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Microsoft To Lay Off Another 2,850 People In the Next 12 Months (businessinsider.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Business Insider: Microsoft is planning to lay off 2,850 more employees in the next 12 months or so, according to Microsoft's full 10-K report it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Part of the document reads: "In addition to the elimination of 1,850 positions that were announced in May 2016, approximately 2,850 roles globally will be reduced during the year as an extension of the earlier plan, and these actions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2017." Business Insider reports: "The first 1,850 layoffs mentioned here were mainly from Microsoft's struggling smartphone business, including 1,350 employees in Finland working at what was once Nokia world headquarters. These layoffs also included people in Microsoft's salesforce, which was recently reorganized and saw the departure of COO Kevin Turner. In total, Microsoft laid off 7,400 employees in its last fiscal year, which ended on June 30th, 2016. The new layoffs are a continuation of the same plan, and include the sales group as well as others. About 900 people affected by the new layoffs were already informed during the sales reorganization, according to a person familiar with Microsoft's plans."

162 comments

  1. Worst Part by sexconker · · Score: 5, Funny

    The severance pittance^W package is tied to an "exit interview" that involves upgrading to Windows 10.

    1. Re:Worst Part by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry to interrupt, but this is important.
      Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends
      July 29th.

    2. Re:Worst Part by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2, Funny

      Does that mean that after that date, I won't have to reject it anymore? Nice.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Worst Part by sexconker · · Score: 5, Funny

      After the 29th, it goes from "offer" to "severed horse head in your bed".

    4. Re:Worst Part by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      does that mean 'windows 7 sleeps with the fishes?'

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    5. Re: Worst Part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it means you'll be forcefully ass raped when you least expect it.

    6. Re:Worst Part by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Could I just train my replacement? It's less demeaning.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re:Worst Part by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      No, that still stays the same. It just wants a credit card number now after deleting Win7 to continue the installation.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:Worst Part by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 1

      That does explain why it's a critical update without the X....

      --
      A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
    9. Re:Worst Part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Leave the Windows, take the cannoli.

    10. Re:Worst Part by kimvette · · Score: 1

      Give them a couple of days to write a ransomware-style patch which will force upgrade the PC and require your credit card to unlock. I wouldn't rule that scenario out given their tactics so far.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  2. Need more low cost H1B's by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 0

    Need more low cost H1B's

    1. Re:Need more low cost H1B's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, sir. about 3350 more h1b visas in the next 14 months so far by my count. probably closer to 5000 when they announce even more in mid september for that end-of-(fiscal)-year stock boost and are staring square in the face of windows 10's total failure at world domination.

    2. Re:Need more low cost H1B's by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      Of course don't forget that M$ were at the DNC, the corporate convention to pick politicians with their cheque books, to lobby for more H1B this whilst planning those layoffs or what, redundant, cough, cough too expensive, fully trained and experienced individuals. Those ass hat corporate executives are truly shameless, in public, don't care who sees it, corruption or the democratic process to feed their greed. You reckon M$ would pull it's head in a bit after the mass invasion of privacy of Windows anal probe 10 but nope, not one bit of shame or embarrassment, straight back at screwing customers and staff over, like there is no tomorrow (I will never understand why M$ employees put up with that shit, I wonder how many of them are comfortable using Windows anal probe 10 at home, looking for a job, complaining about working at M$ or just trying to relax with some pron, whilst their employer looks over their shoulder or right at their face or just what they are looking or recording their communications or doing all of that at once, M$ employees would have to be the most spied on people on the planet, ugh).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    3. Re:Need more low cost H1B's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One wonders how any of these people that are "so bad at their job that they are replaceable" are supposed to buy anything, low-price or otherwise.

    4. Re:Need more low cost H1B's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These are the same maniacal ravings we have been seeing for the better part of 2 decades and the reason you havent changed the record is that you are too far out of touch to realise the people dont give 2 shits about telemetry just like they didnt care back when the same people were fear-mongering about backdoors which ultimately turned out to be rubbish. Why the fuck would they have to add 'telemetry' to steal your data if they already had hidden backdoors that nobody ever managed to find that did that already?!

      Yes we have been hearing about how microsoft wants all your data and to steal things from you and to spy on you and its been the same message and the same sum total of fuck all outcome. Now they have telemetry, none of these people will tell you what it is they are supposedly sending, what it might be used for or who it is going to but indeed there are a lot of people who dont care about that, all they want to do is frame it so that it fits the same message they have been parrotting for the past 20 years: Microsoft is evil and some terrible thing will come to pass soon...which never ends up happening.

      I'm all for facts and if people can provide facts to support their assertions then that's fine but when it's the same extrapolations and conspiracy theories over and over again people just get tired of you people crying wolf. If somebody decides to dig into this and finds that it is indeed just anonymized telemetry like Microsoft says it is then it's just another in the list of failed conspiracy theory attempts.

    5. Re:Need more low cost H1B's by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Management thinks anyone is replaceable. People are just like cogs in a machine, throw an old one out, plug a new one in and there you go.

      They only think they're irreplaceable, despite more and more evidence that they could easily be replaced with a magic-8-ball without any loss of decision quality.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re: Need more low cost H1B's by joerdie · · Score: 1

      Yes. Blame Democrats. Trump is clearly the answer. /sarcasm

    7. Re:Need more low cost H1B's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Management thinks anyone is replaceable.

      Nobody with genuine experience and interest in this topic would be so stupid as to make such a ridiculously broad statement. Does your manager think you are replaceable with a H1B?

  3. Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by kenj123 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    MS must have some kind of assurance the H1B pipeline will be at full capacity for the foreseeable future.

    1. Re: Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Slave labor.

  4. they need the money by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    to pay off all those judges & lawyers that are going to be sueing the pants off of them over the windows 10 upgrade debacle

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  5. Clearly there is a void of coders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait, Microsoft have been laying off people hand over fist for the past few years. Reality is quite strange.

  6. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh shut up. Yes, learning to program will get you a job. There are still plenty of programming jobs.

    Yes, H1-Bs are a problem, but if you're a good programmer, keep up on the latest languages and frameworks, and have decent social skills, there is no excuse to be unemployed.

    If you're an unemployed programmer, the problem is you.

  7. stupid analogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The severance pittance^W package is tied to an "exit interview" that involves upgrading to Windows 10.

    then they would be required to support their former employees

    perhaps you upgraded your brain to windows 10

    1. Re:stupid analogy by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      What? Support? Wait, who said anything about support?

      Guys? Did anyone miscommunicate in some way? There's someone here thinking there would be any support for Win10, what gives? No, not for the real customers, for the home edition.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  8. Upgrade To Unemployment Dialog Box by theodp · · Score: 2, Funny

    Upgrade To Unemployment?

