ESR Gets Job Offer From Microsoft 642
epsalon writes "Eric S. Raymond, the well known Open Source Evangelist, recently received a job offer from Microsoft, that he strongly refused. Is this another attempt to lure Open Source figures or just ignorance?" From his post: "I called [the Microsoft HR rep], who told me my name had been passed to him by his research team. I indicated to him that I thought somebody was probably having a little joke at his expense, and promised him an email reply."
Interesting (Score:3, Funny)
Is slashdot a celebrity gossip site for geeks now or something?
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Insightful)
Seeing how the main attraction of Slashdot is the ability to discuss about the story, and seeing how quite a few stories are about various famous or infamous people and organizations, I'd say yes.
Your New Job, ESR... (Score:4, Funny)
ESR: I can't do that?
MS: Can't handle the isolation?
ESR: No, I have to sound off every now and then or people will forget about me!
MS: Well... that's what were actually shooting for.
Re:Your New Job, ESR... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Your New Job, ESR... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Your New Job, ESR... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sir, can I please participate in this thread sir? (Score:3, Insightful)
With so many 3 and 4-digit uids, Your Honorable Sirs must be white of hair and wise of head, so can you all tell me why are you bashis His Honorable Gunman ESR?
You may, good sir! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:You may, good sir! (Score:3, Insightful)
He's an intelligent and thoughtful guy, and certainly worth whatever fame he's managed to acquire. It's not that the man doesn't have skills, it's just that the sheer amount of geekiness (the kind that gets you laughed at) outweighs what valuable skills he possesses. Nobody would make fun of Linus for being as geeky as ESR, for example, because his skill is extraordinary enough to justify it.
Re:You may, good sir! (Score:3, Interesting)
And if you think if he were more talented it would be ok, then I guess you aren't very familiar with RMS or The
Job offer? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Job offer? (Score:5, Interesting)
But considering that I, also as an open source developer, with a lot of Computing experience was practically guarenteed a position somewhere at Microsoft when they called me to try and recruit me. Somehow, I don't think it would be that far of a stretch to say, that if ESR had expressed any interest in getting hired by Microsoft that they would have picked him up right away.
And just for the record: How do you "buyout" a community that makes Open Source software to ensure that they can't continue working? Hire them into your fold... for ANYTHING, and then tell them that they can't work on FOSS as a matter of company policy.
THAT is how you buyout open source software.
Re:Job offer? (Score:4, Informative)
You can say what you want about ESR, but I use a pile of that guy's software everyday. He's one of the Python committers, he's written more of Emacs than anyone save RMS, and that's literally the tip of the iceberg. Not to mention the fact that he's fairly well spoken, a published author, and a pretty competent PR hack. In short, he would probably make a good addition to just about any team.
If ESR would have labored his entire life on proprietary software he would probably still be skilled, but no one would have a clue other than the few people he worked with (and some of them would probably overlook his talents). Similarly, when Linus wrote Linux he was an undergraduate student in the frozen wastelands of Europe. Free Software gave Linus the opportunity to argue with Andrew Tannenbaum in a public forum and then prove that Andy was *wrong* and that a humble undergrad CS student was right (if you haven't read the comp.os.minix flamewars about Linux you really should). That sort of thing can only happen in a system where working code is more important than credentials. Linus could get a job *anywhere* and it's entirely because he was able to prove his skills with Free Software.
Re:Job offer? (Score:5, Insightful)
Between his oversized ego, his misperception of himself as a highly skilled programmer, his mostly outdated skills, and the fact that when he did try to collaborate to a team (with his kernel build system) he failed by committing a typical beginner's mistake (forgetting the requirements and getting caught in adding new "cool" features), I seriously doubt he would.
I'd be surprised if any software company would hire him other than for purely PR reasons.
Re:Job offer? (Score:3, Informative)
As for him having "piles of credits in the Linux kernel", here's the relevant extract from the kernel's CREDITS file
N: Eric S. Raymond
E: esr@thyrsus.com
W: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/ [tuxedo.org]
D: terminfo master file maintainer
D: Editor: Installation HOWTO, Distributions HOWTO, XFree86 HOWTO
D: Author: fetchmail, Emacs VC mode, Emacs GUD mode
Call that a "pile" ?
