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Microsoft Outlook Malfunctioned For Over 21 Hours Wednesday and Thursday

"Microsoft's Outlook email service malfunctioned for over 21 hours Wednesday and Thursday," reports CNBC, "prompting some people to post on social media about the inability to reach their virtual mailboxes." The issue began at 6:20 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, according to a dashboard the software company maintains. It affected Outlook.com as well as Outlook mobile apps and desktop programs. At 12:21 ET on Thursday, the Microsoft 365 Status account posted that it was rolling out a fix. Although earlier on Thursday Microsoft posted on X that "We identified an issue with the initial fix, and we've corrected it..." More details from the Associated Press: Disruptions appeared to peak just before noon ET on Thursday, when more than 2,700 users worldwide reported issues with Outlook, formerly also Hotmail, to outage tracker Downdetector. Some said they encountered problems like loading their inboxes or signing in. By later in the afternoon, reports had fallen to just over a couple hundred... Microsoft did not immediately provide more information about what had caused the hourslong outage. A spokesperson for Microsoft had no further comment when reached by The Associated Press on Thursday.

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Microsoft Shuts Down Operations in Pakistan After 25 Years

Newspaper Pakistan Today: In a significant moment for Pakistan's technology sector, Microsoft has officially shut down its operations in the country, concluding a 25-year journey that began with high hopes for digital transformation and global partnership. The move, confirmed by employees and media sources, marks the quiet departure of the software giant, which had launched its Pakistan presence in June 2000. The last remaining employees were formally informed of the closure in recent days, signalling the end of an era that saw Microsoft play a key role in developing local talent, building enterprise partnerships, and promoting digital literacy across sectors.

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Microsoft To Lay Off As Many As 9,000 Employees in Latest Round

Microsoft is kicking off its fiscal year by firing thousands of employees in the largest round of layoffs since 2023, the company confirmed Wednesday. From a report: In an ongoing effort to streamline its workforce, Microsoft said that as much as 4%, or roughly 9,100, of the company's employees could be affected by Wednesday's layoffs. The move follows two waves of layoffs in May and June, which saw Microsoft fire more than 6,000 employees, almost 2,300 of whom were based in Washington.

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Microsoft Authenticator Will Stop Supporting Passwords

Avantare writes: Microsoft Authenticator houses your passwords and lets you sign into all of your Microsoft accounts using a PIN, facial recognition such as Windows Hello, or other biometric data, like a fingerprint. Authenticator can be used in other ways, such as verifying you're logging in if you forgot your password, or using two-factor authentication as an extra layer of security for your Microsoft accounts. In June, Microsoft stopped letting users add passwords to Authenticator, but here's a timeline of other changes you can expect, according to Microsoft: July 2025: You won't be able to use the autofill password function. August 2025: You'll no longer be able to use saved passwords.

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Fin du BSOD : la nostalgie de ce que l’on adore détester

Ces fameux écrans bleus de Windows, les BSOD, vont disparaitre. Cela fait 40 ans qu’ils sont une source d’agacement et de crispation chez les utilisateurs. Une longévité qui a fini par en faire une sorte de compagnon de route que certains regrettent presque de voir partir.

Je n’ai jamais compris pourquoi Microsoft n’avait pas fait disparaitre les BSOD de Windows bien avant. Ces écrans bleus sont devenus si célèbres et si décriés que la marque aurait pu trouver des solutions pour s’en débarrasser bien plus tôt. Ces captures d’écrans sont quasiment devenues des symboles, des memes avant l’heure. J’en ai vu sur des T-Shirts, des pins, des stickers, des mugs… Les libristes les adoraient et j’ai même souvent vu des utilisateurs de Mac les employer comme économiseurs ou fonds d’écran. Même les utilisateurs de Windows semblent les apprecier. C’est en lisant les commentaires autour de l’annonce de la fin de ces écrans d’erreurs de Windows que je comprends que depuis toutes ces années, cela a fini par être un doudou pour certains utilisateurs. Et un excellent moteur publicitaire pour Microsoft.

