Silent layoffs

here are LOTS of Microsoft layoffs right now. Insiders know it, but they cannot speak about it (too risky). Media does not report these. It’ll conveniently – in an arse-covering fashion – dismiss that as “rumours” and say, no WARN notices. But Microsoft bypasses the law. It says, “we’ll fire you unless you agree to this ‘voluntary exit’ agreement, then sign an NDA to keep quiet and outwardly happy about it.”

Same for PIPs and LITE.

IBM and Microsoft have TENS OF THOUSANDS of layoffs this year. Unlike Oracle, they hide these.

Below are articles from 2026:

This makes no sense.

reat! So statCounter altered what it is measuring and thus, overnight, it puts Windows like 10-15% higher than days ago. Maybe it’s time to rely on Clownflare’s data more. At least it’s more consistent over time.

Or maybe… wait a few more days for statCounter to sort out the data and make things more consistent.

Windows is perishing, so…

ROWING up in the 1980s, Microsoft was mostly irrelevant, but by the 90s it was everywhere. Now it’s going away gradually. It tries to hide the mass layoffs; it’s fashionable now…

Silent layoffs are still layoffs.

his morning I wrote about “voluntary” (NOT!) layoffs at Microsoft.

I said: “They can’t catch a break, can they?”

I was using wordplay because it is summer’s break.

A friend asked, “why should shoddy, subpar, proprietary software be given any preferential treatment by groups which don’t have access to the backdoors / bugdoors built into the product(s)?”

He said that “can’t catch a break” looks too much like sympathising with Microsoft.

“It’s good news that the world is giving Microsoft,” the friend said, as well as “its products, and services the
heave ho. What remains, especially in Europe, is how to deal with the leftover microsofters which have displaced as good as all IT departments.”

“Even the idea of a team to support workers to use ICT to their advantage has become foreign due to the persistent pervasiveness of microsoftianism over the IT departments it has displaced.”

Another friend said “it will take a lot of time and effort to get rid of them and to properly train IT people on real technologies again you could talk about a lost generation or two. I’m just glad I started using GNU/Linux in 1997 and abandoned Microsoft in 2002, long before the current move towards GNU/Linux and free software…”

Crossposted from Techrights

10 hours ago:

Last week: Clownflare Sees a Lot of GNU/Linux in China, Unlike statCounter

n the US, the home of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM), GNU/Linux is said to have exceeded 10% “market share” on “the desktop” (desktops/laptops). Even Clownflare (US) sees that.

What about the world’s second-largest economy (by GDP)?

China said it would reduce its reliance on GAFAM several times over the years, but now there is a timeline and perhaps also a directive/order like in France.

It is hardly surprising that Windows is shedding off userbase all around the world and Microsoft has mass layoffs even during the summer break.

They can’t catch a break, can they?

In India, whose population is estimated to be bigger than China’s (based on the official figures at least; some authorities dispute these because of undocumented residents and distant/detached settlements, nonconfomist societies that reject any census), things are even worse for Microsoft and much better for GNU/Linux.

recently wrote about security crises associated with Windows deployments. “On the topic of Windows,” a friend told me (citing this one article): “The writers there (and elsewhere) conflate spending with results. Security is part of the design and not an aftermarket add-on. The latter is a pointless and futile waste of time and money, but one which keeps Microsoft market share from bottoming out. [...] the Microsoft way of thinking permeates their design *and* implementation *and* especially their deployment.”

I still firmly believe that removing most Windows installations out there (ultimately all of them) would considerably improve computer security worldwide. Microsoft designs things not for security but the very opposite (remote access by the state). ?

‘ve just published another post about why Microsoft needs to be eradicated as a matter of national security. If Finland still uses anything from Microsoft, as I generally argue that it sadly does, then it remains widely open to any Russian cracker all the time.

“Only the physical border is being limited,” a friend told me. “The digital border has been cracked wide open and the visit by Microsoft’s Brad Smith and the subsequent failure of authorities to detail and charge him indicate that the crack is widening.”

“Lots of Windows TCO announcements are likely during the long weekend, especially from the assholes at shit organizations and companies which have decided to sponsor more malware via payment to ransomware operators. First and foremost Microsoft is to blame. Second, however, are those who have chosen to intentionally underwrite more breaches by paying the ransom, instead of having had proper data hygiene and backup practices.”

“Dissent” at databreaches, i.e. the main author of a site that tracks major security incidents (cracks/compromise), had an interesting message for Thanksgiving and then covered many new incidents about this topic over the weekend (which has only just started). Are companies revealing severe failings while journalists are away on holiday?

Citing this new article, the friend said they’re “underwriting further attacks against inherently vulnerable Windows useds” [sic].

The world won’t be without breaches after Microsoft is gone, but there will be vastly fewer such breaches. Also, the Microsoft way of teaching “security” is part of the problem..