And yes, Python is
Re:Job offer? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, now that I have talked through it, maybe you're right.
Re:Job offer? (Score:4, Insightful)
Since the person responding to it seems to think he's a lot more important than he is. I'm sorry but this is just plain sad. Maybe it's a bit humorous that ESR got a standard HR templated letter before the HR person did the research to see who this person is but ESR's response is actually quite sad. Starts off the same way as most ESR stories start off. ESR misinterprets what's going on but uses that to make a stand and pump himself up. Microsoft's worse nightmare? Please. If I had to pick Microsoft's worse nightmare it would be someone like Oracle, Sun, IBM, RedHat or some company like that. They have caused a lot more damage to MS's bottom line and trouble for them. Linus definately has made a few MS exec's wake up screaming "Mommy" more than ESR. Worst? Not by a long-shot.
Open Source isn't a company but it seems people like ESR have decided they've been promoted to upper management and spend more of their time being advocates than developers. While I don't always agree with what Linus says, he's at least a respectable leader in that he is still active in Open Source development. People like ESR have developed into loudmouths who have tried to capitalize on some of their open source achievements but gave up on working on open source software. This is probably the biggest threat to open source in my opinion.
I'm sorry to Eric and his fan base but getting a form letter from some HR person, posting it along with an over the top reply on your blog and having your fans talk it up and post it on slashdot doesn't keep you relevant. Do Something.
If MS was really trying to recruit ESR for the important person he is, they would have contacted him more directly and with a more personalized letter. Either this is someone making a mistake, or MS did want to hire him, they just don't think he's all that important to waste 5 minutes writing a letter.
Re:Job offer? (Score:5, Informative)
If he was that well known, apparantly he wouldn't have received the "job offer."
Here is a comment someone made on his site about this:
"This is a simple mistake. The recruiter's email address starts with a "v-", which stands for "vendor", i.e., they are not microsoft employees. I know this because I work there. The recruiter obviously didn't do any research and has sent a standard (templated) email to the applicant. There is no where in the email any indication of "offer of employment" as ESR claims in his reply. Recruiter has tactfully said that he wants to do a preliminary telephone screen. Thats about it."
Re:Job offer? (Score:4, Insightful)
Um. From the page [ibiblio.org]:
Re:Job offer? (Score:5, Insightful)
I just read through his response letter. Has everyone lost their professional touch? ESR definitely makes himself look like a jerk with that response.
In the real world, people tend to be more polite.
Re:Job offer? (Score:3, Insightful)
(a) made sure that he was responding to an offer from Microsoft, and
(b) taken the time to come up with a more creative response than simply spraying invective like an adolescent hooligan.
Re:Job offer? (Score:5, Funny)
Two years ago you would have been right. But with the downhill bent that Slashdot has been on lately, this story is not only newsworthy, but will be duped sometime later today.
Poor choice of graphic (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Poor choice of graphic (Score:4, Funny)
But then the base of the totem pole wouldn't have had the proper footing.
Ba-dum-ching!
Come on Eric... (Score:2)
Get over yourself ESR! (Score:4, Insightful)
How terrible [yahoo.com] it has been for them, to have this guy as their worst nightmare.
What a pompous ass.
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:3, Insightful)
Excuse please, but what possible point could you be making by comparing stock price of Microsoft with the stock price of a dot-bomb company whose stock symbol happens to look like "linux"? Yes, they're _a_ vendor of Linux solutions. Are you of the mistaken impression that the entire Linux industry somehow tracks into that stock price, or were you perhaps trying to imply that it's relevant somehow?
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:3, Insightful)
Then why was it included in the graph at all? Based on what I saw in the graph, the point looks very much like an attempt to compare Microsoft and "Linux."
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:5, Informative)
Presumably he's referring to Raymond's charming essay, just after the LNUX IPO, when he bragged at length about how fantastically rich he now was. (Raymond, IIRC, was on their board with the position of "corporate conscience".)
