There is a huge demand for online learning in the wake of the global lockdown, and the use eLearning platforms either to facilitate or replace traditional learning models.

While several options are available when it comes to eLearning authoring tools, such as the needs of your audience, whether educational, or business sectors, often comes to play in choosing an effective tool.

So, we've taken the time to compile a comprehensive evaluation of the 3 best eLearning authoring tools, with their advantages and disadvantages, pricing, and the target audience, to make your choice of tools to create amazing courses for eLearning easier.

3 Best eLearning Authoring Tools



As choosing from the myriads of available tools out there can be quite a little overwhelming, we decided to narrow down the list to help you in making a guided decision after proper evaluations.

1. Articulate Storyline





Articulate Storyline is a web authoring software that's primarily used for corporate training and higher educational purposes. It offers an easy course creation tool for creating complex courses for pro eLearning.

It also supports the importation of existing content in form of PowerPoint slides, as well as from previous versions of Storyline, and comes with customizable and built-in templates to create fully interactive, and engaging courses.

The major advantages of Storyline is that courses can be published in HTML5, Flash, and for use with iOS and/or Android apps, and users can import or edit audio, video, and images to incorporate as multimedia objects into their courses. And the cons, the software requires extra training to use.

The pricing for Storyline comes in the forms of annual subscription at $999 for Articulate 360 and $1,299 for Articulate 360 Teams. Though there are discounts if you have Storyline 2 or Studio '13 with unredeemed Platinum Membership Plan (PMP) upgrades.

2. Adobe Captivate





Adobe Captivate is best suitable for corporate and business training purposes, but it is also applicable for education sector, with significant discount available for academics. As eLearning for students is enhanced by the support for collaborative learning, and branching for workflow.

It serves as eLearning toolkit for authoring interactive courses, allowing educators to update information storyboards containing eLearning elements and publish for viewing in the cloud, without the need for any app or additional software. Also, you can import PowerPoint presentations into your eLearning projects.

The major advantages of Adobe Captivate is that courses can be optimized to respond to a number of devices and monitor sizes automatically with relative smart positioning of objects and support for geo-location. And the cons, courses created in latest version, Captivate 9 can't be opened with older versions of the software.

The pricing comes in two subscription options, Adobe Captivate (2019 release) for Business is US$1,299, while for education is US$399, all billed per year.

3. iSpring Suite





This is ideal for authoring eLearning Courses for all educational purposes, and with iSpring Suite, whether you are experienced or a newbie in the world of online authoring, you will find it really resourceful for creating modules for eLearning with ease.

It is a PowerPoint-based authoring toolkit produced by iSpring Solutions that allows you to create slide-based courses, dialog simulations, screencasts, video lectures, and other interactive eLearning materials, with the output courses published mainly in HTML5.

The major advantage of iSpring Suite is the Extensive PowerPoint support, and built-in screen recorder and editor that allow users to create screencasts, which can be inserted into courses or exported as standalone explanatory videos. And the cons, you need to know how PowerPoint works to use the tool, and it is only available for Windows operating system.

And pricing for iSpring Suite varies with the number of licenses, with a single-user license starting at US$697.00 and there are a number of discounts for multi-seat licenses, like for educational and non-profit organizations.

In conclusion, all the above listed authoring tools are great for e-Learning tasks, but ideally, you'll need to further evaluate every one of them to pick up the most suitable tool that will help you to create your eLearning courses.

3 Best Authoring Tools for Creating Impressive eLearning Courses



Photoshop is very popular, but certainly not the best tool to stitch together or combine photos. That is a fact that has long been know to most users of the photo-editing software. Again, it is too complex and has too many options that can't be easily understood and used easily.

Although, Photoshop is quite suitable for in depth work that requires editing of photos in a complicated way, it isn't designed for simple operations like stitching or merging of photos, because it is not designed for such tasks.

So, if you're looking for an efficient, user-friendly and automated tool to help you combine photos, then look no further than Vertexshare Photo stitcher tool. With Vertexshare Photo stitcher, which is available for Windows and Mac, you can easily turn potentially long hours of work into a simple task that takes only a few minutes.

Overview of Vertexshare Photo Stitcher



This Photo Stitcher is a convenient way to combine multiple portrait or landscape images into one complete image. This is equally useful with photos or screenshots, and allows you to make panoramic shots that you could only dream of before. The simple, user friendly interface means that unlike Photoshop or other competitor software, it is easy to learn and you can become an expert in using this tool within a few minutes.



What's more, the number of photos you can combine is unlimited, and you are guaranteed never to lose original resolution in the final image. Just a few minutes of work can take your images from a collection of separate photos to a single, satisfying image.

Some Benefits of Vertexshare Photo Stitcher



There are a great number of advantages in using this Photo Stitcher technology. Firstly, it can work with nearly any type of file or image, which ranges from standard, low resolution images to the latest, high resolution images to hit the market, including Ultra HD and even 8K images.

And the type of image doesn't actually matter, thanks to the simple operating system, it stitches them all the same. You can also chop and change images to your heart's delight without worrying about compatibility issues. However, this is not the case with most of the competitor products.

Secondly, Vertexshare Photo Stitcher is a lightweight app and easy to download, which will not take up a lot of space on your hard-drive. In fact, it can be assumed up that the final product will take up no more than 80 MB of drive space, and the initial download is only 20 MB. Compare this to Photoshop which takes up between 880.69 MB to 1 GB of your precious drive space; so the advantages becomes even clearer.

Additionally, security is another issue which cannot be overstated. This software requires no internet connection, which means that any private files or photos will stay securely on your device's local storage. You don't need to worry about hackers or any compromise of your personal files. Security is becoming increasingly important in today's world where hacking scandals and leaking is becoming more and more common. Well, certainly not with this photo stitcher!

How to use Vertexshare Photo Stitcher



The Photo Stitcher is designed to be user friendly and very intuitive. Follow these steps to combine your images. First, download the software and install it wherever you want. Then, open the software, click the add button and select the files you would like to paly around with. Then simply arrange your photos in whatever way appeals to you.

There are a number of tools you can use to add some flair to your image. For example, you can use the stitching tool to change the size ratio of the photos or you can add borders using the stitching tool. Just play around with all the editing tools to achieve the look you had in mind.

Finally you can export the finished image and use it to impress your friends with your new found editing skills.

