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Deep inside Microsoft's "funk"

Martin LaMonica Former Staff writer, CNET News
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer covering green tech and cutting-edge technologies. He joined CNET in 2002 to cover enterprise IT and Web development and was previously executive editor of IT publication InfoWorld.
Martin LaMonica

Microsoft employees are becoming increasingly vocal about the "funk" that the company finds itself in.

A number of blogging company employees have bared their souls, complaining about the problems they see at the software giant.

Lenn Pryor, in explaining why he is leaving job of director for platform at Microsoft for a position at Sykpe, said this: "I just couldn't go on being an evangelist for a gospel that I don't believe I can sing."

On Monday, Dare Obasanjo, who works for Microsoft's MSN division, described himself as one of many employees trying to "find somewhere at Microsoft that isn't overwhelmed by the current malaise that has smothered main campus."

Pryor is not the only well loved Microsoft employee to leave the campus in recent months. Pat Helland, who worked on high-performance computing, left to join Amazon. And Mark Lukovsky a former Microsoft distinguished engineer, joined Google earlier this year.

Lukovsky's parting shot? "I would argue that Microsoft used to know how to ship software, but the world has changed," he said, referring to growing use of software delivered over the Internet.

And in one more indicator, another Microsoft employee blogging under the name Microsophist says that bloggers will push company founder Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer out of Microsoft.