US software behemoth Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it would soon open an office in Canada, lamenting tough immigration rules in the United States that make it difficult to hire foreign staff.

First off, MS already has offices in many places it does business in. I expect these folks are in trouble though. H-1b expansion has alienated a lot of senior US talent. MS management had a habit of donating heavily to the GOP-and I don't think the new Democratic leadership will be that forgiving. I see anti-trust actions in MS's future and expect more regulation of transnational organizations like MS. I also see real competition coming from the XO-Machine and Desktop Linux.

The bottom line is that it is still governmental authorities that make the rules companies play by. Those rules can change if congress get some backbone.

Personally, I think putting Microsoft in their place will make the lives of software engineers easier.