Linux, Open Source, & anti Microsoft news

Microsoft is bundling its AI-powered Office features into Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions, but it’s also raising prices as a result. Previously, Microsoft 365 subscribers had to pay an extra $20 per month to get Copilot inside Office apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as part of a Copilot Pro subscription, but Microsoft is now adding these AI features to Microsoft 365 apps for an extra $3 per month. Existing subscribers can opt out of the AI features and not suffer the price increase, though.

Microsoft says it will drop support for Office apps in Windows 10 after the operating system reaches its end of support on October 14. “Microsoft 365 Apps will no longer be supported after October 14, 2025, on Windows 10 devices. To use Microsoft 365 Applications on your device, you will need to upgrade to Windows 11,” the company said on Tuesday.

​Microsoft says a known issue is causing Classic Outlook and Microsoft 365 applications to crash on Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019 systems. This confirmation comes after many customers reported over the last several days that Microsoft Outlook and Office 365 apps like Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint crashed within 15 seconds of launch.

Today is Microsoft’s January 2025 Patch Tuesday, which includes security updates for 159 flaws, including eight zero-day vulnerabilities, with three actively exploited in attacks. This Patch Tuesday also fixes twelve “Critical” vulnerabilities, including information disclosure, privileges elevation, and remote code execution flaws.

Customers across six Asian and Australasian nations are having to contend with major price hikes to stay connected to their Microsoft 365 online services as the company struggles to identify the right pricing for its AI tools.

​Microsoft is investigating an ongoing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) outage that is blocking customers from accessing Microsoft 365 Office apps. Some affected Microsoft 365 users have also reported that MFA registration and reset are not working.

Microsoft will force install the new Outlook email client on Windows 10 systems starting with next month’s security update. The announcement was made in a new message added to the company’s Microsoft 365 Admin Center, tagged MC976059, and it applies to Microsoft 365 apps users.

Microsoft has fixed a known issue causing macOS applications to freeze when opening or saving files in OneDrive. As Redmond explained when it first acknowledged the bug in November, it affects only systems running the company’s latest operating system release, macOS 15 Sequoia.

BlackBerry, once synonymous with the business smartphone, is now a major automotive technology player through its QNX platform, and has now revealed a tie-up with Microsoft to revolutionize the development of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs).

Microsoft is planning job cuts soon, and the company is taking a harder look at underperforming employees as part of the reductions, according to two people familiar with the plans. “At Microsoft we focus on high performance talent,” the spokesperson said. “We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action.”