Summary: What really would have happened if there was justice in this world; bankrupt Microsoft, executives with long jail sentences, rapid restoration of fair competition

Microsoft is pretty much forced to ‘cooperate” with a probe over its bribery tactics, which Microsoft is seemingly trying to hide by distraction. To quote The Register, “Microsoft says it will cooperate with US investigators probing alleged bribery of foreign officials. It’s claimed Redmond’s resellers bunged cash to apparatchiks in Russia and Pakistan in return for contracts with state-backed businesses.”

As Pogson put it:

Ever wondered why M$ manages to sell licences to all kinds of folks even when GNU/Linux is a better option, with a lower price, better performance and fewer problems? It just may be that big businesses, governments, schools, and organizations that have large numbers of system, are being manipulated by a few well-placed bribes.

Remember EDGI and remember what Microsoft did to government and schools in Russia. It is a serious case of corruption, even by Chinese and Russian standards.

As put by Nokia observer Tomi Ahonen the othe day, “I have tried to be ‘fair’ and ‘open-minded’ about Microsoft in my writing and on this blog. However, this is the tech company with the nickname ‘The Evil Empire’. That term comes with plenty of cause – over the past three decades Microsoft has been fined countless times huge sums for crushing competitors with illegal methods, using its monopolistic position like a bully. I personally have been a user, supporter, registered developer, and/or authorized trainer for many of the various victims of Microsoft from WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 to Novell Netware, Mosaic and Netscape.”

Here is part 2. Microsoft apologists may say that “Ballmer Successor Must Apologize to Partners”, but we don’t agree. Microsoft should apologise and also compensate its rivals which it bribed against, even if that means the immediate bankruptcy of Microsoft (they should pull out more money — earned by criminal activities — from bank accounts of Microsoft executives past and present, including Gates and Ballmer).

Sadly, given false (or mutually similar) choices offered by the corporate media, this perfectly legitimate option is rendered “not worth entertaining”; big banks show this to be the norm. Those who commit crime, even if caught, are made the richest and most powerful people, hence they can continue to harm society and whitewash their reputation. █

Summary: Interesting timing for Microsoft to announce the future departure of Ballmer, contributing to burial of massive news about Microsoft bribery in many countries around the world

FOLLOWING overwhelming unrest over Ballmer's decisions as CEO (including fraudulent financial reporting) this CEO — quite expectedly — is leaving, but the timing is interesting. As Simon Phipps, the head of the OSI, put it:

Ballmer to leave Microsoft

Honestly it’s about time and exactly what the company needs if it’s to get fixed. Let’s hope they get someone who will truly embrace open source rather than firewalling it and paying lip-service to it while secretly attacking it. That’s the change I have long said is needed to move beyond stage four of the journey.

The timing makes it sound like a potential decoy. Not only may Microsoft be facing multi-billion-dollar fines, but Ballmer himself may face jail time unless he flees and generates press buzz that hides the real news. What’s the real news? Microsoft’s sheer corruption again.

Ballmer is unlikely to be put in jail for racketeering and bribery because there is no justice, it’s a system that’s friendly to criminals who are allowed to get rich and never face consequences when caught (at worst a slap on their wrist). For a super-corrupt company like Microsoft (with track record to show it) that started its corruption under the leadership of Bill Gates it just makes sense to eliminate the old faces right now. And why? Well, some months ago we wrote about allegations of Microsoft bribery in China (a no-brainer, but this became a formal investigation, perhaps indicating the same is being done in the UK and elsewhere). There are bribes and gentle bribes and they are not unique to the Chinese market. Over the years we have covered many instances of Microsoft bribes, some of which qualify as “soft” or “gentle” bribes (like exchange of favours or deferred payments). Based on this explosive report, Microsoft is in the middle of a massive scandal that could land Ballmer in a jail cell. As one site put it:

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) bribe probe has now been linked to Russia and Pakistan, which indicates that the matter is actually not confined to just a few contracts but has a wider reach than was previously anticipated, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Notice a trend among the Microsoft boosters (or staff), who try to use the groomed villain, Bill Gates, to somehow paint a gentle picture of Microsoft in light of the news, trying to focus on Ballmer leaving. Phipps posted the video to show what a monster this man can be, whereas Slashdot‘s Microsoft Nick (Nick Kolakowski) already did some whitewashing for this criminal, as usual [1, 2, 3, 4].

“The controversial executive will step down within the next 12 months,” says the booster, but where is his coverage of the latest crimes of Microsoft? None at all. Slashdot gave up on news coverage when it hired a Microsoft mole like this. Watch how he adds nonsense like “During Ballmer’s tenure, Microsoft also launched the highly successful Windows 7″ while adding the obligatory grooming of Bill Gates, which Microsoft Nick habitually does.

These boosters are like hyenas hanging around a bigger predator, hoping to get a bite of some prey leftovers (the predators are Gates and Microsoft, the hyenas smell money and stick close to it). Too bad they miss the real news, which is massive criminal activity. One wonders if Ballmer’s mere announcement of prospective departure was timed to distract the press from other, far more massive news. As we wrote 4 years ago, "Steve Ballmer Should Not be Fired, He Should be Arrested".█

Summary: Acer is the latest large company to officially move away from Microsoft Windows because no OEM — not even Microsoft with its “Surface” disaster — can sell hardware with shoddy software preinstalled

Some new numbers suggest stagnation in the target market of Microsoft, which led Acer, one of the largest OEMs Microsoft works with (see this old Microsoft OEM agreement with Acer), to losses and subsequent exploration of Linux-based alternatives. As Microsoft booster Nancy Gohring put it, citing he employer’s numbers (IDG citing IDC without disclosure again), “Acer the latest to turn to Google after poor Windows sales”:

Acer, the electronics maker that once seemed to be a big Windows 8 booster, is turning its back on Microsoft.

After posting a second quarter loss this week, it said it’s going to aggressively work on selling more Chromebooks and Android devices. According to the Wall Street Journal, Acer’s chairman said he hopes to grow revenue from Google smartphones, tablets and Chromebooks to 10 percent to 12 percent of revenue by the end of this year and to as much as 30 percent next year. He apparently didn’t say exactly how much revenue comes from Google software today, but said Chromebooks made up nearly 3 percent of shipments in the second quarter, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Acer is the latest vendor to shift its weight toward Google products and away from Microsoft. HP and Lenovo, long-time hardware partners of Microsoft, have also started making Chromebooks.

