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Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

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Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#361

Post by batmansbelt »

moron4hire wrote: post #134
batmansbelt wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's true that governments are much more efficient at delivering funds than charities. It's an economy of scale. Also governments have a lot more oversight than charities do.

That is the complete, 100% opposite of reality. Charities have tons of reporting requirements that they have to meet to demonstrate--to the government--that they aren't at least a money laundering operation, say nothing about using the funds appropriately. There is no such equivalent oversight of government bureaus.

You're right in a way, but wrong in a more important way.

Charities can spend their money on administration, marketing, etc., such that very little can end up going to their chosen task. A government is the opposite. There are millions of people clamouring to whinge about any amount of waste in government. So you end up with governments being up to 6 times more efficient at delivering aid. The classic example is the cancer cure charities that deliver almost no research funding, while government grants are an excellent source of funding.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#362

Post by bad_user »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #352
chaostheory wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FOSS aren't even a player I strongly disagree. FOSS is a huge force for both backend development and front end web development. One can also argue that Android is mostly open. EDIT: The large majority of servers in the world are running on FOSS. I can also predict a large number of upcoming devices like the internet of things to be running on it. Whether or not they run Android is another story. The only reason FOS…

Agree re development but whether Android is open depends where you are in the world and where you draw the lines on what constitutes Android. In North America and Europe it's theoretically open but OEM's dependence on Google's services (which for many people are part and parcel of the Android experience) and the control Google exert through that means that there are real limitations on how open it is in reality. This…

> you can't use Android to put together a compelling smartphone without Google

I actually have an older Galaxy S and I installed CyanogenMod on it without Google's services, so no Google Play, no GMail, etc... The phone is actually usable. I have more apps on it than I have on another Win Phone 8, a Lumia that I received as a gift.

As a browser, I'm using Firefox, which I happen to believe it's the best mobile browser right now. For email I'm using K-9 Mail, a pretty good open-source email client that can also do PGP encryption btw. My contacts and my calendar are synced fairly OK, since I'm connected to my Google account through the Exchange protocol.

For maps I'm using OsmAnd - extremely awful interface, but the maps are from OSM and are awesome and because it helped me get to where I wanted, I have tolerated the UI. For music and movies I'm using Apollo and VLC.

For Facebook and Twitter and other high-profile apps, I could have gone with Amazon's Appstore, however I preferred to use the web interfaces, packaged as apps in Firefox's marketplace. Not as snappy as the native interfaces, but they work and you also get better sandboxing.

The amount of work to go from zero to open-source Android is huge. You could fork Android and release something usable today. Amazon did it ;-)

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#363

Post by JonFish85 »

taylodl wrote: post #197
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…

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.

I feel like in some ways they were victims of their own success (Microsoft was). Building the core of an OS around a browser? At the time, a fairly novel idea, but really forward-looking. And I believe that's part of what brought about the massive anti-trust lawsuit.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#364

Post by zmmmmm »

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

It's extremely dangerous to think if Microsoft as weak. They have enormous profits and revenue - far, far bigger than Google, for example - that are secure far into the future. They are willing to plow this money for an almost indefinite amount of time into any product to brute force it to success (see Xbox) and they are willing stoop lower and employ underhand tactics to an extent that nobody else in the industry will match. So fear not, Microsoft is a long way from weak. We should worry a lot more about the possibility of them actually becoming completely dominant again than we should worry about the relatively benign prospect of them becoming weaker.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#365

Post by BlackDeath3 »

frik wrote: post #168
guardian5x wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comment fail, this is just one of the screens there reflecting on his glasses.

wrong, re-watch the video in HD full screen.

I agree with the above. After watching the video in HD and fullscreen, it looks like the reflection of a screen more than anything else (to me). Hardly surprising, given that the hallway is covered in television monitors.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#366

Post by BlackDeath3 »

zmmmmm wrote: post #364
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 It's extremely dangerous to think if Microsoft as weak. They have enormous profits and revenue - far, far bigger than Google, for example - that are secure far into the future. They are willing to plow this money for an almost indefinite amount of time into any product to brute force it to success (see Xbox) and they are willing stoop lower and employ underhand tacti…

Strong may not necessarily mean "without potential or resources". How about strongly innovative, or strongly visionary? Just a