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Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

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Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#51

Post by danielovichdk »

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…

Ballmer signed off on the Azure investment over 10 years ago.

Today I believe that's their biggest revenue stream alongside Office perhaps.

Big picture, Ballmer was a huge success.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#52

Post by alkonaut »

bayulxc5 wrote: post #3

The only product from Microsoft I use is Windows and they're ruining it. So, sorry Satya, but...

I switched on my win10 box today, opened a shell and typed ”ssh otherbox” to ssh into my linux box.

Unless we are having the “but telemetry” discussion (again) there are very few ways that 10 is worse than a previous version.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#53

Post by alkonaut »

titanix2 wrote: post #35
bayulxc5 wrote: post #3

The only product from Microsoft I use is Windows and they're ruining it. So, sorry Satya, but...

I still have a Windows around for running Visual Studio and it seems the next iteration is resolute about making the GUI worst again (previous successful attempt at it was VS 2012).

Are you talking about the 2019 RC? What did they do UI wise? Screenshots I have seen all show very minor cosmetic changes.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#54

Post by chiefalchemist »

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).…

Then certainly Google deserves the same (i.e. gentle into the night) and then some. Not only have they done plenty of damage to the computing industry but they've normalized a lack of privacy in doing so. That is, Google has done social, if not sociopolitical damage (that makes MS looks like the tooth fairy).

Your disgust is fitting. But let's be sure the context is appropriate as well.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#55

Post by kazinator »

ggambetta wrote: post #43
gnu8 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :(

I speak here perhaps not only for myself but others: although Microsoft had been reviled, and still is, somehow Gates escaped that personally. I've never felt that I dislike Bill Gates.

There had been a smaller Microsoft before the rise of MS-DOS and Windows. Microsoft was a vendor of BASIC interpreters that were integrated into some 8 bit microcomputers, which I used. The Apple II's "Applesoft" basic was derived from Microsoft's work. Its name is a portmanteau of Apple and Microsoft, a kind of touchstone that highlights a complex history of cooperation and rivalry between the two.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#56

Post by saosebastiao »

devereaux wrote: post #20
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).

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.

Why would it need to be Linux? I love linux, but mostly because it works well and is open source. I'd love for a big tech company to put their weight behind SEL4. That would go a long way for Microsoft: formally proven security, tiny footprint, good performance, etc. It's something that has massive potential for super computers all the way down to IOT. It just needs a proper ecosystem behind it.

Or maybe buy QNX off of Blackberry and make it open source again. That would also be nice.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#57

Post by SatvikBeri »

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…

Satya became CEO in February 2014. Since then, Microsoft's stock has significantly outperformed Google and Apple, and slightly outperformed Facebook. While it significantly underperformed each of those in the years before. So it's not just the bull market.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#58

Post by Bamafan »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #48
Bamafan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 M…

> 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.

Yes, he managed to creatively squeeze revenue out of existing markets. This is what he was known for.

But as far as finding new markets or growing existing markets, he failed and that's all Wall Street cares about.

> Surely MS could have done better, but I view it more as lost opportunity than failure.

Non other than Bill Gates himself refers to MS Mobile strategy as a failure: http://fortune.com/2013/02/19/today-in-tech-why-bill-gates-c...

> 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

Ballmer's failure rate on major acquisitions may have been 100%. (I'm not even kidding)

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#59

Post by karmakaze »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #47
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.

I'm not really seeing software, more services including Azure and online versions of apps and even Windows as a subscription. I'm sure there's lots of consulting in there too.
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