Mr. Pogson says that Acer had been squeezed by Microsoft and it is not the first. As he notes in this earlier post:

When a monopolist pushes an OS at a price above the market on OEMs, they suffer. While the monopolist gets a huge cash-flow, the OEM works for nothing, just a tiny margin. While OEMs take a commission on the price of that other OS, they sell their hardware for next to nothing. OEMs are manufacturers, not salesmen for M$. Do framers work for $0 per hour plus a penny per nail? No.

Christine Hall, another GNU/Linux proponent, says that “The consensus on [Windows] RT is that it’s something of a toy operating system. Some say it’s done nothing but weaken the Windows on tablet brand–as if that’s possible. The smart money crowd is expecting Microsoft to give-up on RT sooner rather than later. Almost everybody says RT isn’t long for this world.”

Microsoft has got nothing that can truly challenge Linux-based operating systems and one GNU/Linux proponent proclaims that “Microsoft Surface is Doomed, Steve Ballmer Should Be Fired” (others say the same after the Surface oversupply fiasco [1, 2, 3]).

Firing Ballmer would not save Microsoft. But it would be a face-saving move, that’s for sure. █

Summary: The man behind strategic flukes, including racketeering and oversupply, is asked to go (by shareholders and the press)

Ballmer has turned Microsoft into a company of patent terrorism and after the Surface oversupply fiasco [1, 2, 3] (and more financial damage) one news site calls for elimination of Ballmer:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has revealed a sweeping corporate reorganization of the company which scraps its longtime business model of pitting each of its internal units against each other for competitive purposes, in favor of an all-for-one model which has everyone at Microsoft working toward the same larger goals. The mere fact that it’s taken Ballmer thirteen years to figure this out is enough to cast doubt on his ability to lead Microsoft in this century. But a look at the near total lack of successes under his tenure is enough to make the case for his outright ouster.

Other sites and some shareholders agree.

Ballmer has already admitted blame and took responsibility. To quote this second source: “Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted that the company built too many Surface tablets, and it’s not selling as many Windows devices as it wants. During an internal town hall event earlier this week, Ballmer and COO Kevin Turner both addressed the recent $900 million hit for Surface RT and the sales pace of Windows across various devices.”

Ballmer needs to go. He is a fierce enemy of Free software and nobody really trusts him. █

“We believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability.”

–Steve Ballmer

Summary: Mark Zuckerberg gets closer to Microsoft not just on the technical/corporate front but also on lobbying, including non-technical and non-corporate lobbying

Bill Gates has been trying to acquire cheaper labour with fewer workers’ protections. He recruited lobbyists such as the criminal Abramoff, who had also worked for Bill’s father.

Recently, the partly Microsoft-owned Facebook, which lobbies against Google with Microsoft-favoured AstroTurfers, has been doing the same type of visa lobbying and “it’s stocked with softers and thus only serves to forward their agenda using mark’s money,” reminds us a reader. Mark Zuckerberg is a Gates wannabe and he recently confessed he would have joined Microsoft if Facebook had not succeeded.

Facebook is showing yet more signs of aligning with Microsoft, as Gates and Ballmer both align with Zuckerberg:

Mark Zuckerberg adds Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer to his FWD.us lobbying group

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg launched an immigration reform group, FWD.us, earlier this month, designed to promote innovation and investment in the US jobs market. After teaming up with some high-profile technology executives and venture capitalists to form the group, Zuckerberg is adding some more household names today: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

Zuckerberg has also been lobbying schools, just like his role model, bribing them for change while pretending to help children and marketing it as such.

The Gates Foundation is again being criticised for what it does to schools. Teachers are catching on, but can they teach the wider population about it in spite of media ownership or bribery by the likes of Gates? Here is what the veteran educator writes:

Bill Gates’s School Panopticon

The latest effort by Bill Gates to reform schools involves spending $5 billion on video cameras in every classroom (“Bill Gates Wants America to Spend $5B for Video Cameras in Every Classroom,” Education News, Apr. 24). Reformers like the idea because they say it will prevent teachers from offering excuses for the failure of their students to learn. Of course, the cameras will also provide evidence of student misbehavior, which reformers ignore in their criticism of teachers.

For people in education to confront Gates it takes some guts because some face retaliatory firings/suspensions for merely saying the truth.

In India, where corruption levels are notorious, education officials recently sold out to Microsoft. A blogger of Indian descent says they betrayed more than just software freedom, fair tendering, and national sovereignty:

AICTE is putting Indian students under US surveillance

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) may be an education body, but it needs quite some education itself. It’s recent decision to ‘force’ it’s students to use Microsoft’s proprietary and vendor locked Online Productivity suite raises many serious questions.

[...]

Indian students under US surveillance

AICTE is also putting it’s students data under the eyes of Microsoft where the company will know everything that these students do using its online suite. The US government will also have access to this user-data. Unlike Google Microsoft doesn’t stand for user’s rights. The company very closely works with the US government to support bills like SOPA and CISPA. Since Microsoft is a US company, and by using its cloud service the US government will have direct access to the data of these students and AICTE is making a huge mistake by doing so.

A former FBI official has just publicly admitted that the US collects call recordings and digital communications from all over the world. It’s not only illegal but also expensive, counter-productive, and bound to lead more people to face-to-face conversations, especially those who plot to commit acts of violence (so those under surveillance will be law-abiding citizens or dissidents).

Facebook too is US surveillance. Tying all of this together, what we have here is a bunch of globalists seeking to control and brainwash young people while also devaluing workers and leaving college graduates out of a job. It’s all about power. All that lobbying has got nothing to do with education, opportunity, or public good; it is about the private profit of very few billionaires like Gates and Zuckerberg. Sociopaths should never be given so much power. █

“i’m going to fuck them, probably in the ear.. . I have over 4000 emails, pictures, addresses, sns, people just submitted it, i don’t know why, they “trust me”, dumb fucks” –Mark Zuckerberg

Summary: News suggests that more people from Microsoft (not just Raikes and Gates) are occupying the obligatory system which shapes the next generation at taxpayers’ expense

INJUSTICE is prevalent when the legal system is operated directly or indirectly by those who are affluent. Such status quo would be prejudiced against those who are unable to pay. Tax law is similarly dependent on the influence of money, which means that those who are very rich will make up ways to pay little or no tax. This is a famous problem in the United States of America and increasingly in the UK too. People pay more tax the richer they are but once they get to a certain level they can become almost tax-exempt, using loophole which they lobbied to create and call “legal”.

