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Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

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Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#221

Post by hga »

nailer wrote: post #172
ygra wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've been there and no one used it.

IIRC (old Windows NT4 MCSE here) POSIX subsystem never had access to TCPIP, which made it pointless. It was a sales point, rather than a genuinely useful subsystem. That said, I think OSs are irrelevant: people are happy to pay for apps, cloud hosting etc and MS are happy to provide it to them, Windows or not, for money.

I don't doubt it, it was only Posix.1, required by the Federal government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_POSIX_subsystem).

Per http://www.unityisplural.com/2012/01/windows-posix-complianc... due to a procurement lawsuit in 1995 the Coast Guard was forced to accept a NT based "open system" bid. I don't know if they actually cared at the time, but the UNIX(TM) losing bidders certainly did, and it certainly made a big difference in subsequent adoption of NT/Windows.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#223

Post by hythloday »

Udo wrote: post #58

There's something deeply symbolic about watching those enthusiastic people doing their Sorkin walks for the camera through the vast and completely empty halls of the Microsoft offices (or is it a museum, I can't tell). By the numbers, Microsoft is still incredibly relevant. At the same time, I can't even remember when I last used any MS product. It's not a boycott, there are simply no points where their stuff interse…

At the same time, I can't even remember when I last used any MS product

You don't use Twitter or Facebook (their auto-translations are powered by Bing)? You don't play games? You don't use Skype?

I can believe these happen to be possible for you, but if they are, it seems like you're the outlier rather than the average.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#225

Post by fumar »

marknutter wrote: post #112
kvb wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this is a helpful diagnosis - Microsoft didn't have a short attention when it came to tablets (as you say, they pioneered them, and they haven't abandoned them), they just didn't get the form factor right, and many of the Live services have just been rebranded. Likewise, Apple has also demonstrated a short attention span at times. Remember Ping?

It's not that they didn't get the form factor right, it's that they didn't align as a company to make sure it was a success. To my knowledge, in-fighting between different divisions in Microsoft lead to the Tablet PC's ultimate demise and as an early adopter myself I definitely felt the pain of it. Tablet pen functionality in Office was a pathetic, tacked-on afterthought, for instance.

In those early iterations the stylus support was pathetic. In contrast, Today's stylus hardware/software integration on their Surface Pro line is great.

I look forward to Microsoft finding their own perspective not only in hardware, but in software/search as well.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#226

Post by melling »

ZoFreX wrote: post #218
taylodl wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? What good would a strong Microsoft provide us? What void would that fill? We've been there, done that and frankly, I don't care to go back. They abused their power when they had it and I have no intent of giving it back to them to give them another crack at it. No, I much prefer today's world of Google, Apple, Samsung and FOSS in all its myriad forms battling it out. There's more developer frameworks than ever a…

It's not Microsoft that was/is bad, it's having any single entity have too much power. In my opinion, right now, that is Google, and that's why we need a stronger someone - anyone. And Microsoft fit the bill.

Doesn't Microsoft have 90% of the desktop? About the same dominance in "Office apps", along with their proprietary formats keeping people uncomfortable using "compatible" software. That dominance is almost 2 decades old and it's quite hard to fix.

When most people get a job, they're going to be using Microsoft because that's what they will be given. I've never been somewhere where I'm told which search engine to use. Most places still don't offer an alternative to IE in the work place. That's why developers are still coding to IE7.

It really is frustrating that people don't understand this. I wouldn't mind a better Microsoft, except for the fact that people have short memories and don't really understand how powerful Microsoft currently is. Google is the the same ballpark? Seriously!?!

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#227

Post by dublinben »

hga wrote: post #149
javajosh wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember Zune? Remember Live? Remember the Kin?? We should be very careful about criticizing others for their failed products. The side-effect of experimentation and innovation is that some of the experiments will result in failure to find market fit. Market fit failure isn't a good thing for a company, but it's much worse to not experiment at all.

I'm most familiar with the example of the Kin, and it was not an example of " experimentation and innovation ", but a case study in how Microsoft has largely lost its ability to execute on a proven concept. For that matter, the Zune was a (late) iPod clone; sure, it had some experimental features (that didn't pan out, but, hey, they tried), but it was hardly seriously innovative. It also was yet another example in ho…

Both the Zune Pass and Zune Share were much more innovative than anything beyond the first iPod.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#228

Post by shmerl »

adamt wrote: post #160

I'd never thought I'd say this after the years of aggressive (and at times anti-competitive) dominance but I think the world needs a strong Microsoft again. Although Microsoft remains very strong in the corporate world, its presence in the Internet and mobile worlds are now pretty limited and leaving the two power-houses of Google and Apple to shape the industry. Satya has done a good job with Azure, and it will be i…

> I think the world needs a strong Microsoft again

Why? A strong anti-competitive troll/racketeer which fights open standards and etc. is not something the world really needs.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#229

Post by dragonwriter »

UVB-76 wrote: post #213
taylodl wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? What good would a strong Microsoft provide us? What void would that fill? We've been there, done that and frankly, I don't care to go back. They abused their power when they had it and I have no intent of giving it back to them to give them another crack at it. No, I much prefer today's world of Google, Apple, Samsung and FOSS in all its myriad forms battling it out. There's more developer frameworks than ever a…

> They abused their power when they had it and I have no intent of giving it back to them to give them another crack at it. You're tarring more than 100,000 people with that brush, many of whom were not at Microsoft back then.

No, just one (legal) person, the corporation called "Microsoft".

He's not saying anything about any of the natural persons involved acting outside their roles in Microsoft.

Corporate "goodwill" exists in negative forms as well, and Microsoft has acquired quite a bit over the years.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#230

Post by rossjudson »

rbanffy wrote: post #80
gesman wrote: post #18

Good luck, commander! Scrap Ballmer's toys and go after the big enterprise boys. That's where the money is :)

Indeed. Enterprise is where Microsoft has the most traction, and benefits most inertia and lock-in. It faces competition from SaaS companies, but that's an unavoidable transition Microsoft will have to make.

Office 365 seems to be doing very well. In that case, it's the SaaS companies that should be deeply afraid of Microsoft. As a total offering (consisting of cloud components and PC-based components) it's pretty hard to beat.

Running O365 on Azure has probably substantially improved the platform.

I can't see why Microsoft would take the slightest interest in the mobile software world of 100,000 different $1 crapware products. There's no money in it.

Rovio is one of the most successful mobile developers there is, with annual income of $150 million, across pretty much every mobile platform. They're great at it.

$150 million isn't even visible next to Microsoft's $60 billion yearly income.

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