MICROSOFT is going through some tough times (unless one minds the PR). Fortunately, Microsoft is collapsing as even attempts to "embrace and extend" the free/libre competition bite the dust [1, 2, 3] and Microsoft Gavin spins it too weakly for Microsoft. "Microsoft has reportedly refused to comment officially on the changes," he writes and "[r]eading between the lines, it would seem that Microsoft's push for Microsoft-versions of dynamic languages has fallen victim to overall budget cuts and changing priorities."
It's kind of pathetic, really. Most of these arguments are premised on the notion that if you've already wasted most of your adult life using Windows, you'll be more familiar with it than the Mac, so you might as well waste the rest of your adult life. Which is really the only reason why Microsoft continues to dominate desktop market share: It's harder to switch than to stick with what you got, even if what you got sucks eggs.
“Yahoo was too independent company and they put Bartz. And SGI too. And HP of 90'.”
--gnufreexnadege says: "Not sure Hurd was fired due to Microsoft Retaliation : HP & Microsoft are partners, and HP promote a lot the Microsoft products"
"HP does promote Microsoft, but Microsoft doesn't forgive competition," gnufreex tells nadege. "Palm is competition"
nadege responds with: "HP promotes Microsoft due to a special relationship. However, HP is still an independent company. So I don't think Microsoft will put its own CEO at HP"
"Yahoo was too independent company," gnufreex tells nadege, "and they put Bartz. And SGI too. And HP of 90'. Read this http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=belluzzo&defid=3861632"
Someone seems to have coined the term "belluzzo" for Microsoft mole. To quote from Urban Dictionary:
Someone who acts against the interests of the organization he's with, often in favor of some other organization he may be secretly working for instead - a mole.
[...]
Those acts - along with the reward from Microsfot - got him the nickname "the microsoft mole" (google "microsoft mole Belluzzo") in those companies, and occaionally the term "a belluzzo" is used to describe someone who seems to be acting in the interest of a different company than the one he works for.
Demi-disgraced HP chief exec Mark Hurd may have been the most-recent high-level exec to exit that company's Palo Alto headquarters, but he's not alone in his good-bye drive down US Highway 101.
Thanks to TechCrunch, we now learn that Peter Skillman, Palm's now-former vice president of design — and the man who shepherded the design of the Palm Prē — has also bailed. An HP spokeswoman tells The Reg that his resignation came "about a month ago."
Skillman's departure is no small loss to HP. As the company expands beyond the security of the staid PC 'n' server 'n' printer markets and dips its toe into the turbulent 'n' trendy consumer products free-for-all, it's going to need all the vision and design expertise it can get.
HP allegedly paid more than $3 million to systems integrators between 2001 and 2006 in exchange for favorable treatment on government contracts, according to DOJ filings.
HP is taking a two cents per share charge to end a Department of Justice investigation into bribery allegations.
As the many questions around Mark Hurd's departure continue to go unanswered, a key aide to the former CEO has also abruptly resigned this week.
The mystery deepens. Caprice Fimbres McIlvaine, formerly head of internal communications at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and a top aide to ex-CEO Mark Hurd, has left the company, following her boss out the door three days after his departure. Her exit is significant because, according to two people with knowledge of her former role, McIlvaine was the key conduit in hiring Jodie Fisher, the actress-turned-corporate hostess/"marketing contractor" who later filed a sexual harassment suit against Hurd, setting in motion the chain of events that resulted in the CEO's resignation on Aug. 6. McIlvaine resigned effective Aug. 9, HP confirmed Wednesday.
Why HP was wise to put director Marc Andreessen forward as the board's spokesman on the Mark Hurd crisis.
The delightfully jarring aspect to Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) bombshell news and investor conference calls last Friday was the board member the venerable company put forward as its public face: Marc Andreessen, not so very long ago the enfant terrible of Silicon Valley.
Mark Hurd's silly exit has little to do with HP's real problems. As an executive there about a decade ago, I saw a company that was giving up its differentiating value in the name of operational savings, not realizing that by now the Golden Goose of creativity would find greener pastures. But surprisingly, the classic HP tradition of building a great place to do engineering that results in a flood of excellent creative products is being followed...
This week brought two other news events worthy of comment — Intel’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and Mark Hurd’s sudden departure as CEO from giant Hewlett-Packard.
The Intel story is almost as it is being presented in the trade and general press. Yes, Intel has promised in very specific ways to no longer be evil. No, Intel isn’t being made to give back the money it made as a result of being evil, so to a certain extent crime does pay. Of course some will say the money damages were in part covered by Intel’s recent $1.25 billion settlement with AMD, but the FTC also doesn’t generally impose fines. So if you happen to be guilty of anti-trust I guess it is better to be sued by the FTC than by the DoJ, which does impose fines.
Either way, Intel got away with something and the graphics chip makers in particular should be pissed.
AN APPARENT FAILURE TO FIND agreement has led to the US Federal Trade Commission extending by two weeks the time it has to find a settlement with Intel.
The relationship between Dell and AMD has been getting closer lately. Certainly in the days when Dell was an Intel-only shop this sort of deal would have been unthinkable.
Everything about the Intel/FTC settlement screams of one thing — Microsoft. Redmond’s multi-year nightmare with the FTC, DoJ, and the attorneys-general of several dozen states wasn’t lost on Intel, which is a more rational company and doesn’t want a Microsoft-like anti-trust experience. Both companies are guilty and both are paying something for that guilt, but Intel clearly wants to avoid the decade of pain and distraction suffered by Microsoft.
[...]
Microsoft was paralyzed with the FTC breathing down its neck. Intel is not paralyzed.
Roughly $2 billion in payouts and Intel is a free bird — a rich free bird at that — having proved that crime does pay.
These settlements will effectively pay for themselves in two months at current Intel profit levels.
--Bill Gates
--Bill Gates