“Additionally, Gates uses the publicly-funded education system to do what it tells everyone to do.”So-called foundations make the situation ever more outrageous because they glorify those who do not pay tax and sometimes help rob the public, too. Citing this article, Gates Keepers alleges that “The public subsidises the Gates Foundation” — a subject that we covered here before. To repeat the crux of the argument, what the Gates Foundation is doing is lobbying politicians to funnel taxpayers’ money into companies that the foundation invests in for profit. It is about monopolies, patents, and public subsidies. We gave many examples and showed how this is done.

Additionally, Gates uses the publicly-funded education system to do what it tells everyone to do. These acts are an injury and an insult to future generations, which Gates believes he is responsible for along with fellow plutocrats, shaping the minds of children not for critical thinking but for obedience and admiration of those in power (like himself).

There is a new article titled “The Money Behind the School Board Incumbents”. It is one among many recent articles that portray Bill Gates as the villain in the education scene. They know he is up to no good, a self-servitude of sorts that also buys the media to hide those real interests. To quote:

All the School Board incumbents are supported by zillionaire donors who don’t have children in our schools. Most live on the Eastside. They generously funded The Seattle Foundation to bring Teach for America into Seattle Public Schools. Most also backed the defeat of Initiative 1098. The anti-1098 donors include Steve and Connie Ballmer, Matt Griffin, Evelyne Rozner, John Stanton, and James Faulstich. In addition to backing TFA and the incumbents, Connie Ballmer sits on the WA advisory board of Stand For Children, a national lobbying organization that aggressively promotes charter schools. Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and his wife Patricia did not donate to defeat I-1098, but they support TFA, charter schools and the incumbents. The same holds true for John Faulstich.

What if any connection is there between defeating Initiative 1098, supporting Teach for America, Stand for Children and the incumbent School Board Directors?

First– why the opposition to I-1098 from anyone who supports public education? Initiative 1098 would have provided $2 billion a year as a trust fund dedicated to public education, health services and middle class tax relief. The year I-1098 was filed, Seattle Public Schools had a budget shortfall of $34 million. It’s safe to assume these people don’t want a miniscule portion of their ginormous incomes to support public education as it is now. They must have another plan.

Teach for America provides public and charter schools with conditionally certified teachers who have received a total of five weeks of training during the summer. Charter schools hire many of their teachers through Teach for America. Wendy Kopp, founder, CEO and relentless marketer of TFA draws an annual salary of $660,000, paid for by funds presumably raised for public education. TFA also received $50mil from the Obama administration last year. TFA is very much a part of a national movement to privatize and profit from public education through charter schools.

[...]

The challengers in this race are trying to move us beyond this phase of Ed Reform to the next. Our vision of effective Ed Reform is about meeting the individual needs of our students, rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all standardized education. We must increase pathways to success by offering compelling programs that engage students all the way through high school, and help them prepare for the futures they want. We must improve our curricula and give struggling students more support. We must open up our district to far greater community input and control. We need to restore more choice to our student assignment plan. And we can do it all without diverting public funds into the pockets of people like Wendy Kopp and others who profit from charter schools.

We found it most interesting that even the Ballmers are in it now. Ballmer’s wife is a PR person (professionally), which says a lot on its own. These couples also sponsored Obama's PR campaign, which got him elected. Ballmer routinely visits the White House now. We gave examples in the past.

Here is another new article critical of Gates, despite his sponsorship of education news sites (with aim of influencing coverage). The headline says Bill Gates’ Big Play: How Much Can Money Buy in Education?

What would happen if one of the wealthiest men in the world decided to remake the institution of public education in America? What if that man believed he understood the secrets to success, and sought to align the nation’s schools to his vision and methods? What if he decided to devote all his time and considerable money to this objective? Could he succeed? We are in the process of finding out just how far money and a sharply defined agenda can take you.

Why is Gates deciding on educational policy in public education? This is a person who went to prestigious private schools and sends his kids to these. There is a poor article titled “Bill Gates: Poverty not excuse for no education”. So says the man who was born rich and didn’t finish college. Here is a copy of it (the original expired):

Bill Gates: Poverty not excuse for no education

Microsoft founder Bill Gates told the National Urban League on Thursday that a child’s success should not depend on the race or income of parents and that poverty cannot be an excuse for a poor education.

This is just the usual shallow coverage from AP, but what’s troubling here is different; who is he to talk for the poor? Or to demand better education/results from these people? Just because he is wealthy and employs lobbying groups to run a lot of things (for profit) does not make him a figure of legitimate authority. The AP not only parrots or promotes his so-called ‘studies’ (sponsored propaganda, as we showed before in AP). In this case it also lends to the man’s status by quoting him as though he is an education expert. This is truly troubling. But the BBC is worse. We’ll deal with that next. █

Resumen: ex y actuales funcionarios de Microsoft se reunen a su alrededor y difunden propaganda.

CUANDO MUCHOS altos directivos abandonan Microsoft[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Microsoft_-_Major_Departure], hay más y más topos para su uso de Microsoft (Elop, por ejemplo). Es algo muy preocupante. Bill Gates ha estado haciendo mucho más daño[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critique] desde que salió de Microsoft y en la actualidad, uno de sus movimientos más preocupantes es su cabildeo de patentes. Es lo que se necesita para Microsoft para sobrevivir unos cuantos años más, a expensas de su competencia, literalmente. Hemos hecho un recuento no oficial en torno a Microsoft y llegamos a la conclusión de que las únicas dos personas principales que quedan dentro de Microsoft, serían Mundie (convoy de Microsoft a las congregaciones del gobierno [1[http://techrights.org/2009/04/28/quotes-craig-mundie/], 2[http://techrights.org/2009/05/02/craig-mundie-lobbies-big-eu-guns/]] y Bilderberg[http://techrights.org/2010/06/06/electionmall-and-lobbying/]) y Ballmer, cuya presencia en Microsoft podría terminar pronto debido a una mayor presión.

