Windows 95 chime composer calls out Microsoft in blunt open letter: ‘Machinery of war'

Hindustan Times

22-05-2025

Musician Brina Eno, who created the iconic Windows 95 operating system startup chime, has called out Microsoft in an open letter, accusing the company of helping the Israeli government with 'surveillance, violence, and destruction in Palestine.'
In a four-page post on Instagram, the musician urged Microsoft to 'suspend all services that support any operations that contribute to violations of international law."
Narrating the story of how he created the iconic jingle, Eno said: "In the mid-1990s, I was asked to compose a short piece of music for Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. Millions - possibly even billions of people have since heard that short start-up chime-which represented a gateway to a promising technological future."
However, he added that he now felt compelled to speak up. 'I gladly took on the [Windows 95] project as a creative challenge and enjoyed the interaction with my contacts at the company. I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war," he wrote.
The rock artist also called out Microsoft's contracts with Israel's Ministry of Defence, which the company acknowledged last week. It had said that its contracts with the Israeli government included cloud and AI services, but claimed that there was 'no evidence' that these were used to 'target people' in Gaza.
Eno has also promised to use his original earnings from the Windows 95 startup chime project to help 'the victims of the attacks on Gaza.'
A post shared by Brian Eno (@brianeno)
Recently, Microsoft has faced criticism over its contracts with Israel, especially amid the ongoing bombardment of Gaza, with the tech giant's own employees being some of its fiercest critics.
At Microsoft's annual developer conference this week, several events were interrupted by employee-led protests. During CEO Satya Nadella's keynote speech, one employee stood up and shouted, 'How about you show Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?'—a reference to Microsoft's cloud computing services.
(Also read: Video of Microsoft employee disrupting Satya Nadella's keynote speech goes viral)
In April, Microsoft worker Ibtihal Aboussad interrupted a 50th-anniversary celebration, accusing Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman of being 'a war profiteer.' On the same day, another employee, Vaniya Agrawal, disrupted a separate event before being dismissed early following her resignation.