open-source

Flyoobe’s latest release, version 1.20 (tagged 1.20.400), ships a visible, Windows 11–style redesign and continues to position the project as a compact, portable toolkit for bypassing Windows 11 installation gates and customizing the Out‑Of‑Box Experience (OOBE). Background Flyoobe began life...

Google’s experimental Windows app aims to remove the friction of switching windows to look something up — a floating, Spotlight‑like search bar you summon with Alt + Space that can search local files, installed apps, Google Drive, and the web, and that folds in Google Lens and the company’s AI...

Tiny11 is the latest reminder that the Windows upgrade debate has moved far beyond marketing slogans: while Microsoft insists many older PCs are unsupported for Windows 11, independent projects like NTDEV’s Tiny11 are actively proving the opposite — and forcing a much more uncomfortable...

NTDEV’s new Nano11 Builder takes the Windows‑11 debloat movement from pragmatic trimming to experimental minimalism, producing bootable ISOs and installed images measured in single‑digit gigabytes by surgically removing inbox apps, servicing infrastructure, and even parts of the Windows...

XL Converter arrives as a quietly powerful, free and open-source image utility that brings modern compression formats and advanced JPEG tech to Windows and Linux users—making it a smart tool for anyone who needs to shrink, transcode, or batch-process large photo libraries without sacrificing...

I learned to treat the terminal as my writing room: no floating toolbars, no Ribbon, just text, and the muscle memory of a keyboard—this is the core claim a Windows Central writer makes for why they compose everything inside a terminal rather than in Microsoft Word, and it’s an argument that has...

X’s new XChat promises “end-to-end” privacy — but its current implementation leaves several simple, well-known privacy protections out in the open, and experts warn that the feature as shipped can expose users to avoidable risks ranging from leaked image metadata to a service operator or insider...

If you’re staring at a Windows 10 machine that won’t upgrade to Windows 11 — and facing Microsoft’s October 14, 2025 end‑of‑support deadline — the old reasons for avoiding Linux are collapsing faster than ever. What was once true only in the server room or among hobbyist tinkerers is now an...

If you’ve been holding off on leaving Windows 10 because of long‑standing Linux myths, now is the moment to clear the air: the common objections—about gaming, familiarity, stability, choice overload, and aesthetics—don’t hold up the way they used to, and for many Windows 10 users facing...

Microsoft’s PowerToys team has quietly moved to fill a conspicuous gap in Windows’ personalization features: beginning with PowerToys v0.94 the project teased a scheduled automatic theme switching utility that will let Windows switch between light and dark modes on a timetable — a capability...

Files 4.0 lands as a major milestone for an already feature-rich third‑party file manager, shipping a redesigned address experience (the new Omnibar), a polished Dual Pane workflow, wider cloud-drive support, and a host of security and productivity tools aimed squarely at power users and IT...

Microsoft’s desktop era is fragmenting in plain sight: while Windows 11’s adoption has surged—pushing close to or past the halfway mark on some charts—an increasing number of users are quietly defecting to Windows‑style Linux distributions that promise a familiar UI without Microsoft’s...

Octos arrives as one of the cleanest, most developer-friendly entries in the live wallpaper scene: an open‑source engine that turns your Windows 10 or 11 desktop into a fully interactive HTML/CSS/JS canvas, ships with an explicit JavaScript API for native features, and is already available as...

Windows power users have long known the best tools often live outside the commercial software ecosystem, but a recent MakeUseOf roundup highlighting “unbelievably” polished open‑source Windows apps crystallizes just how far free software has come: the list assembles utilities that replace or...

Microsoft’s DocumentDB — the open, PostgreSQL‑backed document database Microsoft launched earlier this year — has formally moved under the stewardship of the Linux Foundation, a shift that promises broader vendor neutrality, a clearer governance model, and a path toward an open standard for...

Microsoft’s VibeVoice-1.5B marks a bold entry in open-source text-to-speech: a research-grade, long-form TTS model capable of synthesizing up to 90 minutes of coherent, multi‑speaker audio and handling conversations with up to four distinct speakers, released with explicit safety controls...

The GNU Linux-libre 6.16 release lands on August 24, 2025 with a familiar promise and a precise mandate: take everything new and noteworthy in upstream Linux 6.16 and remove the parts that depend on proprietary firmware, binary-only microcode, or unclear redistribution terms, then ship a kernel...

IBM’s strategy is deliberate: build industry-minded, governed AI that plugs into legacy systems and regulated workflows rather than chase consumer hype—and that choice may not win the popularity contest, but it can win durable enterprise value if the company executes the engineering...

ZDNET’s compact “five apps I always install first” playbook is an efficient, pragmatic shortcut for getting a fresh Windows PC productive in minutes: install Everything for instant local search, Google Chrome for cross‑device browsing and extensions, VLC Media Player for near‑universal media...

Windows ships with a respectable set of built‑in utilities, but for many users those apps feel like checkbox features: serviceable, occasionally sluggish, and often lacking the power or polish needed for real work. A compact set of community‑driven, lightweight replacements can dramatically...