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      Linux continues growing market share, reaches 4% of desktops

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 5 March - 18:44

    Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua) climbing snowy hill

    Enlarge (credit: Getty )

    Linux reached 4.03 percent of global market share in February, according to data from research firm Statcounter . That takes Linux past the 3 percent milestone it reached in June 2023. While we’re still far from the Year of the Linux Desktop, interest in Linux has somewhat grown lately.

    Statcounter says it gets its desktop operating system (OS) usage stats from tracking code installed on over 1.5 million global websites generating over 5 billion monthly page views. The only adjustments the firm says it makes to this data are around removing bot activity and adjusting for Google Chrome prerendering. Note that when Statcounter analyzes desktop OSes, it also includes laptop computers, and Statcounter says it may revise its data within 45 days of publication.

    As spotted by Linuxiac , Linux’s reported desktop market share was higher than ever in February. If you count ChromeOS as a Linux OS, then market share totaled 6.34 percent in February, although, that number is actually smaller than what Statcounter reported in June: 2 percent.

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      After 32 years, one of the ’Net’s oldest software archives is shutting down

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 29 January - 20:13

    Box art for IBM OS/2 Warp version 3, an OS released in 1995 that competed with Windows.

    Enlarge / Box art for IBM OS/2 Warp version 3, an OS released in 1995 that competed with Windows. (credit: IBM)

    In a move that marks the end of an era, New Mexico State University (NMSU) recently announced the impending closure of its Hobbes OS/2 Archive on April 15, 2024. For over three decades, the archive has been a key resource for users of the IBM OS/2 operating system and its successors, which once competed fiercely with Microsoft Windows.

    In a statement made to The Register , a representative of NMSU wrote, "We have made the difficult decision to no longer host these files on hobbes.nmsu.edu. Although I am unable to go into specifics, we had to evaluate our priorities and had to make the difficult decision to discontinue the service."

    Hobbes is hosted by the Department of Information & Communication Technologies at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In the official announcement, the site reads, "After many years of service, hobbes.nmsu.edu will be decommissioned and will no longer be available. As of April 15th, 2024, this site will no longer exist."

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      You’re the OS is a game that will make you feel for your poor, overworked system

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 15 August, 2023 - 17:49 · 1 minute

    Screenshot of You're the OS game, with multi-colored processes and gray memory pages

    Enlarge / If I click the "I/O Events" in the upper-left corner, maybe some of the frozen processes with a little hourglass will unfreeze. But how soon? Before the other deep-red processes die? I can't work under these conditions! (credit: Pier-Luc Brault)

    I spent nearly 20 minutes this morning trying to be a good operating system, but you know what? People expect too much of their computers.

    I worked hard to rotate processes through CPU slots, I was speedy to respond to I/O requests, and I didn't even let memory pages get written to disk. But the user—some jerk that I'm guessing keeps 32 shopping tabs open during work—kept rage-quitting as processes slid in attrition from bright green to red to "red with a frozen face emoji." It made me want to get four more cores or potentially just kill a process out of spite. If they were a writer, like me, I'd kill the sandboxed tab with their blog editor open. Learn to focus, scribe!

    You're the OS! is a browser game that combines stress, higher-level computer design appreciation, and panic-clicking exercise. Creator Pier-Luc Brault says specifically that the game "has not been created with education in mind," but it might introduce people to principles like process scheduling and memory swapping—"as long as it is made clear that it is not an exact depiction." Brault, a computer science teacher himself, writes that they may use the game to teach about cores, RAM shortages, and the like.

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      Linux could be 3% of global desktops. What happened to Windows?

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 12 July, 2023 - 21:47

    Linux on the desktop, only going up

    How can you argue against these numbers? (credit: 20th Century Fox / Aurich Lawson)

    According to one measurement by one firm, Linux reached 3.07 percent market share of global desktop operating systems in June 2023. It's a notable first for the more than 30-year-old operating system, though other numbers in Statcounter's chart open it up to many more interpretations. It's either the year of the Linux desktop or a notable asterisk—your call.

    As Statcounter explains , its numbers come from tracking code installed on more than 1.5 million websites across the globe, capturing roughly 5 billion page views per month. Statcounter says it does not collate, weigh, or otherwise adjust its data aside from correcting for bots and Google Chrome's prerendering. Laptops are included in "desktop" because there is no easy way to separate them. And they're subject to revision for up to 45 days after publication.

    Five years ago , Linux made up 1.69 percent of Statcounter's June numbers. In the year between June 2022 and 2023, Linux unsteadily crept up from 2.42 to 3.07 percent, jumping past 3 percent for the first time between May and June. If you regard Chrome OS as a Linux system, you could add that 4.13 percent and get to 7.2 percent.

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      NESOS gives 8-bit system a GUI desktop, 8 tiny files, and it’s amazing

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 29 September, 2022 - 17:13 · 1 minute

    You're limited to eight files and a word processor, but you can put them anywhere you want in NESOS' rich (for 1985) desktop environment.

