Microsoft Windows 10: Five free apps you should download

Disappointed at some of the gaps in Windows 10's software? Here are five apps you'll want to pick up to plug those holes. 

With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft decided to cut and mangle some beloved, long-standing features available in previous versions of its operating system.

Windows Media Center is gone and Solitaire now shows you full-screen ads, which you have to pay to get rid of.

That's not to mention the outcry over Microsoft releasing software to play DVDs that costs $14.99 through the Windows Store.

Fortunately, you can ignore these shenanigans - as there is plenty of free software out there to fill the gaps in Microsoft's new OS.

Note: This article is also available as an image gallery.

1: LibreOffice

When it comes to word-processing options on Windows 10, you're stuck with the rather bare bones WordPad. You can of course download the mobile-focused versions of Office for free but these aren't tailored for desktop use.

LibreOffice is a free open-source office suite that includes software for word processing, creating spreadsheets, making presentations, database management and more.

It is compatible with many different file formats, so there's a good chance you'll be able to open documents and spreadsheets created in Microsoft Office.

The look and feel will be familiar to anyone who used Office 2003, as its menu takes it cues from the classic Office layout rather than the Ribbon arrangement used in more recent releases.

Version 5.0 of LibreOffice has just been released - bringing with it improvements to Calc - LibreOffice's alternative to Excel - and better support for importing user profiles.

2: VLC

Microsoft's removal of Windows Media Center from Windows 10 - only to release instead a $14.99 DVD player app - has been met with disapproval in some quarters.

Even though the app will be free to most people upgrading from Windows 7 and 8, it apparently is very limited and if you reinstall, you may find yourself having to pay.

Rather than worrying about any of this, you could just download VLC.

VLC is a very capable media player, happy to play DVDs and other video but also able to handle a range of different audio files.

Easy to use and with a good range of controls and keyboard shortcuts, VLC can also be augmented by downloading software plugins.

You can download VLC for free.

3: GIMP

The Windows 10 Photos app is OK for retouching photos but it's not about to give Photoshop a run for its money.

If you want to do more than applying filters and cropping an image, then you should give the GNU Image Manipulation Program a try.

Despite its slightly juvenile-sounding acronym, GIMP is, in many respects, a fully-featured alternative to Photoshop.

While not the simplest program to use, the basics can be picked up quickly, and those willing to put in the time can achieve impressive results thanks to its broad toolset that can handle anything from photo retouching to adding professional-looking effects.

You can find GIMP available to download here.

4: Chrome

This might be a both a controversial and somewhat predictable choice.

Controversial in that Windows 10 comes with a smart new browser called Edge and predictable in that Chrome is already a hugely popular piece of software.

But I don't have a problem recommending it as, for me, Edge didn't live up to its promise. On paper, it is a fast browser that can handle the latest web pages and services without complaint. In practice it too often locked my window until the entire page had loaded. I could be unlucky but it seems I'm not the only one to have experienced this issue.

But perhaps the biggest reason for me to recommend Chrome, or Firefox if you're averse to Google products, is the power of its extensions. Despite Edge having modes to allow you to remove clutter from around articles and annotate web pages, the big missing feature is being able to extend the browser using add-ons. That ability is coming to Edge in the next few months.

In the meantime you can download Chrome here and Firefox here.

5: Spotify

Windows has a streaming music service called Groove Music - the only problem is you have to pay for it.

A monthly subscription of $9.99 per month will provide you with access to Groove's huge music catalogue, as well as the ability to upload your own music to OneDrive, so you can stream it on demand. However, some people are having difficulty with this feature.

If you don't want to pay, then Spotify, the stalwart of streaming services, already offers access to a huge catalogue of music for free.

There is a catch, however. The free service includes ads and won't let you select individual songs to play - only albums and playlists that can be shuffled. A Premium subscription to Spotify for $9.99 a month will remove these restrictions.

True audiophiles should check out Tidal, which offers what they call high-fidelity streaming, with songs pushed out as 16bit, 44.1kHz FLAC files with a bit rate of 1,411kbps - far superior to the 320kbps offerings of most streaming services. This quality comes at a cost, however, of $19.99 per month.

