This Thursday is one of my favorite holidays -- Thanksgiving! While I will absolutely fill my (large) belly with turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and other traditional foods, I will be sure to celebrate the true nature of the day as well -- being thankful. This year, I am thankful for my health, my family, and of course... Linux!

Yup, folks, we should all be thankful that many wonderful Linux distributions exist, making it possible for people to enjoy truly free and open source software. One of the prettiest Linux-based operating systems is deepin. Today, version 20.3 of the Debian-based operating system becomes available for download, meaning you can install it on your Grandma's computer after eating her yummy cooking. What better way to thank your Thanksgiving host than replacing Windows with Linux for them? Forget dual-booting. She will be so pleasantly surprised when she turns on the computer!

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It’s been 20 years since Microsoft unveiled the original Xbox which, incidentally, is the only model of the company’s games console I’ve ever owned.

Although I’m a PlayStation gamer, I’m also interested in consoles of the past, and for that reason I’ve spent an enjoyable hour exploring Microsoft's new Xbox Museum. This site lets you discover the history of the brand and also the history of Halo, Microsoft's most famous gaming series.

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A new javascript downloader named 'RATDispenser', distributing eight different Remote Access Trojans, keyloggers and information stealers has been uncovered by HP Wolf Security.

Most worrying is that RATDispenser is only detected by 11 percent of available anti-virus engines, meaning it's able to bypass detection tools and successfully deploy malware in the majority of cases.

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Around two thirds (66 percent) of UK business leaders expect the threat from cyber criminals to increase over the next 12 months, according to the latest PwC cybersecurity survey of business and technology executives.

In the past year ransomware has had a significant impact on organizations already dealing with the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic, and 61 percent of executives expect to see an increase in reportable ransomware incidents in 2022.

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Microsoft has made no fanfare about it, but the company has made available a virtual machine based on Windows 11 Enterprise that developers -- or anyone else -- can install and use free of charge.

A few days ago, Microsoft updated a page in the Windows Dev Center to include download links for Windows 11 VMs for VMWare, Hyper-V, VirtualBox and Parallels. The development environments have been designed to help users "start building Windows applications quickly" but they could be put to other uses instead.

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Windows 11 is such a wonderful operating system. Even the typical Microsoft detractors need to admit that it is great. Sorry, haters, but there just isn't anything to bash in this operating system. Windows 11 is fast, beautiful, and very secure. Best of all, Microsoft is constantly making the operating system better with updates.

For instance, today, Microsoft offers KB5007262 (OS Build 22000.348) Preview as an optional update to non-Insiders (it was previously offered to Insiders). While there are many changes (you can view the changelog here), Microsoft is highlighting the inclusion of Fluent-style emoji as the star of the show. The company explains that with this update, all Segoe UI emoji will move to the beautiful Fluent 2D style while also introducing Emoji 13.1.

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There are times -- such as when you get a new laptop or phone -- when you will need to know the password for your wireless internet connection. You may have set this password yourself, or you may have stuck with the default password your router came with.

While it is possible that the password is printed on a sticker on the bottom of your router, this is not always the case; even if it is, your router may not be in an easily accessible place. So how can you determine what your Wi-Fi password is in Windows 11? Read on to find out!

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In recent years many of the most high-profile cyberattacks have come through the supply chain, involving third-party suppliers and partners.

It's historically been difficult for businesses to assess third-party risks, often involving time consuming manual processes in order to do so.

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The internet remains a dangerous place to inhabit; if anything, the risks presented by viruses and other forms of malware are greater than ever. While Windows includes the Defender tool to help keep you safe, it does not offer complete protection, and this is where the newly updated IObit Malware Fighter 9.0 can help you out.

This latest version features full support for Windows 11 and an expanded protection database. IObit, however, points out that this is not just a case of "blindly increasing" the size of the database, but also optimizing it by tidying up invalid and out-of-date entries.

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Big retail businesses can have hundreds of TLS/SSL certificates identifying specific internet-connected devices, but many lack an organization-wide framework for managing them.

In the run up to the busiest shopping period of the year, new research from BitSight finds that 75 percent of the retail sector is at heightened risk of ransomware due to poor TLS/SSL configuration management.

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Following the release of her latest album, 30, Adele has had a greater impact on Spotify than the artist -- or anyone else -- expected. The new LP has already been streamed millions of times, and this is hardly surprising for Adele's first album in six years. But the singer has also managed to convince Spotify to make a big change to the platform.

The streaming music service has stopped shuffling albums by default, in recognition of the fact that bands and artists craft albums with a great deal of attention to detail, carefully curating track order to create a narrative or mood.

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USB hubs are rather ho-hum products. There are so many on the market, it is impossible for one to stand out in the crowd, right? Well, I would have agreed with that statement until I saw the all-new Tripp Lite U460-ST4-4A-C, that is.

What exactly is this new product? Basically, it is a USB hub that turns one USB-C port on your computer into four USB-A ports. This allows you to simultaneously connect things like a keyboard, mouse, flash drive, and more. In addition, this hub has a USB-C port for pass-through charging. That means if your laptop supports charging over USB-C, this hub can interface and deliver power while only using a single USB-C port.

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Holiday season is upon us, and predictions are that online sales will hit an all-time high of $206.88 billion in the run up to Christmas. The growth in online demand has meant e-commerce operators, banks and logistics companies are increasingly reliant on cloud strategies and investments to rapidly scale, and remain resilient and secure. In retail, the cloud market is predicted to expand over 18 percent CAGR by 2025 driven by omnichannel experiences while the cloud supply chain management market is set to grow at a CAGR of 13.81 percent.

While retail is a cloud leader, other industries are following suit, and as such, we’re starting to see the trends influencing adoption. The recent 2021 Cloud Adoption Survey, explores the state of the cloud, microservices, distributed application development, and other critical infrastructure and operations technologies.

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WhatsApp users may enjoy the benefits of end-to-end encryption, but the same cannot be said of messages sent via Facebook or Instagram. What's more, this is not going to be changing any time soon.

While Meta (or Facebook as it was at the time) previously announced plans to introduce encrypted messaging to the Facebook and Instagram platforms, there was heavy criticism from campaigners and organizations for child safety. Now the company has said end-to-end encryption will not be arriving until 2023.

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Do you like the idea of a bit more speed from your computer? Would you like Windows 11 to run a little faster? Of course, you would! But just how can you achieve this?

There are two pieces of good news. Not only will speeding up Windows 11 not cost you any money, you won't have to do anything either -- other than wait, that is.

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