Articles about Developer

Microsoft has a new open source project -- Project Mu. This is the company's open-source release of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) core which is currently used by Surface devices and Hyper-V.

With the project, Microsoft hopes to make it easier to build scalable and serviceable firmware, and it embraces the idea of Firmware as a Service (FaaS). This allows for fast and efficient updating of firmware after release, with both security patches and performance-enhancing updates.

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Google Chrome Labs has released a new online image conversion app by the name of Squoosh. The open source tool is essentially a simple browser-based image editor, and the focus is very much on speed.

Showcased at the Chrome Dev Summit, Squoosh is not limited to working only in Chrome -- other browsers are also supported. While the conversion options are useful to many people, Squoosh is really an opportunity for Google to show off new web technologies.

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There has been a spate of adding dark modes to apps, websites and operating systems in recent times. Many people simply prefer the look, while others say a darker theme is easier on the eye. But there is also the school of thought that says dark mode saves battery life.

And this is very much the message that Google is sending to Android developers. At the Android Dev Summit this week Google highlighted the massive difference Dark Mode makes, seemingly in a bid to encourage more developers to embrace the idea and add the option to their apps.

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After taking some time out from the Linux community to "change some of [his] behavior", Linux Torvalds is back. In a post to the Linux Kernel Mailing List announcing the release of Linux kernel 4.19, Greg Kroah-Hartman -- his temporary replacement -- handed back the reins.

After writing about the changes to be found in the latest release, Kroah-Hartman signed off by saying: "Linus, I'm handing the kernel tree back to you. You can have the joy of dealing with the merge window :)".

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In the US and across European countries, 50 percent of all new app development requests end in failure -- either by not being delivered at all, or being delivered without meeting the original business need.

According to research carried out by IDG for low-code development platform Appian, 16 percent of new development projects requested by EMEA enterprises never even get started.

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Google is well known for hiding Easter eggs in its software and tools, and a new little treat has just been discovered. Hidden in Google Chrome's developer console is a text adventure game.

While this is not exactly The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and it's unlikely to draw you away from Fortnite or Assassin's Creed, the game is a simple delight like Chrome's jumping dinosaur. Here's how to access it.

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Microsoft has confirmed that it is no longer developing the touch-friendly versions of Office apps for Windows

The Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile apps found in the Microsoft Store first appeared for Windows 8.1, and development has continued with the release of Windows 10. But now this is changing, with Microsoft saying it wants to focus on the Win32, web, iOS and Android versions instead.

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Developers rate security as their top concern when dealing with open source components, above integration and functionality, according to a new study.

The report from open source security and license compliance management company WhiteSource reveals that an average developer invests 15 hours a month dealing with open source security vulnerabilities, but only a small fraction of that time (25 percent) is devoted to actual remediation.

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Use of known vulnerable open source components has increased by 120 percent over the last year and 62 percent of organizations say they have no meaningful control over OSS components, according to a new study.

Sonatype's fourth annual State of the Software Supply Chain Report shows that open source continues to be a key driver of innovation -- with software developers downloading more than 300 billion open source components in the past 12 months. However, hackers are exploiting this growing trend, and even beginning to inject vulnerabilities directly into open source projects.

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Following years of questionable behavior and ranting, the grandfather of Linux Linus Torvalds issued an apology and announced his intention to take a break from kernel work. Now the Linux community is adopting a new code of conduct to help make the environment more welcoming.

Based on the Contributor Covenant, the new Code of Conduct seeks to make participating in the community "a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation".

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Linux creator Linus Torvalds has used his regular Sunday email to the Linux Kernel Mailing List to apologize for unprofessional behavior, and to announce that he is taking a break from his Linux kernel work.

Acknowledging that he has previously launched "flippant attacks" on people -- something he labels as "unprofessional and uncalled for" -- Torvalds says he wants to "apologize to the people that my personal behavior hurt and possibly drove away from kernel development entirely".

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Microsoft today announced the successor to Visual Studio Team Services, Azure DevOps, as well as Azure DevOps Server, replacing Team Foundation Server. As part of this, the company also launched a new CI/CD service called Azure Pipelines which gives developers the chance to build, test and deploy to any platform.

Azure Pipelines has been launched in the GitHub Marketplace, and it is completely free for open source repositories.

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Google has announced that developers can now take advantage of a new "staged releases" feature to roll out new versions of their apps to a small percentage of their user base.

The feature was first revealed at Google I/O earlier in the year, and Google says that it will give developers the chance to test new features on a limited number of users before opting for a wider rollout.

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Apple has announced that all apps submitted to the App Store must have a privacy policy, including those apps which are undergoing beta testing.

The change is due to come into force on October 3, and after this date any app lacking a privacy policy that lets users know how their data is being used faces ejection from the App Store.

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To tie in with the launch of Android 9 Pie, Google has given a glimpse into the improvements it has made to the app store.

In a blog post aimed primarily at developers, the director of Google Play, Purnima Kochikar, said that improved discovery features had helped to boost visits to the store by 30 percent while new tools helped to dramatically reduce crash rates. Google also points to new techniques which have enabled it to reduce app size by up to 65 percent.

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