Venezuela’s Giant Lake of Endless Oil Is a Filthy, Lawless Mess (BusinessWeek)

Lake Maracaibo, a 5,097 square mile body of water, is a graveyard for everything from abandoned pipeline to tires

From the moment the diver in red nylon coveralls and blue Chuck Taylor sneakers resurfaces after replacing rusted pipeline on the bed of South America’s largest lake, it’s a race against time. Coated head to toe in dark-black oil, he clambers aboard the service boat, rips off his makeshift uniform and scrambles to hose himself down with a special compound to wash away the contaminants.

For nearly a century, the petroleum deposits beneath giant Lake Maracaibo served as a cash cow for successive Venezuelan governments. In return, especially in the years since the industry was brought fully under state control by former President Hugo Chavez, it has received little back but neglect.

The Maracaibo basin is where Venezuela’s enormous energy bounty, including oil reserves that dwarf even those of Saudi Arabia, smacks up against the diminished capacity of the state-owned monopoly producer, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, to manage the twin demands of increased production and environmental protection.

Today, the 13,200 square kilometer (5,097 square mile) body of water, a graveyard for everything from abandoned pipeline and tires to dreams of Venezuelan prosperity, stands as an emblem of a richly endowed resource nation descending into disarray.

Economic Slowdown

The economy began slowing well before the oil price rout of the past year. Growth now is solidly in negative territory, inflation is running above 80 percent a year, the highest in the world, according to Bloomberg News consensus forecasts, and the country’s benchmark bonds trade at about 41 cents on the dollar -- giving them a yield over 20 percent -- compared with a peak price of 129 cents on the dollar back in 2006. Venezuela is more reliant than ever on petroleum revenues, which account for 95 percent of export earnings and nearly half of government revenues, according to the country’s foreign ministry.

Even by the standards of a country as blessed with resource wealth as Venezuela, the Maracaibo basin is a marvel. It has been producing oil for a century, ponying up nearly 43 billion barrels so far. With 19 billion barrels of proven reserves remaining -- more than the total proven reserves for either Brazil or Mexico -- the lake could be providing greater relief if troubled Venezuela was more receptive to outside capital and expertise beyond China and Russia, Antero Alvardo and Carlos Rossi, analysts from Gas Energy Latin America and EnergyNomics, said in separate interviews.

Lost Revenue

In 2006, three years after Chavez proclaimed the oil sector securely back under state control, 1.2 million barrels a day was pumped from the Maracaibo basin. But with a large share of proceeds diverted from maintenance and reinvestment to populist social programs -- gasoline is priced at just 6 cents a gallon, costing PDVSA $15 billion a year -- output from the Maracaibo basin had slumped to 745,164 barrels a day by 2014, according to oil ministry figures. That amounts to $8 billion in foregone revenue.

At the same time, the lake has degenerated into a stew of contaminants that include sulphide, fluoride, kjeldahl nitrogen, detergents, residential chlorine and fecal coliform, according to the website of the Institute for the Control and Conservation of Lake Maracaibo, or ICLAM, a Venezuela government entity created in 1981 and charged with care of the lake.

Government Failings

“There is great governmental irresponsibility, not just from this government but from those from more than 20 to 30 years ago,” said Gustavo Carrasquel, general director of Fundacion Azul Ambientalistas, an environmental and conservation non-profit founded in 1986. “The transnationals destroyed the lake and PDVSA doesn’t have the operational capacity to control the constant oil and gas leaks.”

Officials with PDVSA and Venezuela’s oil ministry didn’t reply to e-mails or phone calls seeking comment about the contamination in Lake Maracaibo and declining production from the basin. On Monday, Brent oil, the global benchmark, closed below $50 for the first time since January.

From the deck of a PDVSA service boat, hundreds of rigs dot the horizon, some idle and others extracting their bounty at a leisurely pace. Oil saturated tree limbs float by. The water is speckled in duckweed, which can choke both the ecosystem and small motorboats.

Twenty-five thousand kilometers of oil and gas pipeline criss-crosses the lake bottom, much of it corroded and leaky. Oil leaching from this underwater labyrinth settles on the surface, looking like vast puddles of motor oil in a driveway after a rainfall.

Leaking Gas

Whirlpools of gurgling water testify to the permeability of the natural gas lines as well, An estimated 50 percent of natural gas transported in Lake Maracaibo is lost due to pipeline breaks or leaks, Gas Energy’s Alvarado said in a phone interview.

