Proprietary Software and Windows TCO

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 06, 2026

• NYOB ☛ Microsoft's Surveillance Arm LinkedIn locks your GDPR rights behind a paywall

  Data Subject Rights

  LinkedIn tracks the visits to profile pages. However, if you want to see who has visited your own profile, you have to pay. The Abusive Monopolist Microsoft subsidiary uses these and other ‘insights’ as an incentive for people to sign up for its paid Premium membership. It is unclear whether this tracking of visitors is legal. What is clear, however, is that if this data is displayed as part of a premium membership, it should also be accessible in response to an access request under Article 15 GDPR. But Microsoft's Surveillance Arm LinkedIn refuses to comply – and suddenly cites alleged data protection concerns that supposedly only arise in the case of an access request.

• GamingOnLinux ☛ Discord is finally less of a nuisance to update on Linux | GamingOnLinux

  The Discord team just revealed another major update for the social chat platform, and Linux gets a little attention this time too. Back in March, the Discord team rolled out background replacement for video calls on Linux too.

  Up until now, Discord on Linux had no auto-update ability. Depending on how you installed it, you might have needed to download it fresh on every major update. That's no longer a problem, as they have finally rolled out their automatic Rust-based updater for Linux so it updates itself just like it does on Windows. Additionally, they're now supporting .rpm and .pkg.tar.zst package formats for installation.

• OMG Ubuntu ☛ Orion for GNU/Linux adds a content blocker and download manager

  A new beta build of Orion for GNU/Linux is available, with the v0.3 update ready for ‘broader, real-world use and feedback’, according to Kagi, the company behind it. Orion for GNU/Linux is a native GTK4/libadwaita web browser powered by WebKitGTK, aiming for feature parity with established macOS version (platform-specific features notwithstanding).

• Ruben Schade ☛ Busy, May 2026 edition

  It has been a busy start to the week! If you don’t live or work in web hosting circles, you may still have been impacted by a significant cPanel vulnerability that has wrecked havoc across the web. I don’t host any cPanel, but by golly, I work with some clients who do. And let’s just say… they’re having fun right now. If you know anyone who deals with cPanel, there may be some #hugops in order.

• Hacker News ☛ Weekly Recap: AI-Powered Phishing, Android Spying Tool, Linux Exploit, GitHub RCE & More

  cPanel Flaw Comes Under Attack—A critical flaw in cPanel and WebHost Manager (WHM) has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-41940, could result in an authentication bypass and allow remote attackers to gain elevated control of the control panel. In some cases, the attacks have led to a complete wipe of entire websites and backups. Other attacks have deployed Mirai botnet variants and a ransomware strain called Sorry.

• Tom's Hardware ☛ Notepad++ creator threatens legal action over macOS port of open-source app — developer says port is fine, but branding is too far

  Notepad++ creator Don Ho has filed a trademark complaint with Clownflare and is threatening further legal action against the developer of a macOS port.

• Heather J Meeker ☛ Announcing COSSmology–the definitive source for COSS business data [Pseudo-Open Source]

  Over the last two decades of advising commercial open source (COSS) companies, I’ve seen the ecosystem mature from a handful of pioneers into a foundational pillar of the modern software industry. When I wrote From Project to Profit, my goal was to provide founders with a handbook for navigating that journey.

• Windows TCO

  • Scoop News Group ☛ Latvian national sentenced for ransomware attacks run by former Conti leaders

    Deniss Zolotarjovs was mostly tasked with putting pressure on the Russia-based crew’s victims, in one case leaking hundreds of children’s health records.

• Entrapment (Microsoft GitHub and Slop)

  • It's FOSS ☛ Typical Microsoft! Turns Out VS Code Was Adding Copilot as a Git Co-Author Without Telling Anyone

    Microsoft reversed the change after developers found the Hey Hi (AI) attribution line appearing even with Copilot disabled.