Alternative Tool: Another great tool which does a similar job is the bimostitch panorama stitcher app available from the google play store. With this app you can combine multiple camera shots from your phone into one detailed panoramic shot. This is suitable for mobile use, and allows you to stitch up to 200 high resolution photos together. It is also intuitive and user friendly like the photo stitcher tool.

Conclusion



Vertexshare Photo Stiticher is among the easiest, most practical tools to merge and combine photos together. It has everything you'll need, without any of the extraneous stuff that makes a tool like Photoshop such a pain to use.

So, get ready to revolutionize your photo editing processes.

Vertexshare Photo Stitcher Review: Stitching Photos in a Simpler Way



In your senior and junior year, you will be filling out college application forms. With a lot of content to fill in, there are some things to enrich your application. Paper Written experts prepared this article to focus on things that should appear on the use.

1. Academic Performance



Most applications will virtually ask for your high school transcript. Do not be afraid of sharing your grade progression.it will be a great thing to highlight your use.

If you started with lower grades, and eventually started improving in your performance, share it out in your application. It will be a good thing to appear in your form. Use the transcript to prove your academic performance progress. It will be a great idea to shore case your commitment to improvement in academics.

2. School Awards



Share with confidence all the awards you received in high school. It doesn’t matter whether academic or co-curriculum award. Your college application form is the best place to show off your achievement.

The awards have a special purpose in the application form. Just like the academic progress, they are the credibility boosters of your hard work and determination.

3. Work Experience





Have you been working to earn extra cash in summer? You may have been working to pay bills and save for college fees. Such experience is a requirement in your college application form. Include such experience in your application.

It will speak loud about your ability to multitask. It will also reflect your fanatical capability and time management skills.

4. Leadership Experience



Show your leadership skills instead of highlighting your membership in clubs and sports. When it comes to the curriculum activities, choose quality over quantity. Select the few clubs or games where you made an impact.

Sharing such information will help convene colleges that are looking for enthusiastic students who demonstrate the commitment to their tasks.

5. Service to the community



Community service will show your personality. Never forget to mention it in your application. The admissions office will be interested to learn about your character.

Ensure that you show them you are enthusiastic about bringing the service to community initiative in their college. Other than good grades, this aspect will significantly influence your selection.

6. Internships



You all know how luxury high school internships are, right! Add it to your application form if you did one. You will have more courses during and after college.

The inclusion of the internship will surprise the admission office and add to your score. Doing the internship at your age will demonstrate your character and values. If you have the contact of people you worked with to recommend, you will be great.

7. Sports



Sports are not about winning and losing. Add them to your application form. They will echo your commitment and ability to withstand pressure. The game will also speak about your time management on your behalf. If you were in the team for four yours, then it means that you could withstand pressure and had the commitment to succeed.

Handling pressure over time is a requirement in college life. The college advisors will be happy to see you are ready for the challenge.

8. Academic Achievement



You cannot demonstrate your academic performance with awards alone. Though they help, you need to show your quality through non-award ways.

If you have received honors or high honors during high school, put it on paper. If you are a national honor society member, include it on your application.

9. Positive recommendations



A teacher who you have worked with for a long time understands you better. You need a recommendation letter from such teachers. It will be great to take a recommendation from the teacher you have worked within curriculum activities.

Make sure you outsource such letters in time. It will give the teacher quality time to craft the best letter for your recommendation.

You can attract the attention of the admission officer thorough the items you include on the application form. So, try to sell out yourself in the best ways that will increase your Chances of being selected.

9 Major Elements to filling out College Application forms



The Arch Linux-based distro, Manjaro is designed to work "straight out of the box" with a focus on user friendliness and accessibility, coupled with its own variety of pre-installed software.

Manjaro 20.0 ‘Lysia’, which is the latest release of the software, has continued with the user-friendly-focus bringing its flagship Xfce, GNOME and KDE editions for the popular desktop Linux distribution.

Also, the latest release has the default package manager, Pacman, updated from v9.3 to v9.4, with snap and flatpak support by default, which before now, users had to resort to Bauh tool to install Linux applications from snap or flatpak.

Some New Enhancements on Manjaro 20.0 ‘Lysia’



Besides the update to the default package manager, Pacman, and snap/flatpak support by default, other major enhancements in Manjaro 20.0 Linux are as follows.

  • Updated Drivers
  • Improved Gnome Layout-Switcher
  • New Desktop Environments: Xfce 4.14, GNOME 3.36 and KDE Plasma 5.18
  • Display-Profiles that allows you to store your preferred display configuration
  • zsh as the new default shell
  • Enhanced Manjaro tools


Additionally, the Linux kernel has been updated to the new version 5.6 from the previous kernel 5.4 and subsequently, bringing the latest hardware support to the operating system. And Manjaro 20.0 other bleeding-edge software components ensures it has good out-of-the-box hardware support.

How to get started with Manjaro 20.0



Manjaro Update is a rolling release model which means that users don’t have to manually upgrade from one version to another. If you're already using Manjaro, just update your Linux system and you should be running the latest version, Manjaro 20.0.

However, Manjaro 20.0 Linux offers three different ISO images with Xfce, KDE, and GNOME desktop environments. So, if you are a new user and want to try out Manjaro, then you can install Manjaro 20.0 by downloading any of the ISO images from its official website.

Manjaro 20.0 Linux Distro Release brings Snap and Flatpak Support by default



Vivaldi is a cross-platform web browser developed by Vivaldi Technologies, founded by Opera Software co-founder and former CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner and Tatsuki Tomita.

While Vivaldi browser is fast and secure, it also allow users to block ads and trackers with unique privacy features; now the company has released version 3.0 of its eponymous browser, with the integration of tracker radar.

Tracker Radar, which is DuckDuckGo's best-in-class dataset on web trackers, automatically generated and maintained with continuous crawling and analysis was recently open-sourced and made available for public use.

How the Open Source Tracker Radar works



Tracker Radar works by exposing the existing lists of web trackers, with previously crowd-sourced lists as often untested, stale, and capable of breaking most websites. The new open source tool will enable developers to build seamless tracker protection into their various applications.

As the Web is increasingly rife with trackers which follow users every where they go, which is against their privacy, and often serves the purpose of ads targeting.

DuckDuckGo has successfully used tracker radar for seamless search and browsing privately across all of its services, with effective tracker blocking, private search, and upgraded website encryption available in one package.

