Free Tools To Secure Windows Against Malware

Today we're showcasing a selection of free security and anti-malware apps, tools and utilities to keep your Windows PC running safe and smooth.

Everyone wants a secure operating system. No one likes to have a computer infected with malware that slows down the PC, destroys files or steals sensitive information. Often, that operating system isn't very secure by default. If it's also a highly popular OS, such as Windows, then more tools are needed to enhance its security, simply because its default defenses will be targeted and bypassed by more attackers. 

There's no Security Magic Bullet . . .




There's no security magic bullet, but using multiple layers of security can drastically lower the chance that your system will become infected by malware or be attacked by malicious hackers.

Some security tools are free, some are easy to use and others are so complex that a normal PC user couldn't possibly figure them out. What most PC users want is for their system to be protected "automatically" with minimal effort on their part. They don't want to tinker too much with complicated programs, and they would prefer not to pay too much extra to secure their computers.

I often help friends and family — usually, people who aren’t very technical — set up their new PCs and Windows installations. They always seem to ask me to "install an antivirus" as well. They know that there needs to be some "extra" protection on their PC to truly keep them safe, but they don't really understand what exactly is needed to achieve that. Therefore, they ask for a program that everyone knows protects PCs against "bad stuff" — an antivirus.

What they really mean, though, is that they want their PCs to be safe, regardless of which app or tool achieves that, as long as they don't have to bother with it after everything is set up. As such, I've looked for tools that offer as much protection as possible that are accessible by the vast majority of people. (It helps that the tools I've chosen are also free.)

In fact, most of the tools I'm going to mention require only slight or no tinkering at all after installation, or are very easy to use even by nontechnical users.

Some more advanced and complex software may offer stronger protections, but if the users don't understand how to use it properly, or they don't want to take the time to learn how to do it, they might just end up uninstalling it to save themselves the headaches.

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Proactively Disarming Most Malware

Tools like antivirus software try to solve a problem after the fact, meaning they detect the virus or malware after they're already in your PC. Antiviruses exist only because the underlying operating systems aren't very secure by default and make the existence of viruses or malware possible in the first place.

But that doesn't mean the operating systems are fully to blame for that, as sometimes, some security compromises are necessary to benefit usability. Also, software bugs will always exist, and attackers will always take advantage of them. However, the point is to make the systems as secure as possible by default, to limit the vast majority of easy attacks on PCs.

One of the main reasons Windows Vista and Windows 7 were much more secure than Windows XP is that Microsoft limited, by default, software's capabilities within the OS. The User Access Control (UAC) system implemented in Vista limited how apps could interact with one another and, therefore, how malware could interact with apps.

This level of control made Windows Vista and future versions of Windows much more secure. But UAC doesn't go far enough. Expert attackers can still bypass it when the users are, by default, in an Administrator account instead of a Standard account.

Switching to a Standard account in Windows also means that, if that particular Standard account is infected with viruses or other malware, it won't affect other accounts on the computer, and the damage will be more contained. If the users are in the Administrator account when they get infected, the malware could affect the whole Windows installation.

Windows requires at least one Administrator account, which means that if you create only one account at installation, it will be the Administrator account. That account will give you, as well as malware (that manages to bypass the UAC), full privileges to the operating system.

On the other hand, if malware infects a Standard account, it will be limited by the privileges of that Standard account, and won't be able to do much else. Therefore, making a separate Standard account should significantly increase your protection and disarm most malware by default.

Switching To A Standard Account

Ideally, you should create both the Administrator account and the Standard account when you have a fresh installation of Windows. Then, use only the Standard account, and keep the Administrator account clean. The Administrator account will require you to set up a password, which you'll be prompted to enter every time you do something in your PC that requires Administrator privileges (such as installing a new program).
If you've already installed plenty of software on your default account and don't want to start over with a new account, here's what to do:

1. Create a new Administrator account.
2. Enter that account.
3. Go to Control Panel.
4. Go to "Change an account type."
5. Click on the original Administrator account, and change its type to Standard.

This will turn your previous default Administrator account into a Standard account, making it much safer than before. It will switch UAC settings to the highest level and will now require the password of the second Administrator account whenever you need to perform an Administrator-level task (such as installing an application).

EMET

EMET is one of my favorite security tools because it protects against a wide array of vulnerabilities in software that arise from poorly written code (which can be found in most apps). It offers many protections against zero-day vulnerabilities that malware authors like to use to infect people's PCs by bypassing built-in Windows security systems such as the UAC.

One of the nice things about EMET is that it's not the type of software to bug you about stuff; it's mostly just "set it and forget it." By default, you can choose the "Recommended settings," but unless you use Java, which usually crashes under EMET, then you can probably safely use EMET with Maximum security settings as well. If you find it causes too many problems with some of your apps, you can revert back to the "Recommended security settings" later on.

Automatic OS And App Updates

This is where EMET can help greatly. But even so, it's a good idea to stay up-to-date and get the fixes as soon as possible to protect your system from vulnerabilities that many other malware creators can use after the vulnerabilities become widely known. To ensure you don't forget to install the updates, it's best to have them set to install automatically. The same goes for any apps that you might use; it's preferable to update them as soon as possible.

