Naturally there is some resistance to swapping the traditional desktop with this new user interface. After all, things just work as they are with the point and click of a mouse. Yet Microsoft is trying something different and attempting to pioneer a new direction for desktop operating systems. For that at least they should be applauded.

Ignoring questions about exactly how anyone without a touchscreen monitor is going to get the most out of Metro, there are ways in which the interface can be sampled without installing Windows 8 on your computer.

View Internet Explorer With MetroIE

One of the main uses for any computer is to browse the web and Windows 8 features a new version of Internet Explorer. While this isn’t yet available for Windows 7 you can sample its likely user interface by visiting this link and downloading the astonishingly small 64KB file.

After unzipping and running MetroIE.exe you will find that the file is a very convincing overlay for the Internet Explorer browser, which means that it behaves just as any browser should. Note however that it takes a little time to open webpages.

MetroTwit

Like Windows Phone, Windows 8 features an integrated Twitter app. While MetroTwit doesn’t deliver quite the same feel, it is still worth trying if you’re interested in seeing how the Metro UI stands up to repeated or consistent use. After all, it’s all very well looking good, but would you want to look at the Segoe font all day long? This is the way to find out.

You can download MetroTwit from here. Installation requires an Internet connection, but be aware that this app isn’t suitable for accessing multiple Twitter accounts.

Zune

Less experimental and a whole lot easier to use is the Zune media player and sync client, available from this link. This is essentially the Microsoft version of iTunes, used for buying MP3s, syncing with a Windows Phone and managing updates, but it is also an excellent media player, far better than the surely-end-of-life Windows Media Player.

If you already have Zune on your PC you have already sampled the beauty and versatility of Metro.

Transform Your Full Desktop

The tile-based interface is arguably the least imaginative use for Metro when it comes to powerful desktop and laptop computers. It is very similar to the design seen on a Windows Phone (where it is of course more appropriate) and far less striking than on Xbox 360 or even in the Zune media player.

To try it out for yourself you can download the beta version from Microsoft and install it to your hard drive or into a virtual machine.

Alternatively you can try the Windows 8 Transformation Pack, a 58MB download from this page. After downloading, simply unzip and run the Windows 8 Transformation Pack 2.0.exe file, set the options that you want and install it. You’ll then need to apply it as a theme (right-click desktop > Personalize) before rebooting, whereupon you will find that your current version of Windows has suddenly turned square, elegant and colourful.

Windows Phone Metro Demo

If you’re using an Android or iPhone device you might also like to get an idea of how Windows Phone works or at least sample Metro in mobile form. This can be done by visiting this page on your phone’s browser, where you will find a virtualised mobile phone version of the Metro UI as found on various devices from Samsung, LG, HTC and Nokia.

All you need to do to interact is tap the tiles with your thumb or fingers, swiping left and right to explore what’s on offer.

Conclusion

As we move ever closer to the launch of Metro as a desktop user interface, more and more tools and apps are being made available for users to get an idea of how easy it is to use.

People want to know that they can use an operating system long-term, rather than just for a few moments at a time as with a mobile phone. As such, before spending money on Windows 8 or even downloading the developer preview or beta, try a few of these apps and see what you think. Meanwhile if you have any of your own suggestions, let us know.

Other highlights of the release include Mac OS X Lion support, with Firefox for OS X now featuring a two-finger swipe gesture for navigating between websites. Also new for the Mac version is an enhanced Lion-friendly user interface, which also makes surfing the web with multiple monitors more straightforward.

Android users will also see an update to the browser’s mobile edition, with the latest release taking advantage of tablets and their increased screen size. The browser has now been optimized for tablet devices, with support for swiping, a tablet-friendly UI and new HTML5 form validation.

The desktop version has been given plenty of tweaks under the hood as well. Detecting a user’s Do Not Track preference using JavaScript is now possible and support for CSS, HTML5 and MathML has been improved. For the full list of changes, check out the Firefox 9 release notes.

Download: Firefox Desktop (Windows, Mac & Linux) @ Mozilla.org
Download: Firefox for Android @ Android Market

Source & Image: Mozilla Blog

So is this finally the end for IE6? Not entirely, but it certainly warrants a web-developer party. While big organizations, and even individual users, will have the ability to opt out of the update, the fact that it’s really automatic will surely bring the updated versions to multiple users who are still using older versions.

The change will roll out in Australia and Brazil in January, and will gradually be expanded to other countries. As usual, user preferences such as the home page and default search provider will not be changed. The update will simply install the latest version available for the user’s OS.

This certainly seems like excellent news, both for users and for Microsoft. While IE9 might be quite a good web browser, its name is constantly marred by older versions of IE which are constantly floating around, refusing to leave the scene. This should make life easier for everyone, including Microsoft itself, who has Google Chrome breathing down its neck.

