Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s yearlong war with Hamas.

Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.

The two employees told The Associated Press they were fired by phone call late Thursday, several hours after a lunchtime event they organized at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington.

Both workers were members of a coalition of employees called “No Azure for Apartheid” that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government. But they contended that Thursday’s event was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving campaigns for people in need.

“We have so many community members within Microsoft who have lost family, lost friends or loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist. “But Microsoft really failed to have the space for us where we can come together and share our grief and honor the memories of people who can no longer speak for themselves.”

Microsoft said Friday it has “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy” but declined to provide details.

Google earlier this year fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

  • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4110·
    19 hours ago

    The goalposts have moved to hopefully their final position

    • 99% of my games don’t work! I’m not switching!

    • About half of my games don’t work, I’m not swiching!

    • 20% of my games don’t work but the ones that do are all perfect, I’m not switching!

    • 10% of my games don’t work and Valve is pushing for functioning anticheat with EasyAntiCheat and BattleEye, i’m not switching!

    • You are here → 0.1% of my games don’t work because of holdout companies being assholes and going out of their way to specifically block Linux despite the massive success of the Steam Deck, I’m not switching!

    At some point you have to ask yourself if it’s the companies thats holding you back or if it’s really actually you who are holding yourself back. Switching is gonna always require some kind of sacrifice or another, and currently that sacrifice has never been this minimal.

    Either that, or you are just the kind of person who enjoys being a contrarian and has no interest in actually contributing anything meaningful.

    • gaael@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 hours ago

      Well, actually Linux is shit productivity-wise. Setting up the system and messing with it is easy and fun, trying new open-source alternatives is great, and all my games work without a hitch. I just can’t seem to find the time to get actual work done !
      /s

    • Veneroso@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      13 hours ago

      So which Linux distribution is the most pro-Israel?

      I think that I need a little more convincing.

      (Obligatory and huge /S)

      (Also probably Oracle Linux because of course)

      • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        12 hours ago

        Interestingly, the Linux foundation had to remove several Russian maintainers recently because of the sanctions.

        I have not looked into the details on the matter, but from what I gleaned it seems like they did not want to (don’t punish the individual for the sins of their government), but were made to. Linus Torvalds apparently made a statement on the matter that I still need to go read.

        I could be very very wrong on this and am open to being educated.

    • Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3·
      16 hours ago

      I still dualboot because I have games that don’t work right, but every instance of that in my case seems to be problems with DXVK. In some cases, but not all, I’ve noticed it severely degrades performance, and in others, it seems to break certain features, such as streaming video. I actually had one game that I finished about 90% of before I encountered a sequence with a projector playing a video with important information. That would only display on Windows without DXVK, which was… unpleasant.

      Of course, the most extreme DXVK problem I ever encountered was about two years ago, but I can’t remember what game it was. What I do remember, however, is the extreme and rapid flashing it caused as the visuals horribly corrupted. IMO, DXVK functionality seems to still be one of the bigger hurdles.

      • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        13 hours ago

        So the projector thing isnt from DXVK, but rather from the Windows Media Foundation library. Basically, there are a bunch of video codecs that are completely illegal to reimplement locally because of the patents on them.

        The good news is that Valve is working on a major workaround, and just pushed it out to Proton Experimental recently. They’ve had okay-to-good support for video codecs up until recently (they pushed out some fixes for it right around after you had that problem), and now it should be moving towards great-to-perfect.

    • DeathsEmbrace@lemm.eeEnglish
      55·
      14 hours ago

      No it literally doesn’t work it’s not compatible. Also don’t be a bitch Linux does not have the same perfect out of box play. Every game I can just run it without needing to worry about it being compatible. You literally need to use Proton which is *hint *hint compatibility layer that is not 100% compatible. There are games I literally can never play because it’s Linux. Also I have to manually add scripts to the startup which is not beginner friendly. Troubleshooting took me more time than windows ever did so no excuses from you Linux lovers I never once needed to troubleshoot running the OS from start. Also if you are using a 4K screen in 2024 not a single one of them works except for a few like Pop to me this is the only embarrassing part.

      • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        57·
        14 hours ago

        Honestly it sounds like you suck more than linux does, because I have never had any of those problems. My 4k monitors have all worked perfectly, and with wayland i have a successful mixed resolution/scaling/refresh rate setup.

        If anyone is being a bitch, its you. You sound salty as fuck. I kind of hope you don’t switch so the linux community doesnt have to put up with your awful attitude.

