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Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

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Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#41

Post by yaseer »

gnu8 wrote: post #24
doctorpangloss wrote: post #12

A VC friend of mine characterized these kinds of answers nicely: incredible, profound bullshit that no one seems to know how to cut through. On a level specific to Microsoft, their biggest threat is how agreeable and self-deprecating everything they do is now. Corporate cultures thrive on hierarchy, and yet their employees are pretty comfortable admitting to their friends that Windows and Azure are crap. The quiet tr…

Microsoft deserves to go gentle into that good night because of all the damage they’ve done to the computing industry over the years, for example killing Be and Netscape with monopolist tactics and creating a terminally insecure software monoculture of the lowest common denominator of Windows and IE, that we’re still recovering from today. (Google is repeating the lesson today - Android is the Windows 98 of mobile).…

I am not a big Microsoft fan, having not used Windows or any MS products in about 16 years, until VS Code came along. But this kind of black and white thinking is just at odds with reality. Nothing is wholly good or bad, and so to with Microsoft.

They were part of a small group of companies that pioneered Desktop computing. They did so with forceful business tactics, but they changed the world nonetheless, and really did help place a computer in every home.

Ths history books will remember their contributions as well as their sins.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#42

Post by VRay »

yuy910616 wrote: post #21
bayulxc5 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use github or linkedin. I don't use skype either... because Microsoft ruined it and everybody left (for business now I use Hangouts and for gaming now I use Discord).

that's clearly wrong. not everybody left. you left

Everyone I know quit using Skype too.. it's tough to have this argument without access to expensive market research reports, though

More anecdotally, the only time I used Skype in the last few years was when I had a remote job interview with LINE. (Ironically, LINE's core product is a Skype competitor, and they refused to use it for the interview even though I said I'd rather stick with LINE and not install Skype. If that isn't a red flag, I don't know what is, haha)

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#43

Post by ggambetta »

gnu8 wrote: post #24
doctorpangloss wrote: post #12

A VC friend of mine characterized these kinds of answers nicely: incredible, profound bullshit that no one seems to know how to cut through. On a level specific to Microsoft, their biggest threat is how agreeable and self-deprecating everything they do is now. Corporate cultures thrive on hierarchy, and yet their employees are pretty comfortable admitting to their friends that Windows and Azure are crap. The quiet tr…

Microsoft deserves to go gentle into that good night because of all the damage they’ve done to the computing industry over the years, for example killing Be and Netscape with monopolist tactics and creating a terminally insecure software monoculture of the lowest common denominator of Windows and IE, that we’re still recovering from today. (Google is repeating the lesson today - Android is the Windows 98 of mobile).…

> They’ve either forgotten the past or they don’t care.

Or they're too young to know or remember!

Working with recent grads, I've discovered that for most of them Bill Gates has always been this grey-haired, well-natured philanthropist. They can't believe it when I tell them of how universally reviled Microsoft was, and I feel like Grandpa Simpson talking about onions in his belt :(

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#44

Post by dugluak »

gnu8 wrote: post #24
doctorpangloss wrote: post #12

A VC friend of mine characterized these kinds of answers nicely: incredible, profound bullshit that no one seems to know how to cut through. On a level specific to Microsoft, their biggest threat is how agreeable and self-deprecating everything they do is now. Corporate cultures thrive on hierarchy, and yet their employees are pretty comfortable admitting to their friends that Windows and Azure are crap. The quiet tr…

Microsoft deserves to go gentle into that good night because of all the damage they’ve done to the computing industry over the years, for example killing Be and Netscape with monopolist tactics and creating a terminally insecure software monoculture of the lowest common denominator of Windows and IE, that we’re still recovering from today. (Google is repeating the lesson today - Android is the Windows 98 of mobile).…

> Android is the Windows 98 of mobile

IMO Android UX is way better than iOS when used on a right device. I switched from iPhone to Pixel and it's a delight to use. I am not going back to iPhone soon ...

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#45

Post by [deleted] »

tomnipotent wrote: post #26
doctorpangloss wrote: post #12

A VC friend of mine characterized these kinds of answers nicely: incredible, profound bullshit that no one seems to know how to cut through. On a level specific to Microsoft, their biggest threat is how agreeable and self-deprecating everything they do is now. Corporate cultures thrive on hierarchy, and yet their employees are pretty comfortable admitting to their friends that Windows and Azure are crap. The quiet tr…

> and yet their employees are pretty comfortable admitting to their friends that Windows and Azure are crap You make a whole lot of claims with absolutely zero evidence to back it up.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#46

Post by cptskippy »

evv wrote: post #32
devereaux wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding #1, eventually I expect Microsoft to release their own Linux distribution and keep Windows as a GUI. I would not be surprised if their failed project Astoria was reused to run android apps on that.

It would be make me so happy to see WINE supported as the first-class way of running Windows software.

I would be surprised if that was the approach Microsoft took, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a supported way of running Windows Apps emerge.

This could be used as a way to maintain backward compatibility in Windows as it evolves in the future.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#47

Post by chiefalchemist »

Bamafan wrote: post #11

Long story, short: 1. Realize the world is moving beyond Windows 2. Cede mobile OS to Android/iOS, that battle is lost. 3. Realize, next great revenue stream is the Cloud (Azure).

Yeah, those help. But it was ultimately recognizing which pie was shrinking and which pie is growing - and is still growing.

MS is a software company. Now that they've remembered that, it's producing results.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#48

Post by sonnyblarney »

Bamafan wrote: post #17
sonnyblarney wrote: post #5

"When Satya Nadella took Microsoft Corp.’s helm five years ago, the conventional wisdom was that the company’s glory days were behind it." Have a look at this MS revenues [1] and consider why for a moment there is any 'conventional wisdom' like this? MSFT stock price did languish during this time of amazing growth which I guess validates that 'conventional wisdom' was in fact sour, but it's hard to see why it was. Ro…

> For whatever reason, the industry press never liked Ballmer, and I guess they like Satya Ballmer made several missteps: 1. Fruitless foray into mobile with acquisition of Nokia and Windows Mobile and Windows Phone strategies. 2. Billion+ dollar acquisition of Skype that basically went no where. 3. Remember a company called aQuantive? Don't worry, neither does anyone else. Ballmer's MS purchased them for $6 billion.…

"Ballmer made several missteps:"

Growing an already massive company company by 3x in revenue is the important thing, which is the 'bottom line' in which missteps have to be contextualized.

Any company in tech is going to make mistakes, this should be happening, so listing them off doesn't so much help - what matters is how all of this works out in the mix.

I worked in mobile during that time, it was vicious. Surely MS could have done better, but I view it more as lost opportunity than failure.

Remember that 80% of acquisitions fail. Google spent $3B on Nest. Apple spent $3 Billion on Beats, it remains to be seen if they'll make that up in profit.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#50

Post by markrages »

faramarz wrote: post #37
doctorpangloss wrote: post #12

A VC friend of mine characterized these kinds of answers nicely: incredible, profound bullshit that no one seems to know how to cut through. On a level specific to Microsoft, their biggest threat is how agreeable and self-deprecating everything they do is now. Corporate cultures thrive on hierarchy, and yet their employees are pretty comfortable admitting to their friends that Windows and Azure are crap. The quiet tr…

Bill and the board deserve credit for bringing in Satya to captain the ship and steer it. The ship is still afloat, with a captain able and willing to navigate it into new territories. That's really what they're doing and I think that in itself is a re-invention and worth remarking about. Now, you can give them shit for the design of their ship, failures, practices, etc.. and rightfully so, but they are definitley re…

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