    1. Upgrade Now 2. Upgrade Tonight

    1. Re:Upgrade To Unemployment Dialog Box by Bill_FFR · · Score: 1

      You mean: 1. Upgrade Now 2. Upgrade later x. Upgrade Now.

  9. The solution to all problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ah yes, the desperate CEO's solution to all problems, fire more people! Satya Nadella's been doing that since he took over, and look how Microsoft's profits have shrunk every consecutive quarter under him! Obviously the problem here is that he's not yet fired enough people.

    1. Re:The solution to all problems by Z80a · · Score: 1

      Well, there is a person he could fire that would solve the issue.

    2. Re:The solution to all problems by nukenerd · · Score: 2

      Is Satya Nadella an H1B himself? Sounds like one.

    3. Re:The solution to all problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds more like an anagram to me:

      "Lady Satan Ale"

      Mmm, my favourite beer!

  10. Windows 10 Trash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I haven't forgiven Microsoft for riddling Windows 10 with spyware. It's disgusting to spy on your customers with such arrogance. Ultimately Microsoft did let Enterprises opt out, but for smaller companies and home users, they still refuse.

    I used to love Microsoft products (yes, strange isn't it.) No longer. They are treating their customers like shit. So to those Microsoft employees who were laid off, I have no sympathy. Fuck you.

    1. Re:Windows 10 Trash by iampiti · · Score: 1

      While I hate what Microsoft have done with Windows 10 most of their employees have part in it.
      It's obvious that the spying features, the bundling of Ms services, etc. are features demanded by the higher ups. Those who implemented them where merely following orders

  11. Pisses me off by geek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sick of seeing profitable companies laying people off like this. I'm a right to work guy normally but this is starting to really piss me off. My company did the same shit. Had a great quarter then the next day after earnings released "By the way we need to lay off 3% of staff to position us better for next quarter."

    Tech industry should really unionize. I hate unionize generally but this industry needs it.

    1. Re:Pisses me off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      You don't have a right to their money, no matter how profitable they are.

      The reason they are profitable is because of the work their employees are doing for them. If they can lay off a bunch of employees and remain profitable, then clearly those employees were not significant contributors to the company's profits.

      Employees that cost more than they earn for the company should be laid off.

    2. Re:Pisses me off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Companies should operate under the assumption they will go through down times and have enough money to deal with that. If they're on a downward trend and truly do not expect to need employees with those skills, okay, then give them several months notice, or a severance packaging covering several months.

      If they're doing it to save costs for a quarter or two and have every intention to rehire that position afterward, that's just adding unnecessary trouble to the life of the people they fire, especially if the notice is less than a week and the severance package is just one month or less, which is very common.

      These same companies can afford to pay CEOs very large salaries and offer them golden parachutes worth years of the average employee's salary even if they are being fired.

    3. Re:Pisses me off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks like you work at Intel!

    4. Re:Pisses me off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't get employers to treat employees better by making appeals to fairness or decency. If you want a better deal from your employer, then you must force them to give it to you.

      If they believe they can get away with cutting people loose and then re-hiring them later, and that doing so will save them a lot of money, it would be irrational for them not to. If you don't like this behavior, you can find a different employer, or create a union so you can negotiate a contract with the employer guaranteeing that they won't do this.

      If you can't get enough people together to form a union...then maybe you should think long and hard about why everyone else isn't motivated to rally to your cause.

    5. Re:Pisses me off by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      They're done with the carcass of Nokia and now they're disposing of it.

    6. Re:Pisses me off by schnell · · Score: 1

      Sick of seeing profitable companies laying people off like this ...Had a great quarter then the next day after earnings released "By the way we need to lay off 3% of staff to position us better for next quarter."

      This used to mystify me as well until I actually went to work for a really, really big company. The false assumption here is that all employees/divisions/lines of business are contributing equally to the company's profitability. I will take my own giant, soulless mega-corporation as an example. Each quarter the wireless division cranks out a profit, and the legacy wireline division takes a loss. The wireline division loses customers, too. So - even though we made a profit overall, why doesn't it make sense to cut jobs in the areas that are losing business and have less demand?

      I'm sure the response will be "you should invest in training for your employees," which theoretically is a very fair statement. But - at least in my company's case - I have seen the situation at first hand. No amount of training is going to make a dip-chewing unionized redneck who has been climbing telephone poles in rural Alabama for 30 years (who we don't need anymore) into a LTE network architect in Seattle (who we do need). It just doesn't work that way.

      I guess my point is that you might reasonably hope that a company would look at its workers paternalistically and say "Well, division X is shrinking and we don't need all these people anymore, but we will subsidize their business so we can keep people in jobs." But that's not the case. And in any highly competitive market where your reducing your operating costs can help you improve your pricing and gain customers, I don't think you can really blame the companies for taking this approach.

      --
      "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
    7. Re:Pisses me off by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      My company did the same shit. Had a great quarter then the next day after earnings released "By the way we need to lay off 3% of staff to position us better for next quarter."

      Likee this?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    8. Re:Pisses me off by thegarbz · · Score: 0

      Yes unionise. Keep people doing nothing around, make the company inefficient, and then everyone goes under without any severance packages at all. Brilliant idea.

      If the answer to layoffs is unionise then all your doing is giving a company cancer.

    9. Re:Pisses me off by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      If the answer to layoffs is unionise then all your doing is giving a company cancer.

      I'm guessing you are in the USA. Americans seem to have a funny and bad attitude to unions - the culture is obviously a lot different from the UK, at least.

      In the corporate companies I have worked in the UK, many of the bosses themselves are in the union. I am senior enough to be regarded as a "boss" myself, and I am in favour of unions. I don't want to see workers treated like dirt whatever their level. From time-to-time in the UK a union gets too big for its boots (like the coal miners' union under Arthur Scargill in the 1980's) but that is more the exception; unions are generally regarded as a good thing, a line of communication between company and workers. The union often moderates the workers.

      OTOH the USA seems to be an example of what happens without good company/union relations; and I'm seeing that everyone is worse off.

    10. Re:Pisses me off by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

      Scary isn't it? That when stock prices rise, it means heads are about to roll. Don't you just love the Bizarro World we now live in?

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    11. Re:Pisses me off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Software people don't form unions, they think that they're Management.

      Besides, Everyone Knows that Unions are Evil, serve only to keep the useless and incompetent from being fired, jack up costs (as though all those record profits are going to show up in your paycheck or job stability), and are run by Organized Crime. Or was that last one Enron?

      And all software people have to do is walk down the street and get a new job. Because they've got a killer social network, extroverts that they are.