Anti-Malware Tools

There may be significantly fewer viruses now than in the days of Windows XP, but they still exist today, thanks to zero-day vulnerabilities and users who get tricked into clicking or installing something that infects them. An antivirus can still be useful to protect against popular viruses that have spread on other computers. The antivirus companies have learned about them and have updated their own databases to stop those viruses from infecting other PCs.
There are several free, useful tools that do a decent job of protecting PC users from viruses. Each one protects the PC in a slightly different way, which makes them work well together.

Avira

Until Windows 8 was released, I would have recommended Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus because it used to be one of the best free antiviruses out there, and it was also the easiest to use (the same "set it and forget it" principle). But after it started coming preinstalled in Windows 8, I've noticed that it has become much less effective at catching viruses, both from sites that benchmark the effectiveness of antiviruses as well as from personal experience. (Avira would catch malware that Windows Defender wouldn't, for example.)

 

Avira also used to be more annoying, with an almost-full-screen pop-up ad that appeared once a day. However, these days, the pop-up appears only in a corner, and is much smaller and less obtrusive, so it hardly bothers me at all.

Germany-based Avira also has been consistently at the top of the rankings for both free and paid antivirus software. It may not be the very best out there, but for a free antivirus, it's good enough. Much like the old MSE, you don't have to tinker with it, and you almost forget it exists on your PC until it catches some malware and alerts you to it. Unlike most other antiviruses, it's also quite lightweight in terms of resource consumption.

Avira also has some nice extra features, such as automatic blocking of "autorun" executables from external media devices (such as a DVD or USB), so it should protect you from automatically getting infected when inserting someone else's DVDs or USBs into your PC. It also protects against malicious changes to Windows' "hosts" file.

Malwarebytes

There are viruses and other types of malware — such as ransomware, Trojans, spyware, adware, and exploits — that an antivirus might not catch. Malwarebytes is generally the most recommended free tool to help catch the type of malware that your antivirus might ignore. 

Malwarebytes does have one major weakness: It doesn't automatically scan or catch such malware in the free version; you have to scan manually every time to check your PC for malware. Scanning about once a week should do the trick, though. In case something got through the other defenses, at least it won't have very long to do much damage.

Tools For Safe Web Browsing

Most people need only the browser, most of the time, for entertainment or work. That means browser security is almost as important as the security of the underlying operating system.

Chrome

Right now, the most secure Web browser available by default is Google's Chrome. Whether that will change in a year, two or five, however, remains to be seen. Nonetheless, Chrome consistently comes out on top in browser hacking competitions. 

That doesn't just happen by accident. Chrome has a strong sandbox system that isolates every tab or extension into its own process. This can lead to an increase in memory usage that many people have complained about; however, it gives a great advantage in both security and processing performance (because each process can be run independently by the CPU, avoiding browser lags).
When each Web app or extension is isolated as much as possible from the others, it dramatically restricts the damage any website can do to your browser or your PC.

• Download Chrome

WOT

WOT is a nice little browser extension that allows people who use it to rate how secure a website is on the Web. It's essentially crowdsourced malware protection. While more technical users may be more careful about what links they click on, most regular Internet users might not, and they could be going to unsafe sites.

WOT attempts to warn users about bad sites and green-light the safe ones. It's a tool that comes in handy, especially on websites such as Google and Twitter, where you may see many links but don't know how trustworthy some of them are.
These days, most browsers come with their own filters for malware websites, but you only get warned when you've already clicked on the link. I like the "prewarning" WOT gives on links as well.

• Download WOT

HTTPS Everywhere

HTTPS adoption has been increasing rapidly, but some sites may still default to plain-text HTTP connections, which are not secure — both from a privacy standpoint (others can intercept your traffic) and a security point of view (you can be attacked more easily through nonsecure connections).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has built a tool called HTTPS Everywhere that ensures all websites connect over HTTPS as long as those websites support HTTPS (but doesn't redirect most users to it).

HTTPS Everywhere also acts as some sort of user-centric alternative to the HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) protocol, which mandates that the connection is done over HTTPS. However, most HTTPS websites don't "strictly" enforce their HTTPS connections, which could make some man-in-the-middle attacks easier by downgrading the connection to HTTP.

The extension also recently received a feature that could be very useful: the option to connect only to HTTPS sites and block all requests that happen over HTTP (such as third-party trackers that can work over plain HTTP even on top of an HTTPS site, therefore weakening its overall security).

However, unless you visit only a handful of HTTPS websites every day, then enabling this might be a little too inconvenient for the casual Web user for now. When most popular websites are HTTPS, then users could fully secure themselves by enabling that feature as well.

• Download HTTPS Everywhere

 

OpenDNS

OpenDNS' "Enhanced DNS" free service is another great security tool you can use to protect against websites that are infected with malware either intentionally or by getting hacked by malicious attackers. All you have to do is replace the DNS addresses with the ones provided by OpenDNS, and you'll benefit from an extra layer of security. 

The aforementioned tools are not a 100-percent foolproof solution for Windows security, but together, they offer a reasonably high level of security for users who don't want to struggle to learn how to use more advanced and complicated tools. They're also completely free. 

Most of the aforementioned tools require only installation or an initial setup. After that, they "invisibly" protect users behind the scenes, which is just about ideal for the vast majority of Windows PC owners.

