3 ms·

Former Microsoftie here. I imagine there will be a lot of unrest inside the company about this, and I think things are about to get tricky for Nadella. Up unti

Former Microsoftie here. I imagine there will be a lot of unrest inside the company about this, and I think things are about to get tricky for Nadella. Up until now he's been largely able to be above a lot of the labor disputes that have been roiling the other FAANGs recently, but that's mostly out of luck: Microsoft's business doesn't involve arbitrating culture war disputes on social media or search reuslts, nor employing underpaid warehouse workers. But now there's going to be no way to wiggle out of the fact that this money is coming from Trump's DoD, and $10 billion isn't a paltry sum that they can just wave off to claim the moral high ground. Satya's next "fireside chat" is going to be tremendously awkward, I think.

randiantech 7y ago
Its not Trump DoD. Its US DoD.
Mountain_Skies 7y ago
How is "Trump's DOD" different from Obama's DOD?
- yourbandsucks 7y ago
  The noise is entirely different. And the cheering morons who enabled the Iraq war mostly just want noise. They hated Obama, he killed quietly with maximum public respect to the nation/culture involved. They love Trump, who despite everything else is somehow pretty anti-war for a US President considering who he's surrounded by.
  - Scipio_Afri 7y ago
    He's not anti war as much as he's anti policy that pushes up against Russian spheres of influence. You see no issue with, and in fact a lot of funding and support increase to, Saudi Arabia. Where as Obama had put a pause on things during the initial outbreak. Didn't condemn things outright in public, but the Obama administration was definitely taking a step back during the Yemen war. The trump administration also has changed the rules of engagement for military strikes on ISIS and other terrorists to allow for the potential of more collateral damage or civilian deaths. The Obama administration set that threshold pretty high to prevent blowback for our actions and feeding terrorist propaganda.
    - yourbandsucks 7y ago
      I'm a 2x Obama voter, but Obama totally greenlit and supported Saudi Arabia in Yemen from the beginning. Things were getting hot there in like 2010, this spanned almost his entire tenure. That's another area where as soon as things change hands, everyone has a different opinion depending on if it's the red guys or the blue guys. As far as hooking Russia/Turkey up, Syria would be a better example IMO. We ceded Syria, the Saudis are still 100% ours. In either case, part of being non-interventionist means ceding things to regional powers.
    - m0zg 7y ago
      >> He's not anti war One of his main campaign promises was that he would withdraw from all the ill-conceived multi-trillion dollar wars in the Middle East. And unlike Obama he's actually keeping his promises. Give credit where credit is due. Even if it is due to Trump.
      - ChrisLTD 7y ago
        Where have we withdrawn from?
        m0zg 7y ago
        Last I checked we're no longer droning people directly in Yemen Obama-style (although Saudis are, and we're helping them), we've defeated ISIS and are in the process of withdrawing from Syria, there's troop withdrawal (although still incomplete due to Taliban stirring shit in September) from Afghanistan. Importantly, we haven't started any new wars on Trump's watch. Obama started several. So did Bush. Clinton before him started one. So did Bush senior before Clinton. That's as good a peace record as you'll find in a US president in the last 100 years.
        ChrisLTD 7y ago
        Let's see if we actually 100% withdraw from any of those places you've mentioned before Trump leaves office.
    - 7y ago
sjg007 7y ago
Maybe.. Microsoft is providing the infrastructure here and the DevOps I guess.. the rest of it is, the applications will be written by contractors etc... Maybe some of the AI technologies developed by MSFT will be used but maybe other providers will port to the Azure platform. At the moment US ships run Windows. Lots of dual use infrastructure so I can't see a major dilemma. Certain AI technologies and applications of them.. maybe.

randiantech 7y ago

Its not Trump DoD. Its US DoD.

Mountain_Skies 7y ago

How is "Trump's DOD" different from Obama's DOD?

yourbandsucks 7y ago
The noise is entirely different. And the cheering morons who enabled the Iraq war mostly just want noise. They hated Obama, he killed quietly with maximum public respect to the nation/culture involved. They love Trump, who despite everything else is somehow pretty anti-war for a US President considering who he's surrounded by.
- Scipio_Afri 7y ago
  He's not anti war as much as he's anti policy that pushes up against Russian spheres of influence. You see no issue with, and in fact a lot of funding and support increase to, Saudi Arabia. Where as Obama had put a pause on things during the initial outbreak. Didn't condemn things outright in public, but the Obama administration was definitely taking a step back during the Yemen war. The trump administration also has changed the rules of engagement for military strikes on ISIS and other terrorists to allow for the potential of more collateral damage or civilian deaths. The Obama administration set that threshold pretty high to prevent blowback for our actions and feeding terrorist propaganda.
  - yourbandsucks 7y ago
    I'm a 2x Obama voter, but Obama totally greenlit and supported Saudi Arabia in Yemen from the beginning. Things were getting hot there in like 2010, this spanned almost his entire tenure. That's another area where as soon as things change hands, everyone has a different opinion depending on if it's the red guys or the blue guys. As far as hooking Russia/Turkey up, Syria would be a better example IMO. We ceded Syria, the Saudis are still 100% ours. In either case, part of being non-interventionist means ceding things to regional powers.
  - m0zg 7y ago
    >> He's not anti war One of his main campaign promises was that he would withdraw from all the ill-conceived multi-trillion dollar wars in the Middle East. And unlike Obama he's actually keeping his promises. Give credit where credit is due. Even if it is due to Trump.
    - ChrisLTD 7y ago
      Where have we withdrawn from?
      - m0zg 7y ago
        Last I checked we're no longer droning people directly in Yemen Obama-style (although Saudis are, and we're helping them), we've defeated ISIS and are in the process of withdrawing from Syria, there's troop withdrawal (although still incomplete due to Taliban stirring shit in September) from Afghanistan. Importantly, we haven't started any new wars on Trump's watch. Obama started several. So did Bush. Clinton before him started one. So did Bush senior before Clinton. That's as good a peace record as you'll find in a US president in the last 100 years.
        ChrisLTD 7y ago
        Let's see if we actually 100% withdraw from any of those places you've mentioned before Trump leaves office.
  - 7y ago

sjg007 7y ago

Maybe.. Microsoft is providing the infrastructure here and the DevOps I guess.. the rest of it is, the applications will be written by contractors etc... Maybe some of the AI technologies developed by MSFT will be used but maybe other providers will port to the Azure platform. At the moment US ships run Windows. Lots of dual use infrastructure so I can't see a major dilemma. Certain AI technologies and applications of them.. maybe.