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The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting

By | July 21, 2010, 7:15am PDT

Summary: It’s MGX time for Microsoft. The Microsoft Global Experience (MGX) is the company’s annual sales meeting for about 10,000 selected employees and a few outside guests. What are the attendees(carefully) tweeting?

It’s MGX time for Microsoft. The Microsoft Global Experience (MGX) is the company’s annual sales meeting for about 10,000 selected employees and a few outside guests.

MGX is in Atlanta again and is running this week. Attendees are being careful about what they tweet, knowing many of us are watching the #MGX hashtag. But already there have been a few interesting and amusing tweets (and pics) from the conference.

Here are a few of my favorite MGX-centric tweets so far (in no particular order):

Just landed in Atlanta. Plane was 1/2 Microsoft and 1/2 Boy Scouts

Hoping I am not the only person at #MGX with an #iPad :s

OH: if google or apple wanted to take us out this would be the place to do it #mgx

Emotional 30-year tribute to Steveb. He was rendered completely speechless. Incredibly intense and moving experience. #MGX
(In other words, “See, not everybody is calling for Microsoft’s CEO to resign or be impeached.”)

“VDI doesn’t SOLVE your app-to-OS or app-to-app problems… it CENTRALIZES your app-to-app and app-to-OS problems.” #mgx
(VDI = virtual desktop infrastructure)

I think that was a cockroach that just flew past me in the Hotel Midtown bar! Love this place: #MGX

In all my years, I’ve never heard “you have all your teeth” as part of a pickup line. Until today. Atlanta is strange. #mgx

How to say 3 weeks of vacation in MIcrosoft language? “OOF to WPC, MGX & TR”
(Translation for those not schooled in Microsoft acronyms: Out of the office to the Worldwide Partner Conference, MGX and the upcoming TechReady conference in Seattle.)

So I must have missed a party yesterday - the gym was completely empty today. #MGX

We would like to welcome all of the people from #microsoft in #atlanta. Please enjoy your stay and don’t forget to smoke your #cigars

Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner gave his “rah-rah” speech last week at the Worldwide Partner Conference, where he bashed Microsoft competitors Apple, Google, VMware and Oracle. The competitor bashing volume is surely turned up even higher at MGX.

Here’s hoping Microsoft has something to show its troops, regarding what’s coming on the Windows slate front…. We now know Hewlett Packard hasn’t dropped plans for its Windows 7 slate (but Asus has dropped its plans for a Windows Embedded Compact one). Microsoft needs to show existing and potential customers why Windows 7 slates are worth waiting for and (supposedly) better than the iPad…..

(Image: Courtesy of @barbarajosef: Pic of the MGX stage.)

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Topics

Atlanta, Microsoft Corp., Conference, MGX, #MGX, Desktop Virtualization, Sales Strategy, Virtualization, Sales Force Management, Hardware, Sales, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
eInfinity 21st Jul 2010
Its not we are asking for SteveB's head, it is that MS needs fresh blood at the helm. It is humanly impossibly to stare at system for 30 years and still remain observant. Everything obeys the law of diminishing return. You can't be agile after 30 years at a post. BillG knows when to leave, why don't SteveB? Look at his response to the iPhone saga for a good example.
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You seem not to be. You seem to be looking only at todays market share
Johnny Vegas 21st Jul 2010
His respsonse to the iphone saga is exceptionally well done and looks to be much like his response to linux netbooks. The dev buildup is incredibly strong, the marketing build up should be starting very soon, and the sales build up is coming this fall. Five years from now looking back it will be amazing to see how completely apple has been out manuvered...
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hmmm
rjohn05 21st Jul 2010
@Johnny Vegas

I hope you're right. But I don't see it.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
ta1 21st Jul 2010
I hope you're NOT right. And I don't see it either. Much too early to tell, and I'm still wondering why the Iphone4 antennagate has gotten more press than all of Microsoft's problems combined, just within the last month or so. Makes you wonder who is reporting WHAT and WHY.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
mnegrini@... 21st Jul 2010
@eInfinity Well, I am asking for SeteveB's head.
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Me too...
rjohn05 21st Jul 2010
@mnegrini@...