What do you think? Will this change things for Internet Explorer, or is it too little too late?

Source: Geek.com

One of the greatest problems Apple ran into with their latest OS was that they only released it digitally, and people who wanted to buy the disk were out of luck. Windows is not making the same mistake, because they are releasing Windows 8 both on disk and digitally.

According to Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows Division :

“In the past, if you wanted to buy an upgrade for Windows, it involved purchasing a boxed product from a retail outlet, taking it home, (sometimes being infuriated while trying to open the box,) and inserting a DVD.“

He goes on to say :

“However, buying boxed software is quickly becoming the exception rather than the rule, with more and more software being purchased online as broadband penetration increases and large-size media downloads become more common.“

It looks as if Windows is catching up with the times, but not leaving behind their users who are not up with the latest technology.

Source: Apple Insider

To download the latest build of Firefox, simply click here. The files are stored on Mozilla’s FTP server, so as I said before, you don’t need to worry about any bad stuff hidden away in there. To download the file, click the folder that goes with your system. It is available on Mac, Windows and Linux.

The new version of Firefox doesn’t bring anything too groundbreaking, but it is good to see them sticking with their plan to release a major new version every six weeks. The first feature is that Firefox now handles third party software to protect you from security problems caused by less than reputable extensions.

In addition, Firefox now has the ability to search Twitter posts right from the browser’s search bar. This is a nice feature, and makes finding all that important up-to-the-minute stuff you can only find on Twitter a little bit easier.

The last change is bug fixes, which come standard with pretty much every new software version ever.

Source: Lifehacker

So, how exactly do we do this?

Helpful Information

Before I begin, please note that within the Linux community, it’s generally advised to simply do a clean install rather than upgrade Fedora Linux. This is recommended because a clean install will give you a clean operating system, without any obsolete packages, configuration files, and other “junk” that may be generated from an upgrade. Additionally, some distributions handle upgrading to newer versions better than others do, so it is said as a more general rule.

However, there may be times when doing a clean install isn’t really needed because you’d like to keep everything that’s been installed and you’re happy with the “cleanliness” of your hard drive. I’ve found Fedora to be one of the best at upgrading to newer versions (despite even the Fedora community not explicitly recommending to use the upgrade path).

In my experience Ubuntu has a more complicated way to upgrade to releases more than a 6-month cycle away, and even direct upgrades tend to have some problems when complete. Fedora hasn’t ever had these problems, so I’d recommend it more than anything else.

Upgrading

There are two different ways that you can upgrade your Fedora Linux installation. In reality, there are more than two different methods, but the two that I will mention are the only sure-fire ways of having an easy, successful upgrade.

You can either upgrade using a utility called “preupgrade”, or upgrade using the DVD version of the desired Fedora release.

Using preupgrade

The preupgrade utility has a couple of advantages and “disadvantages” over the DVD. With preupgrade, you will only have to download the installer and the packages on your system that need updating. When downloading the DVD, you’re also downloading a lot of packages (such as different server packages) that you don’t even have and that just sit there on the DVD, untouched.

preupgrade also automatically changes all your repositories (even the custom ones) to start using the newer repositories, although I believe the DVD does this as well. As for any claimed downsides, it apparently doesn’t run the upgrade quite as well as the DVD does, but I haven’t had any problems with it yet so I only consider that to be a rumor.

To use the preupgrade utility, you’ll need to install it via the package manager or run sudo yum install preupgrade. Then to start it, you’ll need to open up a terminal if you haven’t already and run sudo preupgrade.

A window will appear welcoming you to the utility, and will then ask you which release you would like to upgrade to. You can also choose to include alpha/beta/”rawhide” versions by clicking on the appropriate checkbox, but do this at your own risk as they are not stable, final releases.

Clicking next one more time will already start the identification and download process. Once it completes, you’ll be asked to restart your computer, where it will boot into the downloaded installer and run through the upgrade process. After another restart, you should be booted into your updated system, with all programs, files, and settings intact.

Using the DVD

To use the DVD, you’ll need to download the DVD ISO and burn it to a DVD disk (or write it to a large enough USB stick). Once that finishes, put the DVD into your optical drive, boot from it, and go through the first steps of the installer. At one point it’ll detect what it is currently on your hard drive and identify any instances of Fedora already installed. It should find your current instance and ask if you want to upgrade it. Choose that option and continue with the rest of the installer until the upgrade completes. Then you can restart and you should be inside your updated system.

Other Experimental Choices

Other methods of upgrading are possible but won’t be described in this article. If you’re really interested in what they are, you can go here to find all upgrade options.

