Linux, Open Source, & anti Microsoft news

Microsoft has acquired Flipgrid, a video discussion platform used by more than 20 million teachers and students around the world. Flipgrid is a platform that allows students to discuss and reply to topics with video clips at home or in the classroom. Microsoft will now be making Flipgrid free for schools, and any customers who already paid for a subscription will now receive a prorated refund.

Microsoft had to emit a hasty update for its R Open analysis tool after developers found the open-source package was not playing nice with some Linux systems.

Microsoft has patched a vulnerability in the Cortana smart assistant that could have allowed an attacker with access to a locked computer to use the smart assistant and access data on the device, execute malicious code, or even change the PC’s password to access the device in its entirety.

Microsoft has released its monthly security update, addressing a total of 51 CVE-listed security vulnerabilities. The June edition of Patch Tuesday includes 11 fixes for critical vulnerabilities in Windows, including Microsoft’s solution for the recently-disclosed Spectre Variant 4 chip design flaw.

CLOUD WARS — For all of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s brilliant gambits in transforming his company into the world’s pre-eminent tech vendor, perhaps none will match the impact of his decisions to become a global community powerhouse via the acquisitions of LinkedIn two years ago and GitHub last week.

The Windows 10 April 2018 Update has been out for over a month now, and the rumbling of user dissatisfaction continues. This time it’s networking problems for users still clinging to the venerable SMB1 protocol.

GitHub’s future CEO Nat Friedman has conducted a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session and outlined a little of what Microsoft plans to do with the collaborative code locker once the acquisition is formalised and admitted that “if Microsoft screws this up, we will lose the trust of developers for a generation.”

Microsoft is not paying $7.5 billion for GitHub for its ability to make money (its financial value). It’s paying for the access it gets to the legions of developers who use GitHub’s code repository products on a daily basis (the company’s strategic value) — so they can be guided into the Microsoft developer environment, where the real money is made.

Everything will remain open, along with lots of Microsoft ‘opportunities’. Here are three reasons why devs should start seriously considering alternatives to GitHub.

For Microsoft Corp., acquiring GitHub Inc. would be both a return to the company’s earliest roots and a sharp turnaround from where it was a decade ago. The software maker has agreed to acquire GitHub, the code-repository company popular with many software developers, and could announce the deal as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.