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:3, Informative)
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=1999-12 -10-001-05-NW-LF [linuxtoday.com]
Given that he article was dated December 1999, this one line struck me as particularly poignant:
Doh!
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:5, Interesting)
What a pompous ass.
Indeed. He actually used the words "piss on Microsoft's grave". That (and the preceding paragraph) says lots about his professionalism and conduct.
The nearest example I could relate to would be getting a job offer (which isn't what this was either, btw) from the RNC. As much of a die hard liberal and Democrat as I am (and given that politics matters a lot more then software, imho anyway) I would not use this type of language in declining such a job offer.
Pompous ass sounds about right.
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, if approached by Microsoft today to come back, I would use language similar to his, only I would indicate different reasoning: their current policy shift away from pro-consumer, and restricting the user at every turn; treating every single customer like a criminal. Not allowing de-activation of Windows for license transfers. Implementing DRM throughout the OS. Suing customers who switch away from Windows, or sell old, retired licenses on eBay. Suing college students who resell UNOPENED academic licensing after Microsoft and their resellers refuse to honor the 30-day money-back guarantee, then when they settle out of court after being countersued for breach of contract, pay up big and then bind the customer to an NDA to hide the evil.
Fuck Microsoft. Really. This is coming from a former Microserf, and a former Microsoft fan.
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft were unethical and quite willing to scre over people 10 or 15 years ago. If they've done more, it's only because they were in the position to do so. What's happened is that you've grown up a bit, and the scales have fallen from your eyes; you're seeing MS *then* as your old naive self remembers them, not with your current
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:3, Insightful)
While you may completely diagree with their policy and think that the company is shitty, why do anything other than take the high road.
"Thanks but no thanks"
Then you don't look like a twat.
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree. That was very un-professional of him. If I were an IBM exec, I would be a little upset about that name drop. I love Linux but stuff like this is holding it back. Do we really want this to be the public perception of our Linux all-stars? What a self-absorbed asshole. He even referred to his own writings as propaganda.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Get over yourself ESR! (Score:3, Funny)
oh and i love this part:
and talked IBM and Wall Street and the Fortune 500 into buying in
i'm sorry... but this is just ridiculous.
yeah... ESR: get over yourself... sheesh... i get those kinds of emails 3 or 4 times a day. they aren't job offers.
*wonders if ESR jerks off to Revolution OS [imdb.com]*-- eeewww... sorry about that dreadful image
Dinner time (Score:5, Insightful)
Given that I'm constantly being told how bad the IT job-market is, I suspect most would... Now Eric's made a chunk of change out of being an OS advocate (I think it was Redhat that gave him a load of shares), but I'm sure MS is in the position to offer seriously tempting offers to just about anyone. Kudos to him for sticking by his principles...
Simon
Re:Dinner time (Score:3, Funny)
My mind automatically replaced "a woman" with "Bill Gates" in that last sentence...
Please excuse me while I attempt to remove my brain with my fingernails.
Well Known ? (Score:3, Informative)
His page :
http://www.catb.org/~esr/ [catb.org]
Re:Well Known ? (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds arrogant (Score:5, Insightful)
Pride goeth before a fall. The classy thing to do would be to thank the person (whose v- address signifies that they're a vendor, in this case a headhunter) and decline politely, then make your plans to piss on Gates's grave or whatever floats your boat.
Re:Sounds arrogant (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, that's why everybody knows you and never heard of Stallman...
Re:Sounds arrogant (Score:3, Insightful)
ESR is right, he did write most of the theory and propaganda for Open Source and if you ask Stallman, he'll have nothing to do with OS.
See: Open source movement [wikipedia.org]
ACCEPT (Score:4, Funny)
1) Your office filetypes are made public
2) Your publicises the OS system server calls.
3) Stop funding biased reports.
4) Hey, while your at it: open-source Windows OS (all of them)...
It's NOT an offer... just a troll... (Score:5, Insightful)
I get a similar e-mail every few months.
I SINCERELYY hope... (Score:2, Interesting)
That this was a joke someone at Microsoft was playing on the "new guy". I'd hate to think there's actually someone there that could be that clueless.