How Tracker radar will ensure anti-tracking experience for Vivaldi's browser



Vivaldi has turned to DuckDuckGo's Tracker Radar technology, as the search company is better known for its search engine privacy. That is based on its own open-source data set, which will now be used to generate Vivaldi's own tracker blocklist.

The ad blocker feature built into Vivaldi 3.0 can be managed from the Preference's Settings in Windows, and navigating to "Privacy" pane by choosing any of three levels: no blocking, tracker blocking only, or ad and tracker blocking; with exceptions for whitelisted individual websites.

Albeit, Vivaldi's anti-tracking and ad blocker tools doesn't quite measure up to competitors, like Firefox and Microsoft Edge, which provide far better privacy and flexibility. But it's good to note that the next front line in the browser wars is perhaps on their concern for users' privacy.

Vivaldi looks to Tracker Radar to bolster Privacy on its browser



The next update of Ubuntu Linux v20.10 has been scheduled for release, with a development cycle of 25-week and major event milestones such as kernel freezes, feature freezes, UI freezes, final freezes, and eventually the final release.

While Ubuntu 20.10 follows on the heels of Ubuntu 20.04, which as LTS release will get major updates and improvements until 2030, and the life cycle of Ubuntu 20.04 included the 27-week release schedule.

Canonical has continued with its tradition of naming Ubuntu releases by appropriate adjective and animal-derived name starting with the same alphabet. As such, Ubuntu 20.10 as the successor to 20.04 with the alphabet ‘F’ for "Focal Fossa", follows with ‘G’ and after several name suggestions, including: Gaudy Gaur, Gentle Gorilla, and Gallant Gazelle, it eventually settled for ‘Groovy Gorilla.’

Upcoming Features & Release schedule for Ubuntu 20.10



Ubuntu 20.10 has been revealed as "Groovy Gorilla" with a development cycle of 25-week and event milestones such as UI freezes, feature freezes, kernel freezes, final freezes, and the final release on October 22, 2020.



The release notes, however did not specify any new features, but as expected most of the Ubuntu 20.10 components are marked as ‘To Be Continued’ and may mean the continuation of the same features as in 20.04 LTS.

Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" Release Signup



The signup sheet is intended to be used for planning the release milestone tasks, with the Alpha and Beta 1 milestones haven been replaced with Testing Weeks 1, which are organized ad hoc at this point.

After Feature Freeze 5, all members of the Ubuntu release team will participate in Feature Freeze Exception reviews.

And after Final Beta 1, the members of the release team are expected to participate in Bug fix reviews in their respective area of expertise.

Upcoming Features, Codename and Release Date for Ubuntu 20.10



The popular video conferencing platform, Zoom has entered into partnership with Otter.ai to offer live transcription of video conferences.

While Otter.ai provides speech to text transcription by conversion of live speaking to a written transcription, which accuracy is ensured through machine learning on millions of hours of audio recordings.

The new Zoom Live Video Meeting notes integration will offer access to live transcripts, which is available to Zoom Pro users, allowing meeting participants to highlight, add pictures and comments through the Otter.ai web or mobile app.

How Zoom has championed third-party services integration



Zoom video conferencing is witnessing huge adoption with over 300 million daily users; the platform success is owing to integrations of third-party services, which has helped to bring best-of-class capabilities to Zoom without having to dedicate its own development resources.

Although rivals like Google Meet and Microsoft Teams have already introduced an in-meeting captioning service, Zoom by the integration of Otter.ai with its live video transcription services, has in effect, caught up to competitors without any key differentiator between the other platforms.

Otter.ai was launched in February 2018, and it has already built-up over a million-strong userbase and the service is backed by Tesla, DeepMind, and Facebook.

How Zoom's third-party integration will impact the users experience



The ongoing global lockdown has prompted many organizations to shutter businesses and offices; even schools are not exempted, leading to a larger uptake in video conferencing as teachers and workers try to contain the disruption to their daily services.

The Otter.ai Live Video Meeting Notes integration with Zoom includes:

  • Post-meeting transcription: Automatic downloading of Zoom cloud recordings for transcription, which is available to all Otter.ai users.
  • Live transcription: Meeting participants can open the Otter.ai Live Video Meeting Notes in the LIVE menu at the top of the Zoom window, and capable of highlighting, commenting, and adding photos to the live meeting notes. But it requires Otter for Teams subscription.
  • Headset support: Otter.ai Live Video Meeting Notes is able to capture both sides of conversation when using headsets or earbuds.


Additionally, the Otter Voice Meeting Notes app uses proprietary AI (artificial intelligence) to generate shareable, searchable, rich and secure notes in real time combining audio, speaker identification, inline photos, and key phrases.

Zoom partners Otter.ai for Live Transcription of Video Meetings



Over the last few years, online gaming has continued to rise in popularity thanks to advancements in technology. In the US, the number of gamers in each state is hard to estimate, though game manufacturers are using the data as their trade secret. Nonetheless, several titles have remained quite popular among online gamers in 2020.

Here are the most talked-about online games played on PC and gaming consoles.

1. Player Unknown Battle Grounds (PUBG)





With over 50 million online gamers, PUBG has managed to remain among the most popular online games since it was first launched in 2018. The game is available on iOS, Android, PC, and Xbox, making it among the best in 2020.

PUBG has the power to accommodate up to 99 players simultaneously, and it’s based on H1Z1 and armor. Even better, the game boasts of high-quality graphics and sophisticated real-life situations where you’re given a mission and a map, with enemies hiding in bushes.

2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive





Launched in 2014, CS:GO has over 32 million online players, and it’s available on OS X, Play Station 3, XBOX 360, and Linux. Valve Corporation develops the game, and it’s among the most popular titles in Betway’s esports offerings.

Counter strike is all about counter-terrorism attacks, where players need to plant and defuse bombs, secure locations, kill terrorists, and accomplish different missions.

More importantly, this multiplayer shooter game allows you to win more prizes for accomplishing different goals. It’s no wonder punters love playing and wagering on the game.

3. League of Legends





After its launch in 2009, League of Legends has managed to amass a total of 27 million players, and it’s available on Xbox, IOS, Android, and PC. This multiplayer action game is brought to you by Riot games, giving the players the freedom to choose their champions to compete with other players on the game.

Additionally, it has stunning graphics and entertaining game modes that remain interesting on every level.

