For those looking to run Windows applications on Linux, you have two options: You could either run Windows in a virtual environment, or try your luck with an emulator. The most popular, and arguably the best, of these emulators is WINE – and a brand new version has just been released.

As posted on the official announcement, this latest version of Wine, version 1.2, contains 23,000 changes and 3,000 bug fixes that have taken two hard years of development. Additionally, 64-bit application support has been implemented and a much-appreciated UI overhaul using Tango.

Wine has steadily become more and more reliable since hitting the coveted 1.0 stable release, and this release sees that trend continue. Whether you’re considering giving Wine a go, or a current user, you can either grab and compile the source code, or download the binary packages if you’re on a popular Linux distribution. If you need any help, Wine’s documentation is excellent as well.

Mozilla are currently working on implementing separate processes for each open tab in Firefox to enhance reliability and security.

Separate processes for individual tabs is nothing new in the browsing industry since the introduction of Google’s Chrome late last year. This has since been copied by Microsoft in Internet Explorer 8, which was released not too long ago. Mozilla is now playing catch-up and is in the process of bringing this feature across to Firefox – but there’s a catch. They’re going to implement separate processes for both Linux and Mac as well, which has been Google’s main excuse for the seemingly slow port of Chrome to operating systems other than Windows.

The main advantage of separate process is that if something causes a tab to crash, only that tab will close, leaving the rest of the other tabs and browsers open and operating as if nothing happened. So you won’t lose all 72 open tabs if something goes wrong in one of them. Separate processes also ensure performance improvements, allowing a user to run and (if need be) close a tab which is displaying a resource-hungry or badly coded website, which means only that website being rendered by that tab will be slowed down instead of the entire browser.

“Electrolysis”, as it’s been called by Mozilla devs, is currently in active development, to the point where they have a video of a working example, and is expected to be available to the public for active use before the end of July.

[via DownloadSquad]

It was first reported in November of last year that Microsoft is busy working on a free anti-virus solution for users. The software was slated for a June/July release, and according to a new report a beta is on the way.

The new anti-virus software is being released to compete with premium versions of security software, such as your everyday AVG, Avast, and so forth. What makes the Microsoft product appealing is that it’s being designed to offer the same features as desktop security, but only this time for free.

It’ll be able to tackle viruses, rootkits, trojans and even spyware, but won’t be a replacement for security suites that cost top dollar.

Microsoft’s anti-virus is currently being tested internally by employees over at the Microsoft HQ, and that a beta will be available “soon” according to a Microsoft spokesman who spoke to Reuters on Wednesday. The schedule for release is the 30th of June, the same date that Microsoft plans to dump it’s commercial security failure, OneCare.

Many people might be thinking that Microsoft should be able to put out a decent product, considering their building it for an operating system they designed. For now we’ll just have to wait and see, and hope another antitrust dispute doesn’t surface.

[Reuters]

Originally planned for a 2010 release, Microsoft has revealed that its latest operating system, Windows 7 is launching late this year.

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that Vista’s successor will hit most of the world on October 22 2009, just in time for the holiday shopping season. Windows 7′s launch is very important to Microsoft’s market share and to the PC industry in general, the large majority of PCs run Windows. Combined with the arguable failure of Vista (or instead a few prominent tech bloggers and journalists voicing their dislike), there’s no better reason for Microsoft to regain some trust from the IT community

Windows 7 is also an important step for Microsoft in facing new competition, especially concerning the netbook front, where Linux is expected to show major growth, with the lightweight Windows 7 Starter.

The early announcement doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as leaked ISOs on torrent websites as well as the Windows 7 Release-Candidate have been very successful for Microsoft, with many people voicing approval at the change in direction. Users who purchase Windows Vista around the October 22 date will be able to upgrade to Windows 7 free of charge, but no serious details have been released yet regarding this upgrade.

PC manufacturers will be able to get their hands on Windows 7 in July to place on OEM systems.

Microsoft developers have announced in a blog post today that Microsoft is removing the 3 application limit from the Starter version of Windows 7.

Very few users will be familiar with the Starter or Basic versions of Windows that have been available on PCs since Microsoft released Windows XP. These versions have mostly been sold in developing countries, to help keep PC costs down. Unfortunately these low-end versions are extremely limiting (and many would argue purposefully) to such a point that many people have strong incentive to shell out extra cash and upgrade to the Home edition. The Starter edition is however more lightweight than other versions of Windows, and keep costs low for netbooks.

Thankfully, Microsoft has decided to remove the most crippling factor from its next operating system, Windows 7. Users will no longer be limited to having a maximum of 3 applications open at any given time.

We are also going to enable Windows 7 Starter customers the ability to run as many applications simultaneously as they would like, instead of being constricted to the 3 application limit that the previous Starter editions included.

Windows 7 Starter will be available first the first time in developed countries such as the US – but to avoid confusion, won’t be sold at retail. Only OEM versions will be available on ready-built PCs, avoiding consumer confusion at retail.