    12. Re:Pisses me off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No amount of training is going to make a dip-chewing unionized redneck who has been climbing telephone poles in rural Alabama for 30 years (who we don't need anymore) into a LTE network architect in Seattle (who we do need). It just doesn't work that way.

      I'm sure that the LTE network architect is going to roll out after the hurricane, tornado, or earthquake and repair the disabled or destroyed outside plant. No?

      The expansion of the telecommunications network is mostly done -- not as many outside plant workers are needed. Where many central offices had dedicated repair technicians, now there are just a one or two running all the central offices for a county. Most repairs are fixable with a remote terminal. But you still need experienced labor to replace or repair what gets broken (or stolen for the copper). Those magical LTE radio bits have to hit the ground at some point.

    13. Re:Pisses me off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Indeed that's why the Rhine Capitalistic model was such a failure and Germany is still the third world country it was after it was destroyed by the Allies in WWII.

    14. Re:Pisses me off by roman_mir · · Score: 0

      You actually think you can FORCE somebody to give you a job?????? Union or whatever??? :)

  12. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by I75BJC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hillary Clinton and the Democrats have promised this for years. Only Trump and the Republicans are complaining about the loss of jobs for Americans. This is what I read and hear in the News Media.

  13. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    that pipeline has a name: hillary clinton

  14. pivoting by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are pivoting to the cloud. Firing people who worked on non-cloud projects (mainly smartphone), hiring new ones to work on cloud projects. Incidentally, the total Microsoft workforce is ~115,000, so this is not a huge amount.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:pivoting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OTOH 115000/2850 = 40.35, which is about the same number of years from university to retirement.

    2. Re:pivoting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why can't they try to shift those employees over then?

    3. Re:pivoting by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Incidentally, the total Microsoft workforce is ~115,000, so this is not a huge amount.

      ~2% of Microsoft's workforce seems substantial, given that they are, you know, Microsoft.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:pivoting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OTOH 115000/2850 = 40.35, which is about the same number of years from university to retirement.

      who taught you how to math?

      2850/115000 * 100 = 2.47%

    5. Re:pivoting by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      given that they are, you know, Microsoft.

      No, I don't know. What difference does that make?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:pivoting by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      No, I don't know. What difference does that make?

      It's not your mom and pop computer store up the road, where if it folds a couple of people lose their jobs. It's Microsoft, and when they lay a bunch of people off they're changing course and it affects the whole industry. It can have negative downstream effects as businesses who have [foolishly] depended on them have to change their course, as well.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:pivoting by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Complete with a cloud workforce; as in, not in the US, Europe, or anyplace else that's "too expensive". Don't you love it? The wealth is being bled dry from the West by K Street while the majority is in flight to the East. So while the vampires feed off the middle class, these globalists are thriving off the backside of others labor.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    8. Re:pivoting by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, I was referring mainly to the effects within the company.......

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    9. Re:pivoting by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      You talk like a politician.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  15. Seems reasonable. by galabar · · Score: 3, Informative

    It looks like 2014 saw a large bump in employees:

    Fiscal Year Ending Head Count Net Revenue (US$) Growth Net Income (US$) Growth
    June 30, 2016 114,074 $85.32B -9% $16.79B 38%
    June 30, 2015 117,354 $93.58B 8% $12.19B -45%
    June 30, 2014 128,076 $86.83B 12% $22.07B 1%
    June 30, 2013 99,139 $77.85B 6% $21.86B 29%
    June 30, 2012 94,290 $73.72B 5% $16.98B -27%
    June 30, 2011 90,412 $69.94B 12% $23.15B 23%

    Going from 99,139 in 2013 to 114,074 in 2016 seems like it tracks better with previous growth patterns.

    http://news.microsoft.com/fact... But please don't let this change your opinion. :)

    1. Re:Seems reasonable. by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      My daughter works at MS and keeps getting promoted. Touch wood...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    2. Re:Seems reasonable. by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      yeah, well, you name your kid 'cortana' and stuff like that is expected, isn't it?

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Seems reasonable. by galabar · · Score: 1

      Out little Clippy has been groomed from an infant to be a Microsoft executive. We think his hair will turn silver!

    4. Re:Seems reasonable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those other 2850 people probably would have been promoted too if they'd been touching their boss's wood,

    5. Re: Seems reasonable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. I did that. It didn't help.

    6. Re:Seems reasonable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, they bought Nokia's handset division (with roughly 30k headcount) in 2014.

    7. Re:Seems reasonable. by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      My daughter works at MS and keeps getting promoted.

      Wait, let me guess... HR department?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  16. M$ is following a well-known path by CAOgdin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. They unload Win10 on the world, only partially designed, and sucker us into doing their product testing. Then, the add more and more complexity with unnecessary "features" that are mere click bait.

    2. Then, the declare it's the last of the "Windows" line (unlikely, and a stupid claim by an executive without credibility to assert it.)

    3. Now, they plan to get rid of productive employees. Why? "Bottom line" or, as Jack Welch said, early in his career at GE CEO, "the purpose of a corporation is to maximize shareholder return on investment." Then, two years ago, after retirement, he admits in Forbes' magazine that his was "...the dumbest idea in the world."

    4. And Microsoft is joining the cadre of companies with "great (aka overpaid) CEOs" (usually self-proclaimed) who produce poor results over the long-term (see http://www.wsj.com/articles/be...).
    They're about to fall off a cliff...and they think they're on solid ground. Mark my words.

    1. Re:M$ is following a well-known path by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And basically abandon QA on Windows 10. My roommate is on the build team as a contractor and makes only $12/hour. It's tough to make ends meet in the Seattle area making that little.

    2. Re:M$ is following a well-known path by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      with unnecessary "features" that are mere click bait.

      the fuck does that even mean? why are you dicking around with features and clicking on them just because they are there? just use your computer to run your applications, the biggest problem with modern computer users like you is you can't focus, you're so easily distracted by the mere existence of things that you end up delving into features that are utterly pointless for you workflow.

      3. Now, they plan to get rid of productive employees.

      No they are getting rid of unproductive employees.

      They're about to fall off a cliff...and they think they're on solid ground. Mark my words.

      Yeah yeah, we've heard this before, we heard it when Windows 98 came out and when Windows ME came out and when Ballmer took over and when Apple released Intel Macs and when the Zune failed and when Windows 8 came out and when Windows 10 came out and now you're saying it again. Please tell me more about how much better the Nomad is than the iPod and how the Year of the Linux Desktop is right around the corner.

    3. Re:M$ is following a well-known path by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      The notion of "last version of Windows" is just semantics. It's the same NT codebase, simply modified and upgraded a bit at a time... a new subsystem here, a new coat of paint there, etc, same as every previous Windows since 2000, or XP, if you're talking about just the consumer line. The same incremental upgrades will occur, but will stay under the Windows 10 brand, and will just be rolled out as periodic system updates, like we're seeing even now.

