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It's no secret that the conditions were ripe for a steep drop in PC demand this holiday, but now it's clear just how bad that plunge really was. Gartner and IDC estimate PC shipments fell by more than 28 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022. That's the steepest quarterly decline Gartner has ever recorded — no mean feat when it began tracking the computer market in the 1990s. Both analyst groups also saw yearly shipments fall by more than 16 percent in 2022 compared to the year earlier. Some manufacturers suffered more of a blow than others. The...

Recently, The Register's Liam Proven wrote tongue in cheek about the most annoying desktop Linux distros. He inspired me to do another take. Proven pointed out that Distrowatch currently lists 270 – count 'em – Linux distros. Of course, no one can look at all of those. But, having covered the Linux desktop since the big interface debate was between Bash and zsh rather than GNOME vs KDE, and being the editor-in-chief of a now-departed publication called Linux Desktop, I think I've used more of them than anyone else who also has a life beyond the PC. In short, I...

Desktop computers might feel like a thing of the past, but there are still plenty of reasons to choose a the best desktop PCs over a laptop. Oftentimes, even base model desktop computers are far more powerful than their mobile counterparts. This makes them better suited for multimedia projects like photo, video and music editing. And if you’re looking for a machine for your work or home office, you might as well get more power and performance at a similar (or lower) price. That’s right, desktop computers are often far more affordable than premium laptops. If you feel like you...

I never imagined this would be impossible until I actually had to try and do it.I'm trying to connect via USB my desktop (homebuilt, Intel based, Win 7 Ultimate) to a Lenovo Yoga tablet (Win 10) to copy over about 40 gig of files.An hour long web search reveals no straightforward way to do this, indeed many sites say it's not possible by design.I never give up until I have checked FR.Am I stuck shuttling the files between computers using a flash drive, or my bog-slow home wireless network?

Asked to recommend a Linux desktop, users respond in a number of ways. Many recommend their own preferences. Others suggest the desktop environment that they believe is closest in appearance and function to Windows or OS X.A while ago, though, I realized that the seven major Linux desktops can be ranked on a spectrum from the highly customizable to those that are little more than launchers for their applications.Starting with the customizers, my rankings along this spectrum are:7. KDE Ever see a Windows users' reactions to all the options on a Linux desktop? Well, KDE produces the same look of...

I love the Linux desktop. As far as I'm concerned, the Linux Mint 17.2 is the best desktop around. Heck, I was once editor-in-chief of a website called Linux Desktop. But today, I believe there's no way the Linux desktop will ever become the top desktop operating system. The Linux desktop, here Mint 17.2 with Cinnamon, is great, but it will never be popular the way Windows was. That's right. There will be no "Year of the Linux desktop." Oh, don't get me wrong, Linux, as Android tablets and smartphones and Chrome OS Chromebooks, will become the most popular end-user...

The perfect desktop is undoubtedly the one you would design yourself. However, lacking the necessary time and expertise, many users hop instead from desktop to desktop desktop with the same enthusiasm as others hop between distros, hoping to find the ideal distribution.In many cases, they never find their ideal, and for good reason -- even the simplest Linux desktop is a mixture of advantages and disadvantages.Here, for example, are some core reasons for both accepting and rejecting the seven leading desktops of today:Cinnamon Leading Advantage: Like MATE, Linux Mint's other desktop, Cinnamon is a classic desktop for GNOME-based applications. However,...

Windows 8.1 is now the fifth most popular desktop OS, at least as recorded by Web tracker Net Applications. For November, Microsoft's latest version of Windows snagged 2.64 percent of all desktop OS traffic recorded by Net Applications. That number was a healthy gain from the 1.72 percent seen in October and the 0.87 percent in September. The rise also pushed Windows 8.1 just ahead of Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks with a 2.42 percent share and just behind Windows Vista with a 3.57 percent share. Windows 8.1 popped up in June as a preview edition before officially launching in...

One of the most amazing things about Linux is how versatile it is. Let's face it - Windows and MacOS X are...boring. They look exactly how they look. When it comes to making your computer look and behave however you like, Linux is king. Let's take a stroll through some truly interesting, and beautiful, Linux Desktop Environments - the ones that many of us have never even seen.xmonad xmonad (all lower case) is a tiling window manager built in the Haskell programming language (which is interesting enough to qualify for inclusion in this list). So what is a “tiling...