Source : tomshardware

 

Free video editing software

A lot of free video editing software is very limited in its options or just does not do the exact job you want it to do. The most famous free video editing software is probably Windows Movie Maker. While this editing software used to be really outdated and very limited in its functions, nowadays it is one of the (if not the) most used free video editing software on the market. Windows Movie Maker is, of course, only available for windows users. Apple users can use their free version of a moviemaker called iMovie, which has the same set of basic functions, but is only available on Macbooks, iPads and iPhones.

The basic functions

To get the most out of a free video editing software, you’ve got the know the basic functions these programs offer. Windows Movie Maker, as well as iMovie, offer enough basic options to make great movies. When you want to edit your new vacation photo’s into an appealing movie, or want to edit a movie you’ve made with your camera, these programs will do fine! To explain the basic functionalities of this free video editing software, we will discuss the most crucial parts of these programs here!

Movie Maker

Windows movie maker exists for as long as Microsoft is releasing new windows versions since Windows XP. While a lot of professional video editors disfavour the program because of the lack of advanced functionality, it is a perfect start for beginners. With this free video editing software you can:

• Cut your existing video’s and split them up.
• Speed up or slow down your  movies
• Add transition in between movie parts
• Choose a theme, which will add titles, credits and transitions for you
• Add music and let it fade in or out
• Change volumes of music and audio

iMovie

The other free video editing software we would like to highlight is iMovie, the counterpart of Movie Maker, but for Apple products. To show some of its functionalities:

• Choose a theme to start from, including matching titles and transitions
• Create trailers Hollywood style
• Usable on your Macbook, iPad and iPhone

Play your movies

Is your newly created movie not working with the standard mediaplayer you are always using? Try installing a Codec Pack to let your mediaplayer recognise all kind of movie files. The best available pack is our favourite K-Lite codec.

The K-Lite Mega Codec Pack also contains several VFW encoders, such as x264 and Xvid, that you can use with compatible video editors.

HTML5 Tips for Optimizing Speed

HTML5 brings many great features and benefits to the table, but one of the most often overlooked features is one that has become increasingly important from a visitor usability standpoint and, as Google recently stated, from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective. This ability to increase page load times and decrease server loads is the very subject of today's HTML5 development article.

HTML5 Best Practices for Speed Optimization

We live in a fast food world. The lumbering beast once known as "Patience" has steadily been defeated by the hand of almighty technology. Gone are the days of slow and steady wins the race. Today, more than ever, speed is everything. This applies to everything - whether that be cooking a delicious corn dog or surfing the web for the latest celebrity gossip. The world no longer wants a story - they want sound bites. The faster the better. If you are like me, you may remember logging onto the Internet before "The Internet" - the old bulletin board systems (BBS). You would dial-up with your old 1200kbs modem and wait patiently for the screech and clang symphony of sweet connected bliss. Your reward for this patience? A bunch of text with no real images (maybe some ascii characters arranged to look like a picture) and certainly no videos. Ah, those were the days. Today, however, websites must be more than mere text. They must be media rich and tech savvy. At the same time, they cannot sacrifice function or speed. We Internet users want our cake and want to eat it too. Factor in the dawn of the mobilization of the Internet, and it is more important than ever to adhere to web development best practices, particularly when it comes to speed optimization and server load times. To help you in this endeavor, below are some tips for optimizing HTML5 websites for mobile and desktop users.

Prioritize Assets

When a user visits a web page - be it via a desktop computer, tablet, or mobile device, all of the content a user sees without having to scroll down at all, is known as above-the-fold content. Any part of the page that requires the user to scroll down is known as below-the-fold. Best web practices dictate that any content (text, image, media, etc) that are above the fold should render (ideally) without requiring numerous trips back to the server and the user's computer. This is especially true for visitors with mobile browsers, as their network speed and browser speed is likely less than that of their desktop and home networks. There are several steps you can take to prioritize any above-the-fold content. For starters, you can reduce the amount of assets that are resource intensive, such as large, high resolution images. Another way to reduce the amount of resources needed is to structure your HTML5 code in such a way that it loads all of your important, above-the-fold assets and content first, then load up everything below-the-fold.

Minify Your Resources

As seasoned coders, sometimes we like to experiment with page elements, sometimes on-the-fly. Maybe we implement a new portion of code and comment out older, less efficient code, opting to "hide" the code rather than remove it completely, just in case we need it in the future, or your new fix causes problems you did not foresee. Nothing wrong with that. What tends to happen to the best of us, more often than not, is that we forget to go back and remove all of that unused code. This pads up our files and is sloppy coding practice. When we talk about minifying resources, we are specifically discussing the art of minification. That is, remove any and all code or data that is either a duplicate of existing code, or is (for all intents and purposes) unused. It also includes removing extraneous comments in our code, whitespace, unnecessary formats, and even creating variable and function names that are shorter. Essentially, whatever you can do to shorten your code and ease the burden on the web browser. Minifying code includes HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript as well.

Enable Compression on Your Web Server

Finally, setup gzip compression on your web server to help reduce the page load time (sometimes you can actually increase your site's speed by upwards of 90%). There are many resources available on the web that can show you how to enable compression - no matter what type of server you use - and that discuss the benefits of gzip compression. A quick Google search should have you up and running in no time!

