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Linux Mint is a great operating system, but with the most recent version (19.3 "Tricia"), there was some shocking news -- GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) was being removed! Crazy, right? I mean, of all of the great software available for Linux, GIMP is one of the best. It is an essential image editing tool that rivals Adobe Photoshop.

So, why did Linux Mint remove it as a pre-installed program? The developers thought the software was too advanced for newer Linux users. While I think that is a bit of nonsense, I can understand why the Mint developers would want to cater to beginners. Thankfully, it is totally easy to install GIMP on a new Linux Mint 19.3 installation.

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Apple has a reputation for producing stylish and elegantly designed hardware and software products. Microsoft, well, not so much.

Windows 10 under Microsoft’s control isn’t a bad looking operating system, but even after all these years it still doesn’t feel quite finished, with elements of the old design cropping up in various places. If you’ve ever wondered what Windows 10 would look like if Apple was developing it, we have the answer.

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When app hackers discovered references to Disappearing Messages in beta versions of WhatsApp, it was -- understandably -- assumed that this was going to develop into a self-destructing messages feature. But when the same option was renamed to the less-exciting Delete Messages, the name didn't really tally.

Further details shared by WABetaInfo about the latest beta of the WhatsApp app for iOS shows that the feature is very much not what people were expecting... or hoping. Oh, and if you were hoping for a Dark Mode option, you're going to have to wait a bit longer.

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With 2019 almost over, we turn our sights to a new decade with 2020. Soon we will celebrate the new year by partying, eating good food, and watching the Times Square Ball drop on TV. Sadly, Dick Clark is dead, but his legacy lives on through Ryan Seacrest.

But what if you want to celebrate 2020 in a more... nerdier way? Well, I have some good news. Calculate Linux 20 is now available for download! Yes, the Gentoo-based operating system is ready to be installed on your computer. Since it is version 20, that makes it perfect for ringing in 2020.

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The Windows 10 Insider program has a few requirements but the most important ones are that users need to use a Microsoft Account to receive Insider builds and that data collecting needs to be set to full on the device.

Offline Insider Enroll is a command line script that enrolls Windows 10 devices in the Insider program even if no Microsoft Account is used. The requirement to set Telemetry to full is not changed, however.

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Well, folks, Christmas 2019 is now in the rear view mirror. Hopefully you and your family had a wonderful holiday. Following Christmas, there is one big important tradition -- Amazon's bragging! Yes, every year, the online retailer loves to brag about its successful holiday shopping sales. They are always the best ever, of course, and this year, things are no different.

Yup, Amazon is claiming that it had record-breaking sales during the 2019 holiday shopping season. While the company doesn't share actual sales numbers, I actually don't doubt its claims. This year, when I went to brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday (and the days after), the stores were clearly experiencing a huge drop in foot traffic. In other words, Amazon has seemingly continued its trend of cannibalizing traditional retailers, but this year, it seemed much more dramatic. Hell, I ended up doing 90 percent of my own Christmas shopping on Amazon and I don't even have Prime!

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File under: "This is why we can't have nice things". To counter abuse by people seeking to trigger seizures in those with photosensitive epilepsy, Twitter has announced a ban on animated PNG images.

The company says that the fact that APNGs don't respect autoplay settings and pose a risk to some users. As such, the ability to post animated PNGs has been removed "for the safety of people with sensitivity to motion and flashing imagery, including those with epilepsy".

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Many predictions that we saw around artificial intelligence (AI) for 2019 leaned towards one extreme or the other -- ranging from the notion that AI will no longer be a thing to the idea that it’ll realize its full potential and completely change how industries work at a fundamental level. Advancing AI is going to be an incremental process and it’s unrealistic to think that the world will suddenly abandon it completely or exponentially accelerate its development in that area.

But in the security industry, we have still seen progress surrounding AI, as we’ve gotten better at using machine learning technology to identify and recognize behaviors to identify security anomalies. In most cases, security technology can now correlate the anomalous behavior with threat intelligence and contextual data from other systems. It can also leverage automated investigative actions to provide an analyst with a strong picture of something being bad or not with minimal human intervention.

