i hadn't logged into hn for a long time but i had to comment on this. as being one involved in companies involving- Microsoft and i say Hallelujah!
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
481–490 of 784 posts
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to understand that some of us, who were around and writing code through the 90s, are still a little PTSD about Microsoft. Back then, when Microsoft did control computing, it was easy to wonder if maybe they would control it forever. It was a shitty period. There was a sense of futility to building software. You could build small software, but as soon as you reached a certain scale, particularly if you were a…
What software exactly have been boxed out of their operating system with incompatibilities?
Well, I guess I meant to include both Windows and Office in that statement. Samba, WordPerfect, and Netscape are good examples.
Although in the case of Netscape, they just coerced all of the OEMs not to include it.
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#483Earlier quoted context omitted.
It does feel like MS just shows up like that. Azure did (and does) give that impression; Zune, as well. And Surface tablets are also a clear response to the iPad (whether MS ever had anything in R&D previously or not, they certainly didn't ship). But I think Google is much more prone to jump in to a market with force, they just seem to execute "better" (I leave that open to interpretation). FB comes out and MS buys i…
And Surface tablets are also a clear response to the iPad I find it hard to believe that someone who writes something this wrong can function in society. Microsoft invented the tablet computer a decade before the iPad existed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Tablet_PC Their marketing may have sucked, but they were well ahead of the rest of the industry (and apparently the world).
>I find it hard to believe that someone who writes something this wrong can function in society.
Please, stay civil. :)
Anyway, I don't think the statement is wrong. Sure, Microsoft had tablet computers first, but I think it's also true that the Surface RT and Surface Pro were made in response to the iPad's success.
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#484i hope its not to late
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it looking to the future, or having a consumer focus versus enterprise? Consumers are fickle, and you have to be on top of the latest trends in GUI, service, products, business models. Corporate customers tend to be stickier, and more resistant to change. The A/G/A/F foursome are geared for consumers, and are suitably nimble. The others you listed aren't. The worst thing a company can do is try to be perfect for b…
I think we should compare MSFT against other companies in enterprise space. So lets take, for example, ORCL. From 2000 till today, ORCL become the clear leader in enterprise: they acquired PeopleSoft, Siebel, BEA, Sun, etc. On the other hand, MSFT position in enterprise space is in much weaker position comparing to competitors such as ORCL. Enterprises will replace their Windows with tablets, but I don't see them rep…
MSFT position in enterprise space is in much weaker position comparing...
Is that true?
Microsoft's ActiveDirectory, Exchange, and SharePoint are every where.
Perhaps they have different parts of "enterprise" pie.
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#486He'll be remembered as a terrible CEO. Ballmer took over as CEO in 2000. In the 13 years since then, Apple has experienced an unprecedented resurgence. Google and Facebook have gone from being obscure startups to giants. The tech industry went through the bubble, recovered, and today is stronger than ever. What happened to Microsoft? While the rest of the tech sector exploded and prospered, it stayed still. A MSFT sh…
I agree that he will probably not be remembered for having more than doubled revenue and almost tripled profits. He will not be remembered for transforming Microsoft into one of the most important enterprise software companies. Not for introducing .NET, C# or Kinect either. All of that will be forgotten. He will be remembered for missing mobile. He will also be remembered for caring a lot about developers and about d…
Napoleon won over a hundred battles and is remembered for the one he lost.
Fuck Ballmer.
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even the $3000+ laptops from Sony or other oems were littered with crapware. When consumers shifted from desktops to mobile all of the hardware innovation was moved to the oems' suppliers, which led them to drop all of their technical talent. Now the likes of dell and hp are full of mbas whose job is to make deals with companies like McAfee to squeeze an extra penny out of each sale and to annoy clueless consumers wh…
My most recent purchase was a Dell laptop with a 3rd gen i7, 16GB RAM, eMMC accelerated TB magnetic disc, IPS 1080p screen, fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, blah blah. Weight and battery life fit my usage. I believe it was somewhere around $800, and is a perfect device for my needs. Spent a few minutes after booting removing the various trials of junk on it. Colour me clueless, I guess.
The only laptop I could find that matched the specs you mentioned is the XPS 15 which is a $2K machine:
http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!everyday-laptops&fa...
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even the $3000+ laptops from Sony or other oems were littered with crapware. When consumers shifted from desktops to mobile all of the hardware innovation was moved to the oems' suppliers, which led them to drop all of their technical talent. Now the likes of dell and hp are full of mbas whose job is to make deals with companies like McAfee to squeeze an extra penny out of each sale and to annoy clueless consumers wh…
My most recent purchase was a Dell laptop with a 3rd gen i7, 16GB RAM, eMMC accelerated TB magnetic disc, IPS 1080p screen, fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, blah blah. Weight and battery life fit my usage. I believe it was somewhere around $800, and is a perfect device for my needs. Spent a few minutes after booting removing the various trials of junk on it. Colour me clueless, I guess.
The first thing I did with my HP Laptop is a destructive recovery and the junk was gone.
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#489Microsoft successfully won the battle of the desktop computer. It's amazing how this monument of achievement actually gave Microsoft a long-term disadvantage as desktop computing slowly became irrelevant to laptops and mobile. Failing now promotes success in the future. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next 10 years, especially with DIY and web dev on the rise.
Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months
#490Earlier quoted context omitted.
And for missing search. And for missing social. And for insulting OEMs. And for his failed Windows Vista launch, and Windows 7, and Windows 8. For one man, he sure has a lot of failures on his plate.
I'm no fan of Ballmer, but I think "insulting OEMs" is one of the good things he did. The OEMs carry a great deal of blame for the collapse of Windows. While Apple was shipping beautiful metal enclosures with great convenient features like MagSafe and magnetic latches, OEMs like Dell were shitting all over the Windows brand with plasticky (and still expensive!), heavy, unreliable, loud-as-shit laptops with terrible s…
>but I think "insulting OEMs" is one of the good things he did.
Agree with this statement. OEMs is also the one of the reasons why Android gets a bad rep. Android doesn't suck, it just gets thrown into incompatible and low spec'd devices and when the lag starts rolling in, people blame the OS. I guess this is one of those unavoidable quirks of being an OS vendor and having no say in the hardware. Atleast in Microsofts case, if they wanted, they could get restrict their OS from being installed on an under spec'd device but would Google be able to do the same, especially in light of Android's openness?