Bonum Certa Men Certa

Playing Favourites for Microsoft

Kids from same family on beach vacation



Summary: Microsoft has its partners build its castle of dominance and examples are given from the news to explain how that works

Microsoft is not just Microsoft, it's an ideology embraced and fought for by a large group of companies that work to benefit one another and especially the 'queen termite', Microsoft. Just like with AMD and Intel, there is a great deal of benefits/kickbacks to partners (crudest forms of bribery would be too risky) and vendors are playing favourites, meaning that just like a bunch of schoolmates or siblings they compete for affinity from the teacher or parent. This is done for self gain.

"Microsoft holds Partner Conference and Award Ceremony," says this headline and to put this in crude terms, these are the events where Microsoft decides who to bribe best based on the dirty work done for Microsoft by the recipients. "Dirty work" can be changes to government policies, sabotage of a GNU/Linux migration, many sales of Microsoft software (with commissions), and so on.

“It's the glue that keeps many parts of society stuck with Windows.”It is always curious to see and to keep track of names of companies once they get labeled "Gold Partner", Microsoft partner, or something along those lines. They even turn out to have something called "innovation alliance". Just like Microsoft "MVP", it's a reputation one must live up to by sucking up to Microsoft and maybe even voting against sanity (for interests rather) in some OOXML ballot. While we routinely and quite comprehensively mention Novell partners when they get named, we do not do the same for Microsoft because there are just too many of them. It's the glue that keeps many parts of society stuck with Windows.

It does not take much to see that Microsoft continues to distribute awards to buy companies' loyalty and this includes promotion of Microsoft DRM, which Samsung and Nokia DRM deals, for example, ensure gets used more widely. Here is a newer example:

Microsoft PlayReady is the latest DRM technology that Verimatrix is supporting through its MultiRights strategy.


The same is being done in other areas like IPTV, but since these are private businesses rather than public institutions, nothing too unethical is being done here. One can dismiss what they do here for DRM and IPTV (a lot of what they say in general) as just marketing (or "Slog"), teaches us history. They fight against the rest of industry by promoting the One Microsoft Way.

“They fight against the rest of industry by promoting the One Microsoft Way.”Microsoft will be recruiting more advocates, e.g. [1, 2], even in places like South Africa where Microsoft plays quite dirty and always needs the support of some local businesses to suppress free/open source software. Despite the PR from Microsoft's friend Brier Dudley, for Microsoft to have friends in Africa is not beneficial to Africans. It makes them dependent.

Here is a new article which says that "Microsoft might have liked perks" (it's the headline), using it for blackmail on tax issues, having states compete between one another at taxpayers' expense. Microsoft should be dealt with not like any normal company. It works as a group of many companies and mapping their influence is the tricky task. Techrights will continue to explain the more important partnerships that harm society at large. The rest will be ignored due to time contraints.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft XBox Layoffs: Almost 2,000 Layoffs Became "Over 2,000"? (Over 20% of the Staff)
over 20% of staff will be let go, not counting staff that leaves voluntarily
Summer Plans in Techrights and Elsewhere
massive layoffs at Microsoft
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 30, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 30, 2025
People at the Very Top of Microsoft Know How Bad Things Really Are
There's no product that can replace the former profitability of Windows licensing and stuff that went on top of Windows
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Mid Year and a Tour of Old Languages
Links for the day
EPO Presentation Bemoans Misuse of Slop in Decision-Making on Patents and in Classification (Which is Likely Illegal Too)
We habitually mention failed use cases of LLMs on the Web
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Confirmed, "XBox Hardware Is Dead"
It's possible that over 20% of the staff will be laid off
Links 30/06/2025: Kyrgyzstan vs Media Freedom, Dalai Lama Succession
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: Backend Programs in Gemini and Dynamic Content Without The Scripting
Links for the day
Links 30/06/2025: Zuckerberg’s Tax-Evading Scheme Harms Kids, US Copyright Office Lacks Leadership
Links for the day
Microsoft Isn't Laying Off Tens of Thousands to 'Invest' in Slop ('Hey Hi'), It's Laying Off Tens of Thousands Because It's Running Out of Money (and Willing Lenders)
the layoffs are a sign of the business failing, not "hey hi" (whatever that is) replacing staff
Intel Lays Off 20% of Its Workforce, Microsoft is Doing the Same This Year
Like a yoyo, whatever goes up will come back down
GNU/Linux Rises to New Highs in Angola, Africa in General is Abandoning Windows
Western media barely covers Microsoft layoffs in Africa, but in recent years Microsoft culled the workforce and even shut down entire operations
Destination Geminispace (in the Age of LLM Slop and Slop Images That Infest the Web and Social Control Media)
Geminispace isn't vast, but at least it is - on average - a lot "cleaner"
GNU/Linux Growing in Sierra Leone This Year
Based on what statCounter is seeing, this year there are more and more people there who adopt GNU/Linux
Serial Sloppers Gonna Slop
More sites out there ought to call out the cheaters
Quartz (qz.com) is Spam and a Slopfarm
It used to be OK. Then they fired the staff.
Links 30/06/2025: US Economic Woes, Extreme Heat
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 29, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 29, 2025
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: "The AI Hype" and New AuraGem Ask
Links for the day
Our Desktops Are Not Your Experiments, X is Not an Experiment
Breaking what already worked
Microsoft's Big Lies Regarding This Week's Mass Layoffs Have Already Begun (and They're Already Being Spread by Slopfarms)
Microsoft is the "market leader" in slop
Explaining the Full Story of SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff
For every action there is a reaction, for every attack there will be proportionate consequences
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part III: IRS and Status of OSI
"They lied to the US IRS and there’s a paper trail"
IBM Red Hat's Dogmatic Fanaticism Under a Thin Veil of "Modernism"
IBM now has the audacity to paint people who don't agree as "nazis"
Microsoft's Share in Guatemala Fell From 97% to 14%
Eventually Microsoft will get stuck in a loop of layoffs, layoffs, and more layoffs
They Made Technology Scary and Taught Us That It's Innocent, Friendly, Even "Social"
Rejection of all this "apps" and "gadgets" and "Smart" (whatever that means!) status quo isn't a rejection of society
The Media is Under Attacks Partly Because There's Little Other (Remaining) Press to Speak in Its Defence
The biggest danger here is that when there's very little press or no "opposition media" left it becomes even easier to crush critics because there aren't many people left to speak about the matter
If Your Web Site is Run by Bots, Eventually Nobody Will 'Read' It Except Bots (People Don't Want to Read Slop)
Eventually people learn from mistakes
Links 29/06/2025: Microsoft Releases False/Fake Benchmarks, "Google Wants You to Watch Ads or Take Surveys to Read Articles"
Links for the day
Links 29/06/2025: Data Breaches and Online Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/06/2025: "The Price Of Eggs" and Gemini 3D Tic Tac Toe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 28, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 28, 2025