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Microsoft Excel Turns 40, Remains Stubbornly Unkillable
Microsoft Excel, the 40-year-old spreadsheet application that helped establish personal computers as essential workplace tools and contributed to Microsoft's current valuation of nearly $4 trillion, has weathered both the rise of cloud computing and the current AI boom largely unscathed. In its most recent quarter, commercial revenue for Microsoft 365 -- the bundle including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint -- increased 17% year over year, and consumer revenue rose 28%.
The software traces its origins to a 1983 Microsoft offsite under the code name Odyssey, where engineers set out to clone Lotus 1-2-3. That program had itself cloned VisiCalc, the first computerized spreadsheet, created by Dan Bricklin for the Apple II in the late 1970s. Bricklin never patented VisiCalc. "Financially it would have been great if we'd have been able to patent it," he told Bloomberg. "And there would be a Bricklin Building at MIT, instead of a Gates Building."
Excel now counts an estimated 500 million paying users. The Pentagon pays for 2 million Microsoft 365 licenses. Google's free Sheets product, launched in 2006, captured casual use cases like potluck sign-ups but failed to dislodge Excel from enterprise work. AI chatbots present the latest challenge, but venture capitalists say nearly every AI spreadsheet startup they meet builds on top of Excel rather than replacing it.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
ICYMI Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: DRAM Shortages Affect Board Pricing, New Linux, Switching from Arduino and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @Raspberry_Pi - Adafruit
Categories: Linux
Linus Torvalds is 'a huge believer' in using AI to maintain code - just don't call it a revolution - ZDNET
Linus Torvalds is 'a huge believer' in using AI to maintain code - just don't call it a revolution ZDNET
Categories: Linux
Abxylute's $70 Retro Gaming Handheld Runs Android And Linux - Time Extension
Abxylute's $70 Retro Gaming Handheld Runs Android And Linux Time Extension
Categories: Linux
dtSearch® Adds Linux ARM64 Build to Engine, Making x64 and ARM64 Now Available for Windows, macOS and Linux; Document Filters Enhance JSON and CSV Support - PR Newswire
Categories: Linux
dtSearch® Adds Linux ARM64 Build to Engine, Making x64 and ARM64 Now Available for Windows, macOS and Linux; Document Filters Enhance JSON and CSV Support - PR Newswire
Categories: Linux
India's Aviation Crisis Is All About Too Big to Tame
India's dominant airline IndiGo has cancelled roughly 3,000 flights since last week after new pilot fatigue regulations collided with technical issues and the seasonal schedule shift, stranding more than half a million passengers and forcing aviation authorities to reverse course on the safety rules they had just implemented.
InterGlobe Aviation, IndiGo's parent company, told regulators that stricter requirements for night flying and weekly rest periods created an acute crew shortage. The Airline Pilots Association of India called the regulatory rollback a "dangerous precedent," noting that management had known about the requirements since early last year.
IndiGo controls 65.6% of India's domestic aviation market as of October 2025 and briefly became the world's most valuable airline in April. The crisis arrives as India's second-largest carrier, Air India, remains under investigation following a June crash that killed 241 passengers and crew. Authorities have imposed temporary price caps to prevent gouging.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Data Manager API helps advertisers improve measurement and get better results from Google AI.Data Manager API helps advertisers improve measurement and get better results from Google AI.Senior Director of Product Management, Measurement
Marketers who have deeply integrated AI tools report 60% greater revenue growth than their peers. To make it simpler for marketers to connect first-party data with Googl…
Categories: Technology
Valve Steam Machine HDMI 2.1 Support Limited by Linux Driver Challenges - mezha.net
Categories: Linux
This $69 gaming handheld runs Linux and Android, but there's a big catch - Android Authority
This $69 gaming handheld runs Linux and Android, but there's a big catch Android Authority
Categories: Linux
Discord Update Brings Improvements for Video Streaming on Steam Deck - Steam Deck HQ
Categories: Linux
Science Journal Retracts Study On Safety of Monsanto's Roundup
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology has formally retracted a sweeping scientific paper published in 2000 that became a key defense for Monsanto's claim that Roundup herbicide and its active ingredient glyphosate don't cause cancer. Martin van den Berg, the journal's editor in chief, said in a note accompanying the retraction that he had taken the step because of "serious ethical concerns regarding the independence and accountability of the authors of this article and the academic integrity of the carcinogenicity studies presented."
The paper, titled Safety Evaluation and Risk Assessment of the Herbicide Roundup and Its Active Ingredient, Glyphosate, for Humans, concluded that Monsanto's glyphosate-based weed killers posed no health risks to humans -- no cancer risks, no reproductive risks, no adverse effects on development of endocrine systems in people or animals. Regulators around the world have cited the paper as evidence of the safety of glyphosate herbicides, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in this assessment (PDF). [...]
In explaining the decision to retract the 25-year-old research paper, Van den Berg wrote: "Concerns were raised regarding the authorship of this paper, validity of the research findings in the context of misrepresentation of the contributions by the authors and the study sponsor and potential conflicts of interest of the authors." He noted that the paper's conclusions regarding the carcinogenicity of glyphosate were solely based on unpublished studies from Monsanto, ignoring other outside, published research. "The retraction of this study is a long time coming," said Brent Wisner, one of the lead lawyers in the Roundup litigation and a key player in getting the internal documents revealed to the public. Wisner said the study was the "quintessential example of how companies like Monsanto could fundamentally undermine the peer-review process through ghostwriting, cherrypicking unpublished studies, and biased interpretations."
"This garbage ghostwritten study finally got the fate it deserved,â Wisner added. "Hopefully, journals will now be more vigilant in protecting the impartiality of science on which so many people depend."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
GhostPenguin Backdoor With Zero-Detection Attacking Linux Servers Uncovered Using AI-Automated Tools - CybersecurityNews
GhostPenguin Backdoor With Zero-Detection Attacking Linux Servers Uncovered Using AI-Automated Tools CybersecurityNews
Categories: Linux
GhostPenguin Backdoor With Zero-Detection Attacking Linux Servers Uncovered Using AI-Automated Tools - CybersecurityNews
GhostPenguin Backdoor With Zero-Detection Attacking Linux Servers Uncovered Using AI-Automated Tools CybersecurityNews
Categories: Linux
Hytale will run on Linux PCs via Flatpak but Steam Deck will require more work - GamingOnLinux
Categories: Linux
AI-Driven Tools Uncover GhostPenguin Backdoor Attacking Linux Servers - GBHackers News
Categories: Linux