“Tal vez su continua calumnia de la GPL es un intento de una profecía por auto-cumplirse.”Se debe hacer hincapié una vez más que para que los administradores de Microsoft salgan verdaderamente de la compañía por lo general tienen que retirarse. Si no lo hacen, entonces se limitan a difundir la cultura de Microsoft para otra compañía como un tipo de contaminación. Hemos visto lo que ocurrio dentro de Amazon, que ahora está pagando a Microsoft por Linux[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Amazon] (después de haber absorbido a muchos altos ejecutivos de Microsoft). Un director de marketing de Microsoft fundó una compañía llamada Black Duck[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Black_Duck], que actualmente es la única fuente que clama que la GPL está en declive. Seguimos viendo los artículos que repiten acríticamente esas alegaciones que se basan en métodos propios con datos de propiedad de una sola dudosa fuente. Tal vez su continua calumnia de la GPL es un intento de una profecía por auto-cumplirse. Mira las publicaciones de Microsoft simpátizando con Black Duck[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/black-duck-software-named-to-sd-times-100-for-fourth-consecutive-year-124277339.html]. Muy peligroso. Otra de estas empresas, que está dirigido por un veterano de Microsoft quien ha creado un blog de software “libre” con el fin de atraer tráfico. Pocos de los visitantes conocen la hostilidad contra la GPL de esa empresa. Debemos estar al tanto de la agenda-setting por ex funcionarios de Microsoft, no sólo su personal existente. Ah, y por cierto, este año también Craig Mundie de Microsoft, el jefe de investigación y estrategia para el monopolista, asistirá a la secreta reunión de Bilderberg[http://bilderberg2011.com/bilderberg-members/bilderberg-2010-images-exposed/attachment/009/]. Tal vez él va allí cada vez sólo porque hacen un buen café. █

Translation produced by Eduardo Landaveri, the administrator of the Spanish portal of Techrights.

AS MANY top managers leave Microsoft, there are more and more moles for Microsoft to use (Elop for example). It is a very troubling thing. Bill Gates has been doing a lot more damage since he left Microsoft and currently, one of his more troubling moves is patent lobbying. It’s what it takes for Microsoft to survive a few more years, at the expense of its competition, literally. We have done an unofficial headcount around Microsoft and came to the conclusion that the only two core people are left inside Microsoft; those would be Mundie (Microsoft’s convoy to government congregations [1, 2] and to Bilderberg) and Ballmer, whose presence at Microsoft might end soon due to increased pressure.

“Maybe its long-going GPL smear is an attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy.”It ought to be emphasised once again that for Microsoft managers to truly leave the company they usually must retire. If they don’t, then they merely spread the Microsoft culture to yet another company which they sort of contaminate. We saw that happen inside Amazon, which is now paying Microsoft for Linux (after it had absorbed many top managers from Microsoft). A marketing manager from Microsoft founded a company called Black Duck, which is currently almost the exclusive source claiming the GPL to be on the decline. We keep seeing articles that uncritically repeat those claims that are based on proprietary methods with proprietary data from a single dubious source. Maybe its long-going GPL smear is an attempt at a self-fulfilling prophecy. Watch the Microsoft-sympathetic publications groom Black Duck. Very dangerous. Another such firm which is led by a Microsoft veteran has just created a FOSS blog in order to attract traffic. Little do the visitors know about the GPL hostility from that firm. Be aware of agenda-setting by former Microsoft staff, not just existing personnel. Oh, and by the way, this year too Microsoft’s Craig Mundie, the chief research and strategy officer for the monopolist, will attend the secretive Bilderberg meeting. Maybe he goes there every time just because they make good coffee. █

SKYPE being bought was a great deal for its developers, but a total waste of money for Microsoft. “Angry Microsoft stock holder admits to a lot of thing we already know about Microsoft in the Free Software community,” says this person to the FSF group, pointing to this piece which was titled “The Ballmer Days Are Over”

I think it is appropriate at this time to start the countdown of how long Ballmer has left until he “steps down”. 1 This Skype deal should be the final nail in the coffin for the Ballmer era at Microsoft, yet I fear that employee number 30 may get a reprieve. Let’s take a stroll down Ballmer memory lane:

$8.5 BILLION

Ballmer’s acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion dollars is not only a gross overpay, but a complete waste of money for Microsoft. Ballmer has yet to lay out a clear reason why Microsoft wanted Skype. He has only stated the obvious: integration in Microsoft products — which could have been done in a partnership instead of an acquisition. In fact, the acquisition by most accounts sounded more like a move by Ballmer to buy something that others 2 may have wanted to own — just for the sake of others not owning it.

Beyond that is the fact that Microsoft has 89,000 employees — are you telling me that the company that put a computer in every home couldn’t create a Skype clone?

Microsoft employees too are unhappy about this deal. While the company lays off a lot of employees and pays less to the rest (e.g. by offshoring), here we have a major waste of money.

My co-host Tim predicted that Ballmer would leave Microsoft some time around the middle of this year. Is the board about to take action? Ballmer sure hasn’t helped Microsoft’s attempts to paint itself as a friend of “Open Source”. People are already abandoning Skype and using just SIP clients. Earlier today we ran a successful test recording with just free software and getting good results. Our interview with Richard Stallman is coming soon. █

BROUGHT back from the dead some days ago in YouTube was this three-part video of Steve Ballmer speaking at BrainShare [1, 2, 3]. Here is part one.

Eventually, in part thanks to Ron Hovsepian, Ballmer turned Novell into some kind of Microsoft subsidiary. █

The co-founder of Microsoft dislikes the other co-founder, as we noted this afternoon. But what happens when the entire staff dislikes the CEO, Steve Ballmer? Glyn Moody calls this “incredible” and it seems as though Ballmer’s wing(wo)man, Bartz, is also doing pretty badly. Microsoft’s booster Preston Gralla asks, “[h]ow long can he last” — meaning — when will Ballmer get fired?

