Microsoft cuts 18,000 jobs

money.cnn.com ^ | July 17, 2014 | David Goldman

[John W]

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wasn't kidding -- he really is making bold changes.

The software giant said it would cut 18,000 jobs within the next year -- about 14% of the company's 125,000 employees. That's by far the largest round of layoffs in the company's history.

The previous record came during the lowest point of the Great Recession, when Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) cut more than 5,000 jobs in 2009 -- the first mass layoff in the company's history.

Most of the latest round of layoffs -- 12,500 -- will come from Nokia's devices and services business that Microsoft recently bought. In a memo to Microsoft's staff, Nadella said that Microsoft found many redundancies between the two companies, including both professional and factory workers.

[Mycroft Holmes]

Mint seems like the right choice for a new user of Linux. I haven't heard any complaints about it yet. But, inertia is a mighty force and Ubuntu is comfortable now that it works exactly the way I want.

[Lexinom]

Windows XP and Windows 7 were good, solid products.

Balmer, sadly, replaced Microsoft's one-time pioneering spirit with a spirit of CYA and look goodism. Whereas Google employees spend 20% of their time innovating their projects on the company's dime, Microsoft employees under the Balmer regime spent that same 20% of their time preening to avoid being cut through Balmer's outdated performance management scheme.

Innovation is all but dead at Microsoft. They have become copycats because they have chosen to hire a certain type of employee and to build a certain type of culture.

[Lexinom]

XUbuntu with the XFCE desktop serves me well. I do most of my work in the shell anyways.

Unity: Boooooo!

[Lexinom]

Hear, hear and hearken to the voice crying in the streets! :)

I just upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04. Linux always has little issues (like figuring out how to get the HDMI audio to work to watch a movie with my sweetie), but it also always has little solutions that are a Google search. Usually a simple edit to a file or a little script, and you can get the system running very smoothly for your needs.

After being on Linux for any length of time, Windows just seems slow and bloated. Linux gives you about a 30% performance boost out of the box vs. Windows because of the lack of plug-and-play. Being stupid is expensive, and if you are willing to be smart with regard to your drivers, you don't need to run all the bloatware for the 99.999999% of the time you don't need it...

[redgolum]

I suspect that there will be a call to seize 401K assets to pay for SS. The coming crash will be the reason.