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How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

economist.com

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Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#171

Post by munchbunny »

S_A_P wrote: post #126

I love hate Microsoft. I love the dev tooling for enterprise, but hate the OS. I really want to like Windows 10, but I feel like I am working against it more than it is helping me. I think OSX is also trending toward making my life harder, but the curve is much slower. I think the next step is to try to really use Linux and see if I can finally find a 'home' os...

Linux these days works fine for a daily driver as long as the software you need is available on it. It still definitely doesn't win any awards for UX though.

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#172

Post by Aunche »

Elrac wrote: post #143
skeletal88 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was invited to interview for a position working on the Skype backend. I have no idea if it is a good idea.. since I personally can't take Skype seriously or believe that it is something good to work on. Is that something people at huge companies have to think about often? Good money vs working on a product you believe in.

I'm in a corporation currently "upgrading" from Skype to Teams. Let me put it this way: Since chatting with Teams, I no longer think quite as badly of Skype.

IIRC Skype for business isn't actually based on Skype and a lot better than it.

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#173

Post by thomasz »

hanley wrote: post #132
ProAm wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the various disastrous incarnations of Windows Phone Surprisingly the phone was loved. What wasnt loved was the one desktop everywhere so when they tried to push 'Metro' to the PC, tablet and phone it struggled. But the tiled phone interface was good, and a lot of people liked it. I really think Ballmer and Cook are manifestations of the same person. Mac OS quality is the worst it's been in probably a decade+? Hard…

The Windows phone was loved because it had excellent Nokia hardware. The software was not loved and the app store was lacking.

Owned one. It was a damn good phone, had a great UI that remains unsurpassed to this day, but it clearly came at least two years too late to gain the critical mass needed for a thriving ecosystem.

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#174

Post by one2know »

habeebtc wrote: post #149
one2know wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience of Azure 100% is that their managers have a strong lack of will to hire people of European descent. Full stop.

I work for Microsoft in the Azure space. I can categorically say that is nonsense. Full stop.

I have been to Microsoft campus three times. Guess who I saw zero of. Don't complain about not being able to hire.

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#175

Post by orthoxerox »

vikramkr wrote: post #79
racl101 wrote: post #70

Wish he would turn Excel around. Such an important product, but so buggy. Very bug ridden. Why doesn't it get better?

What bugs? I know of some that are left in for backwards compatibility, but otherwise its clearly working well enough to be the dominant tool for so many industries. And the parts that work are good enough that its easier to just change the industry to fit excel then change excel at this point since so many people have different requirements- see what happened with genetics recently

> I know of some that are left in for backwards compatibility, but otherwise its clearly working well enough to be the dominant tool for so many industries.

Some sort of a strict mode or a way to designate data types on table columns would solve probably 90% of the issues people have with Excel.

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#176

Post by Ap0cryph0n »

pietromenna wrote: post #101

How can I read the full article without having a economist subscriber? It is really annoying to have this walled garden for news that do not support price parity for lower income countries (I live in one).

https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#177

Post by zepearl »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #155
wesleywt wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get large amount of storage and an always updated product. I am gladly paying for subscription.

1. That might have been a good thing back when updates weren't dreaded, because they would rarely if ever add distracting UI elements or take away useful features. 2. If you're a small-scale Office user who's happy not to have the latest and the greatest, and you're happy to update your copy of Office every 5-7 years, then a yearly subscription will not be a good trade-off.

And personally I don't like the idea/feeling of having recurring fixed costs - I just want to pay (more) once and that's it.

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#178

Post by m0ngr31 »

hanley wrote: post #132
ProAm wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the various disastrous incarnations of Windows Phone Surprisingly the phone was loved. What wasnt loved was the one desktop everywhere so when they tried to push 'Metro' to the PC, tablet and phone it struggled. But the tiled phone interface was good, and a lot of people liked it. I really think Ballmer and Cook are manifestations of the same person. Mac OS quality is the worst it's been in probably a decade+? Hard…

The Windows phone was loved because it had excellent Nokia hardware. The software was not loved and the app store was lacking.

The software was absolutely loved. You're right about the app store lacking though.

I'd still take WP over Android or iOS.

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#179

Post by simonh »

tiffanyh wrote: post #8

I'm as big of a Satya fan as anyone, but someone who doesn't get enough credit is Ballmer. It wasn't a coincidence that on the day Ballmer stepped down and Satya became CEO (2014), Microsoft also announced Office for iOS, Cloud first strategy, and a whole slew of cloud/Azure product announcements. All of which was developed under Ballmer watch and he handed off the launch and continued execution to Satya.

The problems at Microsoft started under Bill. Microsoft's tablet and mobile platform initiatives went absolutely nowhere. Pen computing, MPC and Origami were complete flops. Longhorn never even happened, Vista was a disaster. Windows 8 was after Bill left as software architect but he was still involved with the company at that time.

Yes Office on iOS was a smart move, buy why was it even necessary? It was a white flag after over a decade of missed opportunities. Only under a new leader could it be re-branded as a refreshing change of direction.

I honestly don't know to what extent the problems there can be laid at Ballmer's door, but it really wasn't just him, frankly it was him and Bill. They were fantastic at executing on established products and technologies pioneered by others but dropped the ball time and again at innovating into new areas.

Re: How Satya Nadella turned Microsoft around

#180

Post by kerng »

hanley wrote: post #132
ProAm wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the various disastrous incarnations of Windows Phone Surprisingly the phone was loved. What wasnt loved was the one desktop everywhere so when they tried to push 'Metro' to the PC, tablet and phone it struggled. But the tiled phone interface was good, and a lot of people liked it. I really think Ballmer and Cook are manifestations of the same person. Mac OS quality is the worst it's been in probably a decade+? Hard…

The Windows phone was loved because it had excellent Nokia hardware. The software was not loved and the app store was lacking.

Software was really good though - just not widely used to get enough credit.

Sad that we are stuck with Android and iOS basically now.

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