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[video width=480 height=340 webm="http://techrights.org/videos/azure-hype-debunked.webm" poster="http://techrights.org/videos/azure-hype-debunked.gif"][/video]

Summary: The paranoia at Microsoft is well justified; they've been lying to shareholders to inflate share prices and they don't really deliver the goods, just false hopes and unfulfilled promises

THE VIDEO above has been planned for nearly a week, albeit it wasn't scripted or anything, nor was the bird (wallpaper of the day). Following last night's piece by Mitchel Lewis, which was work in progress for a while, we can debate a number of points raised in his article. Internal discussions about it showed disagreement about the history of Microsoft, so we thought we'd make a followup video with some more thoughts, including further input from Microsoft watchers or longtime observers.

"Azure layoffs are being hidden from them and there's financial fraud taking place. Not for the first time in Microsoft's history..."The main point of contention is the claim that sometimes Microsoft is "first" at things. As noted a number of days ago, it's almost never the case. Throughout the company's entire history it was mostly 'stealing' other people's work, undermining the original. then rewriting history (to make Microsoft seem like a pioneer). Many people still think that Windows was the first operating systems with windows in it, that Microsoft Office is the 'original' office suite (Microsoft did not even develop it; it just bought it piece-wise), and that Microsoft had a role in the rise of the Internet or the World Wide Web. The very opposite is true!

For quite some time now (a number of years) Mr. Lewis, who was inside Microsoft, has pointed out that Microsoft is in effect defrauding shareholders. He even filed evidence and lodged a formal complaint with the SEC. Azure layoffs are being hidden from them and there's financial fraud taking place. Not for the first time in Microsoft's history...

How about those scattered press reports about Azure-linked datacentres being shut down?

I recently wrote that "Linux is a Lot More Dominant Than You Were Led to Believe" (or "Almost 50% of Web Traffic is Linux at the Client Side, Even Higher on the Server Side") along with a chart and meme:

We're not as small as they want us to think

Combined market share continues to grow

As a Techrights associate pointed out at the time, "below some level of market share (85% or so) Microsoft will no longer be able to maintain monopoly rents. I expect that the threshold has been crossed and that's why they started to "give" away the new versions. It's probably also why so many budget items have been moved under the heading "Azure" so as to provide the illusion of growth somewhere. [...] nymshifting is a common tactic among many companies. Microsoft uses it a lot [...] since NT5 bombed in the reviews. Also, technically, they should not be able to trademark common dictionary words [reference to "Surface"]. But as far as the budgets go, Microsoft did a big reshuffle after it was noted in their SEC filings that their biggest line item was advertising. The reshuffle did not change anything except the names. The "research" is advertising, etc. By putting more and more under the "Azure" heading, Microsoft can fake growth, especially when combined with the efforts of its minion stenographers out in what's left of the trade press." (Example puff piece from The New York Times, parroting what Microsoft claims; or "cooking the books" as the associate put it) Regarding Vista 11, said this associate: "I'm suspecting that Vista 11 has no other purpose than to push TPM hardware and eliminate all Free, general-purpose motherboards. Once the TPM modules are ubiquitous they can start the software side..."

"How about those scattered press reports about Azure-linked datacentres being shut down?"Taking note of a site called "The No More Ransom Project", the associate dubbed it "snakeoil", noting that it was distracting from the fact ransomware was mostly a Microsoft/Windows issue, as Mr. Lewis pointed out several times since May. This site "shows only snakeoil and is missing Ubuntu, Devuan, FreeBSD, and the real deal," the associate said.

That's the desktop side for the most part, even though servers too get targeted. In the realm of servers Microsoft lost the battle a very long time ago (see "Is Azure Stagnating?" in case they've fooled some people into thinking they're a big server host; they're not! Remember there are Azure layoffs. Microsoft was super-paranoid about any of us mentioning these layoffs because that harms morale and HR! They even came to our IRC channels to discourage us talking about that!).

In another, albeit related and separate post, we'll examine the claim that Microsoft was ever first to do something or actually innovate (as the buzzword goes). Stay tuned as we've not recorded or composed that yet. It oughtn't take long. ⬆