Bare in mind however, Windows 7 has many more limiting factors, so don’t be fooled into thinking its a cheap operating system. You get what you pay for.

[via The Windows Blog]

A fresh report, released today by the BSA, details how 41% of all installed PC software worldwide was pirated in 2008, 3% more than in 2007.

The study, which included 110 countries, interestingly found that the piracy rate in over half (51.8%) of the countries actually dropped when compared to a year before. In fact – only 14.5% of the countries displayed an increase in the piracy rate. So where does the 3% jump occur? Simple – Computer shipments to High-piracy countries, specifically both China and India, grew faster than other countries involved in the study. This meant the reduction in piracy elsewhere was easily overpowered.

The study also found that losses jumped over $50 billion for the first time in history. I’m assuming that this is based on the assumption that every illegal copy would’ve been bought, which isn’t entirely realistic. 20 million illegal downloads doesn’t mean 20 million sales, as many users just simply wouldn’t have bought the software whether a cracked copy was available or not. Either way, it’s still an incredibly large loss in revenue each year.

Ironically, the US makes up the largest amount of revenue lost ($9.1 Billion), despite having the lowest piracy rate in the world (20%), thanks to having the largest PC software demand in the world. The study also found that despite the piracy rate hovering around 20%, losses have grown larger and larger with each year.

The full report by the BSA, and conducted by the IDC is available here.

[via DownloadSquad]

From MarketShare. Click for Full-Size

Linux, for the first time ever, has attained a 1% market share on desktops.

The latest report from MarketShare, available here, from data collected during April clearly shows that whilst Windows and Mac have both declined slightly, Linux has grown in popularity to achieve a 1% overall market share – the most popular it’s ever been in recent history.

There are quite a few reasons why Linux’s share has risen lately. Namely, the global recession is far from over, with users preferring to go free and opensource. Another reason may be that Netbook demand is still as high as ever, with both the ASUS EEE PC and Acer Aspire One running customized versions of Linux (to name but a few). It’s also important to rule out the release of Ubuntu’s latest version, 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) towards the end of April.

Although Linux is still miles away from Mac (which sits at 9.73%), it is no doubt a positive development and is a good sign for the future of Linux and opensource in general.

Microsoft currently remains at the top with a dominating 87.9%.

[via DownloadSquad]

Opera browser  turned 15 years old yesterday and celebrated with a cartoon and a list of reasons to switch to Opera, which now occupies over 40 million computers worldwide.

Way, way back in April 1994, two computer scientists were searching for a better way of browsing the internet than what was currently on offer. Finding no perfect solution, they decided to code the browser themselves. Opera was born.

The browser has grown in popularity over the years, and whilst it hasn’t got the sheer numbers of Firefox or Internet Explorer, it’s got a dedicated browser and engineers who demand innovation.

Yesterday, the browser turned 15 years old, and Opera decided to mark the occasion with a little bit of celebration. They’ve compiled a list of 15 reasons to switch to Opera (all 15 being good reasons), a list of Opera’s top innovations which details how far ahead of their time they were (they invented the use of tabs in browsing way back in 2000), as well as releasing a cartoon describing Opera’s creation seen above.

The Opera browser is currently in its 9th version, and nearing it’s 10th release (The post you are currently reading was typed with Opera 10 Alpha). The browser runs on multiple platforms, such as Mac, Windows and Linux. Opera has also successfully made the jump to mobile devices with Opera Mini, where it sits firmly in the number 1 spot.

Happy Birthday!

Microsoft released an anticipated Service Pack 2 for its Office 2007 suite of office software. The update adds both performance improvements and long-awaited Open Document Format and PDF support.

The second service pack in Microsoft’s most popular software suite brings with it the much anticipated ODF (Open Document Format) Support that allows Word to open various files from the ODF range listed below (source: Wikipedia):

• .odt for word processing (text) documents
• .ods for spreadsheets
• .odb for object-oriented database
• .odp for presentations
• .odg for graphics
• .odf for formulae, mathematical equations

This format has been the default format used by Microsoft’s biggest open source (and free to all) competitor – OpenOffice.org. The additional support is sure to make OpenOffice.org users happy, who no longer need to manually save their documents to the .doc(x) format.

Other changes include PDF and XPS support as well as much-needed performance and stability improvements, with special mentions about Outlook and Excel.

Service Pack 2 should be available for download via Microsoft’s website. Alternatively, you could simply wait for the update to be pushed to Windows Update in the near future.

Image Credit: Neowin

Earlier today on the Microsoft Partner website, it was stated that the official public launch of Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate) will be May 5.

The website initially stated that MSDN and Technet users could download the release candidate immediately and that the public would have access on the 5th of May, but after clicking through only Beta downloads were available from the download page to both forms of users.

The page has since been taken down, displaying only Beta information.

The May 5 release date seems to coincide quite nicely with a Technet page that Microsoft put up a little too early, which hinted at a May RC release. The page has also since been taken down.