Bonum Certa Men Certa

(Former) Microsoft Employee Tells Why the Company is Doomed, Moves to GNU/Linux

Gold figure
Victory



ONE particular new thread that caught people's attention began with this revelation: "You know what scared ME from using Windows? Working for Microsoft for 14 years, 4 of them in the Windows division. One of the reasons I left the company (other than the over-abundance of incompetent people) was the lack of confidence I had in Microsoft's ability to deliver a quality OS -- and they proved it with Vista."

Onwards in this thread there is a fascinating look at the company's internal problems and this joins a series of examples where Microsoft employees simply switch to GNU/Linux.

Another interesting inside story comes from the following separate comment: [hat tip: David Gerard]

The 1998 antitrust trial had a significant morale impact within the company and cost them something like three dozen senior executives (both Myrvolds, Silverberg, etc). Then msft responded to the permatemps lawsuit by firing _all_ temporary workers (many of which had been there for a decade), which turned out to hose their build system so badly they stopped being able to compile Windows 2000 shortly after its release. (XP was literally the result of the Windows Millenium development team being tasked with taking the NT4 source, backporting as much of Windows 2000 as they could get to compile, and making it pretty.) Then msft stock tanked in 2000 (because they copied Cisco's pooling method of acquisitions and triggered an SEC rule that prevented their stock buyback program from disguising the dilution inherent in their stock option income tax benefit) and has been flat ever since (really, the stock's peak was back at the start of 2000) so everybody who was there for the money left. Then Google started seriously raiding them and hiring away everybody with a brain around 2003. Then Gates saw 4 gig memory wall and corresponding switch to 64 bit hardware coming (with a corresponding 8 bit cp/m -> 16 bit dos -> 32 bit windows operating system transition) and decided to retire rather than fight it.

The Vista death march (taking 7 years to ship crap) was a side effect of all this, but of course it made it worse by burning out most of their remaining competent engineers. Then the Yahoo acquisition caused everybody to lose faith in Ballmer, so a big "employees vs management" vibe cropped up (blaming him for everything from the stock price to the loss of towels in the company gym). Then the economy cratered and MS started missing its numbers for the first time in over 20 years.

Earlier this year, even mini-msft announced he was considering leaving the company. From a human resources perspective, they are _deeply_screwed_, and it's not a new thing. it's been festering for about ten years now.

Of course none of those affect their real source of power, which is their lock on the distribution channels. Nobody wants Vista, but you can't buy a machine from Frys that hasn't got it preinstalled. (You can't even upgrade most of 'em to XP, you MUST buy Vista if you buy that hardware.) That's the heart of the microsoft monopoly; preinstalls. Always has been.


This, however, is beginning to change. There are fascinating times ahead and Microsoft's current plan revolves around software patents (i.e. taxing competitors), simply because it doesn't know how else to compete and generate high profit that's necessary to maintain products and sustain vital workforce.

Cat in glass

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Bankruptcy
"Microsoft unit in Russia to file for bankruptcy, database shows"
Techrights Does Not Compete With LLM Slop, It Exposes the Bastards, Plagiarists and Scammers Who Do That
People like Scam Altman, still facing a lawsuit from his own sister for sexual abuse against her
 
Links 01/06/2025: Windows TCO, Openwashing, "It's FOSS" Still Promoting Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/06/2025: Simplification and Networks Everywhere
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, May 31, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, May 31, 2025
Google Bribes EFF. EFF Promotes LLM Slop as 'Fair Use'. To GAFAM It's a Low-Cost Lobby Hedge.
So the bribes pay off ("slush fund") and the word spreads
Slopwatch: Fake Text and Images, Financial Bubbles, and Scams in "Intelligent" Clothing
Sometimes what they mean by "AI" is just cheap labour somewhere else, as we discussed in IRC a few hours ago
Why Microsoft is Collapsing (Similar to What's Happening at IBM), As Insiders See It
IBM seems like one heck of a mess
Reliable Computing Means Free (Libre) Computing
Sites that want to promote security ought to deal with the biggest issues
Links 31/05/2025: US Court Orders Sides With RFE/RL, War Updates From Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/05/2025: ARM Server and power_supply Subsystem
Links for the day
Links 31/05/2025: Slop Stigmatised as Disinformation, Catalyst/Driver of "Death of Communication"
Links for the day
Common Sense 101: Do Not Write Blog Posts Saying You Want to Murder Colleagues (or Yourself)
Only crazy people would think stabbings are a joke
Links 31/05/2025: Microsoft-Connected Builder.ai is a Fraud and US is Purging Students Based on Race/Nationality
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Limmat, Doomscrollers, and Arguments Parsing
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 30, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 30, 2025
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble Already Popped, But It's Not an Overnight Collapse
where Microsoft put its money
No More Steven Astorino at IBM, Chatter About Weekly/Nonstop Layoffs at IBM
What happened? Good luck guessing.
Looking at Corruption in Europe, Going Beyond the EPO
Expect a new series to kick off very soon
Slopwatch: Security SPAM and LLM Slop for SEO and FUD Purposes, Perpetually Tarnishing the Perception of Linux and (Open)SSH Security
A lot of this Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) comes from Microsoft and its LLMs
Links 30/05/2025: Google's LLM Slop Pushers Are Killing Journalism and Shira Perlmutter Fails to Stop Bribed Regime From Legalising Plagiarism (in "AI" Clothing)
Links for the day
Links 30/05/2025: Offline Arts and "Threshold of Patience"
Links for the day
Signing Off Serious Lies With a Statement of Truth is No Joking Matter
It's not hard to see what's happening here
Links 30/05/2025: LLM Slop Already Ingests and Vomits Its Own Garbage, Facebook Exec Admits Copyrights a Concern Too
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Result in More Whistleblowers From Microsoft
Microsoft's predatory pricing is further
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu Became LLM Slop and Some People Fail to See the Immorality of Plagiarism
it lessens the incentive for people to publish real articles
EPO Poll: 68% Dissatisfied With Quality of Slop (Wrongly Framed as "AI") for Patent Classification
Slop does not work, it's just falsely advertised with extra hype (funded by slop pushers that sponsor the major media)
Big Crowds Gather to Learn About Software Freedom From the Man Who Started GNU/Linux in 1983
"It was a great success"
Microsoft Layoffs Again in Bay Area
Microsoft relies on people's false belief that being "in LinkedIn" will get you a job; well, seems like even working inside LinkedIn really sucks and you lose the job
Gemini Links 30/05/2025: Fighting Against the Bad News, and Slop is Dehumanisation Disguised as "Intelligence"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 29, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 29, 2025