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Why should we assume they aren't?

Because its easier to lie on the internet when you're anonymous.

... how do we know these are actual, current Microserfs?

We don't. But it's a blog known for being a blog by a Microsoftie, and known to be used as anonymous expression valve for Microserfs, known to be frequented by a lot of Microsoft employees.

And if you read the comments, either there are a lot of people in on the joke, referring to internal build processes, company structure, stock deals, loads of manager names, and no real Microsoft employee is calling them on it, or most of them are genuine.

Edited 2006-03-28 02:23

The politics of large institutions can be quite byzantine. No one on the outside can be quite certain who is posting these articles. They probably are MS employees. It's interesting to speculate who within MS might be behind this. The lament about missing Holiday sales seems like the kind of thing sales people might complain about particularly if they know that the CEO is already upset about this. I can not imagine software engineers being unduly focussed on a particular release date. It might be that the sales force which has no direct influence or control over the engineers is agitating in the hope of stimulating action from on high.

I have to agree with this one. Judging Microsoft on its internal politics is not somewhere you want to go. As for the blogger, I can't say I approve of airing the company's dirty laundry on the internet. It's one more reason for my distaste of employee blogs. Between Jonathan Schwartz's blog and stuff like this, well, it all paints a very undignified picture. However, since it seems that such blogs are inevitable, I wish people would keep their blogs on the up-and-up. I think IBM's blog guidelines are a model for what employee blogs should look like: http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/jasnell?entry=blogg...

Edited 2006-03-28 03:41