4. Apex Legends





Since its official release in 2019, Apex Legends has managed to gather over 50 million online [players every month. The game is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows, and it has managed to hit the headlines in the gaming scene since its release.

For those who enjoy battlefield games but haven’t had much success with Fortnite and PUBG, Apex Legends might be the game for you. It allows six-player teams to battle it out on the battlefield, with three players left on the island to salvage weapons and other resources that might be useful in fighting other squads.

5. Dota 2





Another title from Valve Corporation, Dota 2, is available on Mac OS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The game has over 5 million online players, and the game developer has spent millions of dollars to ensure that its multiplayer mode is rewarding and more entertaining than its predecessors.

More importantly, Dota 2 has players all over the world, competing in different leagues and tournaments.

Top 5 Most Popular Online Games At The Moment



Linux Lite 5.0 RC1 is perhaps the most feature rich, and complete Linux Lite release to date, which is now available for testing.

While Linux Lite is one of the best lightweight Linux distros, with the first release candidate (rc1) bringing several new changes that will ultimately ship with final v5.0. And this release is what will give a glimpse into the Final release, with specific instructions from the new in-built Help Manual for all of the new features.

Linux Lite 5.0 is based on Ubuntu 20.04, and comes with other modern software, such as Gimp 2.10.18, Linux kernel 5.4.0, Thunderbird 68.7.0, Firefox 75.0, and VLC 3.0.9.

What are the New Features in Linux Lite 5.0?



Linux Lite 5.0 turns UEFI and SecureBoot options into reality, with UEFI now supported out of the box, allowing users to boot Linux Lite in secure UEFI boot mode. Other major changes include:


  • New Updater notifier
  • Dual architecture support
  • GUFW replaced by the highly configurable FireWallD
  • XFCE Screensaver included, but disabled by default
  • OEM installer for retailers and manufacturers (Legacy and UEFI)
  • Firewall status added to Lite Widget
  • Lite Welcome and Lite User Manager updated to GTK3 and Python3
  • Mousepad replaces Leafpad
  • No hidden telemetry


And over a dozen of other minor tweaks and changes, which are too many to be listed here. Albeit, there are more new features expected to be revealed before the release of the final version, Linux Lite 5.0.

How to Get Started with Linux Lite 5.0 RC1?



If you want to try Linux Lite 5.0 RC1 out right now, you can download it from here. And before installing it, make sure your PC meets the minimum system requirements for Linux Lite, as follows: 1GHz processor, 768MB RAM and 8GB HDD/SD.

But bear in mind that this is pre-release software, so it shouldn't replace your main operating system, as the release candidate is just for testing to see how the final version will feel like. Then, if you feel you want to switch from Windows to Linux Lite, you have to wait for the final version 5.0 before making the leap.

Lightweight Linux distro, Linux Lite 5.0 First Release Candidate (RC1) is here



Apple's mailing app that is pre-installed on all iPhones and iPads is reported to be vulnerable to two critical flaws which attackers have been exploiting in the wild, for at least, the last two years to spy on targeted victims.

While the flaws are remote code execution vulnerability that resides in the MIME library of Apple's mail app, which owing to an out-of-bounds write bug, results to a heap overflow issue.

The flaws could allow remote attackers to secretly take control of Apple devices by simply sending a malicious email to a targeted user who is logged-in to the vulnerable email app.

How the cybersecurity researchers at ZecOps discovered the flaws



The researchers at ZecOps reported that various models of iPhone and iPad from the last 8 years starting with the release of iOS 6 and the current iOS 13.4.1, were affected as no patch has yet been made available for the affected devices.



Although the exploit emails were received and processed by victims' devices, the corresponding emails which should have been received and saved on the mail-server were reportedly missing. And therefore, it is assumed that these emails were intentionally deleted as part of the attacker's strategy to remain undetected.

The most worrisome part is that multiple groups of attackers are already exploiting the flaws in the wild for about 2 years now as zero-days to target individuals from organizations in Saudi Arabia and Israel, and also journalists in Europe.

How to guard against the attacks since No Patch is yet Available



The researchers promptly reported the flaws to Apple security team about two months ago, still no patch was issued to protect users against the mail app bug. Albeit, the beta 13.4.5 version of iOS, which was released only last week, contains the security patches for both zero-day vulnerabilities.

Therefore, Apple users are advised to refrain from using the default mail app on their devices, and to switch to any other third-party provider like Gmail app, until the patch is made available.

And the good news is that a software patch will soon be available with the release of the upcoming iOS update, so that millions of iPhone and iPad users, can return to using their favorite email app.

Apple's mail app bug makes Hacking an iPhone as easy as sending email



Facebook Gaming app which has been in testing with select users in Southeast Asia and Latin America for over a year now, is finally available for all users in the US. It will be proceeded with a wider global rollout, as the new gaming app is meant to compete with Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube Gaming.

While the company has been trying to capture a tangible share of the gaming market, haven previously launched an HTML5-based platform, dubbed Facebook Instant Games, which eliminates the need to download the Gameroom app for quick game-play experience, with embedded games right inside the News Feed and Messenger.

Now, the company has made what's perhaps its biggest push into gaming, with the debut of the Facebook Gaming app. And unlike Twitch and YouTube, Facebook Gaming app is targeted at mobile gaming in particular.

Facebook Gaming vs Twitch: What's similar about the two platforms?



Twitch boasts of over 15 million daily active users, and armed with this loyal following and capable support system, has enabled it to attract top talents from some of the most popular platforms, like YouTube Gaming.



While Facebook will be harping on its over 2 billion mobile active users, as Facebook Gaming focuses on mobile gaming and live-streaming gameplay, unlike Twitch which is available on various platforms, including mobile and web. And for Twitch that makes money off content produced by its gamers, which numbers point to a rather lucrative future. In contrasts, Facebook Gaming is still promoting their own specialized gaming to capture users within the mobile segment.

However, Facebook has the advantage of having users to stream directly on the social media platform, a place many gamers are already familiar. And it further lowered the barrier of entry by including a built-in function called ‘Go Live’ that makes it easy for gamers to stream without having to install third-party software or connect to a PC.

How to Get Started with Facebook Gaming App?



Facebook Gaming app is currently available in the United States on Android platform, and can be downloaded from the Play Store, with iOS version still awaiting approval, and expressly for mobile gaming.

