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Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

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Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#21

Post by scholia »

Bit too much Ballmer bashing. He made plenty of mistakes so he's an easy target for the ignoranti, but the adoption of open source, the move to the cloud, the writing of Android and iOS apps etc all started under Ballmer.

Ballmer also cleaned up the anti-trust mess and -- while his hands were somewhat tied by a dozen years of constant DoJ supervision -- tripled Microsoft's sales and doubled its profits. This was despite competition from free Linux and OpenOffice, whose fans used to tell me that Microsoft would be out of business within five years....

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#23

Post by scholia »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #4

Maybe, but I'm worried they've given up on consumer devices, and decided to stick to the enterprise cash cow, in the Oracle-lesser-evil model. Entirely egotistical of me, I came from an iPhone to a Lumia and I'm not too enthusiastic about going back (although I also use iPads, and like them). I find Android a bit of a swamp, and having only iOS as an alternative is sad.

They're still doing Windows 10 for smartphones and there are other hardware suppliers besides Microsoft. The OS is free, after all.

Whether the Surface phone will make any difference is open to doubt, but it might ;-)

As an Android user, I'd be prepared to have a serious look at one.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#24

Post by marcusjt »

hitr wrote: post #14
codingmyway wrote: post #5

I've always said sales (and marketing) was Microsoft's biggest problem. The are finally starting to be cool again as the engineers take over. The silo between Windows and development (Azure, .net etc) needs to come down fully to fix Sinofsky's mess too. We're still left with a desktop OS UI with huge animated icons designed for a phone even though they've now given up on the phone market anyway. They gave up too easi…

Very well said on the Windows phone.I have used three windows phones before switching to Android and I think the UI for simpler things like dialer ,messages or emails was better on windows phone.Especially email was so good ,it used to work a charm even on 2G.I have used built in clients and other options on Android and nothing beats the basic email client on windows phone.May be it was not feature rich for gmail but…

But those are just apps, not the OS and there are any number of replacement dialler, messaging and email apps for Android - are you suggesting that NONE of them are as good as the Windows Phone default apps?

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#25

Post by nickpsecurity »

Razengan wrote: post #11
aedron wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, this should almost have a NSFW warning for that image alone. Brrr.

Oh my, that is some Jabba the Hutt + Baron Harkonnen + Aeon Flux level of excrescence. I feel violated just by having seen it.

Hilarious and excellent references. I couldn't agree more. I kind of read it with the left eye shut.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#26

Post by reitanqild »

hitr wrote: post #14
codingmyway wrote: post #5

I've always said sales (and marketing) was Microsoft's biggest problem. The are finally starting to be cool again as the engineers take over. The silo between Windows and development (Azure, .net etc) needs to come down fully to fix Sinofsky's mess too. We're still left with a desktop OS UI with huge animated icons designed for a phone even though they've now given up on the phone market anyway. They gave up too easi…

Very well said on the Windows phone.I have used three windows phones before switching to Android and I think the UI for simpler things like dialer ,messages or emails was better on windows phone.Especially email was so good ,it used to work a charm even on 2G.I have used built in clients and other options on Android and nothing beats the basic email client on windows phone.May be it was not feature rich for gmail but…

Here's another user who considered some MS phone at least the two last times I switched but ended up on Xperia and later S7 because water resistance. (This felt important because of field work and kids at home.)

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#27

Post by newjersey »

kidmenot wrote: post #19
drinchev wrote: post #6

I was a Windows user for a long time. 5 years ago I switched to OS X, because I think it's closer to the deployment environment I use as a dev. However what OS X did ( when they killed the old one - MacOS 9 and rewrote the whole thing on UNIX based kernel ) was the single greatest move, which I think pays off even these days. This is what I hope should happen with Windows. They should decide on POSIX kernel and compl…

> This is what I hope should happen with Windows. They should decide on POSIX kernel and completely rewrite most of it. They simply can't afford it, not because they lack the resources but from a strategic point of view. See the other comments talking about compatibility. Windows works for many, many, many people and businesses. It would be a suicide move. People, and even more importantly businesses, don't jump on a…

> If Microsoft ever tried to pull the rug from under them, you can be pretty sure that would be the end for them.

It is necessary though. Microsoft seems to be preparing for a post-Windows eventuality as well. Doesn't mean they have to write their own operating system.

Edit: it is mostly for azure anyway... I think Microsoft might as well ride Windows as long as it can and give it up.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#28

Post by franto »

drinchev wrote: post #6

I was a Windows user for a long time. 5 years ago I switched to OS X, because I think it's closer to the deployment environment I use as a dev. However what OS X did ( when they killed the old one - MacOS 9 and rewrote the whole thing on UNIX based kernel ) was the single greatest move, which I think pays off even these days. This is what I hope should happen with Windows. They should decide on POSIX kernel and compl…

Don't forget that Windows is also used as servers, compared to MacOS used primary on desktops.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#29

Post by drinchev »

orf wrote: post #7
drinchev wrote: post #6

I was a Windows user for a long time. 5 years ago I switched to OS X, because I think it's closer to the deployment environment I use as a dev. However what OS X did ( when they killed the old one - MacOS 9 and rewrote the whole thing on UNIX based kernel ) was the single greatest move, which I think pays off even these days. This is what I hope should happen with Windows. They should decide on POSIX kernel and compl…

Suggesting a rewrite of something as important as the NT kernel is ignorant at best. I think Bash on Windows is a great compromise.

I think software is going to the direction of emulation anyway.

At this point you have platforms like Electron, which run in a browser environment. Java software which runs inside JVM. Now there's even linux sub-system inside windows, etc.

I think there is a way to do it the other way around. MS put effort in creating something similar to WINE and make a special "Windows POSIX", which let's say for the next decade is released along with the classic Windows ( Same as NT before ). Where they try to emulate / rewrite the software piece by piece until the stability is reached to switch.

I don't see this as an impossible idea to me. Actually if they did something like this I will be so happy to switch back.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#30

Post by dragonwriter »

orf wrote: post #7
drinchev wrote: post #6

I was a Windows user for a long time. 5 years ago I switched to OS X, because I think it's closer to the deployment environment I use as a dev. However what OS X did ( when they killed the old one - MacOS 9 and rewrote the whole thing on UNIX based kernel ) was the single greatest move, which I think pays off even these days. This is what I hope should happen with Windows. They should decide on POSIX kernel and compl…

Suggesting a rewrite of something as important as the NT kernel is ignorant at best. I think Bash on Windows is a great compromise.

More significantly, the underlying technology beneath Linux on Windows, especially if it can be made a generally available, documented target for development, is a great thing. Not even a compromise, I think it's potentially better than making Windows into yet-another-POSIX kernel.
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