Summary: Game over for Microsoft, at least judging by the exodus of managers in recent years; Microsoft resorts to desperate and corrupt practices which turn even former employees against it

SO, Xbox Live is down, which is rather symbolic of what's going on at Xbox world because yet another top-level manager joins the exodus at Microsoft (we mostly tracked departures in 2009-2010 owing to time being available for this task). "Sorry," he said, "I don't get the drama around having an 'always-on' console. Every device is 'always-on'. It's the world we live in." We alluded to it the other day as it had become a major issue and probably resulted in this resignation over DRM.

Xbox is a mess. Microsoft was betting on the project as though it's a ticket into the hardware business, but it's a failure that loses billions of dollars. Microsoft is getting so desperate now that it is filing an antitrust complaint against Linux, so as my online friend put it, Microsoft needs a new straw.

Killing off Linux and Android, by proxy. Oh, I am making a note to stock up on the popcorn. This case will be short-lived but quite entertaining particularly with Pamela Jones sorting things out and letting everyone understand the 'truth'.

Microsoft is utterly transparent and avoid direct 'liability' with a paper tiger corporation doing their misdeeds in the name of 'FairSearch'. In the name of 'Fair'? Here's a straw Microsoft.

Remember taxation-related evasions at Microsoft? Well, former Microsoft employee Jeff Reifman, who warmed up to FOSS on the face of it, is still an activist against Microsoft. He writes: "After granting Microsoft amnesty on its $1.5 billion Nevada tax dodge, state tax collectors are aggressively targeting Seattle dance clubs and night clubs over an obscure 'opportunity to dance' tax. Auditors search the Internet to find out whether people dance at specific clubs. One clubowner reports an auditor told him: 'You have the opportunity to dance, and we verified it by 8 or 10 different references on Yelp.'"

There is more here. Even former Microsoft employees are sickened by Microsoft's behaviour. IT is definitely noteworthy. ⬆