The official Skype Snap app for Linux has not been updated in nearly six months, and Microsoft is yet to say why.

When introducing the cross-distro build in early 2018, the company said the Skype Snap app would give it the “…ability to push the latest features straight to our users, no matter which device or distribution they happen to use.”

Clearly, not.

Because at the time of writing this post the Skype Snap app sits on version 8.34.0.78, which the Snapcraft store reports was ‘last updated’ in November 2018.

However, the “regular” Linux version available to download from the Skype website is on version 8.47.0.73, released June 2019.

Also: Microsoft has caused an uproar among its partners by canceling one of their favorite perks: software for their own use [paywall]

• Microsoft Loves Linux: Company Wants to Join the Linux Security Developer List [Ed: Like all Microsoft propagandists, Bogdan Popa promotes the lie that "Microsoft Loves Linux" because it helps Microsoft attack Linux from the inside]

• Microsoft applies to join Linux security inner sanctum [Ed: Notice how it's always Microsoft boosters and Microsoft PR sites pushing this lie]

• Windows 10 news recap: Your Phone app can now sync notifications with Android, Linux overtakes Windows Server as most popular OS on Azure, and more [Ed: This one too pushes the "Microsoft loves Linux" lie (as a photo further down the page). It's a PR campaign with an objective.]

• Confirmed: Microsoft Wants Security Advice From Linux [Ed: Now Microsoft can prepare its former employees (in FUD firms), giving them headsup for marketing of logos, brands, and sites to exaggerate Linux threats. It happened before. Now Microsoft can know about these things months in advance.]

  However, applying for membership of the closed and private Linux distribution security contacts list isn't as bizarre as it first sounds. There's the small matter of Windows 10 being due to ship with a Linux kernel later in the year, as reported on Forbes by Jason Evangelho. However, more importantly, Microsoft also recently confirmed that "Linux usage on our cloud has surpassed Windows," adding that as a by-product of that Azure usage the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) has "started receiving security reports of issues with Linux code both from users and vendors."

• Are Developers Moving Away From Engineering Disciplines? [Ed: PAC-funded puff pieces carry on, with VMware as "king" of Open Source]

• We Need To Rethink How We Architect Our Applications : Dirk Hohndel [Ed: Great news, ladies and gents. The Free/Open Source community has new corporate spokespeople: Microsoft and VMware (big GPL violators). Money buys narrative. Who sells (profits)? The LF.]

• ReactOS ‘a ripoff of the Windows Research Kernel’ claims Microsoft kernel engineer

  Reitschin does add he is no lawyer, but these claims do raise a number of serious concerns and questions about the ReactOS project. These claims alone will probably ensure no serious commercial entity will ever want to associate itself with ReactOS, and it will be interesting to see if these claims will ever lead to something more serious than mere words.

• ReactOS 'a ripoff of the Windows Research Kernel' claims Microsoft kernel engineer [Ed: The original article is from Microsoft Tim.]

• Samba 4.11 Aims To Be Scalable To 100,000+ Users

  For those using Samba for better Windows interoperability with SMB/CIFS/AD, the forthcoming Samba 4.11 will be a lot more scalable so it can be used within massive organizations.

  Samba has been undergoing work to improve its performance on the large scale for organizations with 100,000+ users and over one hundred thousand computer objects and memberships. Samba 4.11 will be able to scale a hell of a lot better than previous releases due to performance improvements around reindexing, domain joins, LDAP server memory, custom LMBD map size, better batch operation support, better LDB search performance, better sub-tree rename performance, and other tuning to allow Samba to perform at massive scales.

• You Don't Own What You've Bought: Microsoft's Books 'Will Stop Working'

  The latest in our forever ongoing series, recognizing in the digital age how you often no longer own what you've bought, thanks to DRM and copyright: this week, people with Microsoft ebooks will discover they're dead.

• Security updates for Tuesday

  Security updates have been issued by Arch Linux (firefox, firefox-developer-edition, libarchive, and vlc), CentOS (firefox, thunderbird, and vim), Debian (firefox-esr, openssl, and python-django), Fedora (glpi and xen), Mageia (thunderbird), openSUSE (ImageMagick, irssi, libheimdal, and phpMyAdmin), Red Hat (libssh2 and qemu-kvm), Scientific Linux (firefox, thunderbird, and vim), SUSE (389-ds, cf-cli, curl, dbus-1, dnsmasq, evolution, glib2, gnutls, graphviz, java-1_8_0-openjdk, and libxslt), and Ubuntu (python-django).

