I know a lot of folk that work at MS or have worked there, they are all very good people. They are highly motivated professionals that are top in their field. MS is a rich company and they recruit the best they can. However those are not the people making any kind of decisions. And it's a cut throat company, if the budget gets cut, you are out on your ass. At least in most of the world, where strong employee protection isn't a thing.
Don't get me wrong, MS has a lot of bad apples just like any other company. Useless managers who say dumb shit and take praise for other peoples work. A leadership that doesn't care about anything except their bonuses and the bottom line. But at least as far as the engineers go, there's plenty of really good folk.
People also seem to forget how huge MS actually is. And a lot of the time the different branches within the company are as far away from each other as can be. Even within the same branch one can only talk to so many people.
as far as the engineers go, there’s plenty of really good folk
They might be the best in the business, but even with those skills a bad leadership is directing them to produce substandard software. I get it might even be a great place to work with decades long friendships, good conditions and pay - but I just think if you decide to work there you also have to weight the reputation of the business and how that impacts your career. Microsoft is good for getting a new job, but don't be surprised if other developers wince at your professional opinions.
From a Microsoft employee: with all the conspiracy theories people have about Microsoft secretly planning to control th world, the most surprising thing is them assuming MS are this organized to attemp it.
Edit: I'm not the employee, it was Scott Hanselman from MS who said it.
Lol noone is thinking they are taking over the world. There is no conspiracy. Everyone has been so fucking tired of the operating system monopoly theve had on PC's before they started ruining every fucking piece of technology they touch.
I'm just speaking from their history. Like when they embraced Java, built their own JVM, shipped it with Windows, and then forked the Java language by adding Windows-specific APIs to Microsoft Java and not adding the Java 1.2 features to Microsoft Java. You can't convince me their aim all along wasn't specifically to kill Java, and cross-platform technologies like it. The whole "Windows tax" thing is another good example. And "Open Core."
And, who knows. Maybe they're either nicer now or less competent at that kind of evil. But if so, that's a relatively new thing. Their history as a company is full of (not-so-)"secretly planning to control the world". And they have never really faced any consequences for their anti-trust violations. And if they didn't want people to hold grudges, maybe they should have thought of that before fucking everyone over as thoroughly as they possibly could.
I guess you could say Microsoft was perfecting the art of enshittification before it became such a pervasive thing. Plus, I largely blame Gates personally for the rise of the institution of proprietary software, which is also complete BS.
Mind you, I don't blame you for working for Microsoft or anything. No ethical consumption (or employment) under capitalism and all that. And it's not like I'm not doing evil things on a regular basis as an employee where I work.