Quand on parlait de nos erreurs rencontrées, de notre agacement face à ces écrans bleus, quand on commentait dessus dans des forums… On parlait encore et toujours de l’hégémonique Windows. Mais sans jamais changer de système pour autant. Tout au plus, on réinstallait son système par-dessus l’ancien. Passant de Windows à… Windows quand le nombre d’erreurs devenait trop important. Une sorte de syndrome de Stockholm informatique.

Ce qui a tout bouleversé semble être l’évènement « CrowdStrike » de l’année dernière. La panne informatique qui a paralysé l’informatique mondiale l’année dernière suite à une mise à jour défectueuse a fait voir la vie en bleu à des millions d’entreprises sur tous types de secteurs. Cette panne qui a touché des secteurs névralgiques comme la santé, les transports, l’aviation et même l’armée a probablement été la goutte d’eau qui a tout fait déborder. Avoir des dizaines de millions de clients qui démarrent tous leur PC sous Windows et commencent leur matinée par un de ces fameux BSOD a sans doute fait craquer les plus irréductibles fans de la formule chez Microsoft.

Évidemment ces BSOD ne sont pas autre chose qu’un symptôme. La source qui les provoque ne va pas changer. Microsoft indique que du bleu, ces écrans d’erreurs vont passer au noir. Un changement de couleur qui s’accompagnera d’une nouvelle méthode d’information et de suivi. Le nouvel écran indiquera directement quelle erreur est rencontrée au travers d’un code et l’éventuel pilote qui a rencontré le problème. Une information plus simple à partager avec les services d’aide de Microsoft en cas d’appel à une hotline.

Ce nouvel « écran noir de la mort » sera déployé sous Windows 11 dès cet été via une mise à jour. Il accompagnera un nouveau dispositif de restauration rapide permettant de récupérer un système fonctionnel après un crash.

Fin du BSOD : la nostalgie de ce que l’on adore détester © MiniMachines.net. 2025

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Microsoft Moves Antivirus Software Out of Windows Kernel To Prevent CrowdStrike-Style Crashes

Microsoft is preparing to release a private preview of Windows changes that will move antivirus and endpoint detection and response apps out of the Windows kernel, nearly a year after a faulty CrowdStrike update crashed 8.5 million Windows-based machines worldwide. The new Windows endpoint security platform is being developed in cooperation with CrowdStrike, Bitdefender, ESET, Trend Micro, and other security vendors. David Weston, Microsoft's vice president of enterprise and OS security, said dozens of partners have submitted papers detailing design requirements, some hundreds of pages long. The private preview will allow security vendors to request changes before the platform is finalized.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Sued By Authors Over Use of Books in AI Training

Microsoft has been hit with a lawsuit by a group of authors who claim the company used their books without permission to train its Megatron artificial intelligence model. From a report: Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, Daniel Okrent and several others alleged that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its AI to respond to human prompts. Their lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, is one of several high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets and other copyright holders against tech companies including Meta Platforms, Anthropic and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over alleged misuse of their material in AI training. [...] The writers alleged in the complaint that Microsoft used a collection of nearly 200,000 pirated books to train Megatron, an algorithm that gives text responses to user prompts.

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Windows 10 va proposer des mises à jour « gratuites » pour tous…

Dès le mois d’octobre, Windows 10 sera un vaisseau à la dérive. Le moteur sera toujours là, vous en serez toujours le capitaine et l’équipage de pilotes sera encore présent. Mais vos cartes ne seront plus mises à jour. Avec la fin des « Updates », vous naviguerez en eaux troubles et le moindre récif infectieux ou de problème de pilote condamnera votre PC à s’échouer.