Venezuela retains the ability to reverse the production slide and stop the environmental rot, said EnergyNomics President Rossi, but a depleted treasury and the outflow of engineers, technicians and other oil industry veterans are deterring efforts. Despite its vast production potential, Lake Maracaibo is also losing its pride of place, Rossi said, as PDVSA increasingly “is putting all its eggs in one basket” -- the newer Orinoco heavy oil belt on the opposite side of the country.

Downward Spiral

For now, the lake’s downward spiral knows no bounds.

As the sun sets and their boat heads back to shore, the oil services workers smoke cigarettes and play poker. The stench coming off the water and the trash floating by elicits no notice. Then they suddenly tense up as a boat approaches in the distance.

At night, it turns out, the lake is controlled by gun-toting pirates who maraud at will from small boats fitted with outboard motors. They rob crews still on the water of mobile phones and cash and often strip the PDVSA vessels of valuable cables, motors and spare parts.

As the approaching vessel gets closer, allowing the crewmen to see they are not in harm’s way, the tension dissipates. The poker game resumes. This time around, at least, Lake Maracaibo poses no risk.

EN MI OPINION: Ricardo Tribin Acosta

Origen del OK

Son diversas las versiones acerca de donde proviene el termino OK. Investigado el tema me agrada la definición de Planeta Curioso la que expresa lo siguiente 

“Esta es de las palabras más usadas y de las que hay más controversia sobre su origen. Una de la teorías más conocidas dice que durante la guerra civil en Estados Unidos, cuando regresaban las tropas a sus cuarteles sin tener ninguna baja, ponían en una gran pizarra ‘0 Killed’ (cero muertos). 

De ahí parece ser que proviene la expresión ‘O.K.’ para decir que todo está bien.

Sin embargo, su origen está también registrado en varios artículos aparecidos en 1839 en el periódico Boston Post en los que para llamar la atención se escribe erróneamente OK como abreviatura de “all correct”. OK en general se entiende entonces como todo bien, o todo bajo control, como diría el célebre periodista cubano José Pardo Llada, exiliado en Cali, Colombia por los años sesenta. 

De otra parte El Dr. Tomas A. Harris publicó en 1969 un libro que se hizo popular en el mundo entero, “ I am OK – you are OK” (Yo estoy bien - tú estás bien) en el que sencillamente transmitía algunas pautas de psicoterapia dadas, entre otros, por el famoso psiquiatra norteamericano Dr. Eric Berne , desarrolladas algunos años antes en 1960 y que se conoció como “Análisis Transaccional”, concepto que le oí por primera vez en Bogotá en 1983 a Gilbert Bresson.

Sin despreciar el origen del OK, quizás lo más importante a destacar es que, quien esta OK, anda OK, y ello ayudará mucho a que quienes nos rodeen, no solo nos perciban OK, sino que, con nuestra positiva influencia, también se sientan OK. Bienvenido pues el lograr sentirnos y estar bien, lo que en inglés, y muchas veces también en español se expresa como OK.

Death certificates, safes, weapons and Teslas: DEF CON 23

Starting Friday, infamous hacker conference DEF CON enters its 23rd year with talks that show you how to fake your death, crack a safe, hack a Tesla, mess with Yubikey, and much more.

Obstreperous hacker conference DEF CON starts Friday with a schedule packed to the gills and catering to every kind of hacker interest imaginable, and we've got DEF CON 23's cheat sheet ready.

This year's talk lineup is sure to upset someone's sensibilities; the conference features presentations that show how to fake a death, crack a safe, hack a Tesla, mess with Yubikey, and much more.

In Las Vegas for its 23rd year, DEF CON's cavalcade of controversy spans four very full days of talks and workshops, expo, panels, Capture the Flag (CTF), Queercon, social engineering contests, a Car Hacking Village, the Internet of Things (hacking) Village, Defcon Kids, Deaf Con, the infamous Wall of Sheep, and much more.

And in a complete surprise this week, DEF CON announced its surprise guest for License to Pwn, panel on the still undefined, virulently debated Wassenaar Arrangement (a global agreement on weapons export controls). To put it lightly, the proposed changes to the agreement have caused deep rifts within the information security community.

This panel's guest is none other than Catherine "Randy" Wheeler, who oversees technology controls for the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security -- making this session a pivotal event in the history of this issue.

Keep these links handy:

The DEF CON 23 venue map

DEF CON 23 schedule

DEF CON 23 vendors

DEF CON 23 demo labs (including things like SpeedPhishing Framework (SPF), a new tool for penetration testers that quickly/automatically deploys phishing exercises in minimal time), and a smart watch attack tool.