Conclusion

Fedora’s upgrade path is fairly seamless compared to other distributions and works exceptionally well. It offers flexibility and ease of use, which is basically all you could ask for from an upgrade. I especially like Fedora’s ability to upgrade directly to any release (such as from F13 to F15 without having to upgrade to F14 first). The closest Ubuntu comes to that is updating between LTS releases, but for any others you’ll need to upgrade from one release to the next, all the way until you are done.

What do you think about the options to upgrade Fedora Linux? How do you compare them to other distributions? Any other thoughts? Let us know in the comments!

All you need is the latest beta build of iTunes and the latest build of iOS 5. This is a stable release, and is the same one that everyone will be downloading in a few days, so it should not hurt your device in any way (at least no more than it would on October 12th).

Installing iOS 5 is easy. Simply download the correct build for your device from the bottom of this post. Make sure to save the file somewhere you can find it later. Lastly, perform a backup of your phone because it will be wiped clean after.

Open iTunes and Option click (Mac) or Shift click (PC) on the “restore” button. This will allow you to restore from a firmware of your choosing. Choose the iOS 5 build you downloaded and let the phone run though the process just like a normal restore.

After your phone reboots you will have the latest build of iOS 5 on your device. As I said before, this is an official build, so it is safe to install.

Download iOS 5 GM for iPhone 4 (GSM)
Download iOS 5 GM for iPhone 4 (CDMA)
Download iOS 5 GM for iPhone 3GS
Download iOS 5 GM for iPad 2 (Wi-Fi)
Download iOS 5 GM for iPad Wi-Fi + 3G (GSM)
Download iOS 5 GM for iPad Wi-Fi + 3G (CDMA)
Download iOS 5 GM for iPad 1
Download iOS 5 GM for iPod touch 4G
Download iOS 5 GM for iPod touch 3G

Download iTunes 10 Beta 7

Source: Lockergnome

With Mac OS X’s latest release, Lion, it seems that the sceptics are feeling quite vindicated about now. In fact, many users are deciding that maybe “just waiting a little longer” is the best move after all. Sure, we’ll probably all upgrade eventually – but not just yet. Here’s why so many of us are still using Snow Leopard.

1. I Feel Like I Have Only Just Upgraded To Snow Leopard!

It’s hard to get excited about paying for a new OS release if you feel as if you only just paid for the last one. When the last release is still new and shiny to you, where’s the incentive?

2. There Are Far Too Many People Complaining About Lion Issues

One of the things Mac lovers really appreciate about Macs is that they just work. This is usually the Mac user’s final argument in any Windows/Linux/MacOS flame war – the Mac just works. So, when there are Mac fans all over the Internet complaining that Lion isn’t working for some reason, there’s a problem.

Why would anyone pay money and spend time to move from a perfectly usable, stable OS to one which isn’t yet stable? Okay, so some people might have their reasons, but for those people who just want their Mac to work with no worries, the point of upgrading to Lion just now is easily lost.

Most of the problems seem to occur around installation too, which is not something you want to be wasting your time on. Although it’s possible to prepare yourself well for the upgrade, make backup discs, follow all best practices for upgrading to Lion and even test drive Lion on an external drive before fully taking the plunge, you may still find that the online upgrade doesn’t work and you need to get the Lion thumb drive sent to you. And even if it does work, you’ll probably spend the best part of a day tweaking Lion to your liking.

3. I Don’t Have The Time To Get Used To The New Trackpad Gestures

Rumour has it that the new trackpad gestures are actually far better than the old ones, and it really is worth embracing the change. But personally, when I’m trying to work the last thing I need is to be yelling at myself for gesturing backwards. I just want to get the work done. Getting used to new gestures is just something I plan to deal with later.

4. Lion Has So Many Features I Will Never Use

While many of the new Lion features are fantastic and groundbreaking, there are plenty of new Lion features that many people know they will never use or appreciate. In the end, these users start to wonder why they should pay for something they won’t make use of.

New Lion features which fail to be universally loved include those inside Mail, Address Book and iCal, Autocorrect and Launchpad. Personally, I use web applications for calendars, email and contacts, I can type precisely what I mean to type and do not appreciate programs which change my words for me and I have far too many applications installed to even consider using Launchpad.

5. Conversely, There Are A Few Great Reasons For Upgrading

Some of the new Lion features are so universally loved that even the most reluctant Mac user might be tempted to upgrade to Lion. Mission control and Autosaving are two primary features which many users appreciate and love about Lion. But is it enough?

Remaining On The Fence

Lion continues to tweak and upgrade, fixing the problems people are complaining about. It may be a couple more updates in the future before these fence-sitters are ready to take the plunge and install Lion.

Have you upgraded to Lion yet? Will you? Why or why not?