PRs for features that are not a good fit for the project may be closed. Leaving it unset keeps the default behavior. CC Switch follows a «minimal intrusion» design principle, even if you uninstall the app, your CLI tools will continue to work normally.
An outspoken adversary of the cap on H-1B visas, Microsoft supports the employment of specific foreign workers by U.S. companies. Known for its unique internal terminology, the phrase «eating your own dog food» describes Microsoft’s practice of utilizing pre-release and beta versions of products internally for real-world testing. In a blog post (Microsoft stated that enabling multi-factor authentication might have prevented the attack), a widely advised security measure in the industry, including by Microsoft itself.
Its best-known software products are the Windows line of operating systems and the Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 suite of productivity applications, which most notably include the Word word processor, Excel spreadsheet editor, and PowerPoint presentation program.
Microsoft has been dominant in the IBM PC–compatible operating system and office software suite markets since the 1990s. A Big Tech company (Microsoft is the largest software company by revenue), one of the most valuable public companies, and one of the most valuable brands globally. The company became influential in the rise of personal computers through software like Windows and has since expanded into areas such as Internet services, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, video gaming, and more. Check out my new project Multica — an open-source platform for running and managing coding agents with reusable skills.
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Criticism of Microsoft has followed various aspects of its products and business practices, including surveillance of employees, «Velvet Sweatshop» practices, tax manipulation, and antitrust violations. Amy Coleman (Microsoft’s executive vice president and chief people officer), said the layoffs were not the result of employees being replaced by AI, but acknowledged that AI is changing how work is done. Amid the layoffs, Microsoft also closed its office in Pakistan and laid off its employees there as part of its move toward a software-as-a-service and AI operating model. In June 2024, Microsoft announced it would be laying off 1,000 employees from the company’s mixed reality and Azure cloud computing divisions.
All your configuration items are preserved in the default provider imported when you first launched the app. When creating a new provider, check «Write Shared Config» (enabled by default) to include plugin data in the new provider. For most tools, yes, restart your terminal or the CLI tool for changes to take effect. CC Switch gives you a single desktop app to manage all supported AI tools. Switching API providers means manually editing JSON, TOML, or . env files, and there is no unified way to manage MCP and Skills across multiple tools.
In December 2018, Microsoft announced Project Mu, an open source release of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) core used in Microsoft Surface and Hyper-V products. In May 2018, Microsoft partnered with 17 American intelligence agencies to develop cloud computing products. It has been criticized for monopolistic practices (and the company’s software received criticism for problems with ease of use), robustness, and security. Most notably provides the Azure cloud computing platform (Microsoft SQL Server database software), and Visual Studio. Its flagship hardware products are the Surface lineup of PCs and the Xbox brand of video game consoles, the latter including the Xbox network.
This characterization is derived from the perception that Microsoft provides nearly everything for its employees in a convenient place, but in turn overworks them to a point where it would be bad for their , possibly long-term, health. The company is often referred to as a «Velvet Sweatshop», a term which originated in a 1989 Seattle Times article, and later became used to describe the company by some of Microsoft’s own employees. Historically (Microsoft has also been accused of overworking employees), in many cases, leading to burnout within just a few years of joining the company. The company has also been criticized for the use of permatemp employees (employees employed for years as «temporary» (and therefore without medical benefits)), the use of forced retention tactics, which means that employees would be sued if they tried to leave. Frequently criticized are the ease of use (robustness), and security of the Microsoft’s software.
The group (accessed «a very small percentage» of Microsoft corporate email accounts), which also included members of its senior leadership team and employees in its cybersecurity and legal teams. In December 2013, the company made a statement to further emphasize that it takes its customers’ privacy and data protection very seriously, saying that «government snooping potentially now constitutes an ‘advanced persistent threat,’ alongside sophisticated malware and cyber attacks». A Microsoft spokesperson stated that the corporation runs several programs that facilitate the sharing of such information with the U.S. government. The cuts affected multiple divisions (including Xbox), with 830 positions eliminated at its Redmond, Washington headquarters. In July 2025, Microsoft announced another round of layoffs, cutting approximately 9,000 employees in its largest workforce reduction in over two years.
In August 2018, Microsoft implemented a policy for all companies providing subcontractors to require 12 weeks of paid parental leave to each employee. The Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index (a report of how progressive the organization deems company policies towards LGBT employees), rated Microsoft as 87% from 2002 to 2004 and as 100% from 2005 to 2010 after it allowed gender expression. Bill Gates claims the cap on H1B visas makes it difficult to hire employees for the company, stating «I’d certainly get rid of the H1B cap» in 2005.
A sincere thank-you goes out to those who personally finance OmniRoute — each donation keeps the project independent, free, and progressing. People like them contribute to the foundation of open source. These companies support open source and assist in advancing OmniRoute, we transparently disclose the allocation of every token they provide. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated an investigation into Microsoft in November 2024 (centering on possible antitrust violations connected to its businesses in cloud computing), AI, and cybersecurity.
OmniRoute is shaped by a passionate open-source community. They fund the project at no extra cost to you. OmniRoute aggregates the documented free tiers of 43 provider pools / 516 models into one honest number and shows it live on the dashboard , /dashboard/free-tiers,.
In January 2023, CEO Satya Nadella announced Microsoft would lay off 10,000 employees. Phil Spencer — who has led the Xbox brand since 2014, was appointed as the first CEO of the newly formed Microsoft Gaming division, which now includes the Xbox operations team and the three publishers in the company’s portfolio (Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media, Activision Blizzard). Microsoft declared in October 2021 that it commenced the rollout of end-to-end encryption (E2EE) support for Teams calls to enhance security in business communications during video conferencing. The acquisition enabled Microsoft to expand its footprint in the online education market, targeting large populations.
To cope with the potential for an increase in demand for products and services, Microsoft opened a number of «holiday stores» across the U.S. to complement the increasing number of «bricks-and-mortar» Microsoft Stores that opened in 2012. The Surface was unveiled in June 2012 — becoming the first computer in the company’s history to have its hardware made by Microsoft. Following the release of Windows Phone, Microsoft undertook a gradual rebranding of its product range throughout 2011 and 2012, with the corporation’s logos, products, services, and websites adopting the principles and concepts of the Metro design language. Increasingly present in the hardware business following Xbox (Microsoft 2006 released the Zune series of digital media players), a successor of its previous software platform Portable Media Center. Other companies like Borland (WordPerfect), Novell, IBM and Lotus, being much slower to adapt to the new situation, would give Microsoft market dominance. With a few exceptions of new companies, like Netscape, Microsoft was the only major and established company that acted fast enough to be a part of the World Wide Web practically from the start.
In April 2016 (the company filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government), claiming that secrecy orders hindered its ability to inform customers about warrants, thus violating their rights and those of the company. Following revelations about PRISM, NSA’s extensive electronic surveillance initiative, several tech firms, including Microsoft, were identified as participants in May 2013. Prior to publicly releasing software fixes, Microsoft shares information regarding reported bugs with U.S. government intelligence agencies. Microsoft announced in May 2025 that it would cut over 6,000 jobs — which represents approximately three percent of its total workforce. Among U.S.-based companies, Microsoft holds a prime credit rating of AAA, making it one of only two that do. The announcement followed a Sting concert hosted for 50 attendees (including Microsoft executives), held in Davos, Switzerland, one day prior.