DEF CON 23 runs August 6-9 (Thurs-Sun) in its huge new location at Paris and Bally's -- although conference hotels rooms at Paris and Bally's sold out in May.

ANNOUNCEMENT: #DEFCON Registration will begin Thursday 6am

- DEF CON (@_defcon_) August 4, 2015

#DEFCON reg line con will be different this year: Last year we had 12 reg stations, this year 30

-- DEF CON (@_defcon_) August 4, 2015

At DEF CON, there is no pre-registration; it's a first-come, first-served, and costs $230 USD cash only at the door.

DEF CON 23: OUR TOP PICKS

There are oodles of great talks; we highly recommend using this short list as a starting point to investigate the full DEF CON 23 schedule.

Thursday

Medical Devices: Pwnage and Honeypots (Scott Erven, Mark Collao; 6pm)

These researchers will release and present six months of medical device honeypot research showing the implications of patient care devices increasing their connectivity. "We will discuss over 20 CVEís Scott has reported over the last year that will demonstrate how an attacker can gain remote administrative access to medical devices and supporting systems. Over 100 remote service and support credentials for medical devices will be presented."

Responsible Incident: Covert Keys Against Subverted Technology Latencies, Especially Yubikey (LosT; 3pm)

A YubiKey is a small hardware device that offers two-factor authentication with a simple touch of a button. LosT/1o57 created and runs the annual Mystery Box Challenge contest at DEF CON. Cryptically, there are no details for this talk, so we think it'll be interesting.

Friday

Bugged Files: Is Your Document Telling on You? (Daniel "unicornFurnace" Crowley, Damon Smith; 10am)

Certain file formats, like Microsoft Word and PDF, have features that allow for outbound requests to be made when the file open; these researchers explore various file formats and their ability to make outbound requests, as well as what that means from a security and privacy perspective.

Licensed to Pwn: The Weaponization and Regulation of Security Research (Jim Denaro, Dave Aitel, Matt Blaze, Nate Cardozo, Mara Tam, Catherine "Randy" Wheeler; 11am)

The Wassenaar Arrangement is a contentious topic, and it has galvanized two deeply divided sides of information security research into taking action -- sometimes carefully considered, sometimes vicious -- into action around the complex topic of regulating research. Updates to it in 2013 established an agreement to place previously undesignated "cybersecurity items" under export control. After 18 months and a half-dozen open advisory meetings, the U.S. took security research communities by surprise with its proposed rule -- and we are confronted by a sweeping implementation with profound consequences for academia, independent research, commercial cybersecurity, human rights, and national security. This panel's unexpected special guest is Catherine "Randy" Wheeler, with the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security.

Stagefright: Scary Code in the Heart of Android (Joshua J. Drake; 11am)

The senior director of platform research at Zimperium will provide details on the Stagefright Android framework vulns, which have the potential to impact 950 million Android users.

How to Hack a Tesla Model S (Marc Rogers, Kevin Mahaffey; 2pm)

These researchers will be release several 0day vulnerabilities that will allow hacking a Tesla Model S, both locally and remotely. "Note - only one of the 6 vulnerabilities we will discuss and release has been fixed. ... we are not responsible for any Tesla Model S bricked by over enthusiastic attendees of this talk." See also: Tesla to Attend DefCon Again, Says it Won't Be Running An Official Hacking Competition

I Will Kill You (Chris Rock ; 4:30pm)

Researcher Chris Rock describes how to fake a death (including death certificate), as well as create virtual identities (including birth certificates), and "raise" the identities virtually online.

When IoT attacks: hacking a Linux-powered rifle (Runa A. Sandvik, Michael Auger; 5pm)

If you didn't see this talk at Black Hat on Thursday, Sandvik and Auger will talk about how they reverse-engineered the Networked Tracking Scope from former company TrackingPoint, the company's firmware, and TrackingPoint's three apps. TrackingPoint went bankrupt from lack of sales in Spring, shuttering its business and ceasing orders by May 2015. Sandvik and Auger also plan to discuss "the security and privacy implications of network-connected firearms."

#DEFCON Insider: Be sure to put your smart phones in 'Airplane Mode' when passing through @WiFi_Village @wallofsheep or ye shall be herded!