Very much so.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
ta1 21st Jul 2010
But will your hat collection fit it? How will it look on your shoulders? If you aren't going to wear it, what do you want it for? Why would he want you to have it? Why aren't you also asking for Steve Jobs' jeans?
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Please 'Refudiate'
OS Reload Updated - 21st Jul 2010
Microsoft is a predatory corporation obsessed with maximizing its profits and political power.

'Misunderestimate' the threat of Microsoft's attempts to steal your freedom and you end up getting ripped off and stuck with substandard tech.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
mnegrini@... 21st Jul 2010
@OS Reload Hey troll, show me ONE aspect where Linux is better than Windows. Security problems are over, so what's left? Hippie Stallman as posterboy?
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Just leave the conversation to the grown-ups, OK?
OS Reload 21st Jul 2010
@mnegrini@...

I'll be glad to talk to you later, I'll wait till you graduate from potty training school.
  • Flagged
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
ta1 21st Jul 2010
If security problems are "over" please explain the existence of outfits like Nortons and Symantec and other bigger outfits who own substantial blocks of their stock. Sounds like an implicit vote of confidence in the future of "security problems NOT being over" to me.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
PollyProteus Updated - 21st Jul 2010
@OS Reload

"Microsoft is a predatory corporation obsessed with maximizing its profits and political power."

And this is different from Apple, Google and any other multi-national company how? That's what the capitalist business model is and always has been. Anything else is Socialism or Communism and currently even Obama says he's not Socialist.

"'Misunderestimate' the threat of Microsoft's attempts to steal your freedom and you end up getting ripped off and stuck with substandard tech."

Actually Microsoft has gotten better on the software front and I'm not sure what "tech" (which I interpret as hardware) you refer to as being substandard. All the hardware I've used that's actually Microsoft designed is pretty good. It's the third party hardware that ranges between high quality and marginal.

So please, provide data points and references for those datapoints. And keep in mind that popularity is not equal to quality, so don't say things like "Zune sucks so it's a failure" because the Zune devices actualy rock, it's the software that I'm not crazy about.
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Capitalism does not equate to predatory behaviors
OS Reload Updated - 21st Jul 2010
@PollyProteus

In fact, such practices as predatory lending and Microsoft-style shutting down of able competitors do more harm to capitalism than any socialist or communist actions.

Capitalism is all about competition and efficiency gains. Microsoft-style destruction of more efficient businesses goes against capitalism.

A well functioning capitalist economy is Microsoft's worst nightmare.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
de-void-21165590650301806002836337787023 21st Jul 2010
@OS Reload - You said "Microsoft is a predatory corporation obsessed with maximizing its profits and political power."

Erm ... forgive me, but isn't that what Corporations are FOR? If a corporation doesn't focus on making profit, then it generally won't. If a corporation doesn't make profit, it doesn't survive for long. How, after all, will a corporation pay its staff, suppliers, etc., if its not making money?
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Some are but the ethical ones sure are NOT!
OS Reload Updated - 21st Jul 2010
@de-void

Unethical corporations are invasive agents in a functioning capitalist economy, much like the flu virus in a human body. They know they have no change of surviving in a healthy body so they act to make that body sick so they can live.

Ethical corporations act in a different manner, they make sure that the body that hosts them thrives because that will bring in more profits. Ethical corporations thrive in a healthy body.

Meanwhile, unethical corporations know that they need a sick body to survive so they act with no regard for the body that hosts them and when allowed to run unchecked they undermine economy leading to recessions and market failure.

Microsoft and other unethical corporations have a long history of killing them (competitors) while they are still young and fragile. That's not only unethical, that's also uncapitalistic because it acts against the market.

