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So far, the year 2021 hasn’t been particularly good for Linux on the desktop. Windows 10 has matured into a pretty great operating system, and PC sales are up big thanks to the pandemic. Meanwhile, Apple’s transition to ARM for macOS has gone shockingly well. In other words, there haven’t really been any missteps by Apple or Microsoft to help Linux make gains on the desktop front.

The Linux community keeps moving on, however, and despite an overall stagnation, there are still solid operating systems being maintained which use the open source kernel. One of the more popular Linux distro these days is the Arch-based Manjaro, and today, the first release candidate of the upcoming version is made available. Manjaro Linux 21 RC1, code-named “Ornara,” uses kernel 5.10 LTS and can be downloaded immediately with your choice of GNOME 3.38, KDE Plasma 5.21, or Xfce 4.16.

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Following reports that a recent update to Windows 10 was causing blue screens as well as problems with printing, Microsoft issued a new series of updates to address the issues. But it seems that the problems caused by this month's Patch Tuesday updates are actually worse than first thought.

Users with certain brands of printer experienced APC_INDEX_MISMATCH errors and blue screens, but now Microsoft has issued a warning that there may be additional problems with elements missing from print outs, or even entirely blank pages being output.

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The past few months have seen plenty of news surrounding COVID-19 vaccines, from the buzz surrounding roll outs to fears of possible side effects.

As always with a major news event cybercriminals seek to exploit the opportunity it presents. Cloud-native email security company GreatHorn has identified a new pattern of techniques being used to exploit the unease of vulnerable email users by spoofing critical vaccine information.

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Facebook is expanding support for physical security keys to mobile devices in order to help users secure their accounts.

The site already offers multi-factor authentication via SMS or authenticator apps, but adding support for hardware keys offers users another means of supplementing their passwords and keeping their accounts more secure.

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Researchers at Cybereason have detected a new campaign targeting US taxpayers with documents that purport to contain tax-related content.

These deliver NetWire and Remcos -- two powerful and popular RATs which can allow attackers to take control of the victims' machines and steal sensitive information. The malicious documents used are roughly 7MB in size, which allows them to evade traditional AV mechanisms and heuristic detection.

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While Audacity has been in receipt of pretty regular updates, it is quite a while since there were any major changes to the free audio editing software. All of this changes with the release of Audacity 3.0.0, however.

To kick things off, there are bug fixes -- lots of bug fixes. In fact, there are more than 160 that have been addressed, ranging from minor problems to "really juicy high priority bugs". But Audacity 3.0.0 is about much more than just fixing bugs. There are improvements across the software as well as a completely new project format.

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Learning how to code has many advantages, and gaining the right programming skills can have a massive impact on what you can do with your current skill set and the way you advance in your career.

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners will be your guide to learning computer programming easily, helping you overcome the difficulties in understanding the major constructs in any mainstream programming language.

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Enterprises are keen to achieve the many business, technical and financial benefits of moving legacy systems to the cloud despite challenges along the way.

A new report from SAP to AWS migration specialist Lemongrass finds 77 percent of IT leaders say their primary motivation for migrating legacy systems to cloud infrastructure is either a desire to secure data, maintain data access or save money.

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Sometimes technology can be very exciting. Look, we all love when a sleek and sexy new device -- such as a smartphone or laptop -- is shown off at a keynote. Remember when the original MacBook Air was first revealed? I get chills. And yeah, everyone wants the latest and greatest flashy product. The truth, however, is we don't always need exciting. Sometimes we need affordable and unremarkable products that simply exist to get work done.

The Dynabook E10-S Windows 10 Pro Education laptop is such a product, and you can buy it from the company starting today. The computer is fabulously unremarkable, and yes, that's a good thing. You see, this laptop is designed for schoolwork -- not gaming or other hardcore computing.

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The rapid shift to remote working has accelerated digital transformation and mass-cloud migration across almost every organization -- even those who weren't necessarily ready for it.

As IT professionals settle into long-term planning and management of their SaaS platforms and apps, CoreView's SVP Doug Hazelman believes they must now begin to effectively manage their cloud infrastructure so they can focus on maximizing the value of their investments. We spoke to him to learn more.

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While Windows 10 version 21H1 -- which is due for release soon -- may not bring much to the table in terms of new features, it's still an important release because of the number of problems it addresses.

If you have been following the development of Windows 10 21H1 here on BetaNews, you'll know that it is currently undergoing beta testing. There are already a decent number of bug fixes in the new release, but Microsoft has just pushed out a new cumulative update to beta testers that patches even more problems. Included among these are issues with Explorer using large amounts of memory, crashing, and reducing performance.           

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Microsoft rolls out new Windows 10 builds to Insiders in the Dev Channel on a weekly basis. Some weeks there isn’t much in the way of new features or functionality, and other weeks we get a build packed with updates.

Build 21337 is one of those which has a lot to offer, such as major changes to Virtual Desktops, an Auto HDR preview for gaming, tweaks to File Explorer’s layout, and more.

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Can you believe it? It is 2021 and Apple still hasn't added USB-C to the iPhone! The company has added the connection to the iPad Pro and its Mac computers, but its smartphones still use Lightning. This is both frustrating and disappointing, as it means consumers can't streamline their chargers and cables. It also means you cannot easily plug a USB-C flash drive into an iPhone like you can with Android.

If you have been wanting to connect a flash drive to your iPhone without the use of dongles, Western Digital's SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Luxe can make this a reality. You see, the drive features both Lightning and USB Type-C connectors, meaning it will work with iPhone, Android, and modern computers. While such a drive is not a new concept, this is apparently the first 2-in-1 from WD with an all-metal body.

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Over a third of the 1,020 most-downloaded Android apps on the Google Play store request access to a user's camera -- despite no obvious benefit for user experience and potentially placing sensitive data at risk.

Research from CyberNews also shows one in three apps request access to track a user's precise, or approximate, location. Excluding those that require such access to function, such as weather or navigation, applications attempting invasive access included gaming and even wallpaper, which appear to have no legitimate reason to track location data.

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During 2020 and 2021, we've seen nostalgia everywhere. It makes sense, right? There's no better time to pine for the past and relive happy memories than when we're stuck at home during lockdown. Nostalgia has made its way into every walk of life, from our wardrobes to our Instagram feeds. 

According to GlobalWebIndex, nostalgia can make humans more optimistic and have a positive influence on their actions. The research also unveiled that nostalgia was a highly common emotion. Results show that 8 in 10 say that they experience feelings of nostalgia at least occasionally and 4 in 10 say that they do so often.

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