by Sebastian Anthony on January 23, 2010 at 09:41 PM

So, get this: while Windows 7 only accounts for 6% of the global operating system market, 23% of Steam gamers are using Windows 7!
digg_url = 'http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/01/23/steam-shows-massive-adoption-of-windows-7-by-gamers/'; The breakdown shows a lot of statistics, including average processor speed (2.5GHz) and NVIDIA (65). You can even see the split between 32- and 64-bit ...
by Sebastian Anthony on January 20, 2010 at 07:54 AM

digg_url = 'http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/01/20/china-plans-home-brew-champion-supercomputer/';
For the second time in just three years, China is planning to build a supercomputer using its own home-grown Loongson family of processors.
Loongson processors were meant to be used in the Dawning 5000a supercomputer back in 2008, but as they lacked Windows compatibility they were ...
by Jay Hathaway on January 15, 2010 at 03:30 PM

While the iPhone and Android OS are known for their gorgeous UI candy, Nokia's Symbian OS isn't going to win any beauty contests. Nokia is hard at work on something much, much more attractive for Symbian^4. The mobile company has released its UI concept proposal documents, including some sexy screenshots of the new Orbit and Direct UI landing pages.
The screenshots are the main event, but ...
by Jason Clarke on January 13, 2010 at 05:33 PM

When switching from one operating system to another, sometimes it's not obvious how to do something that was straightforward to do on the previous OS.
As someone who switched from Windows to a Mac a couple of years ago, I was able to find easy solutions to most of the things that I originally struggled with. But there is one irritant that has stuck around for the past two years, and though I've ...
by Sebastian Anthony on January 12, 2010 at 08:55 AM

An announcement from Microsoft regarding Windows Mobile 7 has been a long time coming. There was even talk of simply abandoning the ailing Windows Mobile platform. News today would suggest that it is coming though, but not until 2011. It's not clear yet, without a comment from Microsoft, if this new information supersedes TechRadar's report that we'll be seeing Windows Mobile 7 next month.
It ...
by Sebastian Anthony on January 7, 2010 at 11:55 AM

I don't like reporting news without exact numbers, especially when making claims like this, but the Director of Marketing at Microsoft is fairly confident about this one: "Windows 7 is by far the fastest selling Operating System in history."
digg_url = 'http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/01/07/windows-7-the-fastest-selling-operating-system-in-history/';
He doesn't give the exact number ...
by Jay Hathaway on November 8, 2009 at 08:00 AM

It's only been a couple of weeks since Windows 7 was released, but Microsoft's new OS has already captured a larger percentage of the market than Apple's OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Linux (yes, all of Linux). This doesn't come as a huge surprise, considering how many Windows users were clamoring for Win7 after the flop that is Vista. Microsoft says Windows 7's launch outdid Vista's by 234%. Those ...
by Grant Robertson on July 8, 2009 at 01:42 AM
![Google announces multi-platform Chrome OS, shipping in late 2010]()
Whoa. After long periods of speculation, Google enters the operating system space, for reals. Chrome OS will be "fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds." Targeted at Netbooks, Chrome OS will be available on new systems by the second half of 2010. "The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web", ...
by Kristin Shoemaker on June 3, 2008 at 07:00 PM

At any given time on the planet, there's a technology trade show in progress. Some are more significant than others, and there's no formula to figure if any given one will be worth the airfare. We're guessing that a few ultraportable laptop manufacturers, as well as a few of us (cough) normal folk, are a little intrigued with the news emerging from the Computex exhibit halls today. Canonical let ...
by Kristin Shoemaker on February 26, 2008 at 08:00 PM

digg_url = "http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/02/26/flipping-the-linux-switch-the-distribution-maze/";
Who doesn't love choices? You can "have it your way" at fast food restaurants. No two cars ever cost the same, because of add-ons and price negotiations. We like choice. It's a good thing. Right? Choice, really, is a double-edged sword. We get too many choices, and we can get easily ...
by Kristin Shoemaker on January 3, 2008 at 02:00 PM

digg_url = "http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/01/03/flipping-the-linux-switch-5-tips-every-new-linux-user-should-kn/";Linux is a powerful operating system, but chances are it's a very different operating system than any you've used before. The dizzying number of choices in distributions alone is enough to make your head spin, but it also means there's something out there that really suits ...
by Danny Mendez on January 2, 2008 at 02:00 PM

There's a bit of an OS fanboy in all of us, but we're not all computer programmers. So when it comes down to arguing which OS is "better," we may not always have our facts straight. Andy Matuschak, on the other hand, is an OS X fanboy with a level head on his shoulders, and he believes OS X would be much better if Apple took a few more cues from Ubuntu.
Matuschak believes an operating system ...
by Kristin Shoemaker on December 28, 2007 at 11:00 AM

We have a confession to make. We are secretly, deeply, head over heels in love with Zenwalk Linux. Zenwalk is a Slackware-based distro. It's lightweight, it's modern, and though it may not be the easiest distribution to install, we've certainly had worse experiences. Zenwalk 5.0 beta was released for testing yesterday. The 5.0 release has some major changes: the use of HAL in place of its own ...
by Danny Mendez on December 20, 2007 at 04:00 PM

NetBSD 4.0 is finally out, and, if you don't know what that is, sit tight and we'll get to that later. For those that know all about NetBSD, here's the lowdown on the latest major update to the operating system: The 4.0 release includes support for version 3 of the Xen virtual machine monitor (yawn). It also includes support for Bluetooth (welcome to 2005) and many new device drivers and ...
by Chris Gilmer on September 7, 2007 at 08:30 AM

Microsoft is getting together security updates for Windows 2000. There are five security bulletins that are set for release on September 11th 2007 that will update a version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and in the Download Center. Of the five updates deemed an "important update" for users, only one has ...