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Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

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Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#61
post #3

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

How are they ruining Windows? People have been saying this since XP (before SP1 or SP2, when everyone hated it.) Yet there's not much evidence to support it...they are actually doing some really cool things with Windows now like adding bash and having different flavor Linux subsystems. The main issue I've had is some lack of quality control since they let go tons of testers and used Insiders instead. That has not eff…

The heavy-handed updates forcing frequent reboots are the deal-breaker for me. It seriously pisses me off to come back to my machine only discover that all those editor windows I had open gone, the IDE close, and all the open browser tabs lost, etc. Why are frequent full reboots even necessary in this day and age?!

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#62
post #34

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.

Speaking as an OS engineer who's worked on both kernels a lot, Windows is way better under the hood for low-latency, responsive end user stuff than linux Then again, WinMo 7 was way faster and more responsive than Android at the time, and look how that turned out..

The PREEMPT_RT patchset (sometimes confusingly referred to as RT-Linux) is slated to improve the kernel quite a bit wrt. "low-latency" and "responsive" workloads.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Microsoft doesn't do consulting but has an enormous partner ecosystem.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Microsoft doesn't do consulting but has an enormous partner ecosystem.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-CA/enterprise/services?activeta... we kinda do? Microsoft Consulting Services is directly from us, though the extensive partner ecosystem is also important for smaller customers.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#65
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).

The problem is they are no longer best-of-breed for any of their markets, except maybe Office.

Microsoft doesn't break out Azure revenue, but by all accounts it's quite small compared to AWS.

And Office is very much under threat. If you work with young people you'll notice they tend to prefer G Suite apps over Office - most likely because Google has done a great job getting their software into schools.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Microsoft doesn't do consulting but has an enormous partner ecosystem.

Well, there is Microsoft Consulting Services, so it isn’t quite such a simple picture. But it is true that they haven’t gone down the IBM path.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#67

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.

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…

Microsoft already has a lot invested in Linux support. They're not going to switch to something with a fraction of the community and ecosystem even if it has a lot of good qualities.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#68
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I take it you don't know anyone who works at MSFT?

Folks at every business I know eventually talk crap or otherwise grumble. Whoop de do. There's very little signal in that, especially for a business like Microsoft where everyone is an armchair analyst and can't go five minutes without mentioning "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" because they think it makes them sound smart.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#69
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the one you're asking. But to me, the (most recent) way they ruined Windows was the new interface. I don't want to interact with my desktop via a phone/tablet interface. I don't want to use a touchscreen. I want to use only the keyboard and mouse. More: I don't want to use my computer as a media consumption device. So for me , all the new UI changes are counterproductive. But that's me. Others have different…

But all the cards and the tablet interface stuff ... is all side stuff that you don't need to use? At least I hardly ever see any sign of it. Am I missing something? There was an issue a LONG time ago when the tiles were more front and center but they dumped that a while ago.

I agree with you generally but it's not just the tiles. They also made a lot of changes around how settings and other features are accessed to make them more touch friendly, and if you're just trying to get in and change a thing it's often more work to get to it. There are ways to work around almost all of it but its just sort of ongoing evidence of a design direction that didn't really pan out for the mobile users it was intended to serve, and makes life a little harder for technical desktop users. These days I only use Windows 10 for gaming and to host my ubuntu laptop over VNC. If it weren't for games/steam I'd probably uninstall it.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#70
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.

They already have their Linux distribution, it just doesn't run on the desktop.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/azure-sphere/

However on what concerns the desktop, I am betting more on GNU/Windows.

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