        Oh, and no shit you need Proton. Thats not even worth discussing.

        • DeathsEmbrace@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          9 hours ago

          Yeah because you use the few distributions that work with 4k like I explained. There are enough that literally don’t work because you need a 1920x1080 or similar monitor to then switch DPI to make 4k compatible.

        • mightyfoolish@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          13 hours ago

          I thought your first post was slightly aggressive but this post goes too far. We should be preaching the ethics of free software first; while always remembering everyday ethics so we don’t end up as hypocrites.

          From what I’m hearing, Microsoft wants to ban anti-cheat and plenty of other kernel-space software. They are possible security issues (along with all of Windows).

          • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            23·
            12 hours ago

            My post you are replying to is absolutely aggressive and was 100% intended to be at the time. I am calmer now though.

            The original post was not written with any aggression in mind. Could you expand on how it sounded that way? I didn’t feel any aggression until they started namecalling and making unfactual claims.

            • mightyfoolish@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              11 hours ago

              just the kind of person who enjoys being a contrarian

              I thought the end was slightly passive aggressive. It wasn’t bad at all.

              The other user did namecall first but I think we of the Linux community have to remember we used free software out of ethics. Things seem more rosy and user-friendly comparatively now but you have to remember the people who have the same ethics will “stick it out” regardless of the end user experience.

        • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          13 hours ago

          Average response when I ask for help with linux on forums. Also pot meet kettle on the attitude dude.

            • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              13 hours ago

              Check the username dude wrong person, besides you started the whole thing by accusing them of goalpost moving.

              • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                11·
                13 hours ago

                I accused the community as a whole of goalpost moving.

                But you’re right, i did get the username wrong.

                With that being said, I’m not here as community support. Im not offering you or anyone support. I am calling out the inaccuracies and the slander.

          • trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            22·
            13 hours ago

            No it literally doesn’t work it’s not compatible. Also don’t be a bitch…

            That is a really interesting way of asking for help. Next time I need help, I’ll try being obstinate and predetermining that the thing I need help with just doesn’t work while calling them a bitch and see how that goes.

            I usually try actually asking for help and refrain from calling the person I’m talking to a bitch.

            • DeathsEmbrace@lemm.eeEnglish
              2·
              9 hours ago

              This isn’t a help forum and I don’t ask for help here you might not understand this but not every game is compatible and there are enough games that aren’t compatible for me to not switch because of it. Some VR games I can just forget Linux. ProtonDB is a good source as well. I think you’re projecting you need help onto me.

            • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              13 hours ago

              Can none of yall read usernames? Not the same guy, you even went through the effort to quote his message and didn’t pick up on it.

              • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                12 hours ago

                A lot of people grew up in a time where the desire for anonymity on the internet was praised and respected, reading usernames unless you had a specific reason to do so was considered strange.

                I know I at the very least have to force myself to look at them if it’s something that needs doing, as I am conditioned specifically to ignore them.

                • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  2·
                  12 hours ago

                  Not sure what a desire for anonymity on the internet and making sure you’re responding to the right person have to do with each other. Been on the internet for 30+ years now.

              • trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
                22·
                13 hours ago

                I’m on mobile, but I stand by what I said. Responding to someone that was responding to someone else that was being obstinate with average response when I ask for help is missing the actual point.

                The OP that I quoted wanted to be combative, got a combative response, and then someone else you made it about “asking for help”, which is their your fault if they you think that this thread had anything to do with it.

                • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  2·
                  12 hours ago

                  Responding again since your just gonna edit rather than repond. I didn’t think it was asking for help, I was joking.

                • Daveyborn@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  21·
                  12 hours ago

                  I didn’t make it about anything, I was joking. And i assume he was nasty and combative cause he misinterpreted the big goalpost comment as an attack on them.

    • grubbyweasel@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1314·
      17 hours ago

      Relax. Choice of operating system is entirely a personal one and you’re turning it into some kind of obligation.

      There’s no goalposts to move because it’s not a debate. You’ve never spoken to that person before and all you know about them is that they don’t personally feel ready to switch. Don’t be cringe

        • grubbyweasel@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3·
          10 hours ago

          its a personal decision that can be made for political reasons i.e. none of your business quite frankly, and i say this as a Linux user myself

      • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        25·
        13 hours ago

        I think that talking about how you want to switch but then claim the thing you want to switch to sucks because of totally fabricated reasons is cringe.

        I don’t think everyone should switch, but i do think that people walking around spouting out bullshit that they clearly have no idea about should be called out and shut down.