      All this means is that that Windows is no longer a cash cow for them - operating systems are a commodity item now (see: Linux, ChromeOS, etc). There's no point in rebranding and renaming the same OS every few years, as that's not their future. Haven't you wondered why MS seems to be embracing Linux and open source? Because it's no longer a competitor for them. Desktop operating systems isn't part of a growth market - it's actually in *decline*. They're moving to cloud-based computing, and software as a service. The operating system is just there to provide a platform for software and services to sell.

      As for the layoffs... they're dropping employees in their non-productive areas - of course they're going to be cutting their smartphone division, with 1% of the global market share, or something pitiful like that.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    4. Re: M$ is following a well-known path by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I call BS. I doubt the janitors make only $12/hr. Perhaps if he's a moron and can't manage his time correctly working 100 hour weeks and is salaried it could theoretically work out to that little, but nobody is making that little on straight hourly wages. Especially on contract, which usually starts at 130% of salaried wages (if you're 1099).

    5. Re: M$ is following a well-known path by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The code is fine, have you used .NET since 1.1? It's arguably one of the best frameworks and language sets (C#/F#) available... certainly heads and tails beyond Java. It's only getting better since their move to open source the whole thing.

      The big problem was timing and marketing. When Apple had iOS and Google had Android, the only thing MS had was the steaming pile known as WinCE. MS tried to enter the market way after the other two were well into maturity with WinRT which was definitely a mistake. Thry pushed their product much too late with far too little to differentiate their product from their competitors.

    6. Re: M$ is following a well-known path by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My wife works on the build team and makes $14 an hour. $12 is a ripoff.

    7. Re:M$ is following a well-known path by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 1

      . Now, they plan to get rid of productive employees.

      They said they were unloading a lot of Sales employees. Sales is not the definition of "productive". I would prefer they fire 3,000 sales people and invest in 3,000 developers who can make the products better. They should also simplify their sales process so that it's not such a nightmare to license and track your purchases. It's super easy to use the Windows Store to see what apps you own. Have you ever tried to figure out how many licenses you have of any Microsoft Software? It's next to impossible. We track it in a spreadsheet that's constantly out of date where our licenses have gone.

      - Make the products better.
      - Invest in a nice easy web portal like they have for Office 365 for adding more licenses and assigning them.
      - Reduce the licensing complexity by reducing the package count. Slack's pricing is easy and straight forward: Free, Standard and Plus. Now try to calculating how many CAL licenses... whether or not you're allowed to run Windows 10 Pro in a VM or whether or not you're allowed to run a redundant domain controller. You have to be a professional Microsoft sales person to understand what you need to buy.

    8. Re: M$ is following a well-known path by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      The code is fine, have you used .NET since 1.1? It's arguably one of the best frameworks and language sets (C#/F#) available... certainly heads and tails beyond Java. It's only getting better since their move to open source the whole thing.

      I think you misunderstand. I'm not complaining about the quality of Microsoft's code. I'm just stating the reality that Windows as an OS is just a slowly evolving piece of code. There's undoubtedly a lot of original NT code in there, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, especially in terms of security and stability. Whether MS periodically takes a snapshot of it and calls it Windows "whatever" or just keep upgrading it as Windows 10 service packs really makes no difference from a technical standpoint. It's really more of a marketing decision at that point.

      BTW, I actually really like the C# language and the .NET framework (both are extremely well-designed), but I'm talking about the core OS code (which is mostly C/C++) being slowly upgraded. I'm not sure what .NET has to do with anything.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    9. Re:M$ is following a well-known path by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well the truth is, that firing Nokia that fast while the knowledge and skill they were accumulating for so long was really dumb. Claiming that it's the last version of windows is also plain dumb, it's dumb message. Throwing Win10 (sorry, forcing) and making is so unstable (older hardware is not taking it well), by doing "release early" (but not to everyone for god's sake) is dumb. The only hope is Bill Gates. Naming Windows 10 was very good idea. It helped the adoption very much. Now regarding the CEOs, which take plenty of money and speak a lot (or less when public discovers their issues early) - there's no competent CEO anywhere. One CEO will not replace hundreds of Nokia employees with their experience. They are both on the same playground. The point is, that firing is easy. And good CEO is not going the easy way, especially with people. What could be done? Do your research first. Firing talent without consideration impacts the whole economy not just Microsoft. And secondly

  17. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Trump also complained that salaries are too high...

  18. So MS is basically bailing on the phone business? by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What a shock, MS is bailing on the phone business, i.e. an industry where their bully monopolistic practices were useless and they had to rely on their shitty, shitty code, interface, and business practices to compete with competitors who actually know how to make software that isn't a steaming pile of shit. Shocking! But of course, MS won't reverse course on developing shitty bug-ridden software, they have trademarks to protect after all.

  19. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    This is about world-wide reorganization; Finland is NOT in the US - you fucking idiot.

  20. people doing what they were told? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    these people dont choose what project they work on.

    1. Re:people doing what they were told? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      these people dont choose what project they work on.

      What you are replying to is "consistent stupidity". Let me explain.

      My background is that I've been a "core" software developer for several big network/infrastructure flagship products in different companies, responsible for large swaths of functionality. During my various tenures, I've pushed for many seemingly sensible things, including extensible architectures, features that our customers and support staffs desperately need, and sane development processes. I try talk to every stakeholder I can find and I listen to their issues. Then, I push like hell to get their issues addressed. One problem: it almost never works. I get lip service. Oh what I'm doing is just terrific, but I'm a *developer*. I should be shielded from the customers. I shouldn't worry about support. My input should only be to product management, and those guys always know better.

      The basic issue is that management (product included) thinks in terms of products and services, and not technology. This means that even the best managers haven't got a clue of what is truly possible. Better yet, they seem to actively avoid it because when you really get down to it, most of them are really in it for their careers. The results? Who cares? If you saw the mind numbing mountains of money that I've seen get wasted on myopic and doomed efforts because of this type stupidity, you'd want to weep.

      But that's only the first layer The second is our followup bozo saying that the resulting "dead weight" employees should obviously be trimmed. Hang on a moment there. What about improving our projects instead? What about weeding out the air-head careerists who waste the human capital in the first place? Isn't the point of capitalism to put capital to work? Like, you know, to make stuff?

      Well, some people will say the company is pivoting; they will make stuff after all. It will all be better. Right. Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss. If you actually want to make things better, you actually have to make things better. Hiring a new workforce for a new product will not change anything.

    2. Re:people doing what they were told? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your anecdote doesn't seem to have a point. Your conclusion seems to be "Hiring a new workforce for a new product will not change anything." Well, tell that to Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google, and Intel, if they can hear you over the mountains of money they have made during your lifetime.

