by Playfuls Staff |
30th June 2006
The Redmond giant is turning into a valuable source of labor-force. For its giant rival from Mountain View-Google.[more]
We are talking about Vic Gundotra, former general manager for platform evangelism. He is to take some time off (about a year) and then he’ll join Google, according to confidentiality rules stated by the law. During this period Gundotra is going to dedicate himself to philanthropic activities.
"Mr. Gundotra has resigned from Microsoft and entered into an agreement with Google," Google said in a statement. "Though the financial arrangements are confidential, he will not be a Google employee for one year and intends to spend that time on philanthropic pursuits. We are uncertain what precise role he will play when he begins working for Google, but he has a broad range of skills and experience which we believe will be valuable to Google."
"We certainly appreciate Vic's contributions here and wish him well," said Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla.
Gundotra’s responsibilities inside Microsoft were linked to building software on the Windows and .NET platforms, and to gather outside programmers for that. He worked for Microsoft for more than 15 years and last Friday he announced his company that he is ready to take another challenge- unfortunately at Google.
Another high-ranked official to have left Microsoft for Google is Adam Bosworth, in 2004. He was a software industry icon and the secret weapon behind several products including Borland Quattro, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Internet Explorer and BEA WebLogic application server and Workshop.
He wrote at that time in a letter addressed to BEA employees that he “left great jobs at Microsoft [...] to follow this new tune. And given the opportunity to really help out at a great consumer services company, Google, I had to follow that tune again. I am terribly sorry to leave because of the people I've had the privilege of working with here at BEA. You are extraordinary people. Together we shared a vision, bringing enterprise applications to millions of developers, and you made it real." He went to become a vice president of engineering at Google.
He was followed by Marc Lucovsky, a 16-year Microsoft veteran, who was one of a handful of "Distinguished Engineers" at Microsoft. He is credited as one of the core dozen engineers that came from Digital Equipment Corp. to Microsoft and built the Windows NT operating system. He was charged with building the Windows NT executive, kernel, Win32 run-time and other key elements of the operating system. NT was the precursor to Windows Server.
Unlike his former colleague Bosworth, he left in anger, accusing Microsoft for not knowing how to ship software in a note from his blog. "I am not sure I believe anymore, that Microsoft 'knows how to ship software,'" Lucovsky wrote.
"Microsoft is supposed to be the one that 'knows how to ship software,' but you (the end user) are the one doing all the heavy lifting. You are the one that has to ship their software the last mile, install it on end user machines, ensure their machines still work after you perform this platform level surgery," he continued.
But the most surprising departure happened this month when a key-member of the Microsoft team and one of the brilliant minds there, Martin Taylor, who was also the head of the Windows Live project, left abruptly at almost the same time with Windows Live Messenger’s official launch. Microsoft named Taylor corporate vice president of Windows Live and MSN marketing in March, after 13 years inside the Redmond Corporation. Taylor was also a close friend and adviser to Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer. His resignation (?!) came shortly after the bomb-announcement from Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates that he is too to retire from his actual position in 2008.
Microsoft fought Google last year, in July, upon the case of Kai-Fu Lee. The later was named president of Google China immediately after stepping down from his position in Microsoft China. The case eventually ended with a settlement similar to the one Vic Gundotra has to submit to these days.
