Bonum Certa Men Certa

Another Microsoft Vice President Abandons the Company


Any more corporate vice presidents left to jump ship?



Summary: Enrique Rodriguez is the latest corporate vice president to leave Microsoft ”to pursue other interests” and Microsoft is already spinning the news, having previously hidden it

THE GREAT exodus of Microsoft managers continues in its destructive path that breeds disarray. Microsoft still announces these departures secretly (or lets them be known a long time after the actual departures, usually upon questioning). It is essentially hiding or sweeping bad news under the rug using those classic and shameless euphemisms like "reorganisation", which is what Microsoft and Novell typically call it when there is an en masse departure (exodus) leaving a management vacuum. The departure of Rodriguez is almost impossible to find, but it was bundled and lumped onto another blog post.

Earlier this week, Microsoft reorg’d the TV, Video and Media (TVM) group, which was headed by Corporate Vice President Enrique Rodriguez. Rodriquez has left the company (”decided to pursue other interests”).


Wow. Why didn't Microsoft announce this? At first it was unknown what would happen to Rodriguez, but Microsoft watcher Joseph Tartakoff eventually confirmed that he was leaving.

According to Tartakoff, "Last February, Microsoft split the Zune team along hardware and software lines, putting Zune software—like the ZunePass music subscription service—under Rodriguez, while placing the Zune hardware business under the auspices of a Windows Mobile executive."

“I don't think Microsoft can differentiate between truth and lie now...”
      --Goblin
It seems like Windows Mobile is indeed due to appear only next year [1, 2], as some recent rumours suggested. This is disastrous to Windows as Linux is already making huge gains. Microsoft responds to this by throwing FUD at mobile Linux (leading to backlash) because it's the only strategy Microsoft understands.

Microsoft basically chooses the Linux FUD that "choice is detrimental", which is a myth that has been debunked a lot, more recently even by Nokia (which champions Symbian and dominates the mobile market). We also found a couple of UK-based journalists who are typically hostile towards Linux (Kelly Fiveash is one of them) spreading the myth that only people are are paid to code will ever write Free software like Linux. It is important to watch how (and respond to) the Microsoft boosters try to spin good news about developers being paid to write GPL-licensed code as something that's bad news for Linux. It is rather amazing how dishonest one can be given the convictions and sometimes the incentives from Microsoft. The recipe for spinning good news as bad news (and vice versa) can also be seen above, as a departure of a vice president gets described as something positive, a "reorganisation".

"I think Microsoft has become so caught up in its own PR it actually believes everything it says," said our reader Goblin last night, adding: "I don't think Microsoft can differentiate between truth and lie now [...] and those MS employee's that know the truth, won't dare say it because they'll lose their jobs. [...] there was a chap who was left behind in WW1 and believed the war was still going on.....that's a little how Ballmer is, he is told what he wants to hear and the wibbly wobbly world he lives in is not the one everyone else is....that explains his bizarre behavior."

Our reader FurnaceBoy shrewdly said that "truth is sunlight to the Microsoft vampire" and Goblin then found this gem from the news:

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg said in a recent interview:
We never intended to ever mislead people. [...]


Right. Of course.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

How the SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff Are Connected to the Corrupt OSI, Whose Majority of Money Comes From Microsoft for Openwashing, LLM Hype, and Whitewashing GPL Violations During Class Action Trial
Let's explain how some of these things are connected
 
Red Hat's Owner is Called "America's Worst Tech Company" (IBM) and Microsoft's Liabilities Grow
Microsoft has about a quarter of a trillion (yes, trillion with a "T") in liabilities
If the Gossip is True, Today Microsoft Has "Large M1 Meetings" to Discuss Almost 30,000 More Microsoft Layoffs in 2025
the claim is that Microsoft is preparing to lay off 10% of its staff
Microsoft Has a Long and Proven History of Funding Meritless Lawsuits Against Rivals and Critics (It Always Backfires)
It also looks like the solicitor used by two Microsofters to SLAPP us is being urgently replaced
Links 12/05/2025: Gardens and Kitchens
Links for the day
Links 12/05/2025: Media Being Attacked (New Forms of Attack on the Press), Many Data Breaches
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 11, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 11, 2025
Links 11/05/2025: Pyotr Wrangel and Kubernetes With FreeBSD
Links for the day
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: A Moment of Silence and Revisionism Amid US Government Investigation and Community Uproar
Not a word this month
Microsoft Florian Becomes Patent Troll, Arranges to Sue Companies (Extorting Money Out of Them)
From campaigner against software patents to paid Microsoft shill to "FOSS patents" (actually attacking FOSS) to revisionism as "books" (for Microsoft)... and now this
Links 11/05/2025: China's Fentanylware (TikTok) Tells Kids to Vandalise Schools' Chromebooks and Increased Censorship in India
Links for the day
You Need Not Be a Big Company to Defeat Microsoft If You Can Successfully Challenge Its Core "Ideas"
Maybe that's just a sign that the ideas of RMS have become too effective and thus "dangerous"
Gemini Links 11/05/2025: Yeeting Oligarch Tech, Offline Browsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 10, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 10, 2025
One is Simply Doomed to Fail When Working for Violent Men From Microsoft and Attacking Women as Well as People Who Merely Expose Crimes or Report Real Crimes
Imagine saying to people that you "practice law" or "exercise law"
The Tariffs Are Accelerating Microsoft's Decline in China
Judging by the way things are going, there will be considerable adoption of GNU/Linux in years to come, China being one major contributing factor.
Control Your Systems, Control All Your Data
what does it take for us to control our own systems and data?
Misplacing Blame for Security Problems, Sometimes With LLM Slop That Blames "Linux" for Microsoft's Failures
Broken telephones and stochastic parrots beget plenty of Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
Links 10/05/2025: WW2 Revisionism, Further Tit-for-tat in India-Pakistan Conflict
Links for the day
Links 10/05/2025: Germany Considers Smartphone Ban in Schools, Right to Repair Bills
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/05/2025: Git Server and Great LLM DDoS of 2025
Links for the day
Blizzard/Microsoft Unions Grow Ahead of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Apparently Starting Next Week (as Many as 30,000 Workers Laid Off by Year's End)
Microsoft already fired about 5,000-6,000 workers this year by our estimates; that's not counting resignations compelled through pressure (i.e. pushed, did not jump) and contractors
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 09, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 09, 2025