Microsoft looking for help? (Score:3, Funny)
and (Score:3, Funny)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Glad to hear those crazy kids are back together.
If you don't understand them... (Score:2)
Oblig ref. (Score:2, Funny)
I remeber this episode! ESR takes the job after Microsft offers to give ESR's son a "real life" and wipe everyone's memory.
Sashclode (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently he was also going to put in "and Slashdot begins using CSS", but took it out at the last minute.
ESR Offer (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:ESR Offer (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean people too dumb to realize that the email was a template sent from a headhunter who is contracted to, but doesn't actually work as an employee of Microsoft?
Or do you mean people who are so absolutely lacking in sense and diplomacy that they go off like a loon on something like this, giving their "enemies" perfect ammunition in the form of "Gee, you're really thinking of open source stuff, huh? Well, you know... This guy (hands out a copy of this rant) is one of the key people behind that whole thing, and he doesn't exactly come off as stable, you know? Do you really want to trust your business to that guy? Or would you rather trust it to a company like us, with a long history and billions of dollars that isn't going anywhere?"
Or perhaps you mean people who are so self-absorbed that they dismiss the work of the entire OS community and take credit for their work?
Or maybe you meant someone who is so freaking delusional that he thinks he singlehandedly talked the Fortune 500 into examining open source?
I'm no MS fangirl, but jesus, if this is an example of a FOSS evangelist... There's a rather serious image issue, dontcha think? "Starving" the FOSS movement of resources like ESR might not be a bad idea.
I wonder if he would be another (Score:2)
How insulting (Score:5, Funny)
"I'd thank you for your offer of employment at Microsoft, except that it indicates that either you or your research team (or both) couldn't get a clue if it were pounded into you with baseball bats. What were you going to do with the rest of your afternoon, offer jobs to Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds?"
Right, because we all know ESR is on the same level with those two guys because he's responsible for uh... What exactly did he do?
Obligatory "Everboby loves Eric Raymond": http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/archive/show-them- the-code [geekz.co.uk]
Re:How insulting (Score:3, Informative)
Just for the uninformed (sorry for ruining the joke...)
Write / maintain software [catb.org].
Write books [catb.org], the most known being "The Cathedral and the Bazaar".
Direct from his homepage [catb.org].
Now that's funny... (Score:2)
sigh (Score:2)
RMS [stallman.org], while a bit self-admittedly silly at times, at least conducts himself in a more courteous and polite fashion.
This is but one of the many non-idealogical reasons that I prefer to think of myself in the Free Software Community, rather than the Open Source Community.
Re:sigh (Score:3, Interesting)
Render unto me a ****ing break.
Anyone who's read ESR's writings knows that this is definitely not the way he deals with the world in general. He's a professional to the core. This situation was simply too funny to pass up the opportunity.
I would have been much more restrained, myself, but then I can't afford to burn bridges. ESR's bridges with Microsoft were smoldering ash
Re:sigh (Score:3, Insightful)
He is putting himself forward as an evangelist, a mouthpiece, and he should know better than to behave like a whack-job.
I can very easily see ways that companies such as MS could spin this to make the OS community look like a bunch of loons. "Do you really want to trust your business to a guy who goes off like (hands out letter) this to something like a form letter f
Well done ESR (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well done ESR (Score:5, Insightful)
Really... um... did you EXPECT ESR to react in a rational and polite manner?
It's like George Bush offering a job to Michael Moore. What do you think Michael Moore would do? Politely decline and keep it private?
Hell no!
That's the thing with vocal individuals... they're really loud.
Handled very incompetently (Score:5, Funny)
it would skew the odds the wrong way (Score:4, Funny)
Clippy
Outlook Express
Why would you want to make ESR more qualified to create products like those?
Re:Handled very incompetently (Score:3, Funny)
Judging his response he did...
Raymond fits right into MS (Score:5, Insightful)
The guy is a total fraud.