Semantic computing is the future of computing, and KDE4 has the only working implementation of a semantic desktop. If you want an example of where Linux and FOSS are taking the lead, this is a great one. KDE4 Semantic Desktop KDE4 has been flinging new technologies at us fast and furiously, many in the category of "semantic desktop." Semantic computing is the future of computing, and KDE4 has the only working implementation of a semantic desktop. The idea of a semantic Web has been kicking around for some years, and the semantic desktop is the same concept applied to the...

Where is the Linux desktop going, and where should it go? This is a hot topic, and an important one. Unfortunately the discussion usually starts from the wrong premise, that the Linux desktop has only recently achieved parity with its Mac OS X and Windows cousins. Not so! The Linux desktop has been superior since its early days, and would have to go backwards to achieve parity. Now which Linux desktop are we talking about? That's a good question, and that is superior item #1: multiple desktop environments and window managers to choose from.A Mighty Power Tool The PC has...

An interesting conversation arose over my post, “The Increasingly Irrelevant Desktop OS,” that I placed over on LinkedIn in one of the Virtualization groups. One of the conversations trickled toward the issue of control. The excerpt from that thread reads, “I can see consumers not needing an OS for most of their daily activities. Web browsing, mail and streaming multimedia can all be done from a centralized location. Other than that, I do not see professionals giving up their OS of choice any time soon. That would simply involve giving up too much control.” True.Giving up control of one’s own...

Microsoft isn't going away anytime soon. The software giant's presence is deeply anchored in homes and businesses globally. Microsoft is guaranteed a place in the annals of technology history. But, due to a recent spate of mishaps, it sure looks like that when it comes to the desktop and end-user side of things, Microsoft's days may be numbered.

JOSH SHENKLE knew that he couldn’t hook up any old PC to the 106-inch Panasonic projection television in his home theater. Most computers come with buzzing fans, whirring disk drives and whining capacitors that compete with the sound system. “After a while, the noise gets to you during quiet scenes,” he said. “It overwhelms you and takes you away from the movie.” Computer users who want silent offices and living rooms are starting to ask for quiet computers. Manufacturers are taking notice. Some new computers like the Apple iMac or the Alienware Area-51 7500 are marketed for their silence. A...

A prototype of what may be the next generation of personal computers has been developed by researchers in the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering. Capable of computing speeds 100 times faster than current desktops, the technology is based on parallel processing on a single chip.Parallel processing is an approach that allows the computer to perform many different tasks simultaneously, a sharp contrast to the serial approach employed by conventional desktop computers. The prototype developed by Uzi Vishkin and his Clark School colleagues uses a circuit board about the size of a license plate on which they...

Women Have Germiest Offices But Men's Wallets Germier Than Purses Feb 13, 2007 (WebMD) Women tend to have germier offices than men, according to a new study on office germs. The study comes from University of Arizona researchers Sheri Maxwell, BS, and Charles Gerba, PhD. It was funded by The Clorox Company. The researchers swabbed the offices of 59 women and 54 men in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. They sampled eight sites in each office: the phone, desktop, computer mouse, computer keyboard, exclamation key on the computer keyboard, pen, bottom of desk drawer,...

Desktop Resizers

The No. 1 computer maker in the world will double headcount in India in the next three years. Dell CEO Michael Dell said Monday the company would employ 20,000 people in India in the next three years, doubling the current headcount of 10,000. A small portion of the new employees, or about 300, will be on the R&D team, doubling the current 300-strong division. They will be based in Bangalore, designing and finding solutions for servers and storage equipment. “We found that the R&D team was designing patentable stuff, so we decided to extend their scope from just software to...

IBM switching to Linux destops in Germany according to a Linux Forum 2006 presentation by their head of open source and Linux sales in Germany. Interesting news from LinuxForum 2006During a presentation on IBM's involvement with Open Source, Andreas Pleschek from IBM in Stuttgart, Germany, who heads open source and Linux technical sales across North East Europe for IBM made a very interesting statement... "Andreas Pleschek also told that IBM has cancelled their contract with Microsoft as of October this year. That means that IBM will not use Windows Vista for their desktops. Beginning from July, IBM employees will begin using IBM...

The chief financial officer of Google Inc... Tuesday said overall growth is slowing ... The company will now have to "find other ways" to boost revenue... The stock was down 11 percent, or more than $42...