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Dear old Linux, what are we to do with you? Developed for just over two decades and it's still barely made a mark on the consumer consciousness. There was a vague peak during the netbook fad - as it enabled companies to eliminate the extra cost of a Windows installation - but that quickly faltered after people started taking them back because Microsoft Office wouldn't run on them. Have people never heard of Open Office? The way we're complaining you'd think Linux is overlooked and underused. The amazing truth is that the majority of supercomputers run one type of Linux or another, and it's the leading OS on servers. Besides these, it's put to work on millions of low-power embedded systems around the world - a little something called Android.Is the Linux desktop becoming extinct?So why then does the desktop remain a Windows bastion, while Linux is left shivering out in the cold? The same question could be leveled at the Apple Macintosh. Even with the hysterical success of Apple's wider products, the Mac as a desktop system accounts for just under seven per cent of the market. Linux is no higher than five per cent, and web use points the figure down to a pathetic 1.5 per cent. Even with the attractiveness of the Mac's ease of use - which brutally contrasts with the stubborn user-friendly-free design of Linux - both still have the same fatal flaw: few games. Until now. Valve, with its release of Steam for Linux - and more recently the announcement it's going to release an open gaming-platform based on Linux-powered PC architecture - could totally revitalise the desktop fortunes of this able OS.We're going to take a look at how learning to run Linux, getting it installed and knowing the new gaming platforms can help you get gaming on a free and easy-ish to use OS. Stop laughing at the back. It's okay to admit in these modern times that you've dabbled with Linux at some point in your life. You might have been drunk, or flirted with it during those care-free college days when life was still exciting and fun. But then you grew up a little and realised Windows was what everyone else used. It had everything you wanted and needed, without all the additional baggage that Linux brought with it.Best office suites for Linux: 5 reviewed and ratedLinux - or as insane people would like you to call it, Linux-based GNU - can be one funny old fish to fry. It's one of the most stable, secure and flexible operating systems on the planet. It's also free - anyone can install, create and release homemade distributions.The implications are immense for an ever more locked-down DRM world, with devices that require an advanced OS springing up all over the place. Why should you have to pay the Microsoft tax on each one of those devices when Linux frees you from that expense while remaining totally legal? It enables you to throw installs on your desktops, your servers, your media centre and on as many virtual machines as you have time for. No one's going to try and take your money or, most annoyingly, continuously check and ask you to validate your copy if you happen to change a bit of hardware. So why won't it take off on the good ship desktop? We think the big stumbling point is gaming. Originally, a large part of that stumbling point was a distinct lack of hardware driver support - more specifically, 3D graphics card drivers. If you can't install a 3D card, you simply won't be playing anything more exciting than Minesweeper or Solitaire. The good news is that the big three, which is to say Nvidia, AMD and Intel, do provide acceptable driver support. We hesitate to use anything more positive than 'acceptable', as stable and optimised support tends to lag Windows drivers by up to a year. This effectively limits you to slightly older and less-able cards, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a VGA cable. We'll talk at length on just how to get drivers updated in the box on this page, but to get playable 3D frame-rate performance you'll need to grab th

Microsoft's new YouTube app for Windows Phone has been available for about a week, but it didn't take long for Google to kick up a fuss. Why? Because the app blocks ads, giving Google's potential revenue a kicking.Google claims this violates the YouTube API Ts and Cs, demanding that Microsoft remove the app by May 22. According to The Verge, Microsoft built the app without the go-ahead from Google.Now Microsoft has responded and said that it will include advertising if that's what Google really wants, but with one proviso. "We'd be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs," it said.Play nicelyOf course, it's all of us who get punished at the end of the day, and a lack of app will mean users are forced to stick with the Google mobile web version when watching YouTube."In light of Larry Page's comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers," add

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 10 browser is more secure than any of its rivals in terms of protecting users from harmful downloads, according to new research.A study from NSS (pdf) said IE10 blocked considerably more malware downloads than Google Chrome and wiped the floor with Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox as well as the Opera browser.Using active malicious URLs on Windows 8 machines, Microsoft's browser was able to block 99.96 of malware downloads before the user's anti-virus software is even called into action.That compares with over 83 per cent for Google Chrome (versions 25 and 26), which is actually up from around 70 per cent in 2012.After IE10 and Chrome, there's a big drop off with Safari blocking 10.6 per cent of malicious downloads, Firefox stopping 9.92 per cent and Opera keeping out a paltry 1.87 per cent of the bad stuff.Bad download choicesMicrosoft's advantage comes through its reputation-based URL and application protection systems, which wipe out an overwhelming majority of potentially

