Culture

Technical reference for developers and articles for varied Microsoft magazines like Microsoft Systems Journal (or MSJ) square measure on the market through the Microsoft Developer Network(MSDN). MSDN additionally offers subscriptions for firms and people, and therefore the costlier subscriptions typically provide access to pre-release beta versions of Microsoft computer code. In April 2004 Microsoft launched a community web site for developers and users, titled Channel9, that gives a wiki and an online forum. Another community web site that gives daily videocasts and different services, On10.net, launched on March three, 2006. Free technical support is historically provided through on-line Usenet newsgroups, andCompuServe within the past, monitored by Microsoft employees; there are often many newsgroups for one product. useful individuals are often electoral by peers or Microsoft staff for Microsoft Most worthy skilled (MVP) standing, that entitles them to a kind of special rank and potentialities for awards and different edges.
Noted for its internal lexicon, the expression "eating our own dog food" is employed to explain the policy of exploitation prerelease and beta versions of product within Microsoft in a trial to check them in "real-world" things. this can be typically shortened to only "dog food" and is employed as noun, verb, and adjective. Another little bit of jargon, FYIFV or FYIV ("Fuck You, i am [Fully] Vested"), is employed by AN worker to point they're financially freelance and may avoid work anytime they want. the corporate is additionally famous for its hiring method, mimicked in different organizations and dubbed the "Microsoft interview", that is ill-famed for freaky queries like "Why could be a cover round?".
Microsoft is AN outspoken opponent of the cap on H1B visas, which permit firms within the U.S. to use bound foreign staff. Gates claims the cap on H1B visas makes it troublesome to rent staff for the corporate, stating "I'd definitely get eliminate the H1B cap" in 2005. Critics of H1B visas argue that restful the boundaries would end in accumulated state for U.S. voters owing to H1B staff operating for lower salaries. The Human Rights Campaign company Equality Index, a report of however progressive the organization deems company policies towards LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) staff, rated Microsoft as eighty seven from 2002 to 2004 and as 100% from 2005 to 2010 when they allowed gender expression.