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Like you, I see those flashy headlines and articles every day trying to convince Windows users to switch to Linux—how it’s supposedly better in every possible way, how you can use all your favorite apps, and so on. But honestly, most of that is just talk. It sounds great on paper, but it doesn’t match up with reality. Still, I guess those kinds of articles do their job pretty well.Here, though, I want to take a slightly different approach. Right from the start, let me be clear: I’m not here to persuade anyone to jump on the Linux bandwagon. Instead,...

As many of us have seen, Windows 11 is introducing AI into PCs programmed with that O/S. Granted, there are methods of removing it. Installing W11 with Rufus software is a common way of doing it. Using Flyoobe is another option. There is also software out there to remove unwanted components once W11 is installed. Regardless, I, and I'm sure many others, are trying to find ways of running Windows software on a Linux system. I've run across a few software packages in Linux that try to accomplish this. Bottles, Wine, Winapps and PlayonLinux are just a few things I've...

ZDNET's key takeawaysWindows 10 support has ended, making Linux a possible alternative.It's a good time to consider switching from Windows to Linux.Switching to Linux can extend your computer's life and performance.I can still remember when I decided to install Linux on my very first computer (a Pentium 75). I'd been using Windows 95 and found myself more frustrated than not. I was experiencing constant blue screens of death, couldn't make the OS behave how I wanted, the software was expensive, and I hated the way it looked.So, I installed Linux over Windows, and the rest is history. I've been using...

Winboat is a tool that now easily let's you run your Windows programs underneath Linux in a way that makes it almost seamless. How do you do this? Let's find out!

Want to play Windows games on your Linux system but not sure where to begin? Heard that some Linux distros are better optimized for gaming but don’t know which ones to pick? Don’t worry, here’s a guide to the five best Linux distros that make running Windows games smooth and hassle-free.The good news is that gaming on Linux has improved dramatically in recent years. Besides the many native Linux titles already available, you can also play a huge selection of Windows-only games using compatibility tools like Proton (built into Steam) and Wine. In fact, nearly 80% of the most popular...

Next month sees Windows 10 finally reaching the end of (mainstream) support. Microsoft has been pushing people towards Windows 11 for what feels like forever, and it worked – for a while. The latest market figures show that this is changing. The statistics for August 2025 from statcounter Global Stats show a marked drop in Windows 11’s share of the desktop market. Rewinding a little bit through time, June 2025 was a significant month because it marked the point at which Windows 11 finally caught up (well, very nearly) with Windows 10. Windows 11 managed to reach a market share...

AI PCs are equipped with powerful processors and AI accelerators designed to increase productivity and creativity. With our round-up of the latest news, learn how AI PCs are poised to shape the future of computing. Virtually every aspect of technology has been affected, and potentially improved, by artificial intelligence (AI). PCs are no exception. While the meaning of “AI PC” is still evolving, it generally refers to a computer specifically designed to excel at AI-powered tasks. These beefed-up computers typically feature: High-end CPUs and GPUs to handle the demanding computational requirements of AI applications such as AI assistants that automate...

Mini-PCs are space-saving, quiet, versatile and often cheaper than a classic desktop PC. We discuss the advantages and what you should look out for when buying in this guide. Mini-PCs have been experiencing a real boom in recent years. No wonder, because these small desktop computers are powerful, space-saving, and flexible. This guide shows what a mini-PC actually is, where its strengths lie, and who can benefit the most from buying one. Also, be sure to check out the PCWorld deals page where we highlight the best deals from around the web on mini-PCs, like the latest stellar deal on...

They use AI more but also check it moreFor those who thought AI vibe coding was just for the youngsters, newly published research shows that developers with over 10 years of experience are more than twice as likely to do it. According to a July survey of 791 US developers from cloud services platform Fastly, around a third of senior developers with more than a decade of experience are using AI code-generation tools such as Copilot, Claude, and Gemini to produce over half of their finished software, compared to 13 percent for those devs who've only been on the...

Non-Woke "Political Protest Forks" like XLibre & Redot are thriving. Non-DEl Linux Distributions like Open Mandriva are as well. But Woke projects? Not doing so well.

Learning Linux can feel intimidating, especially if you’re new to the terminal and unsure where to start. But it doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it can be downright fun. Here are some seriously entertaining, interactive games designed to help you learn Linux while playing.1. Cmdchallengecmdchallenge is a simple yet clever web-based game that throws single-line Linux challenges at you and expects you to solve them using only command-line instructions. You don’t need to set up any virtual machine or system; you can quickly test your Linux knowledge right in your browser.Unlike traditional learning methods that focus on memorizing...