-- Hacker Women (@HackerWomen) July 25, 2015

Saturday

A Hacker's Guide to Risk (Bruce Potter; 10am)

"When the latest and greatest vulnerability is announced, the media and PR frenzy can be dizzying. (...) This talk will discuss risk, why its important, and the poor job the hacker community has done when it comes to properly assessing risk."

Hacking Smart Safes: On the "Brink" of a Robbery (Dan "AltF4" Petro, Oscar Salazar; 12 noon)

When IoT attacks: hacking a Linux-powered rifle (Runa A. Sandvik, Michael Auger; 5pm)

If you didn't see this talk at Black Hat on Thursday, Sandvik and Auger will talk about how they reverse-engineered the Networked Tracking Scope from former company TrackingPoint, the company's firmware, and TrackingPoint's three apps.TrackingPoint went bankrupt from lack of sales in Spring, shuttering its business and ceasing orders by May 2015. Sandvik and Auger also plan to discuss "the security and privacy implications of network-connected firearms."

Saturday

A Hacker's Guide to Risk (Bruce Potter; 10am)

"When the latest and greatest vulnerability is announced, the media and PR frenzy can be dizzying. (...) This talk will discuss risk, why its important, and the poor job the hacker community has done when it comes to properly assessing risk."

Hacking Smart Safes: On the "Brink" of a Robbery (Dan "AltF4" Petro, Oscar Salazar; 12 noon)

These researchers found a major flaw in the Brink's CompuSafe and will demonstrate how to crack one open in seconds. "All you need is a USB stick and a large bag to hold all of the cash. We'll discuss how to remotely takeover the safe with full administrator privileges, and show how to enumerate a target list of other major Brink's CompuSafe customers (exposed via configuration files stored right on the safe)."

Sunday

REpsych: Psychological Warfare in Reverse Engineering (Chris Domas; 11am)

"With some carefully crafted assembly, we'll show how to break down a reverse engineer by sending them misleading, intimidating, and demoralizing messages through the control flow graphs of their favorite RE tools - turning their beloved IDA (Hopper, BinNavi, Radare, etc) into unwitting weapons for devastating psychological warfare in reverse engineering."

Attacking Hypervisors Using Firmware and Hardware (Yuriy Bulygin, Mikhail Gorobets, Alexander Matrosov, Oleksandr Bazhaniuk, Andrew Furtak; 1pm)

In a world that is sort of being eaten by hypervisors, this talk is kind of a big deal -- and since four of the presenters are Intel security researchers, apparently Intel has cleared them to talk about this. They will "explore the attack surface of modern hypervisors from the perspective of vulnerabilities in system firmware such as BIOS and in hardware emulation. We will demonstrate a number of new attacks on hypervisors based on system firmware vulnerabilities with impacts ranging from VMM DoS to hypervisor privilege escalation to SMM privilege escalation from within the virtual machines."

No Computer Runs Forever. Be Prepared.

How would you feel if one day you woke up and your entire computer’s contents – including your sentimental photos, your recent projects and documents, your entire music collection, and your precious videos – were no longer accessible? What if you found out that they had all been wiped from your computer, leaving you with nothing but emotional heartache and nobody who could help?

Guess what? It happens to people every single day. Every day, people across the country head into their local BestBuy or Apple store in tears, broken computer in hand, praying as they wait in line that an expensive repair might, just might, recover their priceless, irreplaceable files. A few get lucky. But for the rest, well, they’re out of luck, and there’s nothing anyone can do to help.

Hasn’t happened to you? If your computer remains unprotected, it will, and it’s only a matter of time. But thanks to recent breakthroughs in computer backup technology, you now have a number of options to prepare, and if you’re smart, when your computer crashes, you shouldn’t have any problem getting 100% of your files back that same day. And no, I’m not talking about an external hard drive. 

I’m talking about an online backup solution that runs quietly and continuously in the background on your computer. If you have one installed, when your computer crashes, you won’t have to deal with sleepless nights, screaming phone calls, or numbing feelings of helplessness in the hope of recovering your files. Instead, you’ll be just one click away from bringing your files back to life, like they were never gone.

If you’re interested in giving one a shot, we highly recommend you take a look at SkyVault360. Their technology is everything you need, and it’s amazingly simple. They offer unlimited storage, protection for both Macs and PCs, same day restoration, and boast an award winning, 100% flawless track record on recovering all files. Best of all, they have one-click installation, and it’s truly set it and forget it.

