open source

Open-source software quietly underpins a huge amount of the modern Windows experience, and ZDNET’s recent roundup of “10 open-source apps I recommend every Windows user download — for free” lays out a practical, privacy-conscious toolkit any Windows user can assemble without spending a penny...

The small open‑source utility ecosystem that helps users install Windows 11 on older machines just took another step: the developer behind Flyby11 has expanded the project into Flyoobe and pushed an ISO‑aware update that adds preview Out‑of‑Box Experience (OOBE) windows, improved ISO mounting...

Flyoobe’s 1.2 release quietly expands a well‑known Windows 11 installer bypass into a fuller Out‑Of‑Box Experience (OOBE) toolkit — adding preview OOBE windows designed to work with Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool and Rufus, tightening ISO handling, and trimming memory use — while the project’s...

Flyoobe 1.2 arrives as a focused, pragmatic tool that folds the original Flyby11 upgrade bypass into a broader Out‑Of‑Box Experience (OOBE) customization suite — and with that consolidation comes both useful capabilities for hobbyists and admins and significant security, support, and compliance...

On a Windows box I reach for a Linux shell first — not because Windows tooling is broken, but because the Unix-style command line gives me the fastest, most portable path from idea to execution. That preference, which many readers will recognize from long years of using bash, zsh, or other...

The UK government’s five‑year Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft — the Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 (SPA24) — commits public bodies to a scale of procurement that the Crown Commercial Service expects will amount to roughly £9 billion over the life of the deal, and that...

PowerToys 0.93 nudges an already indispensable toolkit toward something more professional: a Windows 11–style settings dashboard, a major engineering overhaul of Command Palette that leans on Ahead‑of‑Time (AOT) compilation for tangible speed and footprint gains, a presentation‑ready Spotlight...

Windhawk turns Windows 11 from a locked-down, opinionated UI into a modular playground you can tailor back toward productivity—and the four modules I reach for first (Classic Context Menu, Classic Navigation Bar, Vertical Taskbar, and Windows 11 Start Menu Styler) are small installs that deliver...

If you miss the “shuffle” slideshow from the old Windows photo experience, you’re not alone — several third‑party viewers restore and extend that capability. This feature guide evaluates the best photo viewer apps for Windows 11/10 that include a Shuffle / Random Slideshow option, shows how to...

GitHub’s CEO, Thomas Dohmke, announced on August 11, 2025 that he will step down to return to his “startup roots,” a move that coincides with Microsoft folding GitHub’s operations more closely into its CoreAI organization — an arrangement that accelerates the platform’s AI-first strategy while...

Microsoft’s decision to reorganize GitHub into its CoreAI organization after CEO Thomas Dohmke announced his departure marks a decisive shift from the independence GitHub maintained inside Microsoft since 2018 — a move that accelerates AI-first product integration while raising urgent questions...

GitHub’s CEO Thomas Dohmke has confirmed he will leave the company at the end of 2025, saying he’s ready to “become a founder again” after steering the developer platform through its most AI‑intensive transformation to date. (reuters.com) (axios.com) Background Thomas Dohmke became GitHub’s CEO...

GitHub’s CEO change and the company’s shift into Microsoft’s CoreAI orbit mark a decisive moment: a once-independent code-hosting giant is being steered closer into the heart of Microsoft’s AI strategy, and that realignment raises strategic upside for AI-first development — plus challenging...

On a fresh Windows machine the right five additions can turn a clean install into a productive, comfortable workspace in under an hour — that’s the practical premise behind the ZDNET roundup of “5 free Windows PC apps I always install first,” and it’s a small, high‑value checklist worth...

KDE’s blunt assessment—that Microsoft’s Copilot hardware key is “dumb”—is more than a snarky one-liner: it marks a coordinated, practical response from a major open‑source desktop project to a vendor-driven hardware change that has irritated users across platforms. KDE developers have moved from...

Windows 11’s taskbar clock just got a serious upgrade — without Microsoft — thanks to a Windhawk mod that lets you display custom date/time formats alongside system telemetry (CPU, RAM, network), weather, news headlines, extra timezones and flexible styling right inside the clock area...

Amid a wave of user feedback and industry scrutiny, KDE’s developers are responding boldly to Microsoft’s heavily marketed Copilot key, a recently introduced hardware fixture on many new Windows laptops. Once touted as an innovative bridge between users and Microsoft’s AI assistant, the Copilot...

A subtle yet highly practical improvement could soon arrive for Windows users through PowerToys: a new clipboard feedback overlay. This feature, currently proposed under the name "ClipPing," aims to tackle a common annoyance in the Windows experience—the uncertainty over whether something has...

A wave of innovation in the Linux desktop world has consistently aimed to lower the barriers for users considering a shift away from Microsoft’s ecosystem, but rarely has this mission been embodied so thoroughly as with AnduinOS. Built upon the solid foundation of Ubuntu, AnduinOS is a Linux...

FydeOS is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the most promising alternatives to ChromeOS Flex for users seeking a robust, flexible, and multi-faceted operating system on both legacy and modern x64 hardware. As ChromeOS Flex continues to fill a crucial void for millions of Windows users left...