There are variety of online games offered by the Facebook Gaming app which can be played with friends. And you can also watch popular streamers live, playing their favorite games online, with the app allowing interaction of the community through dedicated gaming groups.

It shouldn’t be quite long before the Facebook Gaming app comes to iOS users, and subsequently a worldwide rollout.

Facebook launches a dedicated Mobile Gaming App to take on Twitch



UMix is a remix of Ubuntu Linux with MATE and Unity 7 desktop environments, with the latest version of UMix v20.04 based on the upcoming Ubuntu 20.04 LTS “Focal Fossa”.

While Unity 7 desktop is not actively developed any longer, as it is now shipped in Ubuntu Linux by default, many users still prefer it over GNOME. Also, Ubuntu bundles Nautilus as default file manager, however due to lack of some features on Nautilus release, UMix had to switch to Caja as the default file manager.

And subsequently, several pre-installed Caja extensions are made available for use to perform actions directly from the right-click context menu, such as image resizing and so forth.

Overview of UMix 20.04 (Ubuntu Remix With MATE and Unity 7 Desktops)



As Ubuntu 20.04 is an LTS release, it will receive updates during a five years schedule until April 2025, which also applies to UMix system package, including changes from the upstream Ubuntu repository.

UMix 20.04 include two new entries on the ISO boot menu, and to troubleshoot issues, you can simply boot the system in debug mode or boot it with animation using normal entries.



However, if you do not want dual boot with your current operating system, there is an option to run UMix as a Virtual Machine. And the support for VirtualBox is now better than before with a dynamic display for the host system. Also you can access the content from a shared folder when still logged in to Live session.

There are two ISO editions, Unity 7 and MATE based, with the MATE edition having a classic light theme and suitable for people who prefer the MATE desktop. It offers an alternative for the future, in case Unity desktop is removed from Ubuntu repos, or other reasons.



The ISO editions include popular applications such as GIMP, Shutter, and LibreOffice. Also, you can use a minimal install by selecting the “Minimal installation” option during installation. Albeit, the minimal install is not recommended for most users, as it is pretty minimal in function.

How To Get Started with UMix 20.04



If you want to get started with UMix 20.04, you need to download and install the system packages. The ISO images are currently available in two editions based on the Unity 7 and MATE desktop environments.

UMix, unlike other Linux remix distros, such as UbuntuDDE that come free of charges, attracts a subscription fee of $15 and you get a download link via email on confirmation of payment. The subscription, however, is a one-time payment which covers all future releases.

Ubuntu Linux Remix with MATE and Unity 7 Desktops (UMix 20.04)



Sandboxie is one of the most popular Windows-based sandbox isolation tool, which was acquired by Sophos in 2017 and later converted to free-to-use software, now the company has released the source code to the public.

While Sandboxie is a perfect example of how to integrate isolation tool with Windows at a very low level, and capable of running any Windows app that requires a secure virtual sandbox to run; the programs run in isolated space to prevent them from making permanent changes to other programs or modifying the data on your computer.

Also, the programs in Sandboxie can run as you do normally by visiting websites, downloading files and clicking on links. If in any case you encounter malware attack, you can simply shut down your PC and your system would still remain safe.

The Open Sourcing of Sandboxie



Sophos updated Sandboxie to version V5.33.3 for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, while making available all the features reserved for commercial versions of Sandboxie free in that release, with the source code version 5.40.

The latest version of Sandboxie for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 has been made available to the community, and no future updates will be made by the company, as all features have now been made completely free in this version. Any further improvements will need to be made through the open source community.

Sophos has scheduled the shut down of the community Sandboxie forum and the license server on June 1st 2020. As the open source release has no code to check for the license server, which was removed in the V5.31.1 release.

How to Compile the Sandboxie Source code?



Firstly, there are 3 steps to follow in building Sandboxie:

  • Compilation of the source code
  • Signing of the generated binaries (Required for the Driver)
  • Creating the installer (Useful for initially performing tasks like installing the driver)


Then, start with the Readme.txt file in the root of the source code, but the main piece that is needed to compile the code is Microsoft Visual Studio 2015.

Albeit, the Community Version may build the source code but there are restrictions on the use of the binaries generated by this version. And there is a dependency on the Microsoft Windows Device Driver Kit 7.1.0, which link has been provided in the Readme.txt file.

For further information on how to compile the source code, you should refer to the Sandboxie official website.

Open Sourcing Sandboxie: What its Dedicated Community stands to gain?



The default kernel in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a linux-aws 4.15 based kernel, but now Canonical has switched it to a rolling kernel model.

Canonical has followed the rolling kernel model in its other cloud environments for some time now, and found it's an excellent way to deliver enhancements and still provides LTS level stability.

The rolling kernel model is available in the latest interim Ubuntu release, and has also been applied to 18.04, but the linux-aws kernel is still a 4.15 based kernel and when roll, it becomes a 5.3 based kernel. And the model transitions the default linux-aws kernel from one base version to the other as part of regular patching cycle.

What is the Rolling Kernel Model?



The default linux-aws kernel is transitioned from one base version to the next as part of its regular patching cycle through a model known as rolling kernel.

Applying this model to 18.04, with the linux-aws kernel still a 4.15 based kernel, when roll, it will become a 5.3 based kernel which was part of 19.10 interim release. And that 5.3 kernel is now available for preview as the linux-aws-edge kernel.

It's important to bear in mind that both the linux-aws-edge kernels and the rolling release kernels are fully baked prior to being made available for use and they meet the same quality and durability standards all kernels must meet before release.

How Ubuntu users can Prepare for the ‘roll’?



For installation of the 5.3 linux-aws-edge kernel, which is now available for testing, you need to follow the instructions for using a terminal window as detailed below.

Kindly note that this instance is running the standard linux-aws kernel (v4.15.0):

ubuntu@ip-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx$ uname -r 4.15.0-xxxx-aws


Then install the linux-aws-edge kernel and reboot the instance:

ubuntu@ip-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx$ sudo apt update ubuntu@ip-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx$ sudo apt install -y linux-aws-edge


If you are prompted about a new version of /boot/grub/menu.lst, simply select the default: “keep the local version currently installed”.