To sum thinks up: Corporations that act in unethical ways do so because their interests go against the interests of the hosting body while ethical corporations act that ways because their interests are aligned with those of the host body.

Both kinds of corporation act to maximize profits.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
ta1 21st Jul 2010
Stricly speaking, No. The purpose of a Corporation is to insulate owners (persons) from risking all of their property if the business fails. A corporation is a LIMITED liability, where a stock holder can only lose the entire value of the STOCK, and not his home or his car or his reputation, and cannot be put into debtors' prison for having held stock that lost value. All the rest of the assumptions about the "purpose of a corporation" is the judgment of the Board of Directors. Keep in mind that some Corporations are NON PROFIT (yet some of them pay their CEO quite well) hence your assumption about the purpose of their existence, stands rather directly contrary to the stated purpose of those.
And in the case of the for-profit ones, there is quite a long and slippery slope.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
ta1 21st Jul 2010
There may be greedy and power hungry people at Microsoft but there are probably a few at my company too, despite its efforts to cultivate a squeaky-clean image (with mixed results). No matter what, you can always vote with your wallet, or run free Linux and turn your OS into a brand new hobby.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
windozefreak 21st Jul 2010
@ta1
Right on! And, if a company sales you a product that cannot perform is basic function, and another conglomorate make a product it cannot sale, What have you. The short answer: Fanbois!!!!
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
Enuffsaid 21st Jul 2010
So glad I skipped it this year so I don't have to listen to KT talk about how we're going to grow market share while Apple is lapping us in revenue, market cap, and mobile share.
Did they show the lame Mobile video again--the geek on the bike ordering a pizza?
Did Steveb, after receiving his standing ovation, discuss why we should really, really, really, really believe him this time?

"Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?"
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
ta1 21st Jul 2010
Yeah, and inquiring minds wanna know how pizza gets delivered to someone who is moving, and how they eat a pizza while riding a bike. But I guess that just makes me a curmudegon who does not get invited to marketing glitz parties.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
midcapwarrior@... 21st Jul 2010
The TR crowd is different from the MGX/WPC crowd. Really doubt you attend all three.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
ta1 21st Jul 2010
@PollyProteus

I think that is an unfair criticism of socialism and communism and an unjustified idealistic portrayal of capitalism. All three economic systems/cultures contain greedy and power hungry people, as well as ones that would be good social company. To dismiss one system out of hand as unwelcoming to business, seems unbelievable given the existence of mainland China, which is still a "communism" by most "capitalist" standards.
I notice that capitalists seem to be willing to go there and come home with money, stringent standards of loyalty to ones perceived economic system, notwithstanding.

Microsoft has "gotten better" just because they have not gotten WORSE, and they have no plans to reqlinquish their dominant status in the desktop market, for the interests of "capitalism" or any other silly reason that would lower their stock value on NASDAQ on any given Tuesday.

You want datapoints? Just watch the stock market, and see how the numbers jump and dive when some corporate talking-head makes a provocative statement, or is caught some some form of hand in the cookie jar. Much more entertaining than Hollywood Fan Magazines, and these stories actually appear to have some basis in fact. And you can day-trade, thus essentially putting some chips on the craps table during someone else's roll, betting either PASS or NO-PASS as you figure their transient fortunes might go. Have fun with it; if you are really that astute a judge, you can quit your day job.


"Tech" of course has no appeal at all to some people, so let them do as they will. In THOSE sectors of the culture war, "popularity" is EVERYTHING, and that is why I like the tech world. At least here, popularity has some basis of arguable value to a society and I can't say that for some other sectors of the economy.
Some even seem to arrogantly benefit during times where their conduct is DAMAGING to the rest of the world, and they continue to conduct themselves with typical disinterest in the results of their greed and misdeeds. I won't mention any names, but I wonder how much fan mail "Deep Horizon" has been getting lately from its adoring fans.

Personally I have never used a Zune device and so far my life still appears to have some meaning.
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RE: The ten best tweets (so far) from Microsoft's global sales meeting
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