Re:Raymond fits right into MS (Score:3)
Of everything ESR has done, for better or for worse, "The Cathedral and The Bazaar" is probably his best work. It was very good, solid writing. Calling it "pot smoking nonsense" indicates you either haven't read it, or just don't understand it.
could be a trend (Score:5, Interesting)
This happened to me recently as well. I am not as well known as ESR in general linux circles, but those of you who mess around with audio software on Linux probably know me as the author of both JACK and Ardour. MS called me 10 days ago about a job, and emailed me again yesterday. The caller indicated that he knew all about my work on linux audio, and my feelings about MS, but assured me that "MS was changing". I was sent a URL for an PR/newswire "article" suggesting that MS was moving "toward open source".
Like ESR, I indicated to them that Microsoft was a company that I could never consider working for, under any circumstances whatsoever.
Re:could be a trend (Score:3, Interesting)
I might be better known in the linux circles, just because of the publicity that CherryOS gave the PearPC community.
I was sick of working for $8/hour with the skills that I had, or worse working piecemeal at a job that was dirty and annoying for at one point $500 a month because there wasn't any other work that I could have done. So when Microsoft called, I was willing to go work for them.
While they say they're working towards Open Source, they're not. Many parts of
Re:could be a trend (Score:5, Insightful)
If they identify a lot of open source contributors who are struggling to make ends meet working in the open source world and hire them they both reduce contributions to open source, and they make open source look bad. In particular they are testing to see if people will sell out and sell open source down the river in exchange for piles of cash. Their coffers are deep enough they could hire a lot of struggling open source developers with ease.
They kind of did this to OpenGL a while ago, hiring Kurt Akeley, David Blythe and Michael Cohen in particular. Those people were faced with clinging to the sinking ship that is SGI and OpenGL or sell out to Microsoft and DirectX which totally dominates the desktop and gaming. They both get good researchers and they drain talent away from OpenGL in hopes of pushing it further in to irrelevance.
If you hop in to the wayback machine they did the same thing to Borland, hiring all their top people just to put them out to pasture.
Re:could be a trend (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft completely raided the Borland C++ compiler development team.
Borland had the best product and Microsoft's was a crappy also-ran.
After the raid, Microsoft had the best product and Borland never recovered.
Slipping of MS's radar? (Score:5, Interesting)
My wife, upon hearing of this, suggested that if something like this could happen maybe I haven't made enough trouble for Microsoft lately, and I'm slipping off their radar. She might have a point...
Come on, ESR is pretty much off everyone's radar at the moment and has been for some time. The problem is that he doesn't DO anything much [geekz.co.uk] - as opposed to RMS and Linus who are of continuing significance. Seriously, aside from posting about gun rights and racial IQ differences on his blog, what does ESR get up to these days that anyone really cares about?
Re:Slipping of MS's radar? (Score:5, Informative)
-russ
What a pompous jerk (Score:5, Insightful)
As big as Raymond thinks that he is, bullshitting with IBM execs and "maintaining" the jargon file doesn't make you a B-list celebrity.
I've always found the the way that people treat waiters, clerical staff, etc reveals alot about that person's character. Raymond's self-aggrandizing, insulting and borderline abusive reply says nearly all that needs to be said about him.
Misleading (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, his response was humorous, and possibly therefore worthy of
I would rather have seen an "unsubscribe" reply... with a followup in case he gets another email from the vendor.
It's happened to me... (Score:5, Interesting)
----- Original Message -----
From: James Hunt
To: 'Mauricio '
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2000 9:46 AM
Subject: RE: UNIX Opportunities at Microsoft - WebTV
Thank you for the quick reply. I respect an individual that sticks to
their morals. Take care.
James
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mauricio [mailto:mauricio@xxxx.com%5D [mailto]
> Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2000 1:51 PM
> To: James Hunt
> Subject: Re: UNIX Opportunities at Microsoft - WebTV
>
>
> James
>
> Thank you for taking the time to look at my resume and to send me the
> description for this job. Unfortunately, being an advocate of open source,
> it would be against my morals to work for the Anti-Christ. But I do
> appreciate you having taken the time to email me.