However, if you don't want to roll to new kernel but rather to stay on the 4.15 based kernel, which support continues for the length of the LTS, simply type the below instructions into a terminal window ssh’d into your instance:

ubuntu@ip-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx$ sudo apt update ubuntu@ip-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx$ sudo apt install linux-aws-lts-18.04


For now, if you roll your kernel, you’ll shift to 5.3 kernel which is now available for preview as the linux-aws-edge kernel. Hence, it is recommended that users run with their workloads in non-production deployments. And if you did give it a spin, you can provide feedback on the Filing Ubuntu Kernel Bugs wiki.

Ubuntu AWS Rolling Kernel: What is the Change all About?



Hackers are leveraging on typosquatting technique where intentionally misspelled legitimate packages are uploaded to RubyGems in hopes that unsuspecting developers who mistype the name will unintentionally install the malicious library.

While RubyGems is a package manager for Ruby programming language that offers a standard format for distributing programs and libraries, and easily manage the installation of gems, with a server for distributing them.

Researchers at ReversingLabs discovered over 700 malicious gems that supply-chain attackers were caught distributing through the RubyGems repository, with most of them designed to steal funds secretly by redirecting cryptocurrency transactions to another wallet address under the attacker's control.

How the Researchers Discovered the Typosquatted RubyGems Libraries?



The ReversingLabs researchers used a list of popular gems as baseline for their investigation, and monitored new gems that were recently published in the repository, which they'll flag once any library had a similar name with those on the baseline list.

As a form of brandjacking attack, Typosquatting typically relies on mistypes of web address or library name which tends to mimic popular packages in the software registries. According to the researchers, there were several packages such as "atlas-client" posing as the "atlas_client" gem, which contains portable executables (PEs) masquerading as a harmless image file ("aaa.png").

The image file on installation is renamed from 'aaa.png' to 'a.exe' and executed, with a VBScript encoded content in Base64 that enables the malware gain persistence root access on the infected system and run anytime it is rebooted or started.

And the VBScript not only captures the victim's clipboard content continuously, but replaces the address with an attacker-controlled alternative, if it finds that the clipboard data matches the format of a cryptocurrency wallet address.

Why Developers should beware of the Rise in Typosquatting?



This type of attack, known as typosquatting, isn't new, with popular repository platforms including the Python Package Index (PyPi) and Node.js package manager (npm), which is owned by GitHub, having all served as past attack vectors in typosquatted malware distributions.

During submission of software packages, there is often lack of scrutiny in the review and approval process, and that has been a boon of some sort to malware authors for publishing Trojanized libraries which mimics existing packages.

Therefore, developers are advised to always check to make sure that they've used the correct package names, and so don't unintentionally download malware libraries into their projects, or use the typosquatted versions.

Hackers using Typosquatting Techniques to Steal Cryptocurrency from RubyGems



After almost 3 months in the waiting, Deepin 20 Beta has been quietly released, as against the original scheduled January 2020 release date.

While Deepin is perhaps one of the most beautiful Linux distro, with the beta ISO (UOS) of the upcoming major version of the desktop environment bringing a new interactive experience.

Besides the unified design for the desktop environment and applications, the underlying kernel and repository have also been upgraded to Kernel 5.3 and Debian 10 respectively.

And Deepin popularity has been on the rise this month, with the beta release of UbuntuDDE, a new Remix Linux distribution that features Ubuntu 20.04 and Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), which is certainly an exciting development to watch.

What's new in Deepin 20 Beta?



Deepin 20 Beta comes with a unified design style, with redesigned desktop environment and applications, bringing a new interactive experience.



The underlying repository and kernel too are upgraded to Debian 10 and Kernel 5.3 respectively, with the optimized system offering a richer application ecosystem and better system security and stability.

Also, DDE introduces a fashionable graphical interface, with natural animation effects, coupled with exquisite multi-tasking view, and colorful icons, that ensure an exciting user experience. What's more, there are even new applications available for users.

How to Download and Install Deepin 20 Beta?



As Deepin Linux is an open source desktop environment developed for common use, it is available FREE for everyone to download, modify, distribute and use.

Deepin 20 Beta can be downloaded from the official site, however, you should bear in mind that this is a new beta (with likely some bugs), so don’t download and install it on your main production system.

The recommended course of action is probably to download and install it on a secondary system, if you really want to give it a spin.

Deepin 20 Beta brings Unified design for the Desktop environment and apps



Mozilla has released Firefox 75 as scheduled, with the upgraded browser sporting some changes in the address bar designed to streamline in-browser searches.

While Firefox 75 release comes as it was scheduled months earlier, top rivals Google and Microsoft had postponed their respective browser releases by weeks or had to scratch one version entirely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Microsoft had announced that they will temporarily suspended Edge releases, but Mozilla thinks otherwise with the believe that they can maintain 2020 Firefox release schedule even as they navigate the global crisis together.

What's New in latest Firefox 75 Release?



Mozilla has maintained its 50% faster release cadence, which corresponds to every four weeks instead of the regular every six, which may mean that Firefox users should expect fewer new functionality in each upgrade.

In the case of Firefox 75, the new browser version only added improvements in the address bar, as one that stood out, the address bar will now drop down a list of first eight websites from the tab page. The function saves users from the need to open a new tab each time they want to navigate to their favorite site.



And Firefox users can change the order of the sites within the list, by simply adding to it or subtracting from the thumbnails on the new tab page, or reshuffling the ones already on it.

There are other changes in the address bar's user interface (UI) including boldfaced keywords based on search string being entered, which helps to narrow the search even further, as Mozilla asserted and a re-sized field and font, which all expand when typing a search string and contract to normal size when done.

Mozilla also highlighted some developer and enterprise-specific changes, ranging from loading attribute on elements to support for certificates on the macOS certificate store.

How to Upgrade to the latest Firefox 75?



Firefox 75 is available for Windows, macOS and Linux, and can be downloaded from Mozilla's official site or from the respective app stores. But as Firefox updates happen in the background, most users will only need to relaunch the browser to receive the latest version.

While those who failed to get automatic update can manually update on Windows, by pulling up the menu under the horizontal bars at the upper right, then click on the help icon, which is the question mark within the circle. And select "About Firefox" and the upgrade will begin.

Those on macOS, should select "About Firefox" which can be found under the "Firefox" menu. And the page will show whether the browser is up to date or recommend the refresh process.

What's New in latest Firefox update? Firefox 75 Address Bar Enhancements



The popular Linux desktop, GNOME alongside KDE Plasma is pivoting to a beautiful and mobile-friendly shell for smooth and better performance on mobile devices.