Source : - htmlgoodies

The Paper app can now transform my terrible drawings into slick presentations

My drawing abilities stopped evolving some time around the third grade, so I tend to avoid situations where I need to sketch something out for other people, especially if it has to happen as part of a live conversation. My debilitating lack of artistic skill is the reason I was intrigued by Think Kit, a new set of tools for the Paper app from FiftyThree. It uses the company's patented Intuition Engine to translate my wobbly circles and miserable sense of scale into a sharp-looking flow chart or Venn diagram.

Paper is one of our favorite drawing apps, perhaps not the best for professionals, but certainly for the casual user. For a while it was one of the top grossing apps on iPad, and critically acclaimed by creative types. But the company has been shifting to target the enterprise and education markets, which means figuring out ways to help people be capital P "Productive." It's also changing up its business model, making all its software free and hoping to earn its money by selling its Pencil stylus.

"The Think Kit tools are aimed at people who do a lot of sketching and white boarding, but aren't artists by trade and maybe don't always feel comfortable," said Bill Morein, the company's head of product. "The most common thing we would hear when showing people the Paper is, well I can't draw so this isn't for me."

I tried the new features out at FiftyThree's office in Lower Manhattan. It took a little while to learn some of the tricks you need to help the software understand what you're after. Closing off your shapes transforms them into beautiful, orderly units, but if I was sketching too loosely, they remained my normal, sloppy polygons. Creating arrows requires you to leave a lingering press on the screen to generate a discrete connector instead of a random line. These little rules were easy to learn, and I was soon sketching at the speed of thought.

There are limitations to Think Kit, though. While the original teaser images showed bar charts, you can't really input data or craft things at a particular ratio. The software helps you to communicate ideas, but it won't convert a spreadsheet into something pleasing to the eye. Still, FiftyThree is hopeful that these new tools will make it an attractive option for presentation in boardrooms and classrooms where it might also sell a lot of Pencils.

Source : - theverge

How to overclock your graphics card and make PC games run faster

The need for speed is real when it comes to PC games, where raw performance has a truly palpable effect on your experience’s look and feel. Gamers are always looking for ways to increase the performance of their systems, be it through updated drivers or software tweaks, game patches, or even warranty-busting modifications.

New, more powerful hardware is usually needed for the largest performance gains. But regular hardware upgrades can get really expensive, really fast. If you don’t have the budget for new gear or are just looking for a bit of an edge, overclocking the hardware you already own can be a great (and free!) option. Processors, system memory, and graphics cards can all be overclocked to boost the performance of a system—sometimes to a large extent. But for games, it’s the graphics card that typically has the largest impact on performance, assuming the system already has a decent processor and adequate memory inside.

Intrigued? We’ll walk you through overclocking two graphics cards, using some easy-to-use, free tools that’ll work on a wide range of hardware. With some patience and a little know-how, an overclocked graphics card—and ultimately a higher-performing system—is only a few clicks away.

Before you begin

There are a few important things to consider before overclocking your graphics card, like cooling, power requirements, and general system stability.

By definition, overclocking a graphics card means running it above its stock GPU and memory frequencies, which will result in higher power usage and heat output. The coolers used on most of today’s gaming-oriented cards typically have some built-in headroom to accommodate at least some level of overclocking, but if your card or system already run hot, additional cooling may be required.

System temperatures can be monitored using any number of tools. Most motherboard manufacturers have utilities available to read the thermal sensors on their boards, and your system BIOS will report hardware health data. The GPU-tweaking utilities we mention a little later will all report GPU temps as well. Where the “right” peak temperature lies for each GPU will vary from card to card, but typically, you’ll want to keep it around or below the 90-degree Celsius mark.

As we’ve just mentioned, overclocking a graphics card will result in increased power consumption simply because it requires more juice to run the card’s GPU and memory at higher frequencies. As such, if you’re already flirting with the upper limits of your power supply (PSU), overclocking may tip it over the edge and cause system instability, or worse—damage the PSU.

If the recommended PSU for your graphics card is 500 watts, for example, and that’s what is installed in your system, you may exceed its capacity while overclocking. It’s more likely that you have some headroom, however, because the rest of the components in typical systems shouldn’t consume that much power. It couldn’t hurt to check, though. Cheap power meters that get plugged in between your PSU’s power cable and wall outlet will tell you how much power your rig is using. If your system consumes significantly less than your PSU’s rating, you’ll probably be fine. This handy-dandy PSU wattage calculatorcan also help you spitball the approximate power usage of your PC.

Your system should also be perfectly stable and fully functional before overclocking. A flaky or unstable system, even if it only occasionally acts up, could be a sign of a marginal component, and overclocking may push it to the point of failure.

Before you begin, we’d also suggest updating your graphics drivers and measuring graphics performance to ensure that the overclocks are resulting in worthwhile gains. If your overclock doesn’t yield good results in your favorite titles, but your system is running hotter and louder as a result, it may not be worth the effort. The latest drivers often resolve performance issues with newly released games as well.

Finally, keep in mind that overclocking may shorten the lifespan of your graphics card, especially if you crank up the GPU voltage to push frequencies to the extreme. Not touching your voltage and keeping max temperatures lower can help reduce the potential wear and tear of overclocking. Another word of warning: Depending on your card’s model and manufacturer, overclocking may technically void your warranty.

