Cutting corners: The first wave of massive layoffs that Microsoft teased several weeks ago has arrived. Most of the losses will hit the Xbox division over the next year as the company consolidates its gaming strategy. Microsoft will spin off Compulsion Games, Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs, while Arkane enters labor negotiations. Bethesda, ZeniMax, id Software, Activision, Obsidian, and Microsoft's accessibility team will all see deep cuts.
Windows 11 Pro for Workstations costs $309 and most people have never heard of it
TL;DR: Microsoft released a little-known Windows edition called Windows 11 Pro for Workstations in 2021. It's a client operating system built for high-end PCs and workstations, offering support for more memory and CPU sockets than Windows 11 Pro, along with ReFS storage features, SMB Direct networking, and persistent-memory workloads.
The big picture: People have grumbled about Windows telemetry for years, to the point that an entire cottage industry of tools that clean up the OS now exists just to strip the tracking bits out. While there are privacy concerns with the feature, in this particular case, it led to federal agents dropping a hacker into a Chicago courtroom.
Cloudy Europe: After a relatively brief investigation, the European Commission reached a preliminary conclusion regarding Amazon's and Microsoft's cloud businesses. The executive body believes the two US companies should also be designated as "gatekeepers" for their cloud services, though both will have an opportunity to respond before a final decision is made.
Because hundreds of millions of users still won't upgrade
Recap: Windows 10 technically reached end-of-life last October, and analysts say users have been migrating to Windows 11 in large numbers – but potentially millions are stubbornly holding on to the older OS. Microsoft appears to have quietly acknowledged that reality by tacking on another year to Windows 10's critical security support window.