Cette situation est catastrophique puisque plein de gens ne peuvent pas, d’un point de vue technique, faire la transition vers Windows 11. On a vu que des méthodes existent pour basculer et outrepasser les limitations de Microsoft. Mais pour beaucoup de monde, cela sera encore très chaotique. Microsoft propose donc une alternative, un moyen de profiter des mises à jour de Windows 10 jusqu’en 2026.

L’éditeur va en effet continuer à payer des ingénieurs et tout l’équipement nécessaire pour proposer ces mises à jour à des professionnels en échange d’un abonnement payant de 30€ par an et par poste. Cela veut dire que si ces mises à jour ne sont plus poussées pour le grand public, elles existent tout de même et coûtent cher à développer. Windows 10 ne recevra plus jamais de nouveautés techniques, ces mises à jour ne concerneront que la sécurité.

Il sera donc possible de profiter de ce suivi logiciel « gratuitement » pour toute personne qui le désire à condition d’accepter une synchronisation de ses données dans le Cloud de Microsoft. Cela veut dire partager avec l’éditeur ses données personnelles au travers de Windows Backup. Un outil de sauvegarde automatique qui sera lancé cet été et qui vous permettra de sélectionner les répertoires de votre choix pour en faire des copies sur les serveurs du très américain Microsoft. En échange de cet engagement, vous pourrez recevoir vos mises à jour jusqu’en 2026. Évidemment, pour pouvoir profiter de Windows Backup il y a quelques conditions.

Les premières seront les CLUF de l’application elle-même. D’un point de vue sécurité des données, entrainement d’IA et autres, on ne sait pas encore vraiment ce que ce rapatriement de vos données personnelles donnera sur le stockage dans les nuages de Microsoft.

La seconde sera liée au système lui-même. Pour utiliser Windows Backup il faudra impérativement avoir un compte Microsoft et s’identifier avec. Si vous avez cherché et réussi à passer outre toutes ces années pour ne pas utiliser ce type de compte, c’est une nouvelle tentative de l’éditeur. L’idée étant de pouvoir récolter des informations fraiches sur vous et votre usage de l’engin et de les utiliser comme levier télémétrique pour vendre vos Windows comme autant d’espace d’affichages personnalisés.

Enfin, l’espace alloué par Microsoft ne sera pas infini. Windows Backup utilise OneDrive et votre compte sera limité à 5 Go gratuitement. Le système vous incitera sans doute à passer à la caisse pour augmenter vos capacités de stockage via l’offre OneDrive ou autre. Un abonnement annuel donc pour pouvoir stocker votre répertoire documents et les informations concernant votre système. Ce type de stockage peut être une excellente chose mais il est toujours bon de pouvoir choisir son offre et de comparer les prix. Pas de s’y résoudre sans avoir le choix.

L’autre solution pour profiter des mises à jour est à la fois infantilisante et couteuse. Elle consistera à accumuler des points Microsoft. En faisant vos recherches sur Bing par exemple, ou en faisant vos emplettes sur le Microsoft Store au lieu de passer par le site de l’éditeur pour acheter un jeu ou un programme, vous pourrez accumuler des points. Cette monnaie de singe servira ensuite à montrer que vous avez été un bon citoyen à Microsoft qui, dans sa grande mansuétude, vous accordera de pouvoir continuer à utiliser le logiciel que vous avez payé sans risque. Un an de Windows Update coutera 1000 points.…

La volonté de Microsoft étant d’uniformiser son parc vers Windows 11, ces solutions alternatives n’existent que comme une manière d’aplanir la transition. Avec 53% du parc, Windows 10 est toujours le système d’exploitation utilisé majoritairement dans le monde et on voit mal comment la situation pourrait changer d’ici octobre. Windows 11 a largement progressé ces derniers temps entre la fin de l’année 2024 où il était à 34% du parc, il est désormais évalué à 43% des machines connectées. Avec de grandes disparités suivant les régions, les pays riches ayant plus de solutions de mises à jour techniques et matérielles.

Est-ce que cette offre repoussant la date butoir à 2026 permettra de rendre Windows 10 minoritaire ? Possible, c’est en tout cas probablement un des espoirs de Microsoft.

