Bonum Certa Men Certa

We Live in Interesting Times

Hourglass



Apple's difficulties were noted here last week, although they are not of much concern to us given that Apple harms the freedom of software [1, 2, 3, 4]. It would only be fair to state that any business which relies on sales is likely to suffer a bit (or a lot), and it's a problem that hardly affects Free software, bar donations and subscription renewals to those who offer support and/or services.



The Inquirer had this article about Apple's shares falling after a series of unfortunate events and speculations. A pro-Microsoft Web site, Barron's, presents this analysis which predicts further declines in Windows and Office sales.

Thomas Weisel analyst Tim Klasell this morning cut estimates for Microsoft (MSFT) for the current quarter ending December, Microsoft’s fiscal Q2, and slightly for the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, citing slowing PC demand, but also lower demand than might have been expected for Microsoft’s server packages, which include the Exchange email server, and the Microsoft Office productivity suite and Microsoft Dynamics, programs for customer relationship management and the like.


Windows and Office are two among the few profitable products from Microsoft, so this could be interpreted as a major blow. Analysts predict that Microsoft will issue a warning, probably some time in the next year and layoff rumours simply carry on. These persist following actual layoffs that we already know about [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

More headlines have appeared just before the holidays. One news site, for example, somehow concluded that "Microsoft Plans To Cut Jobs By 10 Percent."

"The news is in. All the money making groups cut 10 percent of the workforce," says another Microsoft employee.


An analyst defends such a decision, assuming it comes next month.

Analyst: Microsoft staff cuts would be "healthy"



[...]

"While a 10 percent (reduction in force) would be hard for those impacted, we believe it would be a healthy move for the company as it would help rationalize the tens of thousands of employees who have been hired over the past several years," Reback wrote.


Microsoft would not be the only Washington-based technology company to see the guillotine coming down.

CUTBACKS: October and November brought a series of layoffs at Seattle-area technology companies -- nothing like the dot-com meltdown, but still substantial enough to make it clear that the belt-tightening is serious.

We're anticipating another wave after the holidays. Rumors have already started about possible cuts at Microsoft next month. And venture-backed companies that have yet to turn a profit may be forced to further reduce expenses as it becomes harder to raise capital. The only question is how deep the cuts will go.


As usual, there must be a dose of damage control from Microsoft Jack, who is like some sort of Microsoft spokesman in the Guardian [1, 2, 3], just like Ina Fried is the company's sworn booster in CNET.

“Their reports were already tackled and financial practices criticised.”Jack writes about these layoff reports and also adds that "Microsoft has plenty of cash," but apparently he does not know (or does not want his readers to know) about Microsoft reaching debt [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and also losing billions in most of its divisions. Their reports were already tackled and financial practices criticised [1, 2]. Only 1 or 2 divisions at Microsoft are profitable and those that are profitable see their margins shrinking due to increased competition, mostly from SaaS, FOSS, and GNU/Linux. In the area of sub-notebooks, for example, they reportedly dropped the price of Windows to just $5 because otherwise GNU/Linux would reign.

As the classic saying goes, "may you live in interesting times." Red Hat's results, which came out on Monday, were impressive. The other publicly-traded company that sells GNU/Linux is Novell, and it continues to lose money because of its dependency on proprietary software.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news
Weeks After Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia the Company Shuts Down in Pakistan, Too
Last month Windows' share in Pakistan fell to an all-time low
 
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
Links 04/07/2025: Google Replaces the Web With Slop, "AI Might Kill Us All"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: Mindfulness and F1
Links for the day
Rob Musial's June 2025 Additions of Malware in Proprietary Software
Via the GNU Web site this week
Links 04/07/2025: Microsoft's H-1B Visa Applications Show Another Crisis Unfolding, Many More Deep Cuts and Shutdowns Revealed, Complete Microsoft Exits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/07/2025: A Day To Remember and "Stop Killing Games"
Links for the day
Crime and Corruption at Microsoft GitHub Cannot be Covered Up by SLAPPs in Another Continent
We'll write about this for a long time to come
Slop Videos Are Disappointing Garbage, Nothing New, Just Brute Force up on Display or a Pedestal of Slop
Slop videos aren't a new thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 03, 2025
The War on Local Storage (People Hosting Their Files Locally and Privately)
There's nothing wrong with controlling one's computing
What Digital Independence Means
Independence in the digital realms means abandoning platforms like GitHub, not just rejecting proprietary software
NVidia is a Bubble
they temporarily see fortunes and wrongly assume perpetuity thereof
Fedora Does Not Care About Diversity and Inclusion, It's About Optics (Corporate Image)
any notion of inclusion is superficial and misleading
Don't Buy the Excuses for Microsoft's Mass Layoffs
Back in the 90s, Microsoft bought a lot of companies to get and stay ahead
Happy Independence Day to Our American Readers
Maybe tomorrow will be a good opportunity to explain to American people - in terms of concepts, not brands - which tools respect their independence
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Linuxsecurity, and Google News Getting Even Worse (More Slopfarms Added Which Attack Linux With Bruce-Force SPAM)
Google News is part of the same problem
Links 03/07/2025: More Cuts and Cancellations at Microsoft Revealed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/07/2025: Favourite Child and Launching WikiGem
Links for the day
GNU/Linux is Replacing Microsoft Windows. But We Need to Eradicate Microsoft, It's a Hub of Crime.
I have been writing about Microsoft since the 1990s when I was in school
Mystery Surrounding the PCLinuxOS Sites and PCLinuxOS Magazine
Let's hope this isn't something major
People and Companies Do Learn Some Lessons From Their Mistakes (Stubborn Ones Don't)
Brett Wilson LLP is an example of one that would rather drown in mistakes
Links 03/07/2025: 'Hey Hi' Slop Ridiculed Some More and Microsoft's Layoffs Tally for 2025 Reaches About 29,000 in Just 6 Months (Almost 5,000 Per Month)
Links for the day
Microsoft Staff Harassing Women, Strangling Women, Telling Women to Kill Themselves and Worse? Not a Problem!
Two women have left Brett Wilson LLP
The Slopfarms Are Losing the Plot (and Google is Propping Up Rogue Sites)
Google is part of the attack on the Web, on information, and on technology
New BetaNews Realises There's No Potential or Future in Slopfarms, Prior Editor Wayne Williams is Back
They realise that slop (so-called "AI") cannot replace humans
Claims That Microsoft Looks for Staff That Works More and Gets Paid Less (or Can Only Code by Grabbing Other People's Code, Under the Guise of "AI")
People can form their own opinion
Richard Stallman Was Right About Reasons Not to Use Microsoft
last updated 2017
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 02, 2025
Gemini Links 03/07/2025: No to Cloudflare and Small Web July
Links for the day