Linpus is rolling out a new version of its Android-based operating system designed to run on tablets, netbooks, and notebooks with x86 processors. It’s based on Google Android 4.0, and the notebook version adds support for hardware that you wouldn’t normally find on an Android tablet. [/caption] Linpus made a little bit of a name for itself a few years…

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Microsoft is preparing to launch the first “Consumer Preview” of Windows 8. The company is holding an event on February 29th at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain to kick off the launch. The Consumer Preview follows the Developer Preview that the company launched in September, 2011. While Microsoft isn’t using the words “alpha,” or “beta” to describe exactly where in the…

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The company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux software have decided to end funding for the Kubuntu variation of the operating system. Kubuntu is basically what you get when you take Ubuntu’s core software and tack on a custom version of the KDE desktop environment in place of the Unity user interface that the main branch of Ubuntu has used for…

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Once upon a time operating systems shipped on a stack of 1.4MP floppy disks. These days most come on DVDs because the installer files can’t fit on 640MB CDs. And then there’s Tiny Core Linux. Tiny Core is a light-weight Linux distribution focused on providing a fast, small, but usable operating system. TinyCore uses just 12MB of disk space and…

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Earlier this month Microsoft and a handful of partners started showing of Windows 8 running on tablet with ARM-based processors. While Windows 8 probably won’t be released to the public until the second half of 2012, CNET reports that an early version Windows 8 for ARM will be available for developers in February. [/caption] Windows 8 on ARM is reportedly…

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HP announced recently that it would release its webOS mobile operating system as open source software. Now the company is providing a roadmap. The goal is to release the first open souce version of webOS by September, 2012. Along the way the company will start using a standard Linux kernel instead of a custom kernel, update the development tools for…

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For about as long as computers have had graphical user interfaces, apps have had menus. You know those things at the top of the window that say things like File, Edit, and Preferences. Now the folks behind Ubuntu Linux want to get rid of menus… or at least supplement them with something that may be easier to use and take…

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Update: It looks like the merger of Tizen and Bada might not be a done deal yet. A Samsung official has told AllThingsD that while the company is considering the possibility, the decision hasn’t been made. Samsung plans to merge its Bada mobile phone operating system with the open source Tizen project backed by Intel. Forbes reports that this means existing…

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Popular Linux distribution Ubuntu is known for a lot of things — but long battery life is not one of them. Users that have installed Ubuntu on notebook computers that had previously run Windows or another operating system have been complaining for years that their battery life drops after installing Ubuntu. Now Ubuntu engineer Colin King says he’s taking a…

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Research in Motion has released a new beta version of the BlackBerry PlayBook operating system. PlayBook OS 2.0.0.6149 for the tablet feels smother and faster than the previous beta nad fixes a number of quirks. But there’s bad news for anyone that’s rooted a PlayBook using Dingleberry. Update: Now you can use Dingleberry 3.0 to downgrade your tablet so that…

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HP has announced that it will turn webOS into an open source project. The company paid $1.2 billion to acquire Palm and its webOS mobile operating system last year, and sunk billions of additional dollars into developing webOS smartphones and tablets before killing the hardware division this summer. Now HP is hoping to keep webOS alive by making it open…

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Just as with Android, Google makes the open source base for Chrome OS available for all to download. But if you’re not keen on setting up a 64-bit Linux build environment, what can you do? You can download a pre-compiled Chromium OS from Hexxeh, who’s long been the name to know in Chromium OS DIY builds. Things had been relatively…

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