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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

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Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#701

Post by corresation »

raverbashing wrote: post #694
corresation wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So....no benchmarks then. Convincing.

At this point, it's you who's looking like an idiot, unless you really never used a computer with an OEM install of Windows. I suggest you smash a finger with a hammer, when I did that it hurt but of course it's only anecdotal evidence

Would you like to see my Tiger Deterrence Rock?

I have used countless installs of Windows, through MSDN, retail, Technet, and through vendors like Dell. I happen to avoid being a suggestible simpleton so I don't simply adopt the sophistry that is so common. Sorry if this offends you into hilarious insults.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#702

Post by jodrellblank »

laureny wrote: post #672
windexh8er wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had me until the Google / Apple remark. My feeling of Microsoft is that they didn't understand their innovative success; XBox - or how to capitalize on it going forward. The 360 was likely the last product of theirs I will ever buy. The new console - not innovative and if they weren't paying attention to the fall out around the Sim City debacle then that's just added injury to insult. Baller is a bad CEO by today…

> The 360 was likely the last product of theirs I will ever buy. This kind of categorical statement always baffles me. How can you be so sure that they will never, ever release a product you might want? You can't, so maybe you're just showing an emotional bias against a company, another thing that I find baffling.

How can you be so sure that they will never, ever

That's not what they said. They said "likely", in the context of a comment predicting a future of Microsoft decline.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#703

Post by jodrellblank »

marcosdumay wrote: post #636
specialist wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Microsoft still has a problem. AD, Exchange, and Office (no SharePoint is not everywhere) only work on completely Windows networks. Once somebody has to use mobile computers, you are better with Samba, IMAP, and a LibreOffice compatible package.

Every mobile platform that matters hooks into Exchange - iOS, Android, Mac OS X Mail, Surface Mail, Windows Phone, Pre-Windows Nokia, all speak ActiveSync for mail, calendar and contacts. Blackberries hook in with Blackberry Enterprise Server.

And most if not all of them have some kind of Office Document viewer and basic levels of editor, either built in, shipped with, or available as an app.

And how is Samba, a clone of Windows SMB file shares, going to help anything mobile?

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#704

Post by ufmace »

freehunter wrote: post #466
incongruity wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd go so far as to argue that it really wasn't the same market - the one that Windows Mobile was in was not anything like the smartphone market created by Apple and Google. Tablets, you can make a case for, as above, I guess, but again, the leap with the iPad was so great that it wasn't just an iteration but a leap, leaving it open for a fast follower to come on (as Google did there too).

The difference I was trying to point out was that Apple and Google had no legacy involvement in the market at all. Microsoft had clearly defined strategies that were playing out, and were working on developments to further those strategies. Apple and Google didn't have Windows Mobile 6, 7, and 8 being planned and developed when iOS or Android were released. Microsoft did. It's slower to turn a ship around than it is…

Android and iOS are effectively in a different market than the original Windows Mobile because they were designed from the ground up to be used only with fingers on capacitive multi-touch screens. Same thing with the tablets. Windows was designed to be used with mouse and keyboard, which is why it never really worked on tablets. Windows Mobile seemed more like an attempt to make a phone as much like a Windows PC as possible, rather than a genuine rethink of how people would interact with mobile devices. Windows Phone seems much better, but it looks to be too late to get a foothold in the market, even with Microsoft throwing money at it.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#705

Post by sitkack »

laureny wrote: post #609
SiVal wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft's approach was different: let others innovate, then we'll dominate. Others would come up with new stuff, and Microsoft would "embrace and extend" whatever got traction in the market by adding it to their near-monopoly OS/app stack at whatever price served the purpose of eliminating the inventor and taking their market. This strategy always made Gates paranoid, because the risk was that some alternative to t…

> Microsoft's approach was different: let others innovate, then we'll dominate. XBox, Surface and ergonomic keyboards would beg to differ. Not mentioning the countless other innovations that didn't become as popular as these ones. I know the Hacker News hive mind likes to perpetuate the myth that Microsoft doesn't innovate but it innovates at least as much as, if not more than, Google and Apple.