For the last two years, Glassdoor.com has regularly surveyed employees of a dozen major tech companies and asks them to rate their CEOs. It just announced the latest year’s rankings, and the news couldn’t be worse for Ballmer. His approval rating is down in the dumps, at 40%. The next worst CEO rating is well above his, eBay’s John Donahoe at 46%.

It’s official. Microsoft is in a state of unrest wrt management-ordinary workers relationships. Maybe Microsoft will just send more of its workers from the West to teach (somewhere in Asia) how their job is done, then announce layoffs, then announce hiring in Asia a year later. It’s not just Microsoft’s trick for cutting costs but also convenient means of getting more obedient staff which will revere the management “from America” and feel ever so thankful. █

Summary: French president Sarkozy associates himself with a Microsoft thug by giving him a medal

“PULLING a Kissinger” is giving someone an award rather than a deserved jail sentence. This is not a political site, but just to give people a taste of what’s happening here, the wording is about giving respect to war criminals such as Henry Kissinger (foreign policy person), who once said: “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.” In the World Affairs Council Press Conference (Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, April 19th 1994) he said: “The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer. [...] cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the most significant single component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change its perceptions.”

On another occasion he said: “Today, America would be outraged if UN troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all people of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the world government.” Kissinger is probably better known for his role alongside Nixon and all the carpet-bombing of innocent civilians.

But anyway, for the uninitiated we have this wiki page about Nicolas Sarkozy. As a quick recap, Mr. Sarkozy was vacationing in the houses of Microsoft executives, recently posing to the cameras with Bill Gates (the article is about François Fillon and Microsoft), and also helping OOXML. He seems to be very deep inside the pockets of the ‘Microsoft family’, which leads him to causing damage to many French companies such as Archos (e.g. with Android copyright tax, the infamous “you’re definitely a pirate” tax). One reader passed us the following message from Microsoft Europe, which says: “French President Nicolas Sarkozy has awarded Steve Ballmer for Microsoft’s impact on French economy” (the accompanying link is to a French page).

France has recently done a lot of things that are jaw-dropping and at the same time directly beneficial to Microsoft. The remarks from François Fillon are telling. “French prez sticks pin in Steve Ballmer,” says this new article from The Register:

French president Nicholas Sarkozy delivered a profound judgement on Microsoft yesterday, declaring that the company personifies the values of France and Europe.

While such a declaration would quicken the heart of US artists and filmmakers, it might not be the sort of endorsement that a nakedly capitalist, (sometimes) bleeding edge US firm would welcome.

Sarkozy made his declaration as he adorned Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with the Legion D’Honneur, a knightly order originated by Napoleon.

Glyn Moody said they are “made for each other” and tagged it “authoritarianism”. The Napoleonic origin is fitting. Just like Kissinger, here we have merciless imperialists to whom huge numbers of casualties don’t mean a thing (Microsoft harmed a lot of French companies). Sarkozy is associating himself with some bad neighbourhood. █

“I think he [Bill Gates] has a Napoleonic concept of himself and his company, an arrogance that derives from power and unalloyed success, with no leavening hard experience, no reverses [...] They don’t act like grown-ups!”

–Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson

Summary: Steve Ballmer wants to reorganise, but the reorganisation should include removing him, argue pundits

SUCH suggestions, rumours and speculations about Steve Ballmer are nothing new. They go back at least to 2008 and the subject was brought up here on many occasions, e.g.:

• Two Questions: Will Steve Ballmer Leave and Did He Make Bach/Allard Leave?
• Gates Successor May Leave, Steve Ballmer Expected to be Kicked Out Too
• Microsoft’s #1 Cash Cow Doesn’t Sell Well Anymore, Steve Ballmer Pressured to Leave
• Microsoft Exodus Noted in the Press, Is Steve Ballmer Next?
• Catching up With Microsoft
• Ramifications for Steve Ballmer After Ray Ozzie Metaphorically Falls on His Sword
• Shareholder Likens Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates to Bernard Madoff
• Steve Ballmer at Risk of Being Thrown Out, Bill Gates Still Makes the News Due to Fraud

Amid crisis at Microsoft (inability to find an alternative direction), there are more yet suggestions that Ballmer should get canned, e.g.:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is reportedly looking to shake things up at the top by bringing in senior managers with more tech and engineering backgrounds, according to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources. The move, on the surface, is supposed to accelerate Microsoft’s push into tablets, smartphones and other categories where the company has fallen behind.

But dare I say again that the problems with Microsoft have more to do with senior managers not having the technology and engineering know-how that’s needed to keep one of the pioneers of technology ahead of the game? You see, the root of the problem is not product managers. The root of the problem goes much higher than that – all the way to the CEO’s office.

Microsoft booster Matt Rosoff [1, 2, 3, 4] has another take on it. The Microsoft booster takes it in a different direction by suggesting that existing people (some of whom are leaving) were technical. The former article wrongly suggests that Gates as opposed to Ballmer was a “techie”, conveniently forgetting what Gates went to college for and what his colleagues thought of his code (they used the “S” word to describe it). According to this page, Kildall said that “Steve Jobs is nothing. Steve Wozniak did it all, the hardware and the software. All Jobs did was hang around and take the credit.” Sounds pretty familiar, eh? █

“Now it was time to annihilate a new competitor, and Gates wanted Eller for the job. [...] By February 1990, Eller’s group was partially staffed. They were already working on their first demo, and their mission was clear: Kill GO Corp. Raikes had said as much. Squashing the competition was not a written policy, but something woven into the ethos of Microsoft.”

–Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, a book composed
by the daughter of Microsoft’s PR mogul

Summary: Microsoft loses chairs (although none are thrown) and Ballmer’s chair too is doubted

Moments ago a reader mailed us some pointer to important news. It was earlier today that Jon Brodkin covered for IDG the story of Microsoft exodus in January of 2011. It is about 3 departures that we wrote about separately about one week ago. Bad news, eh? Microsoft will probably need to start hiring more lawyers (Microsoft is a lawsuits company), but then again, Microsoft’s legal team is being shifted to India for savings and the patent strategy is misguided yet damaging to everyone. Steve Ballmer is not a lawyer, but his company recently promoted some, positioning the monopolist more properly for an existence as a patent agitator and troll.