Today's Nokia Lumia 925 launch event in London came and went without being coupled with an announcement of a Nokia tablet for 2013.However, the Finnish phone manufacturer doesn't sound as if it is ruling out releasing a Nokia Lumia tablet in the near future."We're very interested in tablets and that's an area we're looking at," said Nokia executive vice president of smart devices Jo Harlow, according to CNET.Nokia is "looking at" tablets, but not ready to officially announce a device just yet, as she added, "I don't have any product news I can share."Staring contestNokia has been on the record as "looking at" tablets for more than two years now.In 2011, the company's CEO, Stephen Elop, said "Our team right now is assessing what's the right tablet strategy for Nokia."More recently, Elop used Harlow's talking points, saying, "It is something we are clearly looking at very closely."The only concrete evidence that Nokia has taken more than an eyes-on approach to mak

After five months aboard the International Space Station sharing his tips on keeping fit in zero gravity, taking amazing photos of Earth and giving us a reason to use Google Plus, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is set to return to earth.But before he leaves the ISS, the social networking astronaut has one final intergalactic gift to share, in the form of a cover of David Bowie's classic, Space Oddity.The astronaut performs a slightly modified version of the song, playing guitar and singing as he floats through the ISS. His performance is near flawless, especially given the challenges of filming and performing in zero-gravity.The question now is why this song isn't available on iTunes yet? Although we probably will have to wait for him to return to Earth after handing over command of the ISS to Pavel Vinogradov this morning.YouTube : youtubeurlv=KaOC9danxNoMore Blips!This is ground control, to Major Tom. Can we get more Blips? Amazon adds Cloud Drive Photos app to iOS Mobile phone for 4-year-olds is nothing

Death and taxes are life's two givens, and today a new moved closer to reaching in U.S. pockets as the Senate voted in favor of a levy on internet sales. A 69-27 vote catapultes the Marketplace Fairness Act from the Senate to the House of Representatives, where it will go through further debate. Those in favor of the bill say tax-free internet retailers not only skip out on putting billions to state coffers, it creates a disparate disadvantage for brick-and-mortar establishments. On the other side, opponents of the act contend it would open a can of complicated tax code that could hit start ups and internet retailers hard before a proper management system is put in place. Taxes shmaxesThe bill seeks to allow for states to collect taxes from internet retailers. According to TechCrunch, if put into effect as-is, the act would allow those governments to levy taxes on some online retail purchases from companies that take in over $1 million in gross receipts. Sources for the publication note that the House could r

Storage on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is a hot button issue as of late, but today AT&T revealed it has a solution, albeit one you've got to pay extra to access. Starting May 10, the company will carry a 32GB version of Samsung's flagship phone, priced at $249.99. A two-year agreement is part of the package, and for that extra storage customers will pay $50 more than the charge for the 16GB version. So far, AT&T is the only U.S. carrier to announce a 32GB flavor of the phone, something it did haphazardly last month when it was forced to clarify pricing for the models of the S4 it planned to carry. S4 stops and startsOver the weekend, a swelling of customer groans about the actual available storage on the 16GB S4 started to surface. Complaints centered around a less-than-advertised amount of internal space: factory software reportedly leaves the device with less than 9GB of user-accessible memory (a 16GB user wrote in to Android Central that the usable space he/she had was 8.82GB).In response, Samsung said u

The presence of a microSD slot in the Samsung Galaxy S4 justifies software taking up nearly half of the available storage on the 16GB version of the handset, the company has said.The Korean giant has been criticised by users of their newest flagship smartphone, who switched on their 16GB devices only to find just over 8GB of space for their own photos, music, apps and more.The rest is taken up by the Android operating system and Samsung's pre-installed apps and software nuances, but it's left many fans feeling ripped off. However with an additional 32GB available through a MicroSD card, Samsung says there's plenty of room for additional files.Ultimate mobile experience?In a statement to CNET, the company wrote: "For the Galaxy S4 16GB model, approximately 6.85GB occupies [the] system part of internal memory, which is 1GB bigger than that of the Galaxy S3, in order to provide [a] high resolution display and more powerful features to our consumers."To offer the ultimate mobile experience to our users, S

As promised, Microsoft is gearing up to show more about its new Xbox during E3 2013. The company today sent around invites to a June 10 media briefing inside Los Angeles' Galen Center. That's a day before the show official kicks off, for those interested.

No need to wait until later today to get the official word: AT&T this morning announced it will exclusively carry the LG Optimus G Pro.There was no question an LG event scheduled for 3:30 p.m. PDT/6:30 p.m. EDT would herald the 5.5-inch screened devic