Microsoft is giving all its employees free Windows 8 phones and tablets

Right so, who wants to work for Microsoft? I bet its 90 000+ full time staff members were pretty glad to be employed by the Redmond-based company this week: its CEO announced that they will all receive a free Microsoft Surface, a work station upgrade and a Windows 8 smartphone.

At the company’s annual employee meeting, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer apparently became the new Oprah. While it’s unclear if he stood around saying “You get a Surface! And you get a Surface! And you get a Surface!”. Forbes reports that he announced that all of the company’s full time direct employees will receive a free Surface RT tablet, a Windows 8 smartphone and a new Windows 8 work PC (desktop, laptop, ultrabook or tablet). It’s not certain exactly which smartphones they’ll be receiving — but both Samsung and Nokia have been working on Windows 8 devices.

It seems that the Microsoft staff won’t have to wait for the general release date before they receive the devices running Microsoft’s new OS: according to The Verge, the distribution of the new work devices has already started, and the other gadgets are scheduled to follow in the next few weeks. Windows 8 will only be available to the public from 26 October, the Surface’s release is scheduled for the same day and the Lumia 920 is due sometime in November.