Welcome to The Long View—where we peruse the news of the week and strip it to the essentials. Let’s work out what really matters.

This week: Google complains to the FTC about Microsoft market abuses, and new graduates don’t know how to office.

1. Google Accuses Microsoft of Tie-In Abuse

First up this week: Google—fresh from whining at the Eurocrats about how nasty Microsoft is to compete with—is now asking the FTC to act. Microsoft stands accused of illegally tying its other products to Azure, through “discriminatory licensing” practices.

Analysis: It’s easy to see why

It wouldn’t be the first time. Those of us with long memories can still picture Bill Gates rocking backwards and forwards while avoiding video questioning about Internet Explorer.

Aaron Holmes: Google Accuses Microsoft of Anticompetitive Cloud Practices in Complaint to FTC

After years of publicly alleging that Microsoft used its dominant position … to push customers toward Microsoft’s cloud services, Google [has] formally filed a complaint. [It says] Microsoft used the licensing terms in its Office 365 productivity software to lock customers into separate contracts with its Azure cloud server business.

Rohan Goswami and Jennifer Elias: Google accuses Microsoft of unfair practices

“Increasing costs for customers”
Google singled out Microsoft in the complaint, arguing that through its dominant Windows Server and Microsoft Offices products, the company can make it difficult for its massive roster of clients to use anything but its Azure cloud infrastructure offering. … Google also said such control represents a significant national security and cybersecurity risk.
…
In its FTC letter, Google also alleged Oracle’s practices are harmful to customers: … Google said companies such as Microsoft and Oracle “are not only forcing customers toward a monolithic cloud model but also limiting choice, increasing costs for customers, and disrupting growing and thriving digital ecosystems in the U.S. and around the world.”

With some context, here’s Ryan Triplette:

Nearly three decades ago, the Justice Department found Microsoft guilty of violating U.S. antitrust law for tying its Internet Explorer to its desktop operating system. Today, Microsoft ties numerous products to Windows, Office, and Azure.
…
Microsoft’s software licensing practices – restricting Bring Your Own License (BYOL) practices, discriminatory licensing, and tying – reduce customer choice, healthy competition, and cybersecurity in the cloud. … Microsoft is using its market power and restrictive and discriminatory licensing terms to coerce customers into using Azure cloud infrastructure and lock them into the Azure ecosystem.

It might be worse than that, according to Peter-Waterman1:

This article barely touches the surface of Microsoft’s licencing restrictions:
1. Putting up SPLA licencing costs (Cloud providers must use SPLA) more than Enterprise licence costs.
2. Preventing Windows BYOL on other Cloud Providers but allowing it on Azure …
3. Preventing Customers from running Office in other Cloud Providers.
4, Changing PaaS SQL licencing so that their customers cant use Passive licencing on secondary nodes, except in Azure.
5. Preventing customers from bringing their SQL licences to PaaS Services, other than in Azure.
6. Stopping customers using Terminal Services, except in Azure.
7. Charging customers exorbitant fees for supporting the end-of-life software anywhere except in Azure.
8. Stopping Customers using MSDN developer edition copies of Windows etc. in any place except Azure.

However, jiggawatts compares different:

Much of that list is exaggerated or completely false. For example, Microsoft actually charges their customers double if they bring their SQL Software Assurance licenses to Azure!
…
Most of my customers have 2-4 physical VMware server blades licensed per core, and then they can put as many SQL virtual machines on top as will fit into memory. Meanwhile SQL Server licensing costs are higher on Azure … because you can only license them per hyperthread.
…
I’ve run the numbers with various reseller discounts, enterprise agreements, etc., and it always turns out Azure-hosted SQL ends up being more expensive than on-prem. … Similarly, if you compare PaaS offerings like Amazon RDS for SQL vs Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL Managed Instance, you’ll find that AWS is cheaper for a given amount of performance.

From the trenches, here’s HBI:

O365 is leveraging Microsoft’s most lucrative monopoly to get Azure market share. … Leave aside the fact that O365 is a mess internally at Microsoft, the linking of the two products has worked.
…
Having spent the last 5 years trying to sell Azure within a very large public sector market, the reason why we scored many wins was the linkage to … O365 or Azure Devops. Just about everyone prefers AWS, otherwise.

Pot accuses kettle; film at 11. u/Billionairess spends it:

Insert Spidermen pointing at one another meme.

2. Generation Z Can’t Email, Chitchat nor Dress Right

Here comes the Class of ’23, with their mid-pandemic, virtualized education. Some business boomers say these pesky kids don’t know how to office—failing in wardrobe, essential soft skills and even how to email.

Analysis: Get off my lawn

It was ever thus. Details change from generation to generation, but we all had to learn new stuff on entering the workforce—and quick.

Lindsay Ellis and Ray A. Smith: New Grads Have No Idea How to Behave in the Office

“Elevator chitchat”
Many members of the class of 2023 were freshmen … when campuses shuttered due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They spent the rest of their college years partially in virtual mode. … Though new hires are digital natives, today’s graduates’ professional email skills need improvement.
…
Students didn’t learn some of the so-called soft skills they might have in the past by osmosis [resulting in] deficiencies in everything from elevator chitchat to presentation skills. … Scott Redfearn, [an] executive vice president of global human resources … said he gives a pep talk to new graduates, urging them to introduce themselves around the office, stick their hand out and smile.

Is this new? Grace Kay contextualizes thuswise: Gen-Z is taking courses on how to send an email

“Younger employees need these reminders”
Each generation faces some sort of cultural gap when entering the workforce, whether it pertains to … what qualifies as business attire, the ways to use technology and social media appropriately, or how to conform to ever-changing corporate social mores. This is no different for Gen Z than it was for Millennials entering the workforce as the first with a complex history of social media usage, or Gen X entering the workforce amid rapidly evolving corporate fashion.
…
While it’s common for companies to host onboarding sessions that cover office dynamics like attire and rules for interpersonal relationships, some experts say younger employees need these reminders now more than ever. … Meanwhile, some CEOs have said that younger workers could benefit from more time in the office.

I can’t help but agree with Baron_Yam, who blames the parents:

It really is awful. … I have seen ‘professionals’ with spelling, grammar, and even the general composition skills of a teen who only communicates via SMS.
…
[But] unless your child has a learning disability, letting them graduate into adult life unable to dress and speak appropriately is your fault. The school dropped the ball? OK, why didn’t you pick it up?

So, Simulacra simply sighs:

The participation-award generation comes of age.

The Moral of the Story:
The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes

—Frank Lloyd Wright

You have been reading The Long View by Richi Jennings. You can contact him at @RiCHi or tlv@richi.uk.

Image: Steven van Elk (via Unsplash; leveled and cropped)