In the past year alone, hundreds of thousands of forward thinking people have already started taking advantage of this cutting-edge technology, and for good reason. For these people, when their computer crashes, they’ll barely be inconvenienced. For everyone else, sometime soon they'll inevitably lose every picture, video, song, project, and so much more forever.

Chevron’s ugly earnings put focus on Big Oil dividend

Getty Images

Chevron’s big earnings miss on Friday, underscored by its worst quarterly profit in 13 years, raised a number of questions about the near-term prospects for Big Oil, and perhaps none more pressing than the sustainability of dividend yields.

Chevron posted net income of 30 cents a share on revenue of $40.36 billion, compared with analyst estimates of per-sharing earnings of $1.16 on $30.91 billion in revenue.

The company maintained its quarterly dividend at $1.07 per share in the second quarter, returning $2 billion to shareholders. Chevron hasn’t raised its dividend since Q2 2014 and kept investors guessing as to whether it would do so later this year.

Asked on the company’s conference call whether Chevron would raise the dividend by the fourth quarter, Chief Financial Officer Patricia Yarrington said, “We don’t want to get out over our skis. We want to do it in a manner and at a time that we can do it in perpetuity…. We’ll do it at a time that the financials allow us to get there.”

Chevron said maintaining a strong dividend was its No. 1 priority and the company was committed to covering the dividend from free cash flow in 2017, and not just at the previously stated oil price of $70.

Related: Chevron cutting 1,500 jobs to help cut costs by $1B

“We intend to cover the dividend from free cash flow at whatever the ensuing price,” Yarrington said. “That is a firm commitment.”

Chevron Chief Executive John Watson bluntly said the results were “weak,” adding that he was working to slash costs by renegotiating supply contracts. This week, he laid off 2 percent of the company’s staff.

Windows 10 alternatives

Windows 10 is highly anticipated for a variety of reasons, including it brings a great deal more sanity to the unmitigated mess of Windows 8, and it does not require a third-party utility to make it usable for a natural (or a classic, depending on who you ask) desktop workflow.

However, the underlying operating system (OS) that a user runs is becoming an afterthought. The primary focus for many users is on the web -- as such, the availability of browsers and day-to-day productivity software is more relevant to end users than the old era of buying boxed software in stores.

This gallery highlights various OSs that are, for most users, adequate replacements for Windows 10. Many of the options featured here can be used in VirtualBox, if you prefer to give it a spin without dual-booting or formatting your system.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan

El Capitan is a beta product -- though, in general, OS X is still the biggest commercial competitor to Windows. For the most part, it makes more sense if you already have or plan to buy other Apple products.

In comparison to the current release (Yosemite), El Capitan changes the system font to the San Francisco typeface used in the Apple Watch and the upcoming iOS 9. El Capitan also brings support for snapping two windows side-by-side, a feature other OSs have had for years.

Also new in this release is improved display support for Chinese and Japanese, and an improved Japanese IME (Input method editor). The IME allows the user to write in Japanese by typing phonetically (in Hiragana), and generates the correct Kanji without user intervention by using frequency and context-sensitive clues to determine the correct Kanji.

Killer feature: HiDPI ("Retina") display support is more mature than what's available with other OSs.

Price: Free upgrade, though using OS X requires Apple hardware, which starts at $499 for the Mac Mini.

Ubuntu 15.04

Ubuntu remains the most visible Linux distribution for people not necessarily predisposed to installing a different OS. The Unity interface requires some level of adjustment compared to Windows, though the name Unity is at least accurate in regard to presentation -- the system behavior is reasonably well thought-out, and is uniform across applications.

Ubuntu, like other Linux distributions, has native versions of popular open-source software, such as Firefox and LibreOffice, which are installed by default; offerings that can be installed by the user include VLC Media Player, Pidgin instant messenger, FileZilla, and Audacity. Additionally, closed-source products such as Google Chrome, Skype, Trillian, Steam, Dropbox, and TeamViewer are also available.

Of note, Ubuntu Kylin, the derivative intended for Chinese users, includes a preconfigured IME and an additional migration assistant for people switching from Windows, as well as Kingsoft WPS Office in place of LibreOffice, as that product is more popular there.

Killer feature: It's a good entry point for people who don't have prior Linux experience.

Price: Free

Kubuntu 15.04

Kubuntu is the first distribution to ship version 5 of KDE Plasma, an alternative desktop environment with much improved HiDPI support, and a more modern visual style compared to previous releases. Like Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, it has native versions of various popular open-source and proprietary software.

