Open Standards
The latest Open Standards coverage — news, analysis, and updates from the WindowsNews.AI desk.
Microsoft Sets Teams at $5 Per User in Global Unbundling to Settle EU Probe
Microsoft will sell Teams as a $5-per-user standalone app and offer Office suites without the collaboration tool to customers worldwide, capitulating to a European antitrust probe that began after a...
Microsoft Unveils Free Copilot for Students at White House AI Education Summit
Starting this fall, U.S. college students can claim a 12-month free subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal—including the Copilot AI assistant—following a high-profile White House dinner where...
Microsoft Gives Every U.S. College Student Free Access to Copilot-Infused Microsoft 365 for 12 Months
Microsoft is putting its AI assistant directly into the hands of millions of U.S. college students, free of charge. At the September 4, 2025, White House AI Education Task Force meeting, the company...
CISA and NSA Rally 19 Nations Behind Unified SBOM Blueprint to Expose Hidden Code Risks
On September 3, 2025, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), backed by 19 international partners, dropped a 22-page consensus document...
Microsoft and Google Partner with California to Upskill 2 Million Students in AI for Free
California will offer free AI training, tools, and industry-recognized credentials to up to 2 million students across its community college and California State University systems, Governor Gavin...
One-Click AI Search: Cloudflare and Microsoft Launch NLWeb and AutoRAG
Cloudflare and Microsoft have thrown open a new frontier for website owners, unveiling a partnership that lets any site become a first-class participant in the AI-driven search revolution. The...
Microsoft's DocumentDB Lands at Linux Foundation to Forge an Open Standard for NoSQL on PostgreSQL
Microsoft's DocumentDB, the rapidly growing open-source document database built atop PostgreSQL, has officially moved under the stewardship of the Linux Foundation. The transition, announced at Open...
Visual Studio Gets MCP GA: Copilot Can Now Securely Access Databases, CI, and More
Microsoft has released general availability of Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration in Visual Studio, marking a pivotal shift in how developers wield AI assistants. Starting today, GitHub Copilot...
McGill’s Secure Microsoft Copilot Deployment Exposes Canadian Higher Education’s AI Balancing Act
McGill University has quietly become a bellwether for how Canadian higher education is embracing generative AI: not with blanket bans or open-arms acceptance, but through carefully managed, centrally...
Chrome’s Gemini Leap: Google’s AI Overhaul Redefines Browsing and Raises Antitrust and Privacy Fears
Google is embedding its Gemini AI so deeply into Chrome that the browser now functions as a system-level assistant—accessible even when Chrome isn’t running—blurring the lines between the web...
LibreOffice: Microsoft's 'Artificially Complex' OOXML Is a Vendor Lock-In Trap
LibreOffice’s stewards have issued a blunt indictment: Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) file format isn’t just complex—it’s a deliberate cage designed to trap users inside the Microsoft...
Microsoft's £9bn UK Cloud Deal Under Fire as CMA Warns of Market Dominance and Opaque Pricing
The UK government’s decision to funnel nearly £9 billion into Microsoft’s cloud and AI services over five years has ignited a fierce debate over public money, market power, and the future of...