While officially known as Phosh, GNOME is working on Mobile Shell as a major leap forward with how the GNOME UI experience might function on a larger screen, and the following concept images were recently shared by Tobias Bernard, a GNOME designer on GNOME Design Gitlab.

After a year since the first official GNOME apps received convergent UI with Purism's libhandy, the popular Linux desktop appears to be gearing up for the next level - a fully convergent desktop environment - through the redesigning of the Shell to become more modern, mobile-friendly, and scalable.

The New GNOME Mobile Shell Concepts



The new UI mockups, which can be seen below, are quite interesting, as they resembles something of a convergence of the familiar GNOME Shell and Phosh, the touch-orientated mobile face of GNOME Shell.



Interestingly, these new designs are quite in contrast to the old GNOME Shell, as it look more promising and mobile focused than ever before. It points to the emergence of GNOME on mobile and tablets, which is surely interesting to see how Linux desktop makers will respond to building a touch-centric UI future.



And furthermore, the displayed tiling concept design with no floating windows apps is quite fascinating. As each application opens in a full screen, filling the entire space. Also, it allows you to group them in the same workspace in a tiled layout with the option to re-size.

The open-source Linux smartphone, PinePhone has also been announced by Manjaro ARM project, as well as the upcoming ‘PineTab’ tablet, all pointing to the inroad of Linux desktops to mobile, with the fourth ALPHA release for PinePhone and Pine64 haven already started shipping of the pre-order units of PinePhone Braveheart Edition as at Jan 17, 2020.

GNOME Shell aims for a Convergent, mobile-friendly UI Future



The Android malware, xHelper infected over 45,000 devices in 2019, and coupled with the ability to re-install itself on devices after users delete it or factory reset their devices, makes it almost impossible to remove.

While Igor Golovin, malware analyst at Kaspersky, finally solved the mystery by unveiling some technical details on the mechanism used by xHelper, and also figured out the best way to remove the malware from infected devices.

But xHelper malware has ultimately returned this year with the Triada Trojan, which is a virulent payload, and according to researchers, it's virtually indestructible by the common user.

How xHelper managed to remain undetectable?



The Android malware disguises itself as a cleaner or speed-up app, which in reality there is absolutely nothing of such related to it. Once it is installed on a device, it will disappear from both the main screen and the program menu.

And it takes only a tech-savvy user to find it by inspecting the list of installed apps in the system settings, with the payload encrypted in the file /assets/firehelper.jar (as the encryption is practically unchanged from its earlier versions, and it isn't difficult to decrypt).

The main task of the payload is to send identity information of the targeted device (phone model, android_id, manufacturer, firmware version, etc.) to an attacker-control remote web server. It is capable of gaining root access mainly on devices running older Android versions (Android 6 and 7), mostly from Chinese ODMs, according to Golovin.

How to effectively Remove xHelper



As mentioned above, simply deleting xHelper app does not entirely remove it from the Android system, as the program com.diag.patches.vm8u is already installed in the system partition, it re-installs xHelper and other malware at any instance.

The best way to remove it is replacing the modified library with that from the original firmware for your Android phone which could re-enable mounting system partition in the write-mode to remove xHelper Android malware permanently.

And such a procedure can only be carried out by a tech-savvy user, so to get rid of the malware easily, affected users are advised to simply re-flash their phones with a copy of original firmware downloaded from the vendors' official website or install another compatible Android ROM.

xHelper: The Persistent Android Malware returns with a Payload



The first stable version of EndeavourOS was released on July 15, 2019, with a friendly GUI-based offline and online installer, which presents the easiest method to set up a system.

Now, the latest version EndeavourOS 2020.4.11 brings several new enhancements, such as improvements in the look and feel of the offline Calamares installer, with the main theme color of the installer changing from purple to blue with more details to go along with it.

And if you run an open-source driver or NVIDIA proprietary driver, you can easily boot your system with dedicated graphics cards.

Major New Features in EndeavourOS 2020.4.11?



As already mentioned above, the latest version brings improvements to the look and feel of the offline Calamares installer, and akin to Ubiquity in Ubuntu, Calamares offer a terminal window in the background to display progress of the installation.

The installer also performs a cleaning up of drivers for light experience during the first boot. And the welcome app now supports several languages such as German, Spanish, Russian and French, in addition to English language.

Other changes include:

  • Linux Kernel 5.6.3-arch1-1
  • VMWare support included on the ISO
  • LUKS encryption in the installer
  • Vanilla Theme Desktop Environments in net-installer
  • Mesa 20.04.-1
  • Firefox 75.0-1 Arch


Additionally, the new version of the software ships with new built-in applications, like Pahis which shows the package history in the terminal and Eos-log-tool that's helpful to create a log file for a bug report, to name a few.

Installation of EndeavourOS 2020.4.11



You can install the latest version of EndeavourOS either as a fully themed Xfce DE via the offline Calamares installer or from a variety of desktop environments using online net-installer.

However, for a first-timer, you'll need fresh installation, by downloading the latest ISO image from the official website. And if you encounter any difficulties, there are official installation instructions available here.

Arch-based Linux Distro, EndeavourOS 2020.4.11 offers new enhancements



Cybercriminals are busy sending series of scam emails to deliver malware by leveraging on the coronavirus crisis to capture people’s attention.

The malware threats started as early as January, but has gathered momentum following the global pandemic as the attackers attempt to trick people into giving out their financial data by delivering malware-laden emails. Many of the scams rely on old phishing methods that exploit Microsoft Office vulnerability that has remained unpatched for years.

According to the US Secret Service (USSS) information alert, the “Fraudulent COVID-19 Emails with Malicious Attachments” masquerades as COVID-19 status emails from merchants to other businesses and organisations to their employees.

How Cybercriminals exploit Microsoft Office flaw to Install Malware



The hackers use faux alerts, which sought to remotely install malware on targeted system to harvest financial credential, install keyloggers, or lockdown the system.

And the malicious attachments are mostly Microsoft Office file types that exploit a decades-old, but now-patched vulnerability in Microsoft Office, which according to the US Secret Service the attack vectors have evolved with existing variations. It is now capable of stealing login credentials, and accessing all files and folders as well as cryptocurrency information.

The phishing emails are disguised as coming from hospitals, with recipients notified of having come in contact with a coronavirus-infected person, with malware-laden attachments to a downloadable Excel file, which exploits the same Microsoft Office vulnerability.

