Software, Operating System | featured news

If you're reading this story on your iPad or iPhone, perhaps searching for "iOS 5 release date," well -- it's now, says Apple. Apple has reinvented its operating system, promising 200 new features, and, in the process, changing the way users relate to the online world.

On Tuesday, Microsoft explained why the Windows 8 start menu is now a start screen: no one used it.

Last week, at a large developers’ event, Microsoft formally introduced its next operating system to the world, and it’s nothing like the Windows you’re used to. It’s clear the company has watched and learned as Apple stormed into the marketplace with the iPhone and iPad. Microsoft’s new Windows 8 looks and feels like it’s built from the ground up to do away with the noisy, dated interfaces of the desktop computer, replacing them with a touch-friendly experience that’s focused on a new way of computing.

There was a time in the tech business when your company could be as slow as molasses in January yet still prevail based on shear market size. That day disappeared in the rear view mirror many years ago, as Microsoft is about to learn as it prepares to introduce a major Windows upgrade.

One of the unambiguous messages we heard from Microsoft's Build 2011 conference in Anaheim all last week was that development of HTML5 "Metro-style apps" for Windows 8 would be "plug-in free." All requests for Microsoft to "clarify" that rule only underscored the blunt reality of the statement: HTML5 is about the absence of plug-ins, and thus, Metro will have an absence of plug-ins ...

Never has so much been at stake for Microsoft in a single product release. After the successful launch of Windows 7 in 2009, the company continues to rule the desktop, but has faltered in the emerging tablet space. The next version of its popular operating system, codenamed Windows 8, is designed to bridge the gap between PCs and slates, but will it be enough to help the world’s leading software company catch up to its competitors in the mobile space when it launches sometime in 2012?

Next week a high-ranking Microsoft executive will stand on stage and show off a new version of Windows on a tablet computer. It won't be the first time. But, when Windows chief Steven Sinofsky shows off an early version of its next touch-enabled, tablet-friendly operating system to independent developers at their annual conference in Anaheim next Tuesday, there is a sense that it really matters.

Ross Turk would be happy to explain the tattoo on his arm. By now, he's used to the penguin being met with bewildered stares. It represents, as he'd tell you, the Linux computing software, not the slightly less obscure character from 1950s cartoons.

Microsoft will soon take the wraps off the biggest update to its operating system in 16 years. The Windows software giant unveiled a new blog and Twitter feed for its upcoming Windows 8 operating system Monday -- a first tantalizing look at the development of its next-generation flagship product, the software that powers most of the computers on the planet.

Sales of Microsoft Corp's flagship Windows software disappointed for the third straight quarter, taking the gloss off better-than-expected earnings that were aided by an unusually low tax rate.