Tag: Operating Systems
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Apple OS X Mountain Lion – First Impressions
You don’t have to look very hard on the Internet to find reviews of Mountain Lion, Apple’s new revision of the OS X operating system. This review is slightly different. As a cynical, old school techie, I’m never particularly wowed by or interested in sparkly new features. All that really concerns me is exactly how…
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Windows 8 Boots Too Quickly to Be Interrupted
We previously told you that Windows 8 could manage a cold boot in eight seconds flat, and that still holds true, but now there are reports that an SSD-equipped PC can manage it in under seven seconds. It’s not a huge difference in boot time, but it does create a minor and rather curious problem.…
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Windows 8 ‘Release Preview’ Brings New Apps and Updates the Old Ones
As we assumed when various apps in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview were marked with an “App Preview” tag, the core Metro apps have been updated in the Windows 8 Release Preview. The updated applications feature some improvements to the user interface (there were some apps that really needed it), a unified app settings bar,…
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Windows 8 Can Do A Cold Boot In 8 Seconds Flat
We said what everyone was thinking. A coat of paint on a sub-par system does not a successful operating system make. Okay, my colleague said it better than that, but the message is the same. Regardless, we’d still like to give credit where it’s due and highlight something that Microsoft has done really, really well…
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Windows 8: Better Built From Scratch?
Windows 8 is rapidly taking shape, and on the surface it looks fantastic. On the surface. Only on the surface. Under the hood things are a little messier, because at its heart Windows 8 is still Windows, the same Windows that we’ve known, and loved and hated in equal measure, since it debuted under Bill…
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Apple Updates MacBook Air and Mac Mini; OS X Lion Released
Today is a big day for Apple. They’ve released updated versions of their MacBook Air and the Mac Mini along with finally unleashing the Mac OS X Lion into the Mac App Store. Their new MacBook Airs are now equipped with newer Sandy Bridge chips, Thunderbolt ports, and backlit keyboards. The 11-inch model includes a…
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How to Partition Your Hard Drive for Ubuntu and Windows
Let’s say that, hypothetically, someone read a Techerator article on the new features of Ubuntu 10.1 and decided that they wanted to try it out. After messing around with the Live CD, they opted to do the Ubuntu install inside Windows (Wubi) so that they could still play around with both operating systems without messing…
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Progress Bars use Optical Illusions to Appear Faster
I’d rather not think about how many hours I’ve spent staring at progress bars in my life. They’re a lot faster than the used to be because of better processors and internet connections, but we still have to wait patiently while transferring large files, downloading video games on Steam, or streaming videos online. Have you…
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Ubuntu Updated to 10.10; Can Now Solve the Ultimate Question to Life, The Universe, and Everything
As an exclusive Windows user (with two computers running Windows 7, one running XP, and a Vista boot disk just in case), I find myself in a comfort zone. Windows has been the bread of my computing life; starting all the way back to good ol’ Windows 95. But just because I feel safe in…
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Gather Information About Your Client’s PC with Support Details
Building websites that function properly across multiple browsers can be a time consuming process. Most of that time is put into backwards compatibility to support outdated web browsers – I’m looking at you, IE6. If a client or end-user of your website is experiencing a problem, it can be a difficult task to ask all…