You need a hug bro. Sorry about your stock, seriously.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#706

Post by sitkack »

laureny wrote: post #671
SiVal wrote: post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm speechless. Well, almost. Apple revolutionized the music industry, how music is sold, and how it's listened to. It revolutionized phones. Its iPad changed consumer computing, media consumption, user interface expectations.... Five year olds are totally at home on an iPad and think a screen without touch "isn't working". As they get older, all screens will have to conform to the new reality. They revolutionized sh…

And Microsoft revolutionized the PC industry, which has led to the generation of billions of dollars of wealth for millions of users on the entire planet. You don't seem to be very fair in evaluating the merits of tech industries by focusing only on the bad parts of the one you don't like and the good sides of the ones you like.

Microsoft was there as an epiphenomenon. If they didn't exist (at all) the PC industry would still be here and some would argue that without the monopolistic innovation stifling practices, it would be much more vibrant today.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#707

Post by sitkack »

dredmorbius wrote: post #693
MichaelGG wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft essentially invented AJAX. In the late 90s they had some HTML remote update thingy via a Java applet, I believe. Then they introduced XMLHttpRequest. Developing for IE around that timeframe wasn't bad. They had excellent documentation, and added (proprietary, sure) extensions that let you do all sorts of neat stuff.

Microsoft also created the first UNIX port to x86: Xenix. As Oedipus and the Titans showed, sometimes we create our own usurpers.

MS ran off the hell off of Xenix internally. Mail, calendaring, etc. I remember when NT was going to be the best Unix out there... And then Win32 happened and coolaid got sloshed around. The NT Kernel could have been an amazing Unix.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#708

Post by sitkack »

ams6110 wrote: post #637
jacalata wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's certainly not something I've heard. Sharepoint alone is supposed to be $2 billion in revenue.

Don't overlook the SQL Server licenses that almost all of the enterprise stuff requires.

The bulk of the money is in

os, sql server, office/exchange.

Everything else is tiddly winks.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#709

Post by windexh8er »

MoreConsiderate wrote: post #666
keithnoizu wrote: post #644

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could you possibly imply that the electronic device messiah could somehow do wrong. Apple lost me at their ridiculous patent fights with Samsung.

You don't know how much of a bully Samsung is. Apple looks out for the little guy. The dreamer.

Exactly. Just ask those app devs that have gotten screwed out of a large chunk of their livelihood because one day Apple decided that functionality of their app competed with Apple/iOS.

Apple's developer ecosystem is setup to give you everything for free. It's also setup to take everything away as it pleases all while controlling every aspect of it - even subjective components of it. It's not free at that point, and the control for security basis only goes so far before the argument starts to fall apart. Yes, it is a good thing to have controls for that exact reason. Is Google any better? In some regards yes (the platform has dwarfed iOS in terms of technical security controls but fragmentation plagues the ability of everyone to take advantage of updates) and in others no.

Apple is just an accelerated Microsoft at this point. Significantly slowed innovation (compared to the early OS X and iPhone days) - again because of the "innovator's dilemma". They're now locked into this massive ecosystem which will artificially continue to suffocate them over time.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#710

Post by Roboprog »

tanzam75 wrote: post #651
hhandoko wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thin clients for VDI for one, and the trend does seem to go that way. With current generation hardware, a good 1U server can support 50 - 100 desktop simultaneously.

And then Microsoft makes money by selling 50-100 Remote Desktop CALs to replace those 50-100 physical desktops. The price per CAL is about 90% of the price per license of Windows. But add in the base price of the Windows Server license, and you're back to essentially the same price. Net impact on Microsoft's bottom line: zero.

At first. But eventually, less and less will run on the 370^H^H^H Windows box, as people get native clients (or good HTML 5+ clients) for email, memos and spreadsheets, and only "that legacy .NET app we still have to use" will be on the big-iron rack in the DP donjon.
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