>
> Regards,
> Mauricio
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: James Hunt
> To:
> Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 12:15 PM
> Subject: UNIX Opportunities at Microsoft - WebTV
>
>
> > Hi Mauricio,
> >
> > I am interested in your background for our full-time UNIX/Solaris sys.
> admin
> > position at Mircosoft.
> >
> > This position is within the Network Operations Center of our WebTV
> division
> > which is a 100% Solaris shop, supporting more than 1 million
subscribers.
> > We are located at the brand new Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus in
> Mountain
> > View, along with several other Microsoft divisions (5 buildings).
> >
> > If you are interested, I would like to set up a time for us to speak via
> > phone. Simply reply to this message or call me at (650) 693 3542.
> >
> > I have also attached the job description. >
> >
> > Kindest Regards,
> >
> > James
> >
> >
> > James Hunt
> > Microsoft - WebTV
> > Technical Recruiter
> > http://www.webtv.com/ [webtv.com]
> > http://www.microsoft.com/ [microsoft.com]
---
Film at 11!
Re:It's happened to me... (Score:5, Interesting)
Somehow I just got this feeling that you pulled this "email conversation" out of your ass. I highly doubt a recruiter from Microsoft would make a typo like that.
Re:It's happened to me... (Score:5, Insightful)
How much? (Score:3, Interesting)
Full of himself... (Score:5, Funny)
"WHAT? You don't know me? Why, I am famous. Yes I am so, so famous! You must be an idiot if you don't know my name! Why I am your worse nightmare! I said that in a very famous online flame war! I am the famous open source guy! I am up there with Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds. You have heard of them, but you never head of me? But I am famous! Your an idiot if you don't know who I am!"
What a pompous ass!
Can't we get some open source advocates with charisma? Maybe we could all pitch in and hire an out of work TV actor to be our open source spokesperson, instead of the usual juvenile socially disaffected geeks.
Re:Full of himself... (Score:5, Funny)
Sure, but they'll only have a 10 or 11 in wisdom and intelligence...
Re:Full of himself... (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft's Secret Recruiting Methods (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe they mean that, after working at Microsoft, he knows what _not_ to do.
Ballmer and Raymond, a Match in Heaven (Score:3, Insightful)
Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.
Eric should go work for Microsoft. He fits right in.
What a tool. (Score:5, Insightful)
Johnson, take a look at this! (Score:5, Funny)
MS Exec: "Dear Lord, this guy is full of the worst concoction of bullshit and self-importance I've ever seen. We have to get him a position in marketing."
To ESR: Take the damn job (Score:3, Insightful)
ESR's Maturity Level (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ESR's Maturity Level (Score:3, Interesting)
How can you say that his reply represents open source? The projects I've been involved with or have been a user of have never ever replied to any of my inquiries that way. Perhaps in your book, it does.
Re:ESR's Maturity Level (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously, "I've in fact been something pretty close to your company's worst nightmare since about 1997"? Who does he think he is, google?
Missed A Free Trip! (Score:3, Insightful)
That wasn't a "job offer" (Score:3, Interesting)
Job offer comes if you successfully complete a six-hour interview, and he'd probably be rejected during phone interview without further consideration. I seriously envy the guy. He thinks so much about himself. Humility be damned.
Meanwhile, in Steve Balmer's office ... (Score:5, Funny)
Steve Balmer: "Please tell me you didn't try to recruit Eric Raymond."
Mike Walters: "It was Eric Raymond."
Steve Balmer does his Bobby Knight imitation.
A joke? (Score:3, Funny)
And a pretty funny one, too! If all it takes to get Eric's knickers in a knot is getting a form letter from a company recuiter (which he calls a "job offer"--makes you wonder how inflated the rest of his claims are!), then this is much too easy!
I suspect he'll start getting lots of calls from every fast-food joint and Starbucks around the country! And he'll be equally mad that *they've* never heard of him!
The real goal behind these recruitments ... (Score:4, Interesting)
... is to tie up as many open source people under non-compete agreements [slashdot.org] as they (MSFT) can. Not only can they (open source people) not contribute while working for Microsoft, they can't contribute thereafter, either. And that's for contributions to either OSS or Google [slashdot.org] (kill two birds with one hire).