09.15.08
Microsoft Gags Own Employees to Put Customers’ Life at Risk
NDA for DoA
This story is truly disgusting, so although it does not involve Novell, it won’t escape without a comment. It happens to show what a vicious and irresponsible company Microsoft has become (or has always been).
Here is the gist of it:
Microsoft fires quality assurance whistle-blower
[…]
Robert Delaware talked to Venturebeat on the Xbox 360 defects and might face litigation, presumably for violating a non-disclosure agreement.
So, Microsoft has just ‘pulled another Charles Pancerzewski’ — an employee who blew the whistle on Microsoft fraud and then sued the company, having been sacked for being truthful. Microsoft paid him millions of dollars to disappear along with the evidence which had already convinced a judge to go ahead.
This latest news is also covered in:
- Microsoft Fires Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Whistleblower
- Microsoft fires Xbox 360 whistleblower
- Microsoft sacks Xbox 360 whistleblower
- Microsoft sacks 360 whistleblower
- Microsoft Has Robert Delaware Dismissed for Comments on 360 Defects
- Microsoft tester fired after talking about Xbox 360 defects
- Microsoft fires whistleblowing employee
- Microsoft Fires Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Whistleblower, May File Lawsuit
To use Russian reversal humour, in Halo, user kills Xbox360. In Microsoft, XBox360 kills user (and sometimes babies). This issue would not be quite so severe if it were not for claims of death due to burning XBoxes. Here are some reports from last week:
- In-depth exposé reveals Microsoft’s Xbox 360 failure rate was 68%
- Report: Xbox 360 Failure Rate Was as High as 68%
It’s becoming pretty obvious why Microsoft needed to gag its own employees. With billions of dollars already lost in the XBox business, Microsoft shows no signs of recovery. Recently in the news:
- Mayhem for Microsoft over £500m bill for Xbox 360 red ring of death
- PS3 tops Xbox 360 in May game console sales
- Microsoft Xbox Executive out Amid Reshuffling
- X-Box flops, Microsoft winds up ops in several cities
- Xbox 360 On The Skids Retailers Consider Dumping It
- MS showcases Red Ring of Death Xbox 360 at expo
- Microsoft’s own chip design blamed for Xbox 360 RRoD
- PS3 tops Xbox 360 for third straight month
- The Xbox 360 is dead
That last reference says it all. XBox 360 is dead. The problem is that Microsoft permits innocent human beings to die with it. Money comes before safety, honesty, and people’s lives. This type of deliberate negligence changes the answer to the question: “has Microsoft ever caused the death of people?” █
Gates: No! There are no significant bugs in our released software that any significant number of users want fixed.
FOCUS: Oh, my God. I always get mad at my computer if MS Word swallows the page numbers of a document which I printed a couple of times with page numbers. If I complain to anybody they say “Well, upgrade from version 5.11 to 6.0″.
Gates: No! If you really think there’s a bug you should report a bug. Maybe you’re not using it properly. Have you ever considered that?
FOCUS: Yeah, I did…”
–Bill Gates, FOCUS Magazine, 1995
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.