Software, Operating System | featured news

Windows 8 is now available for anyone to download, and it already shows a ton of potential. Here are the top 10 ways Windows 8 is better than the iPad right now.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview was downloaded a million times in its first day of availability.

Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 for public testing on Wednesday in the hope that it will help the brand win back some of the ground it has been losing to Apple and Google.

Microsoft has unveiled its Windows 8 logo, and explained its design in detail on Friday. The company wanted to incorporate parts of its new Metro design principles while retaining some classic aspects.

Apple's got a new big cat on the prowl. Its name is Mountain Lion, and it's the next major release of Mac OS X. The software is being released as a preview to Apple developers today, with a commercial release to follow sometime this summer through the company's Mac App Store. Like Lion before it, Apple has imbued the new software with many of the top-billed features from the iPhone and iPad, all with the intent of making its computers more useful and approachable to the millions that have snatched up an iOS device in recent years. It's also a direct response to recently-added features on those devices that--for better or worse--make the Mac a less essential piece of the puzzle.

Android developers have released a version of 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich that can run on chips found in most personal computers, from netbooks and laptops to desktop towers.

Microsoft's Windows 95 rollout presented the most challenges in the company's history, leading to several last-minute changes to technical features that would no longer support a rival software maker's word processor, Bill Gates testified Monday in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by the creator of WordPerfect.

Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth thinks Ubuntu Linux has a shot to be a contending operating system for future phones and tablets. It'll be a tough go -- Apple iOS and Google Android dominate the field now, with new Windows Phone 7 also making a play.

RIM delays an update to its PlayBook tablet computer's system software until February 2012.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled a new operating system Tuesday in hopes of grabbing some attention away from the iPhone and Android phones.