      The business isn't there because they want to provide for your needs. They are there to make money off your efforts. They care about you only inasmuch as they must in order to get good profit from employing you. When that equation stops working in their favor, they cut you lose, as they should.

      It is true that sometimes you get toxic members in the upper layers of management, and they do things that harm the company (either out of stupidity, selfishness, or both). That sucks, but it is what happens when leadership bets on the wrong people. Some companies survive that, and some don't, but in neither case do any of them owe you a living.

    3. Re:people doing what they were told? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which changes nothing. Top performers are usually retained even when a department is let go. And even if they are not retained, their skill and business acumen should make it easy for them to find new employment.

      And anyway, if they truly have solid skill and business acumen, then they ARE choosing what project they work on, by inviting employers to bid against them and negotiating with their current employer to be moved to their desired project.

      Those who are content to let someone else take charge of their destiny...well...they get the destiny they are given.

    4. Re:people doing what they were told? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's life, you may not like it, most don't. Just take the money and run, find a new job, start your own. You are not your job. Employment is a business transaction. You do what they say, they give you money. End of story. They want to run the business into the ground? It's theirs, let them. Don't take it personally. It's just a bunch of control freaks, let them have their fun.

    5. Re:people doing what they were told? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Business acumen? What's that?

      - Extremely skilled nerd

  21. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    President doesn't set wages, president sets H1B policy and numbers.

  22. Firing (Re: pivoting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fixed that subject for you (welcome!) .

    Sure, it's not huge unless you're one of the two thousand.

    Your post is more than a little insensitive given you can bet that most EX-MSFT people affected are reading /. and TFA.

  23. Re:Learning to program will get mr a job? by lgw · · Score: 2

    So technical training is all I need to get a good job and keep it?

    I'd say so, given the pattern of MS layoffs thus far:
    * QA people
    * Salesmen
    * Manufacturing workers in FInland
    * More salesmen

    Coding seems to be the place to be. I know some devs were layed off along the way, but from what I hear backchannel it's still a net increase in coding jobs (cloud and mobile growing fast, other areas slowly shrinking).

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  24. Re: The Best Thing To Do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft earned 22.2 billion dollars last year, macs4all

  25. Lay all of those backstab cocksuckers off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everybody move to Linux. Linux won't be a fucking US spy shop ever. Microsoft goes away, so does systemd.

  26. Re: The Best Thing To Do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Perhaps "received" would be a better word than "earned."

  27. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Hillary Clinton and the Democrats have promised this for years.
    Only Trump and the Republicans are complaining about the loss of jobs for Americans.
    This is what I read and hear in the News Media.

    Trump is known for exaggerating and in many cases just making up crap. I've never heard of him being known for going out of his way to buy American, which might have been an indicator that his H1B stance wasn't full of it. As far as the Republicans go, well they generally support H1Bs. Some democrats do as well.

    My own opinion on H1Bs, is that they should rapidly have a path to citizenship. People that are in a country and contributing say more than 2 years should at least have all of the "right to work" rights their employers have, as well as the ability to vote.

  28. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by whoever57 · · Score: 1

    Only Trump and the Republicans are complaining about the loss of jobs for Americans.

    And if you think that Trump and the Republicans are going to cut back on H1-B visas, I have a very nice bridge to sell you.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  29. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    their shitty, shitty code, interface, and business practices to compete with competitors who actually know how to make software that isn't a steaming pile of shit.

    iOS? Android? Both are shit compared to the Winders phone.

    The problem with the Winders phone is Microsoft was once again nine hundred years late to the fucking party. Same reason Surface is a fucking joke, in spite of being a damned solid piece of hardware.

    The fuck would you develop an app for the Winders phone when you have enough work and marketshare by developing for Android and iOS?

    It's the same reason gaming on Linux is a mere afterthought, in spite of the best efforts of Valve trying to whore out more money. Nobody gives a fuck about nerdgasms over software.

    You don't have the numbers.

  30. Only 2,800? by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    That's only 3% of their workforce. My last publicly traded corp I worked at is laying off 30,000-60,000 employees, or 20-30%. THAT is a true "bloodletting". That's not even taking into account the upcoming spin-off/merger with CSC.

  31. Swell, no new H1s for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since the company apparently has a surplus of workforce, then they lied to Congress that there is a labor shortage, it therefore should be prohibited from hiring H1s till they increase their headcount by the amonut of current layoff

  32. Re: So MS is basically bailing on the phone busine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The code is fine, have you used .NET since 1.1? It's arguably one of the best frameworks and language sets (C#/F#) available... certainly heads and tails beyond Java. It's only getting better since their move to open source the whole thing.
    The big problem was timing and marketing. When Apple had iOS and Google had Android, the only thing MS had was the steaming pile known as WinCE. MS tried to enter the market way after the other two were well into maturity with WinRT which was definitely a mistake. Thry pushed their product much too late with far too little to differentiate their product from their competitors.

  33. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thats BS. microsoft used to OWN the smartphone market along with blackberry then apple came along with the iphone and ate their lunch. If what you say is true and pure numbers win then microsoft should still be owning the smartphone market. but they dont because numbers arent everything. microsoft wasn't late to the party. If they had actually tried making something good back then maybe they would still be at the top.

  34. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    Funny how many illegals built Trump's properties? Why didn't he hire real Americans?

    Who was the party that supported outsourcing? Who created a whole department in the White House funded by tax payers to help corporations fire Americans and replace them with foreign counterparts?

    You think protectionism and higher wages will force your boss to pay you more if they can't bring in Indians? Or will they give someone in Bangalore an AD admin account or root access to do the work there and just not bother to bring anyone into the office for IT work?

    What will happen is if these positions can't be filled they will start outsourcing more and since they alreayd have an office in India now they will just eventually move the whole IT department there for cost savings since they didn't have one pre-trump thanks to protectionism.

  35. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    CEO salaries sure as shit are.

  36. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by exomondo · · Score: 1

    The problem Windows Phone had was not that it was bad, it was that it wasn't disruptive or innovative. Apple's iPhone disrupted the market, Google followed their lead and years later Microsoft caught up with an operating system that would have been great had it not been so late to what had by then become a mature market. You need a feature - or set of features - that will entice users to the point they will be willing to abandon their existing applications in favor of your platform and its applications. This is the same reason Linux hasn't been able to supplant Windows on the desktop, it's not that there is anything wrong with it, it's that it doesn't offer anything compelling in innovative or disruptive features. There's no point waiting for Microsoft to screw up, if their past screwups with Windows haven't driven customers to Linux then nothing will, Linux needs that disruptive innovation to capture the users. Windows Phone needed this too, but it didn't have it so it was relegated to that low single-digit marketshare.

