Microsoft wants to buy you a drink

Normally, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". But, I've been told it is ok to share this information. Last week, I was in Las Vegas. While at the bar in the Mirage, my friend and I were talking. He was asking how the my project was going and I was filling him in... Unbeknownst to either of us, our conversation was being listened to by the fellow next to us.

After a few minutes, the fellow sitting next to us introduced himself as Jeff Chaucer, Senior Manager of Windows Media Center Edition.

Jeff, goes on to tell us that he overheard what we were talking about and he is interested in learning more about KnoppMyth (I may not care for Microsoft, but my parents taught me not to be rude.). So, I tell him how I started the project, etc. "Interesting" he says.

Jeff then goes on to tell me that Microsoft is looking to make changes to MCE and if I'd be interested in joining the team. I tell him that I'm happy with my current employer and that if I were to be a Microsoft employee that I imagine my working on KnoppMyth would be frowned upon. He says "No, not at all. Microsoft is looking to change it's image and there would be no issues with me continuing to work on an Open Source project. The only sipulation is that it doesn't interfare with an employee's day to day duties."

Interesting I thought, but I declined. Jeff insisted I think about it and to contact him in a few days. We exchanged information and he paid our tab.

I got a call from Jeff yesterday and he has sweetened the deal. Not only will Microsoft double my income, I can work on KnoppMyth 30% of my time. In addition, I'll have full access to their hardware labs to test KnoppMyth.

So, starting April 21st, I'll be a full time Microsoft employee.

“Microsoft's PR department is stalking people, assembling dossiers about them in order to influence or trip them up.”Let it be remembered that Microsoft's PR department is stalking people, assembling dossiers about them in order to influence or trip them up. There is concrete evidence showing this. It leaked. In fact, Microsoft proudly describes this as part of its strategy.

So that's all there is to know about 'coincidental' encounters. There are more examples though.

Moving on a little, we see the recurring theme which is that Microsoft pays the bills of other people, usually its rivals too. We saw Microsoft buying dinner for ODF people and we saw it flying people over to nice vacations if they were considered "Microsoft doubters". The same goes for journalists whom Microsoft pampers (policing the news is vitally important when your products are inferior [1, 2]). Sometimes it's just lunch, sometimes it's drinks at the pub^*, and sometimes it is a sponsorship. Whatever it is, Microsoft is trying to buy love. As those notorious laptop bribes show (just for practical example), Microsoft expects something in return. It usually gets it, even in exchange for slush funds. In other cases, Microsoft pays the (put_rival_name_here)-faithful as much as $15,000 to attack (put_rival_name_here). How typical a behaviour.

The last part worth addressing is ruinous defection of employees, which is intended to destroy rival companies or projects. Borland is an old example of this and a newer one suggests that Microsoft is poaching Adobe employees in India. It revolves around stalking and endowment, which makes one wonder about what lured Gentoo's founder into Microsoft in the first place (he quit shortly afterwards).

Microsoft's routines (modus operandi) of acquiring employees -- including skeptics -- are all too familiar. This should not change the fact that, as the following article states, "Microsoft [has] ‘Bad Karma’ with Developers."

Postscript: Vembu says that Microsoft could take some basic steps to regain his trust—like supporting web standards for Internet Explorer.