Une solution alternative existe mais peut ne pas convenir à tout le monde, basculer son PC sous Linux.

Sources : Microsoft et The Verge

Windows 10 va proposer des mises à jour « gratuites » pour tous… © MiniMachines.net. 2025

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Microsoft Releases Classic MS-DOS Editor For Linux

Microsoft has released a modern, open-source version of its classic MS-DOS Editor -- built with Rust and compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. It's now simple called "Edit." Ars Technica reports: Aside from ease of use, Microsoft's main reason for creating the new version of Edit stems from a peculiar gap in modern Windows. "What motivated us to build Edit was the need for a default CLI text editor in 64-bit versions of Windows," writes [Christopher Nguyen, a product manager on Microsoft's Windows Terminal team] while referring to the command-line interface, or CLI. "32-bit versions of Windows ship with the MS-DOS editor, but 64-bit versions do not have a CLI editor installed inbox." [...] Linux users can download Edit from the project's GitHub releases page or install it through an unofficial snap package. Oh, and if you're a fan of the vintage editor and crave a 16-bit text-mode for your retro machine that actually runs MS-DOS, you can download a copy on the Internet Archive. [...] At 250KB, the new Edit maintains the lightweight philosophy of its predecessor while adding features the original couldn't dream of: Unicode support, regular expressions, and the ability to handle gigabyte-sized files. The original editor was limited to files smaller than 300KB depending on available conventional memory -- a constraint that seems quaint in an era of terabyte storage. But the web publication OMG! Ubuntu found that the modern Edit not only "works great on Ubuntu" but noted its speed when handling gigabyte-sized documents.

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Linus Torvalds Photographed with Bill Gates - for the First Time Ever

"The worlds of Linux and Windows finally came together in real life..." writes The Verge: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, have surprisingly never met before. That all changed at a recent dinner hosted by Sysinternals creator Mark Russinovich... "No major kernel decisions were made," jokes Russinovich in a post on LinkedIn. More from the Linux news blog Linuxiac: The man on the left is Mark Russinovich, a software engineer, author, and co-founder of Sysinternals, now CTO of Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform. He has become synonymous with deep Windows diagnostics and cloud-scale management. In the late 1990s, his suite of tools (Process Explorer, Autoruns, Procmon) revolutionized the way administrators and security professionals understood Windows internals. The man on the far right is another living legend: Dave Cutler. Let me put it this way — he's one of the key people behind OpenVMS and the brilliant lead architect who designed Windows NT's kernel and hardware-abstraction layer — technologies that remain at the heart of every current Windows release, from server farms to laptops. So, it's no surprise that people often call him the "father of Windows NT."

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Is 'Minecraft' a Better Way to Teach Programming in the Age of AI?

