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Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

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Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#51

Post by colanderman »

uberman wrote: post #2

I don't know how much of the MS turnaround can be attributed to him, but if we take it at face value that the CEO is responsible for everything, then MS definitely has had a dramatic positive run following Nadella taking the reigns from Ballmer. MS still lacks a industry leading 21st century consumer device and Nadella has not been able to change that but his bets on cloud computing, embracing of Linux and open sourc…

> I am constantly amazed that I can open a linux prompt on windows

Similarly, I'm amazed that I can build truly cross-platform .NET apps using Microsoft's own open-source tools from the Linux command line. (Apparently .NET Core, which both adopted the MIT license, and ushered in true cross-platform support, was announced later in the year that Nadella took over. [1] Not sure whether he had anything to do with it.)

What an about-face from 2000-era Microsoft's embrace-extend-extinguish approach. Remember Visual J++? If you'd told me then I'd be willingly programming on a Microsoft toolchain 20 years later I would not have believed you.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET#History

Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#52

Post by josephcsible »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #17
meerita wrote: post #7

[flagged]

Can we have an official policy against AI-written comments, please? It is in the long-term interests of HN to not have this place be riddled with bland autogenerated comments.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35206303

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33950747

Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#53

Post by qbasic_forever »

voisin wrote: post #41
qbasic_forever wrote: post #24

Microsoft completely lost mobile. Like not just a few goofy phones like Kin, they just straight up have no relevance or marketshare or anything in what is clearly the future platform for all computing. A lot of this damage was done under Balmer, but IMHO Nadella has a lot of blame too. Microsoft has gone from domination of computing platforms and making money on every single device sale to competing for scraps in som…

> Microsoft completely lost mobile. Like not just a few goofy phones like Kin, they just straight up have no relevance or marketshare or anything in what is clearly the future platform for all computing. Lost on mobile hardware and OS but their software (office, outlook, OneDrive) is extremely popular on mobile, no?

The more popular those apps the more money Microsoft is paying Apple and Google to sell the apps in their stores. Nothing is stopping Apple or Google from shaking MS down for more dollars by bumping up app store profit sharing splits. I have to imagine being forced to play by someone else's rules and live in their ecosystem would have completely enraged 90's era Microsoft led by Bill Gates--he would have moved heaven and earth to own the platform and all the dollars consumers spend.

Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#54

Post by osigurdson »

endisneigh wrote: post #35
osigurdson wrote: post #25

I'd say he is the best non-founder CEO perhaps ever.

Tim Cook and Apple have better stats by virtually every metric - also a non-founder.

I don't think Tim Cook has had much impact on Apple however.

Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#55

Post by barelyauser »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #37
barelyauser wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Value for who? No innovation, just hoarding massive profits. Quintupled stock price for shareholders.

To many, that's probably the foremost goal of a CEO, no?

Many? To the shareholders it is. But as a consumer I prefer innovation and not money hoarding. Shareholders think otherwise.

Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#57

Post by DanielHB »

voisin wrote: post #41
qbasic_forever wrote: post #24

Microsoft completely lost mobile. Like not just a few goofy phones like Kin, they just straight up have no relevance or marketshare or anything in what is clearly the future platform for all computing. A lot of this damage was done under Balmer, but IMHO Nadella has a lot of blame too. Microsoft has gone from domination of computing platforms and making money on every single device sale to competing for scraps in som…

> Microsoft completely lost mobile. Like not just a few goofy phones like Kin, they just straight up have no relevance or marketshare or anything in what is clearly the future platform for all computing. Lost on mobile hardware and OS but their software (office, outlook, OneDrive) is extremely popular on mobile, no?

other companies care about owning the platforms, if they own the platforms they get to squeeze everyone who uses them. Much like everyone wants to be a payment provider because taking a cut on every payment is very, very lucrative

Microsoft gave up on trying to create new platforms, the main reasons in my opinion are:

1) Regulations are going to come down hard on platforms

2) User-happiness and developer happiness is reduced if you squeeze, eventually bringing down the platform

3) Dependence, if your platform starts to fail you can't pivot because your business is just completely reliant on owning the platform. You can see how google owning AdSense is screwing them over now

4) Dutch disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

Microsoft seems to have figured out that owning a platform is not a long-term recipe for success. If anything it is like being an oil-rich country, eventually the only thing you can do is exporting oil. Probably because they went through it with Windows and Office

So the definition of success depends on what you think success is, Microsoft just changed what success means for big tech companies, providing an alternative route. We will see if they can stick with it or if they will try to build platform-moats again (it is very tempting to do so when you find one)

Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#58

Post by [deleted] »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #32
zamnos wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> MS still lacks a industry leading 21st century consumer device The XBox division doesn't count?

I don't know any numbers but I would guess that Xbox is not close to being the market leader. Sony has that wrapped. Xbox is probably closer to Nintendo. They do, however, have a competitive platform which is important. Something they could never do with Windows Phone.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#59

Post by pchangr »

suby wrote: post #50

You say that Windows is a Kraken, but it's been on a downward slide in my mind. I don't think Nadella gets enough flak for what is happening to Windows and Microsoft's attitude towards respecting users / privacy in general. Some examples that I've seen posted to HN over the past few months * Microsoft Edge leaks browser history to Bing - https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/25/23697532/microsoft-edge-b... * More ads in Wi…

I think that given the declining share of profit coming from windows, it wouldn’t be surprising for me if it just gets worse.

Re: Ask HN: Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?

#60

Post by DanielHB »

qbasic_forever wrote: post #53
voisin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft completely lost mobile. Like not just a few goofy phones like Kin, they just straight up have no relevance or marketshare or anything in what is clearly the future platform for all computing. Lost on mobile hardware and OS but their software (office, outlook, OneDrive) is extremely popular on mobile, no?

The more popular those apps the more money Microsoft is paying Apple and Google to sell the apps in their stores. Nothing is stopping Apple or Google from shaking MS down for more dollars by bumping up app store profit sharing splits. I have to imagine being forced to play by someone else's rules and live in their ecosystem would have completely enraged 90's era Microsoft led by Bill Gates--he would have moved heaven…

> Nothing is stopping Apple or Google from shaking MS down for more dollars by bumping up app store profit sharing splits

The government is stopping this kind of thing, anti trust, monopolies and all that. It is only getting worse for these platform owners

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