Free Software

CERN -- the European Organization for Nuclear Research best known for its particle smashing Large Hadron Collider -- has decided to eschew Microsoft in favor of open source software.

For many years, CERN benefited from hefty discounts on Microsoft products, but this is coming to an end. Rather than paying hugely increased licensing fees, the organization is instead implementing its own Microsoft Alternatives project, known as MAlt. CERN says it is "taking back control using open software".

Bern software developer iterate GmbH has unveiled Cyberduck 7.0, a major new release of its free FTP/WebDAV/cloud client for Windows and Mac. The tool allows users to browse, download, upload and share files via its Explorer/Finder-like window.

Version 7.0’s big new feature is support for segmented downloads, with the promise of quicker, more stable downloads. It also expands sharing options for various cloud storage connections.

Let's face it, most of us don’t lose data that often, but when you do, it takes time to scurry around and find a tool to attempt recovery. Time is important for finding deleted files. The more often your computer writes to the drive, the less likely you’ll be able to recover data.

Although it’s rare for a hard drive to fail or for an individual to 'accidentally' delete important data you need in the future, once it happens, you’ll want software to help you recover, swiftly.

Backing up your data is hugely important. You could just rely on the cloud, but this means you need to remember to keep the files synchronized and you might not want to store your most important personal information there. Would you want your accounts and tax records in the cloud?

The solution is a backup tool where you can configure the data you want to back up, when you want to perform the backup, and the location. You can then simply leave the tool to action your request.

When we think about streaming a movie, our first thought is Apple iTunes, Netflix or Amazon Prime. We rush to sign up to these services, pay our monthly fee, and then search through old movies to keep ourselves entertained on a rainy public holiday.

But what did you do with all those old DVDs you had (or have) lying around? One solution would be to set up your own network-based media server, rip your old discs and watch on demand. Better still, as DVDs are increasingly unpopular, even movies released a few months ago are available at seriously discounted prices, meaning you can pick up quality movies for a fraction of the original price.

People sometimes forget, but The Sims was a revolutionary game when it was first released. The innovative game essentially allowed you to play God, controlling characters on the screen. It was really unique -- almost like Sim City, but instead of a city, you simulated humans/life. Hardcore gamers often turned their noses up at the game, while many casual gamers enjoyed it immensely. In fact, over 100 million copies of games from the franchise have been sold since the initial release in the year 2000.

The fourth (and most recent) major version of the game, The Sims 4, remains wildly popular today, and it is available for Windows, macOS, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. And now, for a limited time, both the Windows and macOS versions of the game are totally FREE!

There are plenty of applications you can use to view and print PDF files, including Microsoft Edge. Some of them offer editing features, but they are usually a bit limited.

PDF Shaper is a collection of tools which will let you merge and split PDF files, rotate and crop pages, extract text and images, edit metadata, add a page number watermark, and convert PDFs to images (and vice versa) or to text.

By now you’ve heard the news: WhatsApp is currently rolling out an urgent update to all app users to close a major vulnerability that leaves unpatched phones at risk of being targeted by hackers. WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, and if you plan to stick with the platform, don’t wait for an update notification: access your phone’s app store now to force install the update.

Except maybe now is the time to go one step further: perhaps it’s the perfect opportunity to switch to a different messaging platform. One that’s not owned by one of the major tech companies, is equally -- if not more -- secure, and which works on more than just your phone. Enter stage left, Telegram, and stage right, Signal.

Can you ever have enough security? We often wonder after being told what our users have installed. It’s not unknown for people to have a full security suite alongside a second on-demand scanner and additional browser plugins warning them of potentially malicious websites.

As individuals tend to stick with a security suite which has worked for them in the past and, as long as their system isn’t compromised, continue to pay for a yearly subscription. With this in mind, developers are adding functionality to enable their security tools to run alongside and not interfere with your daily use. These are on-demand scanners where you’d need to schedule a scan or manually run a scan when required.

Good website security is essential to give customers confidence in your business, but for smaller organizations testing can prove difficult.

To address this issue, security testing and risk rating company ImmuniWeb is launching a free website security test that can be used by anyone.

Comodo has unveiled its 2019 security line-up with the release of Comodo Internet Security 2019 Free, Pro and Premium. Also released are Comodo Antivirus Free 2019 and Comodo Firewall Free 2019.

All editions are compatible with PCs running Windows 7 or later, but the new release debuts a brand new component exclusive to the full Internet Security Suite: Secure Shopping, a sandboxed environment inside which applications can be run invisible to -- and beyond the reach of -- malware.

On 15 April, a fire broke out on the roof of Notre-Dame, in Paris, France. The iconic cathedral, which survived both World Wars largely unscathed, was severely damaged. Much of the 850-year old Gothic building's roof and the historic spire were completely destroyed, but thankfully the main building was saved.

A restoration fund has been started, and to raise awareness for it, French video game publisher Ubisoft is giving away the PC copy of Assassin’s Creed Unity for a limited time, and has also pledged €500,000 ($565,000) towards repairs.

The battle to encrypt data securely rages on, with developments in quantum computing mirrored by hackers’ ever more creative attempts to break encryption. Ironically, one form of encryption resistant to all forms of hacking -- One Time Pad (OTP) -- dates from the 19th century.

Symmetric OTP works by generating encryption from a key file -- the larger the better -- which renders all attempts to decrypt the data useless without access to said key file. And FinalCrypt, available for Windows, Mac and Linux -- indeed any Java-capable computer can run the tool, brings the technology to any computer user.

Ransomware and other threats like adware and cryptominers are still a major threat to businesses. But smaller companies may be struggling to find the resources to combat them.

To address this problem Kaspersky Lab is today releasing the next generation of its free Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business.

Install software on your computer and you’ll be forgiven for not having the spare time to search for updates. Most applications do not have a software update facility, so unless you go checking, you’ll often never know it’s been updated.

With this in mind, and software developers running out of key ideas to add to future revisions to encourage paid upgrades, we’re seeing 'Software Updater' tools being released to the market or added to system maintenance applications. IObit recently released a standalone Software Updater tool this year which we wrote about this month.