Mozilla has revealed plans to create an open-source web-centric operating system along the lines of Google's Chrome OS but designed to compete with Android on phones and tablets. The Boot to Gecko project will "pursue the goal of building a complete, standalone operating system for the open web" in a bid to "displace …

Microsoft is once again trying to bump the 10 per cent market share of people and businesses still lumbered with the company's unloved Windows Vista over to its latest operating system. The software vendor's Brandon LeBlanc reminded customers in a terse blog post that support for Vista Service Pack 1 ended yesterday. Cue the …

Microsoft continued its campaign yesterday to convince stuck-in-the-mud Windows XP customers to upgrade to Windows 7, the company's current operating system. Windows XP is now 10 years old, and for some, it's still going strong. So Microsoft has reminded those users that support for the OS that refuses to die will end in less …

ReviewThe first major update to Apple's Mac operating system in some five years is nearly ready, and what has been removed is as significant as its improvements. Mac OS X 10.7, known informally as Lion, continues the trend of removing "legacy" components and technologies from OS X with a zeal that would leave Microsoft quivering in …

It doesn't take any insight at all – or the analysts at Gartner – to figure out which operating system supplier is the largest. It's Microsoft, of course. But which ones are numbers two, three, and four? And which is the fastest-growing maker of operating systems? The answers might surprise you. Through the magic of the …

For the past couple of quarters, I have been refining my model of IBM's server business, and I think with the incarnation I built to analyze the company's fourth quarter and full year results for 2010, I have something that is closer to reality than I have ever put together before. And it shows just how much Big Blue is, …

The openSUSE Project has reached its first milestone for the upcoming 11.3 release, due in July. Milestone 1 is the first of seven planned between now and late May. The development team said its primary goal is to test build interactions between newly-added features. The first milestone features version 2.6.32 of the Linux …

With Red Hat, Novell - and now Intel, thanks to its $884m acquisition of Wind River - all crowding into the real-time Linux space, Concurrent has to keep on its toes and keep its RedHawk Linux, well, current. With RedHawk Linux 5.4, announced Tuesday, Concurrent is slipping into Linux 2.6.31 and offering full compatibility …

Windows 7Microsoft hopes to sell 14 million copies of Windows 7 to UK consumers next year. The software vendor has set itself an ambitious target with its latest operating system, which will hit stores in a few hours from now. Blighty's population is roughly 60 million. Microsoft said it had been buoyed by the response from its 15 …

Microsoft wants business customers - whose offices are chugging along nicely with the company's eight-year-old workhorse OS, Windows XP - to upgrade to Windows 7 now. The firm pushed out a flurry of case studies and related happy-clappy stuff about Windows 7 yesterday, in a move to convince punters who previously turned their …

Microsoft has taken a sharp about-turn and decided to let Windows 7 technical beta testers have a free copy of the Ultimate edition of the OS after all. The move follows plenty of grumbles from some guinea pigs that had been reviewing the technical beta for MS ahead of the operating system's planned general release on 22 …

Microsoft has denied rumours that suggest the latest leaked build of Windows 7 is the final iteration of the upcoming operating system. The software giant went to great lengths to stamp out the speculation after Windows 7 build 7600 and Windows Server 2008 R2 build 7600 tipped up on BitTorrent tracker sites. Many pondered …

Google has rather rashly claimed its plans to develop an operating system promise an end to security woes. The search giant said Google Chrome OS, due to debut in the second half of next year and initially targeted at netbooks, will be based on open source code and offer unprecedented security. Sundar Pichai, VP of product …

Google has revealed at least some of the hardware manufacturers it's working with to design and build devices that run the much-discussed Google Chrome Operating System. With a post to the official Chrome blog Wednesday afternoon, the Mountain View Chocolate Factory said its hardware partners include Acer, Asus, Freescale, …

Google is releasing an operating system for laptops and desktops, in a direct challenge to Microsoft's money-making core business. The company will also encourage developers to get on board by allowing them to use ordinary web development tools with the OS rather than a specialised development kit. Much of the success of the …

Microsoft has confirmed its Windows 7 release candidate download program will expire on 15 August. After that date testers won’t be able to get their hands on the download via Microsoft’s website, although it will undoubtedly be available elsewhere on the interwebs. The company is additionally advising Windows 7 guinea pigs …

A Microsoft wonk has admitted that PC vendors are unlikely to see a huge rise in shipments when Windows 7 hits the shelves on 22 October. Bill Veghte, who is Redmond's senior veep of the company's Windows biz, made the comment at the UBS Global Technology and Services conference yesterday. He said it was quite normal when …

A leaked memo has revealed that Best Buy will begin pre-selling Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system on 26 June in the US. The retailer confirmed late last week the date people can start buying Vista-based computers and subsequently qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7, when it lands in October. Engadget has published a …