Killer feature: It's the de-facto flagship distribution for KDE, setting it ahead of competing distributions that still include KDE Plasma 4.

Price: Free

Fedora 22

Fedora is the flagship distribution for the GNOME desktop environment. Fedora releases serve as the basis of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and a significant amount of the development work on Fedora is done by Red Hat employees. Consequently, Fedora uses more recent versions of the Linux kernel than other distributions. This strikes a balance between having advanced support for newer hardware (compared to Ubuntu), but with greater stability compared to bleeding edge / rolling release distributions such as Arch Linux.

Compared to Ubuntu, the Fedora project has a much stricter policy about the use of non-free code in official repositories for software such as audio/video codecs and proprietary programs such as Flash, Java, Google Chrome, and Skype. These can be added with relative ease using the third-party Fedy utility.

Killer feature: Being the de-facto flagship distribution for GNOME, it provides the most mature HiDPI support among Linux distributions.

Price: Free



Haiku

Haiku is an open-source implementation of BeOS, which was the first OS designed for symmetric multiprocessing and preemptive multitasking. Haiku is named for the peculiar error messages from the default browser in BeOS.

The Haiku project is the most feature-complete original OS targeted toward general users that is not related to the Windows, Linux, or OS X / BSD family. While still in Alpha territory, it's generally stable enough to browse the web, listen to music, and do other basic tasks.

Killer feature: Super light-weight, and it doesn't require much in the way of system resources, making it a good choice for migrating on older systems.

Price: Free



eComStation 2.2

eComStation 2.2 is scheduled for release in October 2015 from the new developer XEU, which has taken over from Mensys BV, the previous maintainer of the project. eComStation is the successor to IBM's OS/2, with updated driver support and current software packages such as Firefox and Apache OpenOffice.org. Despite the relative age of OS/2, it still has vibrant community support.

Killer feature: Full binary compatibility for Win16 applications (this is better than the compatibility in Windows).

Price: $145 for the Home/Student edition.


Chrome OS

Google's Chrome OS has slowly added more and more packaged applications, making Chromebooks much more than the internet appliance they started as. Apps can be added through the Chrome web store, and partial support for Android apps is available through the App Runtime for Chrome (ARC).

Chrome OS lacks the ability to do very specific things that traditional desktop OSs can, such as burning CDs or DVDs, though the frequency with which this is a common task is far less than it was 10 years ago.

Killer feature: Extremely hardened security makes the prospect of viruses on Chrome OS less likely.

Price: Free, though it is only available on Chrome-branded hardware from various OEMs, starting at $149. This makes it a prospect of purchasing new hardware, instead of an in-place software upgrade.




Remix OS 1.5

Remix OS from Jide, a startup founded by ex-Google engineers, takes Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and gives it a productivity-minded desktop feel, with proper windowing support and multitasking. Remix OS ships with the Jide Ultratablet, and ROM images are available for the Nexus 10 tablet. Jide has also launched a Kickstarter for the Remix Mini, which brings the OS to desktop users.

Killer feature: Proper windowing for Android, with support for Microsoft Office.

Price: Free, though it only runs on specific ARM hardware either from Jide or the Nexus 10. A ROM for the Nexus 9 is planned for a future version.

Solus

The Solus OS is a new Linux distribution that is targeted for desktop users. It includes the Budgie desktop, which is designed for this distribution. Like Ubuntu, it adds a different interface to the existing GNOME software stack, and like Ubuntu, it has a well thought-out, consistent user interface. Solus is still in beta.

Killer feature: A new, minimalist interface intended for and targeted to desktop users.

Price: Free, though they are soliciting donations via Patreon.

Windows 7

The biggest competitor to Windows 10 is still Windows 7, the most-used desktop OS in the world. Windows 7 users who are are satisfied with the system performance, and who have no desire for the Microsoft ecosystem (Bing, OneDrive, etc.) to be forced upon them might want to wait. Windows 7 support will continue until January 2020, and the free upgrade offer expires in July 2016, so there is no big rush to move to Windows 10 on day one.

Killer feature: It’s a sufficiently sensible desktop that works with Win32 programs and doesn’t fight the user for control of the PC.

Price: Home Premium is $89.98 on Amazon, other SKUs and vendors have different prices, YMMV. Though, it’s possible under some circumstances to get Windows 7 for free.