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Microsoft seems to have big things in store for Windows 10 in 2020, but it's not exactly clear what at the moment. A few people have recently noticed that after updating to Windows 10 version 19536 that there is a reference to something called Windows Feature Experience Pack under in the About section of System Settings.

But things get more intriguing. A dummy app from Microsoft called Windows Feature Experience Pack has been spotted in the Microsoft Store, leading to speculation that the company could start to deliver some Windows 10 updates via an app, keeping them separate from more major updates to the operating system.

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Santa Claus is absolutely real; he lives in the hearts and minds of all true believers of Christmas. Is it possible for one man to deliver gifts to every house in the world in one night? Under normal circumstances no, but Santa Claus is magic -- you must throw all logic and science out the window.

Need proof that Santa Claus is real? Every year, Google provides a way to track the jolly fat man as he makes his journey around the world. Yes, Google's official Santa Tracker is an annual tradition, and in 2019, it continues. As usual, the search giant delivers activities beyond mere tracking, such as an interactive Santa Village. This year, there is a holiday-themed bedtime story for kids called "Ollie Under the Sea." There is even a very cool augmented reality Santa Claus you can summon by searching for "Santa Search" on mobile and clicking the "3D" button.

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It's now mere weeks until Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft. When January 14, 2020 rolls around, the end date for support will have been reached, and Microsoft is keen for people to upgrade to Windows 10 to avoid having insecure computers that don't receive updates.

But not all security updates are being dropped. Having previously said that Microsoft Security Essentials would no longer receive updates when Windows 7 support ends, the company has indicated that updates will in fact continue to be released.

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Internet of Things devices are now an accepted part of our home and business lives. They've led to increased focus on edge computing too thanks to the large volumes of data they generate, but what do industry experts think is going to happen in this sector in 2020?

Karl Sigler, threat intelligence manager at Trustwave SpiderLabs thinks the dev-security lifecycle will become the Achilles heel for IoT devices. "IoT devices are not getting any safer. With the huge influx of IoT devices in homes and organizations, the attack surface targeted by criminals is just getting larger and more diverse. Manufacturers and developers need to take the security reins. But today's IoT solutions are often missing security quality assurance during their product development lifecycle. High bandwidth, direct connections to the internet via 5G will increase the threat of Mirai-like botnets. These direct connections will also provide attackers the ability to bypass perimeter protections that are normally in place in homes and organizations. All manufacturers should add security vetting to their product development lifecycle, especially with the cloud and 5G in mind, to get IoT device security in check before the number of vulnerable devices in the market becomes overwhelming."

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Email is suffering an identity crisis. Email’s core protocols make no provisions for authenticating the identities of senders, which has resulted in a worldwide spearphishing and impersonation epidemic, leading to billions of dollars in monetary losses, security mitigation costs, and brand damage. As a result, email security will be a central theme in the new year, both as a source of threats as well as an increasingly urgent issue for cybersecurity professionals to address.

In 2020, we will see email security prove itself to be a weak link in election security as well as corporate security. At the same time, Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) will gain popularity across several industries, driven both by the need to eliminate domain spoofing, and by the desire for brands to take advantage of Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI), a new standard that requires DMARC. Email authentication works -- but it’s up to domain owners to take advantage of it. Increasingly they will do so, as they realize that a failure to proactively defend their domains can leave them vulnerable to convincing exploits from cybercriminals.

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As we enter the new year, the criticality of securing sensitive data will continue to mold and transform the structure of security strategies across enterprises, resulting in a heightened focus on access control and data-centric investments. With numerous data privacy regulations on the horizon, the cost of data breaches will be more catastrophic for businesses. In 2020, enterprises must invest in proactive strategies that combat the dynamic threats targeting an organization’s most sensitive data.

Enterprises can expect the trend of increased data breaches in ERP (Enterprise resource planning) systems to continue to rise in 2020

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With the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) set to come into force in January, privacy and how companies use data is set to be one of the big themes of 2020. What do some of the industry’s leading figures think this will mean?

Peter Reinhardt, CEO and co-founder of Segment believes, "Though the GDPR roll-out should have given American companies a good taste of what was to come, it's still likely that most will do the bare minimum to comply with the CCPA until the US government starts enforcing it in 2020.

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