  37. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    Hillary Clinton and the Democrats have promised this for years.

    While this is true...

    Only Trump and the Republicans are complaining about the loss of jobs for Americans.

    ...complaining? Yes. Sincerely? Not so much.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  38. Re:Learning to program will get mr a job? by donaldm · · Score: 2

    So technical training is all I need to get a good job and keep it?

    I'd say so, given the pattern of MS layoffs thus far: * QA people * Salesmen * Manufacturing workers in FInland * More salesmen

    Coding seems to be the place to be. I know some devs were layed off along the way, but from what I hear backchannel it's still a net increase in coding jobs (cloud and mobile growing fast, other areas slowly shrinking).

    A company doesn't need Salesmen when it can push out a product digitally and only a few people whine about it. As for Q&A people just reduce them, after all we have over 300 million testers out there and we can always push out mandatory patches latter.

    --
    There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
  39. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    Their destruction of Nokia accomplished it's purpose. Maemo had so much promise that was never realized.

  40. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by amiga3D · · Score: 2

    Why would you develop for a windows phone when you know MS reputation for fucking people?

  41. Re: The Best Thing To Do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL

  42. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually developing for Windows has been a pretty solid investment, even programs written for MFC in the 90s still work perfectly fine on their latest operating system. While developing exclusively for windows phone makes little sense they have invested in a whole lot of cross platform technologies so that developers can target windows phone without writing their applications specifically for it.

  43. But they still want H1B reform.... by Luthair · · Score: 1

    because there aren't enough tech workers...

    1. Re:But they still want H1B reform.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Prat. Most of these jobs are in Europe. There's no such thing as H-1B in Finland.

    2. Re:But they still want H1B reform.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A large portion of the layoffs aren't tech workers, so...

  44. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by Luthair · · Score: 1

    It was definitely late, but another big issue is that after releasing WP7 internal politic'ing stalled it for 2-years before the completely re-written WP8 was done.

  45. Re: So MS is basically bailing on the phone busine by antifoidulus · · Score: 0

    Yes, I am on occasion forced to use MS garbage and I just laugh my ass off every time I do. It's so insanely primitive compared to it's competitors, and buggy as hell to boot. The sheer # of bugs I uncover after just 5 minutes of Windows use is fucking hilarious. Don't even get me started on the shitfest that is Azure, Amazon doesn't even give 2 shits about Azure because it is such a buggy, unreliable mess. Randomly rebooting my web service? Pure brilliance MS, how did you know I wanted that "feature".

    C# is also a muddled mess of a programming language, grow up and use a real language that is supported by open standards and doesn't constantly contradict itself.

  46. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by WaffleMonster · · Score: 2

    The problem Windows Phone had was not that it was bad, it was that it wasn't disruptive or innovative.

    This is not how I saw things go down.

    Initially once upon a time there was a solid base of former CE developers very interested in windows phone. They wanted to get on board but Microsoft had to go f*** it all up.

    They locked everything down emulating the Apple walled garden, required very specific versions of windows /w hyper-v and visual studio to develop anything and made you buy a Microsoft account. They militantly insisted on a Spartan ugly interface with no customization options. UI was all based on some forsaken piece of shit called Silverlight, APIs were half baked and not even finished and oh by the way you can't run any native code whatsoever.

    On top of draconian bullshit, no compatibility, no apps, absence of basic core features that existed even in windows mobile and no user base developers basically gave MS the one finger salute and went to Android.

    You need a feature - or set of features - that will entice users to the point they will be willing to abandon their existing applications in favor of your platform and its applications.

    My personal opinion if Microsoft started out with feature parity and dropped the misfeatures (Fugly Metro/Silverlight, malware, Apple style lockin and lack of customization) windows phone would have a healthy market share today.

    This is the same reason Linux hasn't been able to supplant Windows on the desktop, it's not that there is anything wrong with it, it's that it doesn't offer anything compelling in innovative or disruptive features.

    If that were true you would think we wouldn't be hearing of high profile attempts to switch to Linux desktop failing.

    There's no point waiting for Microsoft to screw up, if their past screwups with Windows haven't driven customers to Linux then nothing will, Linux needs that disruptive innovation to capture the users.

    My opinion is they just need parity with Windows and Linux advocates need to stop pretending it already exists.

    General purpose operating systems are mature technology driven by incremental accumulation of dead labor. If you bet on disruptive change you WILL lose. The only changes we are likely to see going forward will be both hard won and increasingly inconsequential. I think Linus had it exactly right on his comments about wearing the competition down.

  47. You are forgetting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ross Perot. He was Trump before Trump was cool.

    1. Re:You are forgetting by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Ross is still cool. Trump will never be.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  48. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you're an unemployed programmer, the problem is you.

    Bullshit. The employment market has been negatively affected by the deliberate actions of the government and corporations. If you think that you're such a special snowflake that these sociopaths wouldn't get of you in a heartbeat you're one of those libertarian delusionalists. That you're employed is simply because they haven't finished yet, but there's no reasoning with the pull yourself up by your own bootstrap crowd. You probably believe in tax cuts for 'job creators' too.

    Sure, doing those things you say will increase your odds and you'll be ok for a while. Of course we'd all have an easier time were it not for very active sabotage of our career prospects by well funded sociopaths encouraging foreign trade schools to turn out legions of barely qualified third world job stealers.

    One wonders if you think that unemployed steel workers are their own problem. I mean the government at the behest of large corporations actively encouraging and subsidizing import of cheap steel had nothing to do with that, it's all on the individual, right? Libertarians disgust me.

  49. Q&A department by rastos1 · · Score: 1

    They replaced the Q&A department with end users. We already knew that.

  50. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The said thing is all but the paid sycophants and shill were saying MS would destroy Nokia. The put their stooge in command of the world's most successful mobile-phone company, who had smart devices long before Apple copied Sony's blue-prints and LG, Samsung et al moved in that direction.

    So what did MS get out of destroying Nokia? Presumably there was an end-game from day one. I would guess it was to get at their patent portfolio to then start attacking the corporations that operate in the same space, particularly Google and Amazon.

  51. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by bazorg · · Score: 1

    Hmmmm.... do you really think that this was the reason why developers flocked to iOS and Android? The expectation/hope they would not be fucked over like those who had burned fingers with Microsoft?

    Or could it be that it was really clear that developing and marketing apps for iOS and Android had (has) huge market potential and straightforward way to sell apps and see the money come in.

    I could be wrong, but I suspect that the reputation or history of MS dealings with partners and with their own technology was not as important as major competitors coming up and saying "Here's what you do to reach our millions of prospective buyers. We deal with distribution and growing the market, you get 70% of the sale".
    Between piracy, traditional distribution channels, customers used to not spending at all, there were/are plenty of reasons why developing for PC was never that straightforward. The realistic prospect of finding 10,000,000 people willing to pay you $0.70 each was a major reason, more than anything MS did or used to do.

