An open letter from the Document Foundation argues that Euro-Office isn’t what it claims—and may reinforce Microsoft’s ecosystem instead.
Posts tagged as “microsoft”
From where we sit, Google's "giveaway" of it's open source Chromium assets is basically a ruse to convince the feds that the company isn't an intentional monopolist… or that if it was, it's changed its ways.
For the next five years, Microsoft will be under the watchful eye of Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, which will be seeking to thwart any monopolistic activity coming from Redmond proactively.
This week FOSS News Roundup also includes a list of some goodies coming to KDE Plasma 6.
Microsoft discovers that no matter how much control it wants over .NET, an open source foundation is ultimately controlled by its community.
Why should you let Microsoft ruin an otherwise perfect day?
Roblimo’s Hideaway
When I was younger, I got together with friends now and then for an evening of drinking beer and discussing the perfidy of Microsoft and just how bad Windows was technically, especially considering the endless amount of R&D money poured into it.
**
If you're finding this article useful, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser.
**
Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.
If it wasn’t for Linux setting the bar, would Windows users still be dealing with the “blue screen of death” several times a day?
Roblimo’s Hideaway
There was a time when a computer operating system called Windows totally dominated the market, and it sucked. I mean, really sucked. Blue screens of death, unexplained crashes, viruses and worms galore, re-re-reboots all the darn time…and still, despite all the problems, people used this Windows thing. Why? Because except for the artsy/hipster $MacOS, it was the only computer OS you could get for your desktop, and it was the one that ran all the 17 jillion programs businesses wanted their office workers to use. Luckily, Windows has gotten a lot better over the years. Except…was it luck or was it Linux that made Windows improve?
**If you’re finding this article useful, please consider helping us meet our absolute minimum daily goal of $86 so our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser stays on track for the month of May.**
Robin “Roblimo” Miller is a freelance writer and former editor-in-chief at Open Source Technology Group, the company that owned SourceForge, freshmeat, Linux.com, NewsForge, ThinkGeek and Slashdot, and until recently served as a video editor at Slashdot. Now he’s mostly retired, but still works part-time as an editorial consultant for Grid Dynamics, and (obviously) writes for FOSS Force.
It’s getting harder and harder to scam little old ladies these days. They’ll just up and switch to Linux on you.
The Heart of Linux
We are going into our third year of living in the Gardens of Taylor. When you come off of the city street and onto this property, you can sometimes get a creepy feeling, like this is familiar in an unpleasant sort of way. It can feel like you’ve just stepped into Stepford Village. Every yard has been manicured to match the ones on either side of it. The edging along all driveways and sidewalks is a perfect two inches across and if a weed or mushroom happens to grow within that etched space, it is gone the next time you look for it.
**If you’re finding this article useful, please consider helping us reach our absolute minimum daily goal of $86 today so our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser stays on track for May. Any amount helps.**
Ken Starks is the founder of the Helios Project and Reglue, which for 20 years provided refurbished older computers running Linux to disadvantaged school kids, as well as providing digital help for senior citizens, in the Austin, Texas area. He was a columnist for FOSS Force from 2013-2016, and remains part of our family. Follow him on Twitter: @Reglue
Also included: Yahoo’s big hack, Garrett on Lenovo, new Audacious and GNOME, and Ubuntu get’s ready for Yakkety Yak.
FOSS Week in Review
I spent time this week terminating a Yahoo account I’ve had since way back in the last century. For years, the My Yahoo page was my “home” page whenever I fired-up the old dial-up to go online, but over time the portal (remember portals?) became less and less relevant and I found my visits to Yahoo becoming less and less frequent. By the time I closed the account, prompted by news of a massive hack involving 500 million accounts going back to 2014, I hadn’t visited my Yahoo page in well over a year. RIP Yahoo. It was nice knowing you.
** If our coverage matters to you, please consider supporting our work through our FOSS Force Independence 2026 fundraiser. **
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
What Microsoft’s Borking of Grub Says About Redmond’s ‘Love’ of Linux
Business, Commentary and Operating Systems
Windows might not rule the day at Microsoft anymore, but it's still a moneymaker and desktop Linux is still the competition.