Choose wisely. Your PC could end up vulnerable to online threats otherwise. This fall, Windows 10 will reach its end of life—at least, as defined by Microsoft. On October 14, the company ends feature updates to the operating system. Security and stability updates also become restricted—a potential liability, depending on the choices you make now. To help users successfully navigate Windows 10’s extinction event, Adam Patrick Murray sat down with ethical hacker Mike Danseglio to talk options. The goal: To find the best option for your PC to stay current with security updates and patches, no matter the age of...

For the first time, Linux has officially broken the 5% desktop market share barrier in the United States of America! It's a huge milestone for open-source and our fantastic Linux community. While many might think of Linux as a niche choice, this new data shows a significant shift is happening. The Numbers Are In: Linux at 5.03% in the USA!According to the latest StatCounter Global Stats for June 2025, Linux now holds 5.03% of the desktop operating system market share in the United United States of America. This is fantastic news!Figure 1: StatCounter - Desktop Operating System Market Share in...

No Copilot, no ads, no bloat, no AI — and seven extra years of official support. It sounds too good to be true, but there's a reason most haven't heard of it. Microsoft won't advertise it, and you're highly unlikely to stumble across it by accident, but there's a version of Windows 10 that drops the ads, the AI, and will be officially supported for years to come — long after most are forced to upgrade to Windows 11. For those unaware, Windows 10 is due to be retired by Microsoft on October 14, 2025. Beyond this date, the operating...

By stripping batteries and hacking Android phones with open-source Linux, researchers built submersible data hubs for AI-powered image recognition. Researchers hacked 15-year-old smartphones into tiny servers that outperform Raspberry Pi at a fraction of the cost. Kadri-Ann Kivastik/ Via Eurekalert ======================================================================== A team at the University of Tartu’s Institute of Computer Science has shown that obsolete mobile phones can be wired together to do the sort of heavy data processing normally reserved for expensive server farms while keeping thousands of handsets out of landfills. Led by associate professor of pervasive computing Huber Flores, the engineers stripped the batteries from four...

"We're done with Teams!" declared Digitalisation Minister Dirk Schrödter, speaking via an open-source video platform, in his announcement that the German state of Schleswig-Holstein will phase out all Microsoft software from government workplaces. The goal is to fully transition from Microsoft programs to Linux and open-source programs within the next three months. Also: Why Denmark is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and LinuxThe decision will affect nearly every civil servant, police officer, and judge, about 30,000 employees. Eventually, the rest of the civil service employees, primarily school teachers, will make the open-source shift. The radical change is being...

It's not just TikTok that's in trouble over cybersecurity. U.S. authorities are investigating TP-Link, a Chinese company that holds 65% of the U.S. market for home and small-business routers, for potential national security risks, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The company’s routers have been linked to cyberattacks targeting Western organizations and government agencies. Key points Security Concerns: Microsoft found that Chinese hackers used TP-Link routers in cyberattacks. Government Probes: Commerce, Defense, and Justice departments are investigating, with a potential U.S. ban on TP-Link devices under consideration for next year. Router Flaws: TP-Link routers are often shipped with unaddressed security...

Microsoft has announced that it has open sourced the Windows Subsystem for Linux. WSL, as it's commonly called, allows users to run Linux apps directly on Windows. All you need to do to install WSL is run the following command in a terminal: wsl --install Refer to this article for additional details regarding how to set up WSL. WSL was first announced at the Build 2016 developer conference, and shipped with the Windows 10 Anniversary update. While the original release was based on lxcore.sys, a pico process provider that Windows used to run ELF executables natively. Microsoft released WSL 2...

Long story short – the problem began after Microsoft’s August 2024 Patch updates, which included a mitigation for a known GRUB2 vulnerability (CVE-2022-2601). The flaw allowed malicious actors to bypass UEFI Secure Boot protections using a compromised GRUB2 bootloader.To address this, Microsoft deployed a Secure Boot Advanced Targeting (SBAT) update (KB5041571) to block vulnerable bootloaders. Unfortunately, this had unintended consequences.While it was supposed to detect and exempt dual-boot configurations from being affected, this detection failed in several scenarios. As a result, many dual-boot users with Windows and Linux on the same machine suddenly found themselves unable to get into their...

Numbers don't lie Recently, however, I was looking for web search engine popularity numbers. The usual sites people use for these numbers, such as Statcounter, as Ed Bott recently pointed out, have real problems. So, I went to the most reliable source I know of, the US federal government's Digital Analytics Program (DAP). This site gives a running count of US government website visits and an analysis. On average, there are 1.6 billion sessions in the last 30 days, with millions of users daily. In short, DAP gives a detailed view of what people use without massaging the data. According...