Microsoft announced the upcoming release of Windows 11 on June 24, 2021. Some of the changes include changes to the Microsoft Store and apps, as well as a new partnership with Amazon to bring their catalog of Android apps and games to Windows users.
Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 Home and Pro on October 14, 2025.
Google has added new features to celebrate 10 years of Chromebooks as part of Chrome OS 89. These include:
Chrome OS is currently the second most popular operating system, according to Google.
A full list of Chromebook keyboard shortcuts may be found here.
Neverware, which develops CloudReady, announced in December 2020 that it will be soon be part of Google. CloudReady is an operating system based on the open-source Chromium OS that is free for home use to install on computers that meet its minimum requirements.
Android custom distributions (ROMs) are replacement operating systems for Android smartphones and tablets. This allows users to customize older devices that may not have available Android updates and extend their service life. This may erase data and void your device’s warranty. Available security updates are usually based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). More information is at
Google’s Chrome OS is a secure choice for an operating system, but older devices may no longer be supported. When a Chrome device reaches its Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date, automatic updates from Google will no longer be provided.
IFixit has instructions on how to convert a working Chromebook past its expiration date to use CloudReady.
iXsystems announced in March 2020 that TrueNAS CORE is the new name for FreeNAS, the popular open source NAS (Network Attached Storage) operating system. This was done to unify branding with its TrueNAS Enterprise product. Additional features were added to the TrueNAS CORE product as well. Documentation for TrueNAS is available at www.truenas.com/docs/hub/.
Apple announced the upcoming releases of several new technologies at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2020, including:
FreeNAS is a popular and free open source NAS (Network Attached Storage) operating system. It is maintained by iXsystems and uses the OpenZFS filesystem. More information is available at:
Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 7 after January 14th 2020 and will no longer provide security updates. For volume license customers, Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) will be available for a fee through January 2023. A future option may be Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) for Windows 7, which was announced in 2018 but not yet available in Preview mode.
Office 2010 will no longer be supported as of October 13th 2020. Microsoft is also ending support for Windows 10 Mobile OS for smartphones on December 10th 2019 and recommends that customers move to a supported Android or iOS device.
Internet Explorer 11 will be the last release, and Microsoft has released more information at its Internet Explorer FAQ page.
Support life cycle dates for Microsoft products can be found at support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search.
Microsoft announced the upcoming release of Windows SandBox, which allows you to run untrusted programs in a new isolated temporary desktop environment without setting up a virtual machine. Windows Sandbox builds upon Windows Containers and is currently only available as part of Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise Insider Preview Build 18305.