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Here's the deal, folks -- there are far too many Linux distributions out there nowadays. It used to bother me, but over time, I made peace with it. Look, it's the nature of the beast -- we will never have a single Linux distro, as it is impossible to come to any consensus. For instance, I prefer Fedora and GNOME, but at the same time, other people like Ubuntu and KDE. If you were to poll the Linux community you would see a very segmented group of people. And so, there are an obscene number of operating systems based on the open source Linux kernel.

When I saw a distro claiming to be stable while using the brand new Linux 5.0 kernel and being based on the not-yet-finalized Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo, I was intrigued. Surprisingly, despite it being around for years, it is an operating system I was not familiar with. Called "ExTiX," it seems to be developed by one man with a very no-frills website. In other words, I probably would not suggest using this thing as your main operating system for daily use. However, if you think it would be fun to play around with a Disco Dingo base and Linux kernel 5.0, it might be a fun weekend experiment. Not to mention, Kodi "Leia" comes pre-installed!

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When Flickr announced changes to its free accounts, many users were upset to find that they were going to be limited to 1,000 photos unless they were willing to pay for Pro account. On top of this, Flickr said it would be deleting any images that took users over the limit.

But now the company has announced something of a loosening of the rules. Flickr says that all public Creative Commons works on the site are now protected from deletion. There are also new "in memoriam" accounts for deceased members.

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A House of Lords committee has called for the creation of a new Digital Authority to help co-ordinate existing regulators, as well as recommending new powers. The "super regulator" would have oversight over the current range of digital regulators, and would help to tackle problems of online harm which the UK government feels technology firms have not done enough about.

There is a strong feeling from the government that self-regulation by technology companies has failed, and a report entitled Regulating in a Digital World sets out a series of principles that would underpin a new approach.

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Cyber risk is a fast-growing enterprise risk, not just an IT risk. Yet seldom is guidance provided as to what this means.

This ebook is the first to tackle in detail those enterprise-wide capabilities expected by Board, CEO and Internal Audit, of the diverse executive management functions that need to team up with the Information Security function in order to provide integrated solutions.

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Prediction #2 -- And then there were only 3.5 VPC Cloud players. Cloud computing will continue to grow in 2019 with the key term being not Public Cloud, Private Cloud or Hybrid Cloud -- which are all so 2018 -- but Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Virtual Private Cloud is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) invention but all the AWS competitors seem to be embracing the idea.

What has developed is that the VPC solution based on Open Source using Linux will change the Internet-as-a-Service (IaaS) Cloudscape to VPC-only during 2019.

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The USB-C connector is absolutely here to stay. Not only is the reversible plug used by USB, but Thunderbolt 3 too. The upcoming USB4 standard will use the connector as well, and is backwards-compatible with USB 3.x. This means any USB-C dongle or adapter you buy today will be supported for many years -- how cool is that?

Today, StarTech launches two new USB-C multiport adapters that are designed for business professionals. Of course, they can be used for personal use too. One of them (CDPVDHMDPDP) is focused solely on video, while the other (DKT30CHVGPD) does video, Ethernet, and offers USB-A ports. Best of all, they both feature power delivery and an integrated USB-C cable that can be tucked into the device itself. In other words, you won't have to worry about losing or forgetting a wire.

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It’s been said that artificial intelligence is the future, but I’d argue that AI is very much a thing of the here and now. It’s playing an increasingly significant role in marketing efforts, and is taking marketing automation to the next level. And during an era when customers are demanding fast and hyper-personalized service, AI-based technologies couldn’t be more critical.

AI-based technologies bolster marketing automation efforts through personalized interactions. Your business can benefit on a multitude of fronts by embracing these game-changing advancements. 

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Data should underlie every business decision. Yet too often some very human cultural artifacts really lead the business down certain routes where it moves away from modelling decisions on the best data. It’s only human. Yet to be a better human guiding the corporate machine we need to transcend the way "we’ve always done it".

In the data age gut, tradition, and inertia shouldn’t be why strategic decisions are made. And yet, hand on heart, we all continue to do it, because that’s part of being human. Well, it’s time to be more than human, time to get creative. Time to smash the way "we’ve always done it." Time to apply some creative destruction to break down the worst parts of making decisions within organizations, and start using the data, technology, and creativity that lies around us, untapped.

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Windows Insider builds for the next big feature update of Windows 10 are coming thick and fast now, with the focus on fixing bugs and improving performance.

Today Windows 10 19H1 Build 18353 arrives on the Fast ring with quite a long list of fixes -- including many for Windows Sandbox -- and a dwindling amount of known issues.

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The install base of Windows 10 has topped the 800 million mark according to the Microsoft Story Labs site. Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi tweeted the news yesterday.

This is an increase of 100 million since September last year and it seems likely that the increase has been partly driven by the impending end of support for Windows 7.

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It won't have escaped your notice that today is International Women's Day. The technology sector has traditionally been a male dominated one, but it seems that efforts to attract more women are paying off.

Analysis from Eclat Marketing of speakers at last week's RSA Conference shows a 53 percent increase in female speakers, with 232 compared to 153 in 2018.

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At a time when there's intense competition in the jobs market, the importance of workforce communication in employee engagement is often overlooked.

San Francisco-based communications platform SocialChorus is launching a new tool called Content Planner that gives organizations a single place to plan their content strategies and measure the impact of employee communications.

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Anyone who has had to handle software support will know that sometimes explaining by email or attempting to describe an action over the telephone can be a very frustrating experience.

We handle support queries on a daily basis and are still perplexed that some users still do not know how to enter their product key or where it should be entered. They attempt to type in the code, get a digit wrong, think they’ve been sold a duff code, won’t accept reason and get angry real quick. There’s now a cheap and easy solution.

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In sci-fi movies, machines work in choreographed grace, hovering gently, waddling cutely, and performing flawlessly. Computer interfaces seem minimalist with their floating touch interfaces and bluish color palettes. Wakanda of Black Panther, Cloud City in Star Wars, and New York City of The Fifth Element function so beautifully.

Here’s my question: Where the hell are all their IT people?!!

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Bring your own device (whereby employees work from personal devices like their mobile phones) is quickly becoming the norm in today’s business environment. Companies that embrace BYOD are able to give employees more freedom to work remotely, resulting in increased productivity, cost savings and talent retention. In fact, 85 percent of organizations now allow BYOD for at least some of their stakeholders, including employees, contractors, partners, customers and suppliers.

It is important to note that BYOD does change an organization’s threat landscape and requires security tools that are different than those that are used to protect managed devices. Unfortunately, a widespread misunderstanding about this point has contributed to an unfounded assumption that BYOD is inherently riskier than the traditional way of doing things. In reality, this is a myth fueled by companies that fail to implement proper security tools and processes for protecting data in BYOD environments. Consider the following findings from a recent report on BYOD and security:

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