The education-news site EdSurge published "sponsored content" from Minecraft Education this month. "Students light up when they create something meaningful," the article begins. "Self-expression fuels learning, and creativity lies at the heart of the human experience." But they also argue that "As AI rapidly reshapes software development, computer science education must move beyond syntax drills and algorithmic repetition." Students "must also learn to think systemically..." As AI automates many of the mechanical aspects of programming, the value of CS education is shifting, from writing perfect code to shaping systems, telling stories through logic and designing ethical, human-centered solutions... [I]t's critical to offer computer science experiences that foster invention, expression and design. This isn't just an education issue — it's a workforce one. Creativity now ranks among the top skills employers seek, alongside analytical thinking and AI literacy. As automation reshapes the job market, McKinsey estimates up to 375 million workers may need to change occupations by 2030. The takeaway? We need more adaptable, creative thinkers. Creative coding, where programming becomes a medium for self-expression and innovation, offers a promising solution to this disconnect. By positioning code as a creative tool, educators can tap into students' intrinsic motivation while simultaneously building computational thinking skills. This approach helps students see themselves as creators, not just consumers, of technology. It aligns with digital literacy frameworks that emphasize critical evaluation, meaningful contribution and not just technical skills. One example of creative coding comes from a curriculum that introduces computer science through game design and storytelling in Minecraft... Developed by Urban Arts in collaboration with Minecraft Education, the program offers middle school teachers professional development, ongoing coaching and a 72-session curriculum built around game-based instruction. Designed for grades 6-8, the project-based program is beginner-friendly; no prior programming experience is required for teachers or students. It blends storytelling, collaborative design and foundational programming skills with a focus on creativity and equity.... Students use Minecraft to build interactive narratives and simulations, developing computational thinking and creative design... Early results are promising: 93 percent of surveyed teachers found the Creative Coders program engaging and effective, noting gains in problem-solving, storytelling and coding, as well as growth in critical thinking, creativity and resilience. As AI tools like GitHub Copilot become standard in development workflows, the definition of programming proficiency is evolving. Skills like prompt engineering, systems thinking and ethical oversight are rising in importance, precisely what creative coding develops... As AI continues to automate routine tasks, students must be able to guide systems, understand logic and collaborate with intelligent tools. Creative coding introduces these capabilities in ways that are accessible, culturally relevant and engaging for today's learners. Some background from long-time Slashdot reader theodp: The Urban Arts and Microsoft Creative Coders program touted by EdSurge in its advertorial was funded by a $4 million Education Innovation and Research grant that was awarded to Urban Arts in 2023 by the U.S. Education Department "to create an engaging, game-based, middle school CS course using Minecraft tools" for 3,450 middle schoolers (6th-8th grades)" in New York and California (Urban Arts credited Minecraft for helping craft the winning proposal)... New York City is a Minecraft Education believer — the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment recently kicked off summer with the inaugural NYC Video Game Festival, which included the annual citywide Minecraft Education Battle of the Boroughs Esports Competition in partnership with NYC Public Schools.

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Windows Parental Controls Are Blocking Chrome

david.emery writes: Microsoft is making it harder to use Chrome on Windows. The culprit? This time, it's Windows' Family Safety feature. Since early this month, the parental control measure has prevented users from opening Chrome. Strangely, no other apps or browsers appear to be affected. Redditors first reported the issue on June 3. u/Witty-Discount-2906 posted that Chrome crashed on Windows 11. "Just flashes quickly, unable to open with no error message," they wrote. Another user chimed in with a correct guess. "This may be related to Parental Controls," u/duk242 surmised. "I've had nine students come see the IT Desk in the last hour saying Chrome won't open."

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Microsoft Is Deleting Old Drivers From Windows Update

BrianFagioli writes: In a move that could quietly wreak havoc across the Windows ecosystem, Microsoft is purging outdated drivers from Windows Update. The company claims it is doing this for security and reliability, but the result might be broken hardware for users who rely on legacy devices. If you're using older peripherals or custom-built PCs, you could soon find yourself hunting for drivers that have vanished into the digital abyss. This initiative, buried in a low-profile blog post, is part of Microsoft's new cleanup program. The first wave targets legacy drivers that already have newer replacements available. But the real kicker is that Microsoft isn't warning individual users about which drivers are going away.

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Microsoft Planning Thousands More Job Cuts Aimed at Salespeople

Microsoft is planning to ax thousands of jobs, particularly in sales, as part of the company's latest move to trim its workforce amid heavy spending on AI. From a report: The cuts are expected to be announced early next month [non-paywalled source], following the end of Microsoft's fiscal year, according to people familiar with the matter. The reductions won't exclusively affect sales teams, and the timing could still change, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss a private matter. The terminations would follow a previous round of layoffs in May that hit 6,000 people and fell hardest on product and engineering positions, largely sparing customer-facing roles like sales and marketing.