    Enlarge / You're limited to eight files and a word processor, but you can put them anywhere you want in NESOS' rich (for 1985) desktop environment. (credit: Inkbox )

    When you played the Nintendo Entertainment System, you were close to the hardware. It's why you can pull off remarkable glitch hacks, like playing Tennis to hot-boot into broken Super Mario Bros. worlds . The chips, the memory, the board—everything was designed to service the little board inside your cartridge (that and prevent unauthorized games ). There wasn't much room for anything else in the early- to mid-1980s.

    Room enough, however, for a custom-built operating system built in 2022, if just barely. NESOS 1.0 from Inkbox Software , a 48K OS, features "two core applications, the word processor, and the settings," according to Inkbox. The settings app gives you seven cursors, 53 background colors, and the ability to delete the eight files that can fit inside a maximum 2K of NVRAM (i.e. on-board memory that doesn't lose data when the system loses power). That's 832 bytes each, or about one full screen's worth of memory. You can drag those eight files anywhere you want on the desktop, however.

    The creator of NESOS detailing how he built it—and why.

    NESOS (pronounced "nee-sohs," according to its creator) is entirely graphical. Inbox notes that there's already a command-line system, Family Basic , for the NES and its Japanese progenitor, the Family Computer/Famicom. "I want NESOS to feel like an actual operating system that Nintendo might have made back in the day for the NES. What would it have looked and felt like?" the creator says in his video overview .

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      How to Enable Microsoft Edge’s New ‘Kids Mode’

      pubsub.dcentralisedmedia.com / LifehackerAustralia · Friday, 19 February, 2021 - 18:00 · 2 minutes

    Microsoft is testing a new “Kids Mode” for Edge that makes the browser safer for younger users with just a few clicks.

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    Edge already has several family features, but those settings must be manually set up and apply to all users in a family group. Kids Mode, however, can be turned on or off by the parents and comes with heightened security and content filters built-in, including blocked sites, Bing Safe Search, and family-friendly browser themes.

    Kids Mode is still in development, but you can try it out early in the latest Edge Canary build. It will come to the developer build next, then should be available in the stable build sometime in the future. If you download Edge Canary for Kids mode, keep in mind it will install as a separate version of Edge — so if you’re trying to keep your kids away from certain content, you’ll need to make sure they’re using Edge Canary instead of the normal version. It’s also important to note that Edge Canary is full of other unfinished features and settings, which could cause occasional crashes and other errors.

    How to enable Kids Mode

    Whether you test Edge’s Kids Mode out early or wait for it to come to a more stable version, turning it on is easy: Open the browser, then click the Profile image in the upper-right, and select “Kids Mode.”

    With Kids Mode on, Edge will prevent access to a list of pre-determined websites, which can be modified by going to Settings > Family S afety . This menu also includes activity reports and lets you manage all the other profiles and devices used by your family. Bing will also be permanently set to ‘Safe Search’ when the browser is in Kids Mode.

    Finally, Kids Mode can be customised with its own kid-friendly browser themes — just click the settings icon from a new tab and click “Custom, and then “Manage” under “Background Image.”

    [ The Verge ]

    The post How to Enable Microsoft Edge’s New ‘Kids Mode’ appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

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      Use ‘Nearby Share’ to Send Android Apps to Your Friends

      pubsub.dcentralisedmedia.com / LifehackerAustralia · Thursday, 18 February, 2021 - 20:00 · 2 minutes

    As an Android user, how do you share apps with other people? You probably tell them, “Hey, I awesome downloaded [cool app name]. You should play/use it too.” But Google has introduced a new way to share apps from Google Play, and it’ll be pretty useful when (if?) we’re ever able to hang out in person again.

    Once you can access the feature, which is currently rolling out various permutations of devices running the 24.0 version (or newer) of the Google Play Store app, you’ll be able to send some of the apps on your phone directly to friends using your device’s Nearby Share feature. However, there’s a caveat; as Android Authority reports, not all apps are eligible for the sharing, thought that might change at some point.

    To check if you have this capability yet, make sure you’ve updated your Android’s operating system and all of its apps to the latest versions available (via Settings > System > Advanced > System Update , at least on my Pixel). Check your version of the Google Play Store app by visiting Settings > Apps & notifications > See all [x] apps > Google Play Store > Advanced , and scrolling down a bit until you see the app’s version number. (Again, those are instructions for my Pixel, so the exact path might vary for your specific Android.)

    zx1o5auzzukrct8fev03.png?auto=format&fit=fill&q=65&w=1280

    Next, launch Google Play, tap on the three-line hamburger icon in the upper-left corner, and select My apps & games . You should now see a new tab at the top: Share . Tap it, and you’ll see this prompt:

    e8fvnm6b1u6ujwzh5kks.png?auto=format&fit=fill&q=65&w=1280

    Once you’ve given the app the proper permissions, you’ll be able to use the Send button to shoot apps to nearby phones that have tapped on the Receive button and are awaiting transmission. Neither phone needs an internet connection for this to work, as Nearby Share works via a bunch of different methods (“Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, WebRTC, or peer-to-peer WiFi “) to ship .APKs between the two devices.

