As a Linux user, I have stopped using Skype recently. What was once a great experience on Ubuntu, Fedora, and other such operating systems, has been seemingly abandoned by Microsoft. Skype on Linux is barely usable nowadays, as the client has not seen an update in quite a while. This is rather tragic, as it is otherwise a great service on other platforms, such as Android, iOS, and of course, Windows.

Users of Windows 10 that use the Edge web browser are getting a cool update this month, as Microsoft is rolling out plugin-free Skype support. While that is cool, the really intriguing aspect is the potential for Linux users, as it should lead to similar functionality on browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox.

Microsoft has finally released the details regarding "Project Madeira", its enterprise resource planning (ERP) client which many had speculated would be the next version of Dynamics NAV.

Dynamics NAV is one of the company’s four different ERP products and it is aimed at small to medium sized businesses. While many thought that Madeira might be the next version of this product, it is actually a separate release.

We may not have heard much about Windows 10 Mobile at Build 2016, but Microsoft is actively working on refining its smartphone operating system. Now, we have a new Insider Preview build, introduced to Fast Ring, which adds improvements and changes to Action Center, notifications, Cortana, Settings, emoji, Microsoft Edge, lockscreen, and more.

Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14322, as it is formally known as, also comes with lots of bug fixes in tow, and a few known issues as well. Here is what you need to know about it.

In light of Edward Snowden's surveillance revelations, regular transparency reports from technology companies about the requests they have received from governments about data requests have become very common. But despite the name, transparency reports are not very transparent -- there are great restrictions on what companies like Microsoft are able to report. The company believes this is unconstitutional.

The restrictions are so strict that it is not even possible to precisely report the number of requests for user data that have been received. Instead, this data must be conveyed in bands such as 0-499, 500-999, and so on. Now Microsoft has had enough. There are privacy concerns, of course, but most disturbing is that in half of cases of requests for customer data, Microsoft has been gagged from letting those affected know about the governmental interest. As a result, Microsoft has decided to sue the Department of Justice in a bid to be more transparent.

Microsoft is both an open source and Linux champion nowadays -- on the surface at least (pun intended). In other words, while it does embrace those things, we may not know the motivation of the Windows-maker regarding them. Regardless, Linux and open source are now important to the Redmond company.

Today, Microsoft announces a CentOS-based VM image for Azure called 'Linux Data Science Virtual Machine'. The VM has pre-installed tools such as Anaconda Python Distribution, Computational Network Toolkit, and Microsoft R Open. It focuses on machine learning and analytics, making it a great choice for data scientists.

Microsoft is doing its best to persuade users of Windows 7 and 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10. Having seen reasonable -- but not outstanding -- upgrade numbers as a result of aggressively ramming the new OS down users’ throats, the software giant is now trying to sell the benefits of Windows 10 to those customers still on the fence.

An online Windows 10 demo covering PC, Tablet and Phone lets users see the new OS in action, and gives them the opportunity to upgrade if they like what's on offer.

PowerShell, a scripting language inherent to Microsoft operating systems, is largely used to launch cyber-attacks, a new report suggests.

The Unified Threat Research report, released by next-generation endpoint security (NGES) firm Carbon Black, says that 38 percent of incidents reported by Carbon Black partners used PowerShell.

No one enjoys seeing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows. It can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you were right in the middle of something important when it occurred, and you have no idea what caused it.

Armed with the information on the blue screen, and the stop code, you should be able to track down a cause and possible solution on the web, but this does require you to jot down the necessary details. However, that chore is likely to soon be a thing of the past.

Linux apps running in Windows 10? What gives?! As if the arrival of Bash on Ubuntu on Windows 10 wasn't enough, people have been quick to investigate the capabilities and limitation of Microsoft's embracing of the Linux command line.

Some commenters on our how-to guide asked what the point is. How about being able to run Linux apps in Windows without having to resort to using a virtual machine? It can be done. Here's how.

Alcantara is a soft, suede-like material made in Italy that’s used in high-end luxury products. It’s often to be found in car, aircraft and yacht interiors because it looks great and gets better with age.

Microsoft has used this proprietary material to create a new Signature Type Cover for Surface Pro 4 and, there's no denying, the end result looks incredibly classy. No longer will you be embarrassed by your Surface Pro 4’s existing scuffed and dirty blue cover as you quaff champagne on a long flight home on your personal Lear Jet, trading amusing stories with BFFs Richard Branson and Elon Musk (I speak from personal experience of course).

We've known for some time that SQL Server 2005 was reaching the end of its extended support period and Microsoft has been busy encouraging users to move to newer software such as SQL Server 2014.

Today is the day when its support finally ends, so users still running the system will no longer receive hotfixes and security updates from Microsoft.

Microsoft has been showing Linux a lot of love recently, and at Build 2016 the company announced that the Bash shell was coming to Windows 10. It’s a feature that will make an appearance in the upcoming Windows 10 Anniversary Update (due for release in July), but it's something that Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring already have access to in Build 14316 right now.

If you have installed this build, you'd be forgiven for not being able to find Bash however hard you look; there are hoops you have to jump through. So if you like the idea of accessing the Linux command line in Windows 10, there are a few steps for you to follow, starting off by enabling Developer Mode.

The transfer of data between the US and Europe has been something of a privacy and security nightmare. In an attempt to improve privacy protection, the European Commission established the EU-US Privacy Shield "to restore trust in transatlantic data flows" post-Edward Snowden's NSA surveillance revelations, replacing the controversial Safe Harbor arrangement.

Today Microsoft has announced its support for the principles the framework says that companies will have to abide by. More than this, Vice President for EU Government Affairs at Microsoft, John Frank, says the company will comply with Data Protection Authorities advice in disputes, and cooperate with them on data transfer processes.

About a year ago, I declared Windows 10 was "the final nail in the coffin for the Linux desktop". What I meant by this was not that Linux on the desktop was really dead, but that the Linux community had failed to capitalize on the negative sentiment towards Windows 8x. What I didn't expect at the time, however, was Microsoft's privacy faux pas with Windows 10. While there are more than a quarter billion installs of the latest operating system, plenty of folks have serious concerns about spying.

Maybe Linux has a chance on the desktop after all. Ubuntu is being integrated into Windows 10, and Android seems to be headed towards the desktop. In other words, Linux is making significant moves. Heck, even Linus Torvalds is prepared to keep fighting the good fight, and he declares that he is still "working on it".

Microsoft's Windows 10 Roadmap for business users reveals that the eagerly-anticipated Windows 10 Anniversary Edition is due to launch in July this year. At Build 2016 earlier in the month, Microsoft said that the big update was due to launch 'this summer', but did not get any more precise than this for the Redstone branch release.

But digging into roadmap documents, Microsoft makes it clear that it is aiming for a July release. The company has said that the update will bring "significant new features", including taskbar badge notifications and a revamped Start menu, but it is when talking about the new features that are coming to Cortana that the date is revealed.