Linux, Open Source, & anti Microsoft news

Microsoft has sparked criticism for baking a “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) option into its Edge web browser, beginning in the US. The option allows Edge to suggest a sponsored BNPL payment method when customers begin entering their card numbers into retail sites – even if specific sites do not offer it natively. Microsoft has signed a deal with third-party BNPL company Zip (previously Quadpay) to feature the sign-up option on retail checkout pages at browser level, for any purchase Edge detects between $35 to $1000.

Microsoft Edge is Windows’ default browser, but many users often opt to use others, such as Firefox or Google Chrome. Microsoft is now giving people, or at least gamers, a reason to use Edge with one feature other browsers lack. Today, Microsoft announced that Xbox Cloud Gaming has partnered with Microsoft Edge to create an improved Xbox Cloud Gaming experience on the browser. According to Milena Gonzalez, program manager at Xbox, a new feature called Clarity Boost will provide “the optimal look and feel while playing Xbox games from the cloud.”

Cybersecurity researchers have released an unofficial patch for a bug in Windows 10, originally reported to Microsoft in October 2020, which later research revealed could take the form of a local privilege vulnerability as well. Issuing the free micropatch, Mitja Kolsek, co-founder of the 0patch micropatching service, explains that it too overlooked the vulnerability initially since it was disclosed as an information disclosure bug, which normally isn’t critical enough to warrant attention from 0patch.

Remember how Microsoft spent years in hot water in the late ’90s and early ’00s by forcing Internet Explorer on its customers? European open-source cloud company Nextcloud does. Now, with a coalition of other European Union (EU) software and cloud organizations and companies called the “Coalition for a Level Playing Field,” Nextcloud has formally complained to the European Commission (EC) about Microsoft’s anti-competitive behavior by aggressively bundling its OneDrive cloud, Teams, and other services with Windows 10 and 11.

A security researcher has publicly disclosed an exploit for a new Windows zero-day local privilege elevation vulnerability that gives admin privileges in Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server.

Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state in Germany, has plans to move almost entirely open source. By the time the dust settles, the regional government will have all but dropped Windows, Microsoft Office, Zoom and other proprietary software for Linux, LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, and Jitzi.

Microsoft recently acknowledged reports of two critical bugs in Windows 11 – Blue Screen of Death and app crashes. These two bugs were originally discovered in November 2021 Patch Tuesday and currently affects some installations of Windows 11 as well as the latest versions of Windows 10.

A Microsoft Azure supercomputer running on Linux and not Windows has made it to the rankings of the world’s 10 fastest machines for the first time, as Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer outperformed all competition once again.

While browsing through your newly updated Windows 11, you may have noticed that some of the system’s links launch in Microsoft Edge, even if you set Chrome or Firefox to your default browser. If you’re confused about what’s happening, you’re not the only one.

Windows 11 lets you choose your default browser, but it takes a lot of clicks and Microsoft sometimes forces you to use Edge, anyway. Firefox had a workaround, but Microsoft calls it “improper” and will soon block it.