    o5hqjtvvfdf1onozf3sw.jpg?auto=format&fit=fill&q=80&w=1280&nr=20
    n3xmysvsoq1uyc8f2cor.jpg?auto=format&fit=fill&q=80&w=1280&nr=20

    Once you’ve picked a device to send apps to — or once someone has elected to send one to you — you’ll get a prompt with a pairing code. All you have to do is make sure the four-digit codes match on the sending and receiving devices. Odds are they will, unless someone else near you is trying to do the exact same thing at the exact same time.

    yqcsfft4fpx0efmvzszn.jpg?auto=format&fit=fill&q=80&w=1280&nr=20

    The post Use ‘Nearby Share’ to Send Android Apps to Your Friends appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

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      How to Ditch WhatsApp for Good

      pubsub.dcentralisedmedia.com / LifehackerAustralia · Sunday, 14 February, 2021 - 21:29 · 1 minute

    If you use WhatsApp, the incredibly popular messaging app owned by Facebook, chances are you’ve encountered the news surrounding their ever-changing privacy policy. While the service seems to continually shift from more to secure to less secure and back again, you may feel like it’s time to pack up your data and find a new platform to chat with friends.

    If you choose to remove yourself from WhatsApp, here’s what you’ll want to do:

    To export your messages, tap on the chat you want to save. Tap on the name of the chat at the top and scroll down to “Export Chat,” and then choose whether or not you want to include the media from the chat with it.

    Then request your account data by going to “Settings” in the bottom right corner. Then choose “Account” and “Request Account Info”. It will take about three days to receive your data report from WhatsApp, but they’ll notify you when it’s ready.

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    Finally, to delete your account, go to “Settings,” then “Account,” and “Delete My Account”. Doing so will erase your message history, remove you from all groups, and delete your backup. Now you’re free and clear of WhatsApp, and just need to convince your friends and family to migrate to a different app.

    The post How to Ditch WhatsApp for Good appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .

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      How to Take Scrollable, Full-Page Screenshots of Websites on iOS

      pubsub.dcentralisedmedia.com / LifehackerAustralia · Thursday, 11 February, 2021 - 18:45 · 2 minutes

    Once a year or so, I spend some time trying to find the best way to take a seamless screenshot of an entire website, as I’m not always a fan of the CTRL + S approach for saving a site’s data. I only wish I knew earlier how absurdly easy this was to do on iOS, of all places.

    I’ve tried plenty of browser extensions that worked to varying degrees (until I found the reason why most of them would typically mess up for me). Capturing the entirety of a site on my iPhone now opens up plenty of new possibilities though — including being particularly convenient if I want to send someone a snapshot of what a site looks like at the exact moment I’m viewing it or want to show someone how a bug is mucking up my experience.

    How To Fix Full-Page Browser Screenshots That Render Black

    There are a bunch of different extensions you can use to take full-page screenshots in your browser — typically a more elegant way to preserve a site’s contents than “printing” it as a PDF or saving it to your computer as a complete website. Since I use Chrome, Full Page Screen Capture...

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    Whatever the reason, capturing a full-page screenshot of a website on iOS is simple. To start, launch the website in your device’s Safari browser — after you’ve made sure you’re using the latest version of iOS. Take a screenshot of a website as you normally would — Side Button + Volume Up , in my case. You’ll now see this screen:

    vepbqjrmswvylva3nh9c.png?auto=format&fit=fill&q=80&w=1280&nr=20

    If you don’t see those two options at the top — Screen and Full Page — iOS is probably being fussy. Close Safari, reopen it, and try taking another screenshot. These options are critical, as tapping Full Page is the magic sauce that will lead you to this screen:

    mehgkw3upcs5p8hc6lds.png?auto=format&fit=fill&q=80&w=1280&nr=20

    That little sidebar on the right, which you can scroll through up and down, shows you the entirety of the page that your phone has captured. When you go to save it, however, you won’t be dropping it in your photo album because your device isn’t technically creating a giant photograph. Instead, your iPhone will have converted this mega-screenshot into a PDF, so you’ll need to send it to some other folder on your device:

    d9hoyi8zyhgwctpsyo0d.png?auto=format&fit=fill&q=80&w=1280&nr=20

    And that’s it. You now have a gigantic, full-page screenshot of whatever website you were looking at — one that’s already been converted into a PDF for you. If you’re doing a lot of archiving of old work, I would argue this is almost easier to deal with than the combination of a desktop browser and an extension, but that’s just me.

    The post How to Take Scrollable, Full-Page Screenshots of Websites on iOS appeared first on Lifehacker Australia .