Got it? Good. Let’s dig in.

Overclocking tools

A number of hardware makers and independent software developers offer free tools for overclocking graphics cards.

AMD builds a tool dubbed Overdrive right into its Catalyst driver suite, which you can find nestled in the performance tab in the Catalyst Control Panel software. EVGA offers a tool it calls Precision, Gigabyte has its OC Guru utility, Sapphire has Trixx, and MSI offers its Afterburner utility, among numerous others. All of these tools are available as free downloads, and many work with a wide range of graphics cards, not just cards from that particular manufacturer.

Source : - pcworld

Windows 10 or Ubuntu: Which will be the one OS to rule them all?

As the proprietary and open-source systems battle for mobile and PC users, what are the prospects for these two champions of converged computing? 

As sales of tablets and phones continue to outstrip demand for PCs, the technology industry is preparing for a shift in how people use computers.

The expectation is that phones and tablets will begin to be used as desktop PCs, a change that will force a fundamental redesign of software.

Instead of operating systems and applications having a single interface, apps will alter their look and controls to reflect how they are being used. For example, a UI that favours large, easily-tappable buttons on a touchscreen tablet might switch to tightly-packed icons when the tablet is used with a monitor and a mouse.

The idea was dubbed convergence by Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu operating system, when it launched the idea for a phone that would double as a PC in 2013.

The crowdfunding campaign for the Ubuntu Edge phone failed, but Canonical remains committed to transforming Ubuntu into an OS that adapts its interface according to its use.

Microsoft is promising a similar approach with Windows 10, taking time at its recent Build conference to detail how its forthcoming OS will offer a equally flexible UI.

Windows 10 will feature Continuum mode, which will detect when mobile devices are docked with a mouse and keyboard and reorient the UI to suit. The other major feature will be support for what Microsoft calls universal apps, applications that share their core code but that can switch their interface to be equally usable on desktops, phones, tablets and even augmented reality headsets.

With both Windows and Ubuntu being remodelled around convergence, how are both likely to fare as Microsoft and Canonical bid to be at the vanguard of the next wave of computing?

Windows

Hardware expertise: Microsoft's $7.2bn acquisition of Finnish handset maker Nokia gives it a hardware arm that can produce phones and tablets that show off the capabilities of Windows 10.

Redmond is reportedly working on two high-end phones that will act as a flagship for the OS - with top-of-the-range specs, including a 5.7-inch QHD display, Qualcomm octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 20-megapixel camera.

In contrast, the first Ubuntu phone to appear had fairly middling hardware, comparable to a mid-range Android device. And in a speech on Monday, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth also confirmed that the first Ubuntu handset to offer a converged phone-desktop OS would not be the "biggest, baddest workstation".

More features: Beyond the promise of apps that scale their interface to suit many different sized-devices, Windows 10 will integrate additional services and control schemes that work across desktops and mobile.

Chief among these cross-platform services is Cortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant that can set appointments, search for information and answer rudimentary queries.

With its universal apps platform, Microsoft also seems to be providing a toolkit for designing software whose interface will tailor its controls and appearance to suit a wide range of devices.

Established user base: While Windows might be a distant third when it comes to mobile market share, it is still the dominant OS on the desktop.

That name recognition might persuade those looking for a mobile device to replace their desktop to stick with what they know - particularly among enterprises where the Windows brand is still strong.

As well known as Ubuntu is in Linux circles, it has very little desktop penetration, with Linux-based operating systems as a whole accounting for just over one percent of PC users worldwide.

Control over flagship software: Microsoft has the advantage of developing Windows marquee software titles, such as its Office suite.

This in-house control has allowed Microsoft to redesign Microsoft Office as touch-friendly universal apps.

In contrast, Canonical doesn't have the same internal control over development of key software on Ubuntu, with its developers numbering among the many contributors to major open-source software such as LibreOffice.

Open to iPhone and Android apps: At its recent Build conference, Microsoft announced plans that it hopes will bring iPhone and Android apps to Windows 10.

Developers will be able to port iOS and Android applications to Windows 10 without the need to rewrite the bulk of the code.

By opening the door to the millions of applications running on the world's most popular mobile platforms, Microsoft has bolstered Windows 10's chances of having the apps that users want.

Ubuntu

First to market? It seems Ubuntu may beat Windows 10 and be the first converged PC-phone operating system out of the door.

The first Ubuntu phone that doubles as a desktop will be "released this year", according to an announcement by Canonical's Shuttleworth this week.

That could place the open-source OS ahead of Windows 10. Microsoft is expected torelease Windows 10 on x86 PCs and tablets in July this year but will launch the OS on phones, small tablets, Xbox, and Hololens at unspecified later dates.

However, Canonical has previously missed dates for delivering a converged Ubuntu OS.

Price: The first Ubuntu phone to launch was the relatively modestly-priced Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition smartphone.

Shuttleworth has said the first Ubuntu phone to run as a phone and a desktop PC will be suited to casual rather than power users. While these so-so specs might be a deterrent to some, they could also indicate a price sufficiently low to tempt people to give it a try - particularly if its performance is good enough to meet their needs.

Novel UI: Ubuntu blurs the line between online and local content and demonstrates a bold direction for a converged Ubuntu OS.