  52. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agreed. I also hate the "social skills" canard. That's always code for being either a mediocre programmer who never does better than anyone else or a bad programmer who lies about accomplishments to leapfrog others. If you are good and you show it, that's when they trot out the old "social skills" cryfest.

  53. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by Truekaiser · · Score: 2

    Personally i think a good number of the wealthy are hoarders.But instead of keeping every newspaper they ever touched, or plastic bag, or wanting to buy every single doll they see. They hoard money, and like other hoarders they are emotionally pained to see even one bit of it removed.

  54. Bow To 1% by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And do not dare to vote Trump. Mind you, the NY Times has been thinking about assassinating him. So you know where you have to put your cross. Please make sure we do not have to stuff the ballot box too much in order to make the correct candidate win !

  55. Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Before they only had NSA backdoors. Now MSFT plays NSA themselves.

  56. Sure, Cultural Marxist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's flood the nation with foreigners so that our father's culture can be annihilated.

    That's what Banksters and Marxists want.

  57. Yes Mr Bankster Sycophant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lay off, liquidate, shut down. The motto of the Weimar Republic.

    But between 1933 and 1945 they screamed when the brutality came to those who promoted brutality before.

    Make your bed and do not complain when they downsize your bed with a chain saw at 3AM.

  58. Re:Learning to program will get mr a job? by lgw · · Score: 1

    That does seem to be the way these days, though I expect they still have a strong sales force on the Azure side.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  59. Re:Learning to program will get mr a job? by nukenerd · · Score: 1

    A company doesn't need Salesmen when it can push out a product digitally and only a few people whine about it.

    Exactly. Not long now, with Windows 10 adoption, for Microsoft's wet dream of software rental to come true. Once MS have persuaded people to "upgrade" to Win10 (or rammed it down their throats), thus giving MS control of their PCs, MS just need to let the unpaid Win10 user experience deteriorate and fall behind until the user caves in and signs up to rental for the perpetual updates that will come with it.

    MS have said that Win10 is the last ever version of Windows, so they will soon be sacking thousands of developers too. Once people are on Win10 all MS will need is a security update team, and maybe some graphic artists to give the interface a make-over now and then.

  60. Re: The Best Thing To Do by nukenerd · · Score: 1

    Perhaps "extorted" would be a better word than "received".

  61. Re: So MS is basically bailing on the phone busine by art123 · · Score: 1

    You might want to re-evaluate your chosen profession. Millions of .NET/C# developers seems to get along just fine. AWS and Azure are #1 and #2 in cloud and Azure is growing revenue faster than AWS (not necessarily unexpected for the second place player).

  62. Re: So MS is basically bailing on the phone busine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You might want to re-evaluate your chosen profession. Millions of .NET/C# developers seems to get along just fine. AWS and Azure are #1 and #2 in cloud and Azure is growing revenue faster than AWS (not necessarily unexpected for the second place player).

    so in other words, microsoft is dead in mobile, and their main business is now renting out computer time

    get the shovels ready

  63. missed the piss test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you can negotiate a contract with the employer guaranteeing that they won't do this.

    maybe someone who has access to fresh air and sunshine told you this, but they were lying

  64. Re: So MS is basically bailing on the phone busine by art123 · · Score: 1

    Get a big shovel. MSFT had $93.58 billion revenue and $12.19 billion net income in 2015. Agreed that mobile devices/OS are dead for Microsoft which is why they need to be strong on back-end which is where Azure helps.

  65. Not surprising by no1nose · · Score: 1

    Windows 10 is the best they can come up with. They have to shove it down the throats of Windows 7 users for FREE. How are they supposed to pay their staff if they are giving their latest OS away?

  66. Re: So MS is basically bailing on the phone busine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    which is why they need to be strong on back-end which is where Azure helps.

    renting out computer time is what companies do when they can't figure out what to do with the computers on their own

    get that shovel ready, total lack of innovation and regression into the "background" is death

  67. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unfortunately the problem is also with many barely qualified first world slackers too. The digital revolution required so many new 'talents' that many people joined the hype and went for a high paying job in IT. But not everyone is an IT guy or girl. Many people just have a job because they had their degree. In reality there were many people, with many IT certifications who were only good at getting those degrees and certifications. Once they were on the job they just knew the minimum to get along but were stuck when something that wasn't in their certification program popped up.

    Among the barely qualified third world job stealers as you describe them are many who are just as competent as those first world certified slackers. Only one day ago I was in the 'b-to-c' shop of my company to get a new phone and I saw three first world bachelor in computer scientists struggling to install and configure a home banking app on an iPhone. They spent over an hour with the customer to try to get the app working, and ultimately they sent the customer home claiming that the procedure would take up to three days for 'verification'. What I personally could make up of the problem was that the customer already installed the home banking app on her iPad and it worked on that device, but didn't create a new profile on her iPhone. She expected that just installing the app on the iPhone and using the same log in credentials was enough to get access to her bank account. The 'customer support' should have known that installing the app on another device requires you to create a new profile with the home bank 'calculator', the codes provided by the bank and creating new log in credentials, but they didn't.

    The problem here is that for mere customer support, my company requires employees that have at least a Bachelor in Computer Science. But Computer Scientist are programmers, they are not trained to solve computer and smart phone problems. You would expect that someone interested in studying Computer Science would also have a natural interest in general computing devices, including smart phones. But you might be surprised how many people just choose to study computer science because it offers them a false feeling of job security but are in reality just as clumsy with general computer problems as your average grand mother.

    The company should have hired PC technicians to help people with these kind of problems. PC technicians are not schooled in universities, but they are schooled in the so called dual learning model. Secondary school students who choose to learn a profession. They have a week schedule with one or two days of school while the rest of the days, they train their skills in a real life job in a private business. These PC technicians get accustomed to solving these kind of problems and are often very interested in technology, but are often rejected for job openings when a 'Computer Scientist' shows up for the same kind of job.

    And that is another problem. Why do people with an university degree go for a job for which they are overqualified looking at their degree, but not qualified for looking at the experience? Is it because they just got their degree because they were good at getting that degree but in reality are not capable of becoming a programmer. Is it because the universities have just degenerated to degree mills in stead of producing educated, critical thinking young adults? I don't know, but there's definitely something wrong.

    A few weeks ago a read an article of the low success rate among the students who studied economics. The solution was found in making the exams more easy (statistics, mathematics, law, ...), while the problem is within the change in the secondary schools of 8-10 years ago. The change was to 'stream line' the school model and make it possible for students who are not so bright to still get access to universities. Many kids now chose a more technical level of education because it is easier, and they are still 'prepared' to succeed in universities. B

  68. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you're an unemployed programmer, the problem is you.

