The Linux Mint developers vowed to release a new version of their operating system before Christmas, and today, they fulfill that promise. Yes, Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia is finally here, a full week before the big Christmas holiday -- a very welcome early gift.

Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia can be had with your choice of three excellent desktop environments -- Cinnamon (4.4), MATE (1.22), and Xfce (4.14). I highly recommend users with modern computers try Cinnamon first -- it is the prettiest of the trio, while the other two DEs are designed for more meager PCs. With that said, even those with high-end machines sometimes opt for Xfce and Mate because they simply prefer them.

Financial services business tend to be attacked more than those in any other sector, but a new study finds that 75 percent of respondents in this industry are over confident in their data management practices.

A worrying 24 percent of respondents to Integris Software's 2019 FinServ Data Privacy Maturity Study only update their personal data inventory once a year. Even more concerning, 13 percent only inventory sensitive data when audited or in response to regulation requests.

It's hard to believe that artificial intelligence is in its earliest stages. But for however many Alexas and self-driving cars we have now, experts say we have only scratched the surface of what AI can achieve.

In 2020, we'll see even more new applications of it -- here's what to expect.

Security segmentation limits the ability for attacks to move laterally inside an organization by breaking data center and campus networks or clouds into smaller segments. But a new study reveals that only 19 percent currently implement segmentation solutions today.

The study of 300 IT professionals carried out by Virtual Intelligence Briefing for Illumio also shows that while approximately 25 percent are actively planning a project, more than half are not protecting with segmentation at all or planning to in the next six months.

German developer Ashampoo has released Ashampoo Burning Studio 21.2.0, a major new release of its Windows disc-burning software.

Capable of burning all types of optical disc from CD to Blu-ray, and supporting data, audio and video projects, version 21 unveils a major new user interface designed to aid navigation, plus expands its multimedia capabilities.

SiriusXM, the satellite radio juggernaut (and now-owner of Pandora), has millions of daily listeners. These days, the company doesn't only provide its popular satellite radio channels in automobiles, but essentially everywhere thanks to its mobile apps for Android and iPhone. Hell, you can listen to SiriusXM though Alexa and Google Assistant hardware these days too. Evert morning, I listen to Howard Stern on my Nest Mini by simply saying "Hey Google, Play Sirius 100." It is quite remarkable.

Obviously, such a large company has lots of employees working around the world. Enabling all these workers to easily communicate  and collaborate is essential. And so, SiriusXM chose Microsoft Teams for this, right? Actually, no. As a huge blow to Microsoft, SiriusXM instead chose Slack.

Microsoft released a new developer build of the company's upcoming Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser on Tuesday. The new build increases the version of the browser to 80.0.361.5; existing installations may be upgraded, new users can find downloads on the official Microsoft Edge Insiders download page.

The new release is the final Microsoft Edge Dev build of 2019 and Microsoft decided to end the year with a bang. The Chromium-based browser is now also available for ARM devices. Microsoft is making available ARM64 DEV channel builds starting with this release which means that users who run ARM devices like the Surface Pro X, may install the Dev version of the web browser on these devices.

In the retail sector particularly the line between online and offline worlds is increasingly blurred. But how can businesses protect their customer data effectively in this world?

We spoke to, Gary Barnett, CEO of secure payment systems specialist Semafone to discuss this, the effect of the upcoming CCPA legislation and more.

There are many music streaming services these days, such as Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music to name a few. Believe it or not, Google has two such services -- Play Music and YouTube Music.  It is very confusing to have one company offering two competing options, but they will eventually be merged into one under the YouTube Music brand.

The problem? As of today, YouTube Music simply isn't up to par with any competitors -- it has a messy interface that can be confusing. While it is slowly getting better all the time, it simply cannot compete with Spotify or Apple Music -- the gold standards. Today, however, YouTube Music is gaining a pretty cool new feature -- personalized mixes.

A new survey of almost 300 IT security professionals in large enterprises finds 53 percent of respondents say most or all cybersecurity vendors rely on unclear, opaque, and ambiguous data to promote their products.

In addition the study from Valimail, a provider of identity-based anti-phishing solutions, finds 42 percent of respondents say cybersecurity products deliver value 'sometimes,' but it is difficult or impossible to prove that value.

Data usage and analysis are now key drivers of innovation and competitive advantage, but increased data use raises issues surrounding security, privacy and compliance.

Israeli company Satori Cyber is launching a new Secure Data Access Cloud to offer continuous visibility and control of data flows across all cloud and hybrid data stores.

Adverts in Windows 10 are not a new thing. Microsoft has a history of sneaking them into any spare real estate in its operating system and included apps. In the past we’ve seen them crop up in the Start menu, in the taskbar, in the Action Center, in File Explorer, in the Ink Workspace, on the Lock Screen, in the Share tool, and in the Windows Store. It’s even currently running full screen ads for Windows 10 inside Windows 7 as the aging operating system reaches its end of life.

Microsoft prefers to call the ads it dots around its OS "suggestions" but that doesn’t make them any less annoying for users. And now the company has added a new ad to the Windows Mail and Calendar apps, and made them impossible to remove.

Now that Microsoft is nearly finished with the next big feature update of Windows 10 (2004), due out next year, Insiders on the Fast ring are starting to receive new builds from the active RS_PRERELEASE development branch.

In a bid to make things less confusing, Microsoft has dropped the Skip Ahead ring, and Fast ring insiders will now receive the freshest builds, with features not linked to a specific Windows 10 release.

Christmas may technically be a religious holiday, but for many folks, it is more about enjoying family rather than worshiping. And you know what? That's fine. People have the right to celebrate however they want. Me? I like to do both of those things -- Celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but also, spend time with the people I love. Heck, I even like gift-giving -- it is fun to make someone else happy with a present they really want. OK, fine, I like getting gifts too.

One of my favorite activities to do in December is watch Christmas movies. These holiday films really help me to get into the Christmas spirit. It's a great feeling to be wrapped up in a cozy blanket on a comfortable couch and enjoy some wholesome, family-friendly, Christmas movies. This year, popular streaming media platform, Roku, is sharing ts top 10 most searched Christmas movies. While the films on the list are rather predictable, the positions are a bit surprising.

Bing is a godawful search engine. I try to avoid it as much as possible, but on the few occasions when I do use it -- when writing about the new Chromium version of Edge for example -- I find the results it returns are rubbish. In a blind usage test I can instantly spot the difference between it and Google just by the quality -- or lack of -- of the results.

In what it describes as a bid to bring "convenient, fast web results directly to the search bar in Windows" Microsoft has baked (yet more) Bing searches into Windows 10, including a brand new visual search.