This approach is particularly apparent on Ubuntu phones, where the OS is built around Scopes - full-screen menus that group together related content of interest to you. This content can be stored on the phone or available via online services. For example, a music Scope would show music on your phone, on the SoundCloud music-sharing or the GrooveShark music-streaming services and on YouTube, with each section able to expand into an app to play music or explore more tracks.

Organising an operating system around the interests of the user and ignoring the distinction between online and offline content shows how future Ubuntu releases could go a step beyond the dynamic content Windows 10 will offer with its Live Tiles.

Abundance of open-source apps: Although the appeal of open source goes far beyond getting software for nothing, the wide range of high-quality, free open-source software that runs on Linux operating systems can't be ignored.

While many of the bigger open-source projects also run on Windows, Ubuntu comes with an abundance of free software that can downloaded directly from the Dash desktop search or the terminal.

Customisable: With Windows, to a large extent you're stuck with the operating system that Microsoft gives you.

With Ubuntu, like other Linux distros, if you don't like something about the operating system, you can generally swap it out with a few terminal commands.

Source : - techrepublic

Five Reasons Your Company Hasn't Adopted ERM Software, and Five Reasons it Should

The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) has released two executive reports, "Why a Mature ERM Effort is Worth the Investment" and "Testing Value Creation through ERM Maturity." Together, these reports look at recent findings that detail the benefits of investing in enterprise risk management.

Despite evidence that mature ERM programs add significant value, many organizations remain hesitant when it comes to adopting a software and streamlining their ERM processes.

Below, we have outlined the five most common reasons these companies may be wary of implementing ERM software. We have provided a response to each concern, working to illustrate the true value of investing in an improved enterprise risk management program.

1. "There's no return on investment when purchasing ERM software."

The RIMS report 'Why a Mature ERM Effort is Worth the Investment,' cites an independent studyconducted by Queen's University Management School and University of Edinburgh Business School in an effort to answer the question many executives ask - "is improving our ERM program worth the investment?"

The answer? Yes. Or as they wrote, there is "a highly significant premium of 25% for firms that had been classified as having 'mature ERM' according to the RIMS Risk Maturity Model." This fact - that an organization's value can increase 25% through improving its ERM program - is one that should catch the attention of executives, board members, and risk professionals alike.

2. "We already have an ERM program."

This is another very common objection, and one that seems to hold value at first glance. If the organization's risk management program has spent years storing data in Microsoft Excel and conducting risk assessments in Word, what's the issue?

An ERM program consisting of spreadsheets and PDFs is not dynamic. For example, the relationship between a certain risk and the board's strategic goals is difficult to document in Excel, and essentially impossible to monitor as the organization evolves. Relationships exist between risks, controls, metrics, and resources, and it takes a robust ERM software to manage these links and provide insight to risk managers.

As Farrell and Gallagher's findings indicate, it isn't just organizations with very young or undeveloped enterprise risk management programs that stand to benefit. All organizations, even those with already Repeatable and Managed programs, see increased firm value as ERM maturity progresses. Rather than settling, a company with a robust and established ERM program has significant reason to pursue the Leadership level of ERM maturity by adopting a software to support their processes.

3. "It would add work to our day-to-day operations, plus we don't have resources to adopt a new system."

This is a concern typically voiced by risk managers or CROs. By nature, risk management is a very demanding and time consuming field; many risk professionals think an ERM software would take up the free time they already don't have.

In truth, ERM software provides a centralized platform for all the activities you're already doing. It can act as the centralized hub for your entire enterprise risk program. The risk assessments you send out, the mitigation activities you carry out and document, and the reports you're working to create are all housed in a single platform. ERM software isn't simply a database where you document processes and store your data; it serves as a vehicle for you to make these processes more efficient and gain insight into the data you've been collecting.

4. "Exposing risk forces us to spend time and money on things we don't have to worry about today."

This concern - that companies shouldn't uncover risk that they're better off not knowing about - is clearly outdated. But it likely still exists in the minds of executives and risk professionals worldwide. There is the idea that "ignorance is bliss" and "what we don't know can't hurt us."

These sayings have no place in risk management, and regulatory agencies would agree. Major regulatory bodies such as the SEC and FINRA have adopted a new approach coming out of the recent recession. Claiming ignorance - or not knowing about a risk - is now equally punishable (and as heavily penalized) as negligence. The investment in ERM software can even mitigate penalties that may result from a negative examination, as evidenced by the regulatory penaltiespaid by companies over the last several years.

5. "ERM software is a want, not a need."

The notion that ERM software is more of a luxury than a necessity seems to encompass the previous four reasons. Board members may have the misconception that investing in enterprise risk management doesn't help a company financially. Executives often believe it would add work, and isn't absolutely necessary to their program. And CROs may recognize the range of software solutions already utilized by the company, asking "Why add one more?"

As we have outlined, enterprise risk management software serves the exact opposite purpose. It reduces wasted resources by consolidating things like risk management, compliance, and audit onto a single platform. ERM streamlines existing activities and data by adopting a universal, risk based methodology. Finally, ERM software is no longer a luxury item. Heavy fines for negligence continue being handed down to organizations with outdated processes.