• Kali Linux in the DigitalOcean Cloud

  DigitalOcean is a cloud provider similar to AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and many others. They offer instances, called “droplets”, with different Linux distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, etc. Similar to AWS, DigitalOcean has datacenters around the world and sometimes multiple datacenters in each country.

  However, one feature in particular sets them apart them from their competitors. A little while ago, they added support for custom images, which allows users to import virtual machine disks and use them as droplets. This is perfect for us as we can use our own version of Kali Linux in their cloud.

  While it might be possible to load the official Kali Linux virtual images, it wouldn’t be very efficient. Instead, we’ll build a lightweight Kali installation with the bare minimum to get it working.

• Cybersecurity Experts Blocked 5 Million Attempted Hacks of IoT Cameras

  Trend Micro cybersecurity experts report that they blocked an astounding five-million hack attempts on IoT cameras. It’s quite frightening to think what may have happened if these experts weren’t hard at work.

• Public Certificate Poisoning Can Break Some OpenPGP Implementations

  OpenPGP installations can grind to a halt and fail to verify the authenticity of downloaded packages as the keyserver network has been flooded with bogus extra signatures attesting ownership of a certificate.

  Vulnerabilities that allow this type of certificate spamming attack have been known for years and a timely fix or mitigation is nowhere in sight, neither from the keyserver network community nor the OpenPGP Working Group.

• Report: Apple Discovers MacBook Air Logic Board Issue

                 
  

                   

  Not all 13-inch MacBook Air with Retina Display units from 2018 are believed to be affected by the logic board issue. The memo reportedly said that only units with certain serial numbers were affected; Apple plans to inform the owners of those devices via email. Affected units can be taken to Apple's retail stores or authorized repair shops until four years after their original purchase date, 9to5Mac said. 
   

                   

  It's not clear why Apple didn't publicly announce the replacement program.  

             

• Apple finds issue w/ logic board in some 2018 MacBook Airs, offers free repair

                 
  

                   

  Apple has confirmed in an internal document to repair staff that it’s identified an issue with the main logic board in what it says is a “very small number” of MacBook Air models. Apple Stores and authorized repair staff have been informed to replace the main logic board in affected machines at no cost to customers, according to the document obtained by 9to5Mac.  

             

• Apple Recalls 15-Inch MacBook Pro Laptop Computers Due to Fire Hazard

                 
  

                   

  The batteries in the recalled laptop computers can overheat, posing a fire hazard.  

             

• Apple recalls 432,000 MacBook Pro laptops for fire and burn risks

                 
  

                   

  Manufactured in China, the recalled computers had a retail price of $2,000 and more, and were sold at Apple and electronics stores nationwide, as well as online, from September 2015 through February 2017.  

             

• 2015 15" MacBook Pro Recall Applies to About 432,000 Units, Apple Received 26 Reports of Batteries Overheating

                 
  

                   

  Last week, Apple launched a worldwide recall and replacement program for select 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro units, sold primarily between September 2015 and February 2017, due to batteries that "may overheat and pose a fire safety risk." Apple will replace affected batteries free of charge.  

                 

• 'Dangerous' Muslim Brotherhood fatwa app in Apple Store's top 100 downloads

                     
  

                       

  The Euro Fatwa app, which was launched in April, was created by the European Council for Fatwa and Research, a Dublin private foundation set up by Yusuf Al Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
   

                       

  Touted as a guide to help Muslims adhere to Islam, critics including Germany’s security service, say the app is a radicalisation tool.  

                 

• Jony Ive found Tim Cook's disinterest in design 'dispiriting'

                     
  

                       

  But more damagingly, the WSJ highlights that Ive was left "dispirited" by Tim Cook, in stark contrast to his close relationship with Steve Jobs. Cook, apparently "showed little interest in the product development process" according to the paper's sources. Ive was also left frustrated by the makeup of Apple's board of directors, which was filled with people with backgrounds outside of Apple's core business (the pun is ours, and very much intended). 
   

                       

  As well as these reports, Ive's own words have come back to haunt the company. Back in 2014, he told The Times he'd leave Apple if it stopped innovating. Awkward.