Linux, Open Source, & anti Microsoft news

The office of the Australian Government Chief Technology Officer (AGCTO) is proposing support for the Open Document Format (ODF) in an annual review of computing system policies.

Microsoft could eventully award achievements to users for TV watching, that is if the company’s patent application recently published by the US Patent and Trademark Office ever comes to fruition. 

Microsoft has been quite cagey about its plans for games licensing on the new Xbox One, but multiple reports now suggest there’s going to be very little incentive for a…

For all Microsoft’s hype about The Interface Formerly Known As Metro (TIFKAM), more than half of all Windows 8 users ignore the new Start Screen and treat the OS as…

According to a test by Ars Technica, Microsoft is intercepting, decrypting, and reading at least some Skype messages — to the point where URLs embedded in Skype chat are being…

We are back at it again with 10 updates in Microsoft’s May edition of Patch Tuesday. Two are rated Critical, with the remaining eight rated as Important.  This month’s Patch…

Hewlett-Packard rolled out another Android device this week. This could become a pattern as PC makers hedge against a world that’s less about Microsoft and more about Google. 

Google’s alternative to Microsoft Office, Google Apps, has always suffered from the fact that it offers a sort of “good enough” compatibility — fine for most basic document and spreadsheet…

PC sales in Western Europe plummeted in the first quarter in the biggest decline the continent has ever seen — more than 20 percent. And one key reason for the…

Is Microsoft “snooping” on Skype text conversations, or merely protecting users from malware URLs?  German publisher Heise Online has given that question prominence with the accusation that Redmond is snooping,…

Microsoft has confirmed that it will issue its Blue update to Windows 8 without charge, with first code scheduled at the company’s Build conference starting on June 26.

Microsoft claimed last week that it’s made ‘100 million’ Windows 8 sales and the claim has been widely repeated. But channel feedback and the experience on the ground point to…

Microsoft will close serious vulnerabilities in all versions of Internet Explorer as part of this month’s Patch Tuesday update.  The remote code execution flaw affects Internet Explorer versions 6, 7,…

The crew of the International Space Station (once they’ve fixed their leak) will trade their old Windows XP laptops for Debian-powered systems to use in their Operations Local Area Network…

Whether Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who doesn’t even have a computer on his desk, actually uses it is another matter. But he’s moving to Google, and bringing some 20,000…