Microsoft sharpens axe as PC sales drop?

MS should

bear in mind that the best thing to get sales going is to drop prices, like by at least half!! I wonder what proportion of a new PCs cost a fully licensed version of Se7en is going to be, not the knock down OEM price but for us individual home builders. Must be hard to keep a 60% profit margin on your office products and a circa 81% margin on windows in such difficult economic times.

Efros

@IGnatius T Foobar

Sorry you have your panties in a bunch over Microsoft, but I fail to see the good in laying off thousands of IT workers that are just trying to survive and make a buck like the rest of us.

Like everywhere else, the people responsible for the problem, namely upper management, will continue myopically floundering along and collecting hefty paychecks while the (mostly) innocent suffer their mistakes.

IGnatius.........

I work for Microsoft. I have been there 9 years and am unlikely to starve because I have made so much goddam $$. I bet I have LOTS more money than you and that my job is more secure (how many billions do we have in the bank? I have lost track...). Maybe you should quit moaning and try to come and get a job with us. Doubt we would hire you though....

@Captain Foobar

Have you ever been made redundant? It is really horrible, particularly if you have no respect for the people who are telling you you haven't got a job any more. Or are you just an arrogant git? I don't like Windows and don't use it, but I don't hate it either. This kind of unfunny hatred is really out of order.

Wishing that people would starve - grow up.

You'll be telling me next that natural disasters are function of people's sexuality.

Get your head out of your arse, please.

@IGnatius T Foobar

What the hell is wrong with you? Do you seriously think all 91000 employees influence MS's business practices? Get lost.

you wish unemployement on 91000 people??? knob rot is too good for you

wow,IGnatius T Foobar is such a nice guy. I dont wish horrible diseases on many people, but anyone who wishes unemployment on 910000 people, regardless of where they work, well, man, you deserve the worst of whats going out there. Ebola is just too good for you.

aside from your petty gripe with microsoft, try to let go of your tiny insignificant view of the world for a second and imagine if microsoft disappeared. think how it would effect the computer industry, or worse, think if microsoft never existed. you think you would be able to post on the register? you think the register would exist? you think you would have a job? jerk

If I have to come down there and hit you with a 4 by clue ...

Save the consultancy fees. -- If they don't work for the Windows, Office or Servers teams = pink slip.

Zune, XBox, Live, Web, MSN, Dynamics, Photosynth, virtual earth, silverlight, Mobile, blah, blah and blah = FAIL.

Windows, Servers, Office = WIN.

kthxbai

What about the contractors?

Bet they're being mowed down like a field of wheat - and nothing will be mentioned in the press, because it isn't a headcount reduction, just "contract not renewed".

R.E. kain preacher/IGnatius T Foobar

Microsoft has been convicted in America, Europe and Asia for various crimes. I bet you get all your information from MSN.

To IGnatius T Foobar. I hate Microsoft's business practices and lack of moral ethics as much as the next rabid penguin loving Linux user, but to wish loss of employment and livelihood on 91,000 people in these dark times...well I'm lost for words on how to reply.

For soon to be Ex-MS employees

We are now offering re-training in LINUX

XP

They could just re-release XP at 1/4 price

I might actually go out and get my own copy

I still live off the copies that just lie about from old computers !

To all those complaining ig ignatious:

Read kain's comment:

"You're real bastard. I hope you never lose your job. Hmm last time I checked MS was never convicted in any court."

He's just as bad. Anyone complaining about him?

And MS WAS CONVICTED. What the frigging hell do you think the court oversight and constraints on MS was from????

@Daniel

And so losing your job

a) doesn't put a mark on your CV

b) means you're eligible for redundancy pay

c) means you're eligible for welfare

d) get away from that crushing burocracy

So getting the sack because the company goes titsup is actually quite nice for them.

Ignatious is just trolling. You'll see the type on ZDNet. Saying they're a linux user and being an arsehole so that they can (as a windows user) point to the childishness of linux zealots.

A less extreme example is the troll starting with "I use linux but...".

@Chris

Now try with a space in Open Office.

First link? MS Office. What's ***Open*** about that???

And note, there was a time when they were even more right: Open Office came on the third page on a live search.

Do not feed the trolls

The more you answer the troll posters (like the first one), the more they answer.

They feed on the attention, negative or not.

Ignore, and they'll eventually drift away to another unsuspecting forum/comments area.

Counter the trolls

However, if you leave the trolls ALWAYS with the last word or no rebuttal, the frequent lie is believed.

Don't give in.

And why is giving attention to trolls so bad? They only move on somewhere else (and from somewhere else to here), so there's no guarantee that you'll have any less trolling. Yet the trolls will get the last word. Because THAT is as important as notoriety.

Unfortunately, beheading (on Youtube for extra irony) is not possible.

I actually work at MS

The admins can do a Whois against my IP, should be something in the 131.107.0.x range, the Redmond proxy cluster.

In any case, I'm a contractor and have seen in the last week two of my office mates not having their contracts renewed and now I have to learn Chinese to talk with the two people replacing them ('vendors' that will remote in from China). I'm the last one left to manage about 3500+ servers in our test labs, at least the only one in the US....

Although most of the first job cuts will be in the Bean Counting, Colored Pencils and the 'LOL, OMG' divisions... Luckily I'm in Ray's pet cloud project, but that'll only last til August...

@kain preacher

And copyright infringement is a civil action. Yet it still counts as criminal.

Is evasion of paying Tax , Criminal or Civil ?

The citizen of the USA , a prominent business man , Mr. Al Capone got convicted on charge of Tax

Evasion.

Could not get evidence from cowed citizens to give evidence on the 400 + murders he was responsible for.

Dearest Daniel....

Really Daniel?

You wrote:

"Most of them are decent, well meaning people, pressed down upon and confined by layers and layers of insensitive burocracy and a legacy of badly-written, poorly maintained code, based on assumptions long since proven to be wrong. The spend their entire lives wrestling with stupid circular dependencies, or writing yet another document-spec, justifying the effort. Your Vista is a dog because these people find themselves overruled by stupid, lazy managers: not because of any lack of effort on their part"

That does not sound like the company I work for. I do not think you have a clue. Personally, I spend most of my time talking to genuinely interested customers about the class leading products I sell (yes, I am a sales guy...). Thing is, I talk to proper, senior, business people as opposed to junior, disgruntled linux admins with failed careers. Would you believe, the business people love our stuff. Which is why I have made so much $$$

And the reason I post as AC is that MS does give a damn about image and reputation. So I probably would get told off for boasting too much if I used my name.