Another variation of this attack follows the guise of an email from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), targeting medical suppliers, by asking them to provide protective medical equipment from attached lists that contain malware.

How Businesses can secure against the Fraudulent COVID-19 Email Scams



The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued a guidance on how the exploitation of COVID-19 by malicious actors can be mitigated, offering a series of steps organizations can take to reduce the risks.

According to the agencies, organizations are recommended to make it more difficult for attackers to reach their employees by employing firewalls and antimalware systems. And also help to identify and report suspected phishing emails while responding quickly to incidents.

But above all, as the attackers take advantage of a decade-old Microsoft Office vulnerability to deliver malware, ensure your software is up to date.

Hackers pushing out Fraudulent COVID-19 Emails with Malicious Attachments



UbuntuDDE is an Ubuntu Remix Linux distro with Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), with the initial release as UbuntuDDE 24.04 focal.

While Deepin was originally based on Ubuntu but later switched to Debian, the Deepin desktop environment comes with a beautiful and intuitive interface which the new UbuntuDDE project will combine with the power of Ubuntu.

Deepin is perhaps one of the most beautiful desktop environments, but it isn't quite popular with the Linux community; so the shipping of this great desktop on top of popular Ubuntu Linux will result in not just an elegant and but also a powerful Linux distribution.

Overview of UbuntuDDE Remix 20.04



Ubuntu Remix, UbuntuDDE is not an official flavor of Ubuntu, neither are the developers associated with the Ubuntu team, however UbuntuDDE may perhaps get recognized as Ubuntu’s official flavor with the future releases.

Albeit, several developers from Ubuntu’s Snapcraft team and teams of Ubuntu Budgie and Ubuntu Cinnamon helped with UbuntuDDE development. And this large collaboration makes the remix project the best and most complete Ubuntu Linux remix.



It holds the possibility of becoming the eighth official Ubuntu variant following a regular DDE package update, as hinted by the developers; with the Ubuntu Deepin remix project starting with maintenance and packaging of the packages in the latest release from the upstream.

The Deepin Repository, which upstream is fused with the Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa eventually resulted an image file containing the stable packages and designs.

How to get Started with UbuntuDDE 20.04 Beta



UbuntuDDE offers the easiest way to install a mix of Ubuntu and Deepin using GUI installer, with the beta version available here.

However, as a beta build it is still under development, so you should not use it on your main system. If you really want to try it out, it's better to use it on a virtual machine or spare system.

UbuntuDDE 20.04 stable version is likely to arrive after Ubuntu 20.04 release on April 23, 2020. Then, you can go ahead and install on your main system. But you can still give the beta version a spin and share your experience on what this new Ubuntu variant feels like.

Remix Linux distro, UbuntuDDE brings Ubuntu and Deepin Desktop Environment



Microsoft has launched new Linux security module (LSM) for embedded devices, called Integrity Policy Enforcement (IPE), which aims to resolve the integrity issue in the Linux kernel by bringing enhanced security features.

IPE will enable a configurable policy that enforce integrity requirements in the whole system, thus helping to solve the issue of code integrity; so that executed codes (or files being read) are identical to versions built by trusted sources.

In other words, IPE is helpful in ensuring that only authorized code by the owner of a system is allowed to execute.

Overview of the Integrity Policy Enforcement (IPE)



While there are multiple implementations within Linux kernel that tends to solve integrity verification, such as device-mapper verity, that ensures integrity of a block device, and fs-verity which ensures integrity for the filesystem.

But these different implementations lack a measure of run-time verification for binaries sourced from the locations.

It is this security gap that IPE aims to address, and given that it's separated between the major components of a configurable policy, and the deterministic attributes, which are provided by the LSM (IPE Core) and the kernel to evaluate files against IPE Properties), respectively.

Different Use Cases for IPE



The new module is designed for devices with specific purpose like embedded systems, including network firewall device, whereby all software and configuration in a data center is built and provisioned.

Any such system that leverages IPE isn't intended for general purpose computing, nor does it utilize software or configuration built by a third party. So the ideal system for IPE should have both mutable and immutable components, albeit, all binary executable code is immutable.

The highest level of security for platform firmware is to verify the kernel as it allows the entire system to be integrity verified and also the root filesystem, though the later is optional.

However, IPE can't verify the integrity of anonymous executable memory, like trampolines created by gcc closures, libffi, or JIT'd code, as there is no way to detect that dynamically generated code has not been tampered in transit from built, to the running.

Microsoft launches new Linux Security Module (LSM) for embedded devices



Microsoft's biggest move to improve its browser's performance by the adoption of Blink rendering engine forked from WebKit, also used by Chrome and Opera browser, is already yielding favorable results.

The Chromium-based Edge browser was subsequently pitched to enterprise users as a preferred alternative with regards to security and privacy, which is perhaps, the main reason for gaining better market share and position according to NetMarketShare statistics report.

Firefox desktop browser according to the report saw a downward slope in popularity, ending at 7.19% in March 2020. And Microsoft Edge browser recorded an upward slope from 5.20% in March 2019 to 7.59% last month.

Full List of popular Desktop browsers for March 2020



The analytics company, Net Applications, posted that Firefox's share in March slumped to 7.19%, which is down by four-tenths of a percentage point. And it marks the fifth month in last six in which the browser shed users, but more importantly, recorded a low since Firefox climbed into limelight to challenge Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) about 15 years ago.



Mozilla Firefox's ceding of second place to Microsoft's Edge meant the second in a row for Firefox, after last month's below the 2016 slump that previously marked the browser's biggest dip.

Albeit, Firefox browser ceded second place to Chrome in March 2014 with the latter climbing ahead in the race against the then-dominant IE, however Firefox was able to regain the spot in December 2018 as Microsoft's browser lost out.

What does Microsoft Edge rise means for IE users?



Since Microsoft has maintained IE on life-support, perhaps to cater for those organizations that still need it to run some specific web apps or intranet sites, which are not worth a refresh, IE's share will most likely suffer as the new Edge's share rises.

The new Edge browser includes the much anticipated IE mode, which makes the stand-alone Internet Explorer worthless for most businesses that may have resorted to it for access to legacy internal sites.

Nonetheless, the new feat achieved by Microsoft Edge cannot be ignored; as it has only been three months since the company released the Chromium-based Edge browser.

Browser Wars: Mozilla Firefox falls behind Edge, ceding Second place