Summary: More details begin to emerge about the consequence of Microsoft reductions

Microsoft's latest round of redundancies resulted in Massive layoffs (not as bad as initially reported by VentureBeat) and while the company refuses to say which units are hurt, the evidence surfaces sooner or later. As Todd Bishop puts it:

More details are emerging today about the Microsoft groups affected, and spared, in the company's latest round of job cuts. The company isn't going into detail, but blogs and forums are providing plenty of evidence. Layoffs are reported to have taken place in groups including MSN Direct, the Massive in-game advertising unit, and MSDN Magazine, among others.

There are some more details in The Register.

Microsoft is reining in several of its products following the company's second round of lay-offs that kicked off on Tuesday.

[...]

Similarly, MSN Direct - which provides weather, traffic and other services to devices such as in-car map systems - is also under review.

Mary Jo Foley wrote about one prominent victim whom she knows.

Bill Hill, eBook champion, leaves Microsoft

The more Microsoft shrinks, the better off GNU/Linux will be. We have been hearing that AstroTurfing too is on the decline. Microsoft confirmed cuts in that area (it obviously calls it "PR") just a few weeks ago. ⬆

"Microsoft is unique among proprietary software companies: they are the only ones who have actively tried to kill Open Source and Free Software. It's not often someone wants to be your friend after trying to kill you for ten years, but such change is cause for suspicion."

--Bradley M. Kuhn (SFLC)