Source : - ebizq

ANSYS Leaps HPC Cloud Software License Barrier

For those who want to run high performance computing applications in the public cloud, there are limited options, but not for the reasons one might expect. Cloud providers like Amazon, for instance, have gone to great lengths to kick users the right hardware and networks for these applications and the business model for spotty HPC use has been widely discussed as a viable, more desirable alternative to the massive in-house cluster if demand is occasional.

The real problem with bringing HPC applications to the cloud has little to do with roadblocks technology-wise. Rather, it is the thorny problem of software licensing that has stalled HPC cloud adoption with few companies offering HPC software taking the first steps to find a flexible model for pricing that rolls with the on-demand, scalable nature of the cloud.

This is problematic for smaller companies who either want to pop off the workstation for more horsepower or who simply don’t specialize in HPC and need to run a quick set of demanding HPC tasks without bothering with on-site hardware. In other words, the ability for smaller companies to quickly onboard with high-end engineering packages they’re used to using in a pay-as-you go sort of cloud environment is struck down—leaving smaller companies who have hit a workstation wall but that have large-scale simulations to run with the decision to either procure and maintain a power-hungry cluster or use an HPC on demand service, which is less nimble scalability and options-wise.

With all this in mind, when the news came in today that engineering and simulation software maker, ANSYS, was going to put its code into a public cloud environment, the first thought was that this would be one of the only complex modeling and simulation environments one could spin up on Amazon Web Services nodes through the web giant’s marketplace. This would be an interesting move because for the most part, licenses for HPC simulation (and other) software have not stayed current by offering licenses that scale with the spiky demand and flow of cloud deployments. The ANSYS Enterprise Cloud, which is at the heart of the company’s announcement today, takes the idea of HPC licenses for cloud to interesting heights–but perhaps not the way one might expect.

What ANSYS has done is more of a half-step toward gearing their licenses for Amazon users. In the end, however, this might not be such a bad thing since ANSYS and Amazon as partners are handling the provisioning of the right-sized cluster and configuration for a user’s workload. In essence, as director of strategic partnerships at ANSYS, Barb Hutchings, described to The Platform, users are billed for both Amazon consumption and the ANSYS cloud licensing separately, but the behind the scenes complexity of setting the cluster up for the workload is handled when the user submits the job through the ANSYS cloud gateway after also setting up a virtual private cloud (VPC) account on Amazon Web Services.

At this point, the user moves out of the way and lets ANSYS manage the setup and configuration of the VPC nodes for their software, obscuring the process and doing whatever license magic they have worked on with Amazon to make the price agreeable for both users and themselves. We still have no pricing data but needless to say, licenses for ANSYS are notoriously expensive, and it is likely that either way a user chooses to go (pay a local network license of $30,000 and up for ANSYS mechanical license, for instance) or run their engineering simulations in the cloud, it is not a cost-saving measure if carried out over the long haul, particularly if one adds extended AWS usage into the cost mix.

Here is the real benefit, though. For those who are using the AWS cloud for their ANSYS jobs, there are many options available that might not be present with an on-site cluster, including the ability to tap into GPU computing nodes on AWS or to use auto-scaling to make sure the job powers up and down only when and as needed. And naturally, it lets engineering organizations extend their reach and free up cluster resources for larger or more critical workloads. But for current ANSYS users, the golden words here are “your license goes with you wherever you run.” So, in other words, and with very little detail from ANSYS in terms of how this is managed on the back-end, an existing license can be used in the cloud, from an on-demand computing partner, and of course, inside the walls of an existing data center.

The ANSYS enterprise cloud is not seeking out that much discussed “missing middle” of industry (those who need HPC but have a difficult time on-boarding with it). Rather, those customers are being directed to HPC as a service partners that ANSYS works with through another program. This public cloud provisioning of ANSYS software is aimed at larger-scale enterprise users who rely heavily on simulation for mission-critical engineering and design tasks.

“ANSYS Enterprise Cloud is aimed at larger-scale enterprises using simulation,” explains Hutchings. “With wide and deep sim deployments, they enterprises have users in multiple locations who need access to big resources, and they have users all around that need software licenses. There’s been a paradigm shift from sim being deployed on every desktop to consolidating those into the datacenter for better access, collaboration, and management, and cloud is the next logical extension of that consolidation trend and the enterprise cloud we’re releasing is a path to adoption if they want to move ANSYS into a cloud.”

Among those large-scale users of simulation is drive manufacturer, HGST, which is one of a handful of early testers of the service. According to Steve Phillpott, chief information officer of the disk drive maker, “HGST sees the use of cloud computing as an important paradigm shift, providing increased business agility and the capacity when and where we need it. We are impressed that the ANSYS solution delivers the full end-to-end simulation process in the cloud, allowing us to maintain models, simulate and analyze results directly in our virtual private cloud (VPC) environment. Keeping everything in HGST’s VPC mitigates compliance, connectivity, performance and latency issues that are unique challenges for complex modeling and simulation workflows such as ours.”

Source : - theplatform

Indian Government Puts Greater Stress On Using Open Source Software

The software markets around the world are dominated by US based products. With the revelation of the NSA snooping on the data of major companies like Google, Microsoft and other players, the governments around the world have become vary of using such products. The Indian government too is taking measures to reduce the dominance of US based products in its workflow and hence has introduced a new Open Source Software(OSS) Policy.