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Microsoft Is Calling Too Many Things 'Copilot,' Watchdog Says

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has a long history of being criticized for coming up with clunky product names, and for changing them so often it's hard for customers to keep up. The company's own employees once joked in a viral video that the iPod would have been called the "Microsoft I-pod Pro 2005 XP Human Ear Professional Edition with Subscription" had it been created by Microsoft. The latest gripe among some employees and customers: The company's tendency to slap "Copilot" on everything AI. "There is a delusion on our marketing side where literally everything has been renamed to have Copilot it in," one employee told Business Insider late last year. "Everything is Copilot. Nothing else matters. They want a Copilot tie-in for everything." Now, an advertising watchdog is weighing in. The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division reviewed Microsoft's advertising for its Copilot AI tools. NAD called out Microsoft's "universal use of the product description as 'Copilot'" and said "consumers would not necessarily understand the difference," according to a recent report from the watchdog. "Microsoft is using 'Copilot' across all Microsoft Office applications and Business Chat, despite differences in functionality and the manual steps that are required for Business Chat to produce the same results as Copilot in a specific Microsoft Office app," NAD further explained in an email to BI. NAD did not mention any specific recommendations on product names. But it did say Microsoft should modify claims that Copilot works "seamlessly across all your data" because all of the company's tools with the Copilot moniker don't work together continuously in a way consumers might expect.

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Windows Hello Face Unlock No Longer Works in the Dark and Microsoft Says It's Not a Bug

Microsoft has disabled Windows Hello's ability to authenticate users in low-light environments through a recent security update that now requires both infrared sensors and color cameras to verify faces. The change forces the system to see a visible face through the webcam before completing authentication with IR sensors. Windows Hello earlier relied solely on infrared sensors to create 3D facial scans, allowing the feature to work in complete darkness similar to iPhone's Face ID. Microsoft pushed the dual-camera requirement to address a spoofing vulnerability in the biometric system.

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'We're Done With Teams': German State Hits Uninstall on Microsoft

An anonymous reader shares a report: In less than three months' time, almost no civil servant, police officer or judge in Schleswig-Holstein will be using any of Microsoft's ubiquitous programs at work. Instead, the northern state will turn to open-source software to "take back control" over data storage and ensure "digital sovereignty," its digitalisation minister, Dirk Schroedter, told AFP. "We're done with Teams!" he said, referring to Microsoft's messaging and collaboration tool and speaking on a video call -- via an open-source German program, of course. The radical switch-over affects half of Schleswig-Holstein's 60,000 public servants, with 30,000 or so teachers due to follow suit in coming years. The state's shift towards open-source software began last year. The current first phase involves ending the use of Word and Excel software, which are being replaced by LibreOffice, while Open-Xchange is taking the place of Outlook for emails and calendars.

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Denmark Is Dumping Microsoft Office and Windows For LibreOffice and Linux

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: Denmark's Minister of Digitalization, Caroline Stage, has announced that the Danish government will start moving away from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. Why? It's not because open-source is better, although I would argue that it is, but because Denmark wants to claim "digital sovereignty." In the States, you probably haven't heard that phrase, but in the European Union, digital sovereignty is a big deal and getting bigger. A combination of security, economic, political, and societal imperatives is driving the EU's digital sovereignty moves. EU leaders are seeking to reduce Europe's dependence on foreign technology providers, primarily those from the United States, and to assert greater control over its digital infrastructure, data, and technological future. Why? Because they're concerned about who controls European data, who sets the rules, and who can potentially cut off access to essential services in times of geopolitical tension. "Money issues have also played a decisive role," writes ZDNet's Steven Vaughan-Nichols. "Copenhagen's Microsoft software bill has soared from 313 million kroner in 2018 to 538 million kroner -- about $53 million in 2023, a 72% increase in just five years. David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), a Dane, inventor of Ruby on Rails, and co-owner of the software developer company 37Signals, has said: "Denmark is one of the most highly digitalized countries in the world. It's also one of the most Microsoft-dependent. In fact, Microsoft is by far and away the single biggest dependency, so it makes perfect sense to start the quest for digital sovereignty there."

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