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Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

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Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#131

Post by lisivka »

suprgeek wrote: post #108

The young'uns here probably have not lived thru the Microsoft era in the 90s when "Embrace Extend Extinguish" was the operating motto and any Market where MS entered would send competitors quaking in fear. They were late to the internet party and then under the disastrous leadership of Ballamer (mindshare wise, not revenue) they completely lost the plot. Now they are indeed enjoying a resurgence, less evil, more rele…

They are still trying to sue IBM for Linux via SCO: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/linux-kernel-laws... .

So I see no change.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#132

Post by throwawaymsft »

strictnein wrote: post #109
dbg31415 wrote: post #62

At what point can we safely assume that Balmer was simply incompetent?

Balmer was good at what he did: making Microsoft lots of money. Balmer ran MS from 2000 to 2014. Here's what the profits for that time period (since 2002) looked like: https://www.statista.com/statistics/267808/net-income-of-mic... So not incompetent, just focused on something else.

I'd say he was average at making money. It sounds impressive but you need to annualize and compare it to the market as a whole.

5.36B to 22B in 12 years = 11.7% annualized profit increase from 2012 to 2014.

However, MSFT stock appreciation was 22 -> 41 or 5.2% annualized. (Stock includes expectations of future growth, etc.)

Average S&P was ~7.8% for that time period.

Ballmer would have done better for investors by just investing in an index fund.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#133

Post by lisivka »

henshao wrote: post #54

Is it just me, or is the usual "copy title, paste into google search" not working this time? I can't manage to find the google search result for this article, even after trying many combinations of google filters/date filters. They've caught on?

News about M$ must be paid news.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#134

Post by hsitz »

suprgeek wrote: post #108

The young'uns here probably have not lived thru the Microsoft era in the 90s when "Embrace Extend Extinguish" was the operating motto and any Market where MS entered would send competitors quaking in fear. They were late to the internet party and then under the disastrous leadership of Ballamer (mindshare wise, not revenue) they completely lost the plot. Now they are indeed enjoying a resurgence, less evil, more rele…

The counterpart to "embrace, extend, and extinguish" was spreading FUD: "fear, uncertainty, and doubt". This was the strategy they took towards Linux, which as open source was not susceptible to embrace, extend, extinguish. So the Microsoft propaganda machine was used to make people afraid of open source, in many different ways.

The current course of Microsoft appears to have changed a lot, with open source being accepted and even "embraced". If someone can explain to me how embrace, extend, and extinguish could apply to Linux, I'd be curious to hear.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#135

Post by chx »

UK-AL wrote: post #33
marricks wrote: post #15

I was going to rag on this article for touting the the same non-specific garbage we've seen the past couple days like, "more mac users switching to surface than ever!" without any hard numbers, did is go from 20 to 25? But this article is actually pretty interesting. It focuses on how Satya Nadella has respected the leaders of Companies he's bought out and invited them to key meetings. Using their insight not only fo…

Microsoft used to have a really good reputation for developers. Used to one of the few companies where each developer had their own office.

I read Showstopper! about how Windows NT was created and I got the impression that many of those people would be impossible if not closed away from others.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#136

Post by paulmd »

jdmichal wrote: post #121
gecko wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if you focus on their mobile apps and services , rather than their mobile phones , the statement has some pretty serious merit. E.g., Azure's mobile services are used very heavily by iOS and Android apps, I see Office all the time on phones, and so on.

Yes. In fact, one of the common complaints of Windows Phone users is that the Microsoft experience is actually better on Android. (Maybe iOS too, but I don't have any direct experience seeing that.)

From Microsoft's perspective, I'm sure it's hard to argue with the market share figures. When there's 20 times as many users on a particular platform... that's where the staff time will go. It's not the Office group's job to sell phones, they sell Office.

2016Q2: 87.6% Android, 11.7% iOS, 0.4% Windows Phone, 0.3% Others

https://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#137

Post by Pigo »

marricks wrote: post #15

I was going to rag on this article for touting the the same non-specific garbage we've seen the past couple days like, "more mac users switching to surface than ever!" without any hard numbers, did is go from 20 to 25? But this article is actually pretty interesting. It focuses on how Satya Nadella has respected the leaders of Companies he's bought out and invited them to key meetings. Using their insight not only fo…

As a developer there's been so many times that I've gotten tired of MS solutions, and get excited about new emerging platforms elsewhere. Then I smirk when MS incorporates that new platform's ideology. Then I'm pleasantly surprised when it turns out to be cool, and often surpassing the original. I've heard some devs claim they cherry pick from other people's work, and others that they work hard to remain progressive and relevant.

I don't know if .NET Core will catch up with Node, probably not, but I respect their effort and believe competition drives the best products and technology.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#138

Post by RandomOpinion »

blowski wrote: post #102

> Under Mr. Nadella, Microsoft is shaping up to be the only pre-internet tech giant to escape the decline of its legacy product—the Windows PC operating system—and emerge as a leader in the new era of cloud computing. Other than Apple, Oracle and IBM?

Apple is the only one of the three that could credibly be said to have "escape[d] the decline of its legacy product" and none could be said to have "emerge[d] as a leader in the new era of cloud computing".

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#139

Post by KirinDave »

dpark wrote: post #56
UK-AL wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've gotten rid off the office per developer thing now. So not surprised. A large part is probably demographics of developers is now changing.

It's not entirely gone but it's dying. I'm still in a private office. Lots of devs on my team are doubled up, though. Many teams have already moved to open spaces. Demographics are a factor. Lots of devs, especially younger devs, and especially devs who've worked at other younger companies are asking for open floor plans. Not all of them, but a sizable chunk. That plus reduced cost for providing office space to devs…

I think companies should try and support both modes of working. Open Plan offices are okay for some people but completely unacceptable for other people.

Neruodiversity is a real thing that we should be thinking about.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#140

Post by michaelmrose »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #120
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point. I guess the question is, in a case like this, what are the odds that the company's executive-level culture has changed? I don't know. The manner in which Microsoft pushed Windows 10 may be a data point.

A big part of the current senior leadership wasn't even at the company in 1995.

The sco scam was in 2003 and the recent move towards arm devices that use treacherous computing to lock the user out of modifying their machine was recently who cares about 1995.
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