10.12.10
Microsoft Loses Directions, Interactive Entertainment Business Wobbles, and Brad Lovering Quits
Summary: Matt Rosoff leaves Directions on Microsoft and a 22-year veteran (Brad Lovering) also abandons the sinking ship, which now suffers turbulence in the Interactive Entertainment Business and renames things as a miserable last resort (seven-washing and the like)
Microsoft is like SCO some time around 2004. It has already sued companies over Linux (since last year) and this was not properly challenged in court. Its own products are a hard sale and increasingly fewer (many get cancelled due to budgetary constraints) while competition leapfrogs it technically, although it still has some momentum remaining due to existing deployments, as well as size which decreases.
According to two Microsoft boosters [1, 2], the Technical Fellow Brad Lovering is quitting and a peripheral Microsoft booster called "Directions on Microsoft" has just lost a key person (it’s a small company) whom we wrote about before since he promotes Microsoft at CNET. That would be Matt Rosoff.
“Microsoft should rename itself “Microsoft 7″ and see if that works.”In addition to this, Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business gets “re-orged” (euphemism to use when many people quit or get laid off) and its failed attempt to undermine the Free software community gets renamed [1, 2, 3] to “Outercurve”. None of these are good signs in a company that lost direction. “A rose by any other name,” writes Groklaw, “but I wonder if Microsoft and curve in the same thought is helpful?”
Microsoft should rename itself “Microsoft 7″ and see if that works. Sometimes it does. As stated on Sunday, we no longer track Microsoft as closely as we once did for the same reasons we are no longer called “Boycott Novell” and Groklaw is no longer just about SCO. Threats to software freedom change all the time and Techrights is not fixated on any particular company, unless that company really does a lot to attack software freedom. Microsoft’s attacks are becoming as pathetic as SCO's due to inability to compete technically. █
kozmcrae said,
October 12, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Or how about: Microsoft 2L8 or 2l8 (too late). There’s more symmetry to the latter. If it works for you then please, make it your own Roy.
PS I don’t recall seeing that particular combination of numbers and letters but I can’t imagine it hasn’t been used before.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 12th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
It looks like Microsoft 2.0. Will people get the reference without confusion?
TemporalBeing Reply:
October 12th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
More likely Microsoft X_X
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 12th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
That looks like a teenager’s SMS. How about Microffshore? That’s where all the workforce seems to be going right now, including Microsoft’s internal operations which were assigned to Infosys this year.
kozmcrae said,
October 12, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I tend to be obtuse in my references. But that’s OK because sometimes I hit it square on the head. I defer to your judgment on it. Besides, I’ve got a million of ‘em. My weary mind never rests.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
October 12th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
That’s OK, I’m just trying to figure out the context in which this comical term can be dropped in… like, “the CEO is trying to reinvent the company as Microsoft 2L8.” It’s terms like these which become the hallmark of sites like The Register/Inquirer. Using words like “M$” makes one an easier target for labeling.