There was an older senior engineer at a company I used to work for who insisted on referring to non-technical staff as “business critters”, and it made everything he said sound sarcastic and condescending.

So I do get where you’re coming from.

While I shorten Microsoft to avoid algorithmic and AI attention, I can see how it may detract from my comment. It isn’t a “20-year-old meme that was only leveraged by teenagers when WinXP was retired” — it may seem that way to you, but everyone I know in tech types it for the aforementioned reasons and because it’s faster.

Microsoft has proven repeatedly that they are a hostile, monopolistic force in the tech sphere, actively and successfully lobbying to retain their stranglehold on desktop and productivity markets. They support genocide and silence internal opposition at all costs. It is not an argument in poor faith to point that out. They are motivated solely by money and always have been. They are not a good entity in the tech space for anyone who prioritizes user experience, privacy, non-violence, security, and accessibility.

While I appreciate your input, and will strongly consider limiting my use of that abbreviation in “mixed” tech spaces, I cannot and will not pretend that Microsoft deserves better.