Bill wrote:

What's the word regarding the future of the OE NG when MS pulls the
plug on its msnews server? Does MS intend to issue a rmgroup across
the entire Usenet to bag all the Microsoft.Public.* NG's?

No, I'm not Bruce.

Giganews says it will continue carrying the microsoft.* newsgroups.
Google Groups is unlikely to drop them. My NSP (Albasani) says they
will ignore any 'rmgroup' commands issued by Julien Elie or any other
self-appointed egotistical Usenet admin.

Microsoft is dropping their NNTP server (and thereby any peering to it).
Microsoft is not the Usenet, a worldwide mesh network of NNTP servers
over which Microsoft has no control (and partially the reason why they
are retreating to web-based forums). So you will lose the availability
of Microsoft's NNTP server to get at their pretend forums (aka
Communities) via their webnews-for-dummies gateway. Start looking
around for another NSP since they are likely to continue carrying the
microsoft.* newsgroups.