    Bullshit. The employment market has been negatively affected by the deliberate actions of the government and corporations. If you think that you're such a special snowflake that these sociopaths wouldn't get of you in a heartbeat you're one of those libertarian delusionalists. That you're employed is simply because they haven't finished yet, but there's no reasoning with the pull yourself up by your own bootstrap crowd. You probably believe in tax cuts for 'job creators' too.

    Sure, doing those things you say will increase your odds and you'll be ok for a while. Of course we'd all have an easier time were it not for very active sabotage of our career prospects by well funded sociopaths encouraging foreign trade schools to turn out legions of barely qualified third world job stealers.

    One wonders if you think that unemployed steel workers are their own problem. I mean the government at the behest of large corporations actively encouraging and subsidizing import of cheap steel had nothing to do with that, it's all on the individual, right? Libertarians disgust me.

    While I'd agree that it's not always the developers fault, the truth is if you're average you're at risk. In any job and in any industry, average workers are simply not as valuable. Be exceptional and you'll basically never have problems finding work. You get new job offers every month without looking. Those exceptional people at MS? They got reassigned, not laid off.

    You can blame the government all you want, and there's certainly some validity to it, but mainly you need to wake up and take personal responsibility. Jobs that can be replaced by robots are not jobs that exceptional people work at. It doesn't mean they're bad people or dumb or lazy and I'm sorry if that offends you but steel workers are not exceptional. They're average people doing menial labor. Certainly a service we need and even more certainly one I don't want to do but menial none the less.

    From my own experience as a developer, I've never been laid off though many around me have. I've always been paid more than others in the same position. I've always had open job offers available. I've never been replaced by an H1B. Be better than others and you can too.

  69. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amen.

    The most irritating part of Android development, after the broken IDEs and half-baked tutorials, is that basic stuff, like database drivers, is missing. I run a side business and wanted to take my inventory/sales/pricing info (currently in C#/MSSQL) with me when I go on the road. Basically, what I wanted was a little listview app to read in the master table, cache some updates, and push them back when I got home.

    Nope, no drivers. Not just no MSSQL drivers, no remote database access at all. They expect you to write JSON on the client in Java (ugh) and a JSON layer on the server (in addition to PHP pages set up for regular browser access). Sure, let me take what should be one interface and one database and blow it up into a game of telephone.

    In the end, I printed my relevant data on paper. A recordset turned into a bitmap scaled to fit 8x11 and fed onto WinSpool. Because that was less stupid work than framework hopping like the hipsters do.

    And then you have assholes like the people at SquareUp who won't support their card reader in Windows, snuffing out any business case for me to throw away the Xoom/Galaxy/etc for a Surface.

  70. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

    If I may ask, how old are you?

  71. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft had tiles that flipped around randomly. If that's not innovation I don't know what is. It makes your phone seem like it's "Live".

    It's like the revolution that occurred between web 1.0 (static text, no dancing hamsters) to web 2.0 (colorful flashing text). Look at this example: http://www.themostamazingwebsiteontheinternet.com/ Look how much more "Live" it looks compared to any other iOS or Android website.

  72. Open Season by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

    Translated: If you're a white male over 40, time to update and polish your resume; you'll need it.

  73. An economy cannot work with only exceptionals. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An economy cannot work with only exceptional (whatever the fuck that really means) people employed.

    You think all ditch-diggers are exceptional? Carpenters? Stonemasons? Engineers? Doctors? Nurses?

    In any job there will always be a range, by definition. If only exceptional programmers (so what the fuck does that mean anyway, top 1%, top 3%, to 10%?) can get jobs then shut down 90% of the CS/programming degree granting programs and tell those people when they are 18 to do something else because there will be no jobs.

    Fucking programming is not world-class sports for christ's sake.

    1. Re: An economy cannot work with only exceptionals. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only bricklaying job that today's kids want is stoned mason

  74. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually congress sets H1-B policy and numbers

  75. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by joerdie · · Score: 1

    I know they have said that, but if anyone believes that I've a bridge to sell...

  76. Re: Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by joerdie · · Score: 1

    Thinking that way makes you part of the problem in American politics. Both party heads love H1bs. If you think Trump will stop them, you may have a mental deficiency.

  77. Re:The Best Thing To Do by macs4all · · Score: 1

    The decent thing for Microsoft to do would be to shut down the Company and return the money to the Stockholders.

    Not to reply to my own post; but this was meant as a JOKE, FFS!

  78. everything u write is a joke fanboi ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    everything u write is a joke fanboi !

  79. When will MS expel Satya Nadella by NewYork · · Score: 1
    1. Re:When will MS expel Satya Nadella by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought Ballmer was bad.

      But Nadella is putting the last nails in Microsoft's coffin.

      It would be so easy to turn it around. Stop spying on users. Make the software configurable. Reduce the awful bugginess that is every Windows since XP. Support open standards. Start listening to users.

      Instead he goes the other direction on all of these. How can a large successful company turn so dumb. Pretty much failing since 2003, and getting worse.

  80. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Typical Trump supporter. You haven't been paying attention.

    https://www.google.com/#q=trump+reverses+on+visa

    It was only published everywhere.

  81. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump supporters don't bother themselves with pesky things we like to call 'facts'.

    https://www.google.com/#q=trump+reverses+on+visa

  82. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  83. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here I was reading your post thinking you WERE in the US. I don't think the situation is any different at all. You totally stole a chapter out of my usual bitchfest ranting. I see all this type shit every day... It's all totally effed up.

  84. Re:So MS is basically bailing on the phone busines by exomondo · · Score: 1

    My personal opinion if Microsoft started out with feature parity and dropped the misfeatures (Fugly Metro/Silverlight, malware, Apple style lockin and lack of customization) windows phone would have a healthy market share today.

    But who is going to switch to Windows Phone? Android offerred you all that already and it's the incumbent. It was entering a mature market, you're suggesting that their problem was the imitated Apple's business model when they should have imitated Google's but I still don't see how that gives them any advantage.

    If that were true you would think we wouldn't be hearing of high profile attempts to switch to Linux desktop failing.

    There's no reason to even attempt to change, that's the point. On the rare occasion that it has happened the reason has been down to cheapness but even then the marketshare has remained pretty much flat for the past decade or so.

    My opinion is they just need parity with Windows and Linux advocates need to stop pretending it already exists.

    What features does Windows have that Linux desktop OSes do not?

    General purpose operating systems are mature technology driven by incremental accumulation of dead labor. If you bet on disruptive change you WILL lose.

    Smartphones were the same until the iPhone came along. You can't attract users with a "me too" device.