What Microsoft needs right now is not an eccentric CEO but some kind of a person more ruthless than Ballmer — one who is willing to carry on relentlessly despite realising that s/he serves a malevolent agenda. Many executives perhaps leave because they come to this realisation, or perhaps they foresee further layoffs and collapse of this employer. Either way, a strong Apple proponent slams Microsoft watcher Joe Wilcox and alleges that Ballmer does a terrible job:

If Muglia were the first executive to be let go at Microsoft this year, one might guess he was indeed a bad apple or a poor fit for the job. But in the context of Ballmer’s housecleaning of Xbox and Zune leader J Allard, Entertainment & Devices Division head Robbie Bach, Office Division head Stephen Elop, as well as chief software architect Ray Ozzie (who had joined Microsoft in 2005 to take over the vision role of Bill Gates, and who was supposed to be holding the company’s divisions together in a coordinating role), throwing out the Server and Tools head within the same year-long period seems to be a rather intense and extended amputation on the level of “127 Hours” climber Aron Ralston.

[...]

Wilcox’s praise of Baller makes it sound like he’s a court musician, struggling to find rhyming lyrics that best flatter the crowned emperor who sits on his throne naked and glassy-eyed, eating a greasy turkey leg as his country is overrun by invading Huns outside.

Earlier this month, Robert Pogson pointed out that Ballmer’s vote of confidence had sunk. This was hardly reported, but it helped show that even within Microsoft there’s tiredness of Ballmer. Is he on his way out? █

“Government attorneys accuse Microsoft of using its monopoly position to bully, bribe and attempt to collude with others in the industry, while illegally expanding and protecting its Windows franchise.”

–The antitrust case: a timeline

OVER the past couple of years and even more than that (ahead of the 2008 elections) we have covered incidents where Steve Ballmer went to the White House for private meetings with President Obama. These red carpet trips were not intended to help the American population, they were intended to benefit a monopoly abuser which is currently terrorising rivals such as Google, in more than a single nefarious way.

We have a wiki page about Microsoft’s connections in government and included there are links not just about Bill Gates’ many visits to the White House and lobbying via the Gates Foundation [1, 2, 3, 4] (he goes there uninvited sometimes) but also a reminder that Obama was paid more personally by Microsoft executives and their wives (including the Ballmers).

“Obama cites piracy data from Ballmer in comments on Hu visit,” argues a Microsoft booster in a report about incidents we will probably expand on later this year:

When Steve Ballmer talks, President Obama listens, apparently.

The Microsoft CEO is among the corporate executives in Washington, D.C., today for the visit of President Hu of China. As always, trade between the two nations is one of the big topics on the agenda, and Obama talked at one point about the need for a “level playing field when it comes to our trading partners.”

Yesterday the following video was circulating, mentioning Steve Ballmer in relation to Obama’s diplomacy and policy-making. Remember that at one point some years ago John McCain considered making Ballmer the American ambassador to China (what would the Chinese have to say?). █

–Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd

Summary: Steve Ballmer needs to leave due to failure after failure, say pundits

Apple’s Steve is out and Information Week seemingly thinks that Steve Ballmer is next:

So here we are in the second week of January, and it’s already looking like 2011 could be a repeat of 2010 for Microsoft. A confused, belated, and underwhelming mobile strategy? Check. More top-level defections? Check. Languid stock price? Check.

At some point, it all comes back to Ballmer, the CEO. The question now is how long Microsoft’s institutional shareholders, and its board (which cut Ballmer’s bonus in half last year following the KIN debacle) will let this go on.

“Ballmer’s Microsoft desperately needs a makeover” says the deadline of a very strongly-worded and critical piece from Nick Farrell in the British press:

It seems that all Microsoft’s chickens have come to roost and have now tucked up their heads under their wings and are dreaming of wriggly grubs.

After years of being the bad-guy in many of the IT industry deals, the Imperium is reaching the point where the great unwashed will only buy its operating system, somewhat grudgingly.

For the last few years Microsoft has been entirely on the back foot and yet still regarded with suspicion. Its own attempts to enter the mobile industry have been treated with much mirth, somewhat unfairly. If any other company had produced it everyone would be praising it to the skies, and yet for some reason it is failing to move.

All those years of evil court cases, anti-trust actions, buying rivals out generally being the corporate Mr Evil have undermined its image to the point that people expect it do something nasty.

Lately however the sum total of the Imperium’s legal efforts have been defensive against other companies who are playing the patent wars against it.

Microsoft’s brand is becoming quite worthless. Products like KIN and Vista Phony 7 [sic] quickly become an epic joke, the malice of the company aside. There is this widely-watched cartoon about them generally being disliked and even the raves about Xbox are apparently in vain as Nintendo is the only company which actually makes money from consoles and its lead is said to be maintained:

It appears the Nintendo Wii finished 2010 as the top-selling video game console, with the Xbox 360 nipping on its heals.

Following the release of video game sales figures by market research firm NPD Group, Nintendo announced it had sold more than 7 million Wiis last year, with 2.3 million of those getting scooped up in December alone. The company also sold 8.5 million DS handhelds in 2010, impressive numbers ahead of the spring launch of the Nintendo 3DS.

Take this with a grain of salt because the last time we checked, NPD Group was funded by Nintendo. NPD’s business model relates to deficient statistics which leave room for bias. In any case, the leadership of Xbox left in droves and there is almost nobody left to leave, except Ballmer. My co-host Tim predicts that Ballmer will have no more than 6 months left at Microsoft. There will be no-one left to threaten furniture. █

“I have never, honestly, thrown a chair in my life.”

–Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO [CNET News]

–Sybase Chairman Mitchell Kertzman

Summary: Time has nearly run out for Vista Phony 7 [sic] and Steve Ballmer’s chair is said to be in jeopardy

Red Hat’s Harish Pillay writes that Microsoft’s “phone OS is so bad, that they’ll give you two for the price of one just to make the numbers.” He refers to articles like this one, which help show that Vista Phony 7 [sic] quickly follows the “KIN” trajectory [1, 2] due to inability to sell. [via the good Slashdot summary with many links under the headline “Windows Phone 7 Sales Continue To Struggle”]

“Even with the pre-Christmas buying rush, Microsoft is already desperately offering a new buy one get one free offer similar to the ones they gave for the KIN. According to the article, ‘Windows Phone 7 devices can’t even manage two per cent of the fortnight’s sales.’ These aren’t official Microsoft figures; they come from online shopping sites. But since Microsoft official sales figures seem subject to manipulation, this is perhaps one of the better guesses we will get at the success of Windows Phone 7 until well into next year. This also strongly backs up other reports of deeply disappointing phone sales. Even Microsoft supporters have been wondering for a while whether it’s time for Ballmer to go. If the sales reports are true, then he may be pushed before he jumps.”

Microsoft resorts to using Oprah again, obviously as an advertiser (Oprah Winfrey promotes Microsoft products in exchange for payments [1, 2], not to mention her recent promotion of Gates Foundation agenda which include taking over schools [1, 2]). As Goblin (Tim) puts it in his Web site last night:

We looked at this during episode 13 of the TechBytes show which can be found here, but it does beg the question: Is Oprah soon to promote WP7? I would think that it certainly needs all the help it can get (Bing certainly does) and if she gives it away to her audience members (like she did the 360) then Microsoft can claim some more sales of the “new” phone.

Talking of sales, why is Microsoft being so tight lipped about the figures? If, as some Microsoft advocates suggest it’s a raging success, why are we not seeing Microsoft proudly claiming this? Why is AT&T trying to offer 2 for the price of 1 on the WP7 and why is it that there seems (in my experience) to be very little excitement anywhere about it?

2 for 1, Oprah, I wonder what other “incentives” can be thought up to try to get people interested in Microsoft tech? This union between Oprah and Microsoft hasn’t been received well by some and prior to the “Xbox Oprah show”…

The Register says that even shortly after a PR blitz from Microsoft (costing around half a billion dollars in just marketing expenses) the Linux-based Android outsells Vista Phony 7 [sic] more than 15 times over.

Figures from comparison service Mobiles Please show Windows Phone 7 being outsold by Android more than 15 times over and by Symbian three times.

That pretty much sums it up. As the Slashdot summary put it, Ballmer’s chair is under threat and it’s not under threat from Ballmer. █

“But rather than a search engine or even a “decision engine”, Bing also appears to be a spin engine, in that it provides partisan answers to controversial topics, such as Steve Ballmer’s propensity to throw chairs to blow off stress.”

–Christian Einfeldt

THE RATHER appalling ‘newspaper’ called Seattle Times is more of a propaganda tool for the Gates Foundation and for Microsoft, which is taking Seattle Times staff out for meals and briefs reporters so that they just print Microsoft’s spin. We have posted many examples before (almost a hundred in the past year alone), so we are not going to post more examples. They are just a small subset and they can be found in our archives.

The latest blunder from the Seattle Times is that they had an image removed from a competitor’s site. They are attacking fair use (humour purposes) to defend an unethical bully, Steve Ballmer. This only contributes to our negative characterisation of the the Seattle Times, which is not news; it’s corporate press and it’s in the pocket of companies that include Microsoft.

Luckily, after or just before the Seattle Times helped censor Engadget’s work, many people in the comments created other, derivative images (which the Seattle Times has not formally complained about) and we include all of them below in the interests of freedom of speech. █

WINDOWS is not doing well. Don’t believe the spinners. When it comes to profit, the numbers not only declined over the years; these turn out to be faked figures, too (the rest of the revenue comes from squeezing the goose, inflation, forced ‘upgrades’ and so on). Even Microsoft is now admitting that Windows has an innovator’s dilemma-type crisis. It just doesn’t scale, not even Vista 7 which Microsoft claims to be lighter than Vista (how inappropriate a basis for comparison).

According to this Microsoft booster, Vista 7 is too heavy for tablets. It’s implicit and subtle. By saying that Vista Phony 7 [sic] might be needed for tablets, Microsoft inadvertently admits that Vista 7 is too fat.

If Vista Phony 7 [sic] is Microsoft’s plan for the future, then no wonder we saw more and more people saying that Ballmer is already on the exit chair, awaiting ejection (and it won’t be Ballmer setting off this chair). As my colleague and friend Tim puts it, what Microsoft says is not reality and even its PR is suffering a lot this month. Examples are being given, including some from the overly-hyped KINect:

Today I thought that I would present a list of articles/links which hardly put Microsoft in the same light as its PR agents and boosters would want you to know.

[...]

Can Microsoft compete with the Nintendo with Kinect? – On the basis of this and other reports around the net, I wouldn’t think so.

[...]

It also seems Microsoft advocates/boosters will tell you that demand has it sold out. This doesn’t appear to be the case and at time of writing HMV had these in stock. Maybe Microsoft is trying to generate some interest? Maybe Kinect sales are suffering with the same type of lag that the device reports to have (as per the BBC Click review) . Maybe the people who part with cash for this contraption can let us all know.

“Will Microsoft ride Kinect tiger or go Wii Wii Wii all the way home,” asks one of ZDNet’s FOSS-leaning bloggers, who adds:

As I noted Friday, Microsoft has backed down from earlier legal and technological threats against the programmers who turned Kinect into a general computer interface. But now Google’s Matt Cutts has tweaked the Green Monster with his own contest for the best Linux and open source applications using the device.

Note that this is not a Google contest. It’s a Matt Cutts contest. He just happens to work at Google.

As our Adrian Kingsley-Hughes notes, the Kinect’s parts cost just $56. Even at $149, that’s a healthy profit margin, but he also notes that Microsoft’s research costs mean it must sell “a lot of Kinect devices to turn this one into a serious money spinner.”

Based on the billions (in losses) which Xbox cost Microsoft, one should not be too optimistic here. KINect will definitely sell better than KIN, but again, this is not a proper basis for comparison. Any Wii sold already contains the equivalent of KINect. Microsoft is playing catch-up here and allegedly spends half a billion dollars just marketing this thing. The same goes for Vista Phony 7 [sic] marketing, which — as we predicted — will be money down the toilet. The Register ponders: “So did Windows Phone 7 ‘bomb in US’?”

