?
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How to enforce password complexity on Solaris

Posted May 12, 2012 - 7:44 pm

Solaris 10 is the first version of Solaris to provide a complex set of variables for controlling password strength. The /etc/default/passwd file contains a series of parameters -- most commented out when a system is first installed -- that allow you to exercise some fairly rigorous constraints on the passwords your users may select.
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How Apple is breaking free of Google's Maps (and maybe Google, entirely)

Posted May 11, 2012 - 11:33 am

It’s no secret that Apple and Google have the kind of relationship that touring bands have with Ticketmaster: an aspiring artist with a thinly veiled contempt for the company that has all the right connections.
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What makes MS think it could ban non-IE browsers in Win8?

Posted May 10, 2012 - 2:44 pm

Once it was routine for Microsoft to dictate what applications or technology customers or other vendors had to use if they didn't want the big dog to bite. Now it's just ridiculous. No FireFox, Chrome or Safari on the ARM version of Windows 8? For how long, do you think?
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Fedora Project is naming names

Posted May 9, 2012 - 11:11 am

The Fedora Project is still trying to clarify its process of naming major releases, a process that has been met with calls for revision within the Fedora community.
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Screen-sharing BlackBerrys, face-tracking Apple TVs, and more

Posted May 9, 2012 - 9:09 am

BlackBerry 10 devices could let you show people what you’re seeing on your screen. Apple’s purported HDTV offering could see what you’re looking at. And you may not see any Verizon representatives pushing an iPhone on customers any time soon. This week’s Rumor Roundup is all about vision.
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Android on Nintendo, another dual-screen tablet, and stupid Hulu concepts: your Wednesday rumor roundup

Posted May 2, 2012 - 11:04 am

Today, we’re talking crazy Samsung tablets, networks’ crazy lack of understanding of what makes Hulu appealing, and a really crazy Android rumor.
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Is Solaris shining in enterprise sector again?

Posted May 1, 2012 - 10:25 am

Oracle is touting a resurgence in Solaris on SPARC sales today. But is the venerable Unix platform making a comeback, or are there are other market forces at work?
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Video

Guy creates Android-based beer dispenser

Posted April 30, 2012 - 1:47 pm

When you love the Android operating system and beer, why not combine those loves into a single device? This guy did.
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The tablet that changed the whole market for tablets, and isn't a tablet

Posted April 27, 2012 - 11:58 am

In three months, Amazon's Kindle Fire went from zero to 54 percent share of the Android tablet market. Its cost and power have changed the choice from iPad vs. everything, to iPad, Kindle Fire, or long justifications of why another choice isn't an obviously bad one
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Kaspersky warns Apple it needs to be more like Microsoft 10 years ago

Posted April 26, 2012 - 12:04 pm

Ten or 12 years ago Microsoft got its act together on security, churning out fixes quickly, taking aim at new malware and probing its own products for exploitable flaws. The founder of Kaspersky Labs warns Apple it must do the same or lose its market in a plague of malware.
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Mac botnet may not be shrinking much after all

Posted April 23, 2012 - 11:39 am

Security and anti-virus companies have disagreed all along on how many Macs are infected with the Flashback malware. Dr. Web, which discovered it, claims 650,000; Symantec says 140,000.
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The hidden ways mobile sites and free games are killing your battery

Posted April 23, 2012 - 9:38 am

You know that streaming music over 3G draws a lot of smartphone energy. But inefficient CSS, image file choices, and geo-locating advertisements are hogging your battery in less overt ways, according to recent studies.
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Review

A better way to learn Unix

Posted April 22, 2012 - 11:35 am

If you are still learning Unix or have any involvement in helping others master the command line, here's the book you have been waiting for. The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction (no starch press, 2012) will take you from 0 to 100 in 36 pain-free chapters.
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How to grab a screenshot from iPhone, Android, and nearly any other smartphone

Posted April 20, 2012 - 10:49 am

Let’s review the best ways you can grab a screenshot from an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. Or even a WebOS phone, if you're feeling esoteric.
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Is Canonical in ISV trouble?

Posted April 20, 2012 - 10:32 am

Canonical is calling for more app developers again. Is this an area where they are weak?
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Rumor roundup: Windows Phone 8 is the Schrödinger's Cat of upgrades

Posted April 18, 2012 - 10:01 am

Samsung’s feeling some quad-core jealousy, Microsoft’s “not really sure” about people getting Windows Phone 8 upgrades, and, surprise of surprises, there’s rumors of a smaller iPad. All chopped, grilled, and hashed up for you in today’s rumor roundup.
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How will open source react to Microsoft?

Posted April 17, 2012 - 12:12 pm

Microsoft needs interoperability to drive forward, and that means working with open source. Will they reap what they have sown?
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New Mac malware gets newer; now available from Word docs as well as Java

Posted April 17, 2012 - 10:22 am

Mac users may not want to hear it, but the debut today of a new version of a Trojan whose original version is less than a month old,shows malware writers are much more prompt about updating software for Macs than app developers ever were in porting Windows products to it.
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Clearing up a few myths about the newly renovated Chrome OS

Posted April 16, 2012 - 12:34 pm

Now that Google’s released a developer preview of Chrome OS’ almost entirely new look, it feels like a good time to do some Q&A.
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