With the use of open source software, the government intends to bring greater transparency. It is also looking to invest in propriety software for official functions. The development costs of OSS’s are also lower than the big brand software.

An official statement said that the new policy will be applicable to the central government institutions, and state governments will have to induct the policy when they upgrade their e-governance systems. It also added that under the Digital India program, the government intends to bring low-cost, but high-quality services to the citizens and OSS are an optimal way of going about with the plans.

All government institutions, under this policy, would have to consider OSS for implementing the E-governance model. The source code of these softwares will be available to community/adopter/end-user to study and modify the software. These softwares will also be “royalty-free.”

India’s stand for open source software is appreciable and will lead to greater transparency. The governments of US, UK, Germany and many European nations have stressed on OSS platforms too. India’s crowdsourcing platform, MyGov.in has already been built on open source platforms.

Source:-http://bit.ly/1DtfcdS

Govt announces policy on open source software

   NEW DELHI: The government has announced a policy on adoption of open source software, which makes it mandatory for all software applications and services of the government be built using it, so that projects under Digital India "ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs."

"Government of India shall endeavour to adopt open source software in all e-Governance systems implemented by various Government organizations, as a preferred option in comparison to closed source software," said the policy statement, put on the website of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.

ET had reported in November that the government was looking to adopt open source development in a big way. At that time, the DeitY secretary had said open source would be preferred "wherever possible."

However, the new policy clearly states that "All Government Organizations, while implementing e-Governance applications and systems must include a specific requirement in Request for Proposal (RFP) for all suppliers to consider open source software (OSS) along with closed source software while responding.

Suppliers shall provide justification for exclusion of OSS in their response, as the case may be."

"Government Organizations shall ensure compliance with this requirement and decide by comparing both OSS and CSS options with respect to capability, strategic control, scalability, security, life-time costs and support requirements," it adds.

The only exceptions considered would be ones where OSS solutions meeting functional requirements, or if the skillset in the identified open source technology are not available. In either case, departments option for CSS technology would have to justify the choice.

The move is likely to meet with approval from several open source activists across the country who have been rooting for the use of this technology that would significantly bring down costs.

The source code, according to the newly announced policy, shall be available for the community/adopter/end-user to study and modify the software and to redistribute copies of either the original or modified software, and would be "free from royalty".

The move is also in line with several governments across the world which prefer open source and open standards for development of their applications and services.

The United States, United Kingdom and several countries in the European Union also prefer use of open source over proprietary software. Closer home, the State of Kerala has consistently been held up as a remarkable example of the use of open source and open standards.

The Indian government has already upped its use of open source technology. Its crowdsourcing platform MyGov.in is a case in point, which has been developed entirely on open source technology 

Source :- http://bit.ly/1IfN1hQ

History Of Open Source Software - Infographics

Govt wants Open Source Software in all its departments

The Government of India is soon coming out with an “Open software policy” according to Union Minister for Telecommunications and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad. Speaking at the 3rd Web Ratna Awards ceremony, the Minister mentioned that under the new policy, all proposals for e-governance projects will include a mandatory clause for considering open source software as a preferred option.

The Minister further added that suppliers and vendors will have to provide justification for exclusion of OSS in their responses, as reported by FirstPost. He said that closed software is monopolistic as there is a vendor lock-in, in addition to heavy charges for maintenance and subsequent updates.

Free and open source software, commonly known as FOSS, allows software creators to publish their code which can be examined and reused by another coder while abiding by the same open standards. This helps enhance software development cycle, as anyone with enough motivation can make improvements to the code, point out vulnerabilities or create a spin-off.

Adoption of such code by the Government to fulfill its software requirements, will reduce the cost of development and deployment for the government, as well as let other agencies take over the code when contracts expire. For example, a deployed Microsoft operating system can only be updated by Microsoft, while a deployed Linux distro can be modified and updated by any agency of the Government’s choosing.

Note that the Department of Electronics and Information Technology had released a framework (pdf) on open source software adoption in e-governance systems in September 2013. This document outlined the various factors such as cost effectiveness, enhance competition, minimized piracy, wider choices and technological compatibility based on standards as reasons for the Government to adopt OSS to fulfill its software requirements.

Open source initiatives:

– The Kerala Legislative Assembly (Niyamsabha) shifted to free and open software, following the expiry of support period to Windows XP in July last year. At the same time, it also started producing all its documentation, both digital and printed materials, using the free and open source office suite LibreOffice. The Kerala Government was the first state in the country to adopt a pro Open Source policy back in 2001 which eventually led to the foundation of ICFOSS in 2011.

– The Kerala State Electricity Board had also moved to FOSS solutions back in 2006 with its implementation of the billing software Oruma soon followed by Saras, a accounting software. As a result, KSEB has apparently made a year on year (YoY) saving of Rs 7-8 croresince then.

– The Government of Tamil Nadu had also directed its departments to install the open source operating system ‘BOSS’, after the expiry of technical assistance and updates to Windows XP.

– Other than this, the DEITY runs various FOSS initiatives like NRCFOSS, the national resource centre for free and open software, Linux based BOSS – Bharat Operating System Solutions and support centres for it, open source e-learning laboratories and a GNU compiler collection resource centre, as part of its open source initiative.

Image Source: Flickr user HomyarB

Source : - http://bit.ly/1HUp6aV