40,000 devices is still embarrassing, even if it’s just the USA and leaves out the 90,000 or so Microsoft employees who’ll be getting one, and even if figures elsewhere are rather better. But before drawing any conclusions it’s worth thinking about the numbers.

Charles Arthur, who is working for a Bill Gates-funded publication (where the sponsorship helps inject bias sometimes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]), looks back at the early days of Windows and suggests that we are seeing the end of this era. His headline states: “Has Microsoft’s Windows had its day?”

The bald man in the ill-fitting check jacket doesn’t pause as he stands beside the beige 1980s-vintage PC. The words pour out of his mouth like the sharpest huckster you’ve ever seen. “How much do YOU think this advanced operating environment is worth? WAIT just ONE minute before you answer,” he instructs eagerly. “WATCH as Windows integrates Lotus 1-2-3 with” – he clutches his lapels – “MIAMI VICE!”

The screen shows picture of a Ferrari pasted into a document. “NOW we can take THIS Ferrari and paste it RIGHT INTO Windows Write,” the man gabbles. “NOW how much do you think Microsoft Windows is worth?… DON’T ANSWER. WAIT until you see Windows Write and Windows Paint and LISTEN to what else you get at NO EXTRA CHARGE!”

We’re only 15 seconds in but already you feel buffeted. “The MS-DOS executive, an appointment calendar, a cardfile, a notepad, a clock, a control panel, a terminal, printer, a RAM driver, AND CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, REVERSI, yes that’s right, ALL these features and Reversi, for just – HOOOOW much did you guess?”

Guess? We had to guess? ” FIVE HUNDRED? A THOUSAND? EVEN MORE? NOOOO it’s just 99 dollars, that’s right, it’s 99 dollars, it’s an incredible value but it’s true, it’s Windows from Microsoft, order TODAY! PO BOX 286-DOS,” he concludes as the address flashes on the screen, before adding weirdly, and without explanation, “…. Except in Nebraska.”

Arthur refers to the viral video below. Tim (of TechBytes and OpenBytes) does not expect Ballmer to survive next year at Microsoft. Vista Phony 7 [sic] is just one of his many recent failures. █

Steve Ballmer in Windows 1.0 advertisement

Summary: Steve Ballmer’s dumping of many shares of the company he runs has raised many questions, including his abuse of the system with a lot of lobbying money

A YEAR ago, a Microsoft shareholder likened Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates to Bernard Madoff. He gave an interview to IDG. Now that Microsoft's CEO is selling billions in shares, people start talking about his future in the company (or the future of the company in general). Corporate press like Associated Press says nothing critical and Microsoft-sponsored sites like this one say that Ballmer has just contributed a huge sum of money to lobbying against tax for the rich (I-1098):

The stakes are getting higher in the battle over a proposed tax on high-income individuals and families in Washington state, and it turns out Steve Ballmer really doesn’t want Initiative 1098 to pass. A new public disclosure statement (PDF) from the campaign to defeat the proposed income tax shows the Microsoft CEO contributing another $325,000 to the cause, bringing his total to $425,000.

What this Microsoft boosters’ site will not tell readers is that Gates found a loophole and therefore does not pay tax while he takes over more industries and creates new monopolies. Instead, this silly site gives a platform to the Gates family (the senior one for example) and pretends it wants rich people to be taxed. This type of damaging spin oughtn’t be forgiven for because it hurts the same citizens the site claims to be informing. A few weeks ago there was similar spin aided by Pelosi’s Microsoft visit, which this site covered poorly. Microsoft is working against the US public, contrary to Pelosi’s claims, and the explanation can be found here. Anyway, in another post from the same site they announce that “I-1098 goes down in flames”, having previously used it to unjustly praise the Gates family (which is exempted from tax).

Washington voters have decided that they don’t want to tax the rich in order to raise funds for education. Initiative 1098, which would have imposed a state income tax on individuals making more than $200,000, was defeated Tuesday night, according to early returns from the Washington State Secretary of State’s office.

Somebody a little sharper has submitted a summary to Slashdot in which s/he puts together the pieces and explains that when Ballmer sells his shares he profits a lot from all the lobbying (legalised bribery) he has just done to distort public policy. “Income Tax Quashed, Ballmer To Cash In Billions” says the headline:

Just three days after the measure went down in flames, Ballmer said in a statement that he plans to sell up to 75 million of his Microsoft shares by the end of the year to ‘gain financial diversification and to assist in tax planning.’ Based on Friday’s closing price of $26.85, the 75M shares would be valued at approximately $2 billion. All of which might make a cynic question what was really important to Microsoft — public education, or a $2B state income tax-free payday for its CEO?

As a reminder, Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie also paid $100,000 to Obama (personal payments, not corporate payments). How many citizens of the United States can afford to do this type of stuff? This is not democratic.

Microsoft's booster Eric Savitz shows that Gates too continues to sell his Microsoft shares:

Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer disclosed in an SEC filing Friday that he sold $1.34 billion worth of stock on November 3-5, at prices ranging from $26.74 to $27.18 a share. After the sales, which included 49.3 million shares, Ballmer continues to hold 358.9 million shares.

“Microsoft is like Enron in 2001,” says gnufreex about this news. It was only about a week ago that we mentioned a site saying: “Enron was a cash maven too, till nearly the very end” and Microsoft’s “moves are not a marker of a company with coffers full of cash.” As a reminder, Microsoft has growing debt and just because rich people came out of Microsoft does not mean much for the company’s own situation. “Ballmer’s Worth Billions, and he’s Cashing in his Stock” reports Maximum PC:

Steve Ballmer might look like Joe Everyman on the outside, but under that sweat stained exterior is a billionaire in disguise, and according to Reuters he’s cashing out. The CEO has apparently confirmed reports that he has sold 49.3 million shares of Microsoft stock worth an estimated $1.3 billion, a move that some feel might be motivated by the end of Bush-era tax cuts on capital gains.

One must not forget the Bush-era Microsoft pardon. The company was supposed to be forcibly split about a decade ago, after it had committed serious offences against many companies and thus harmed progress. █

“Microsoft looks at new ideas, they don’t evaluate whether the idea will move the industry forward, they ask, ‘how will it help us sell more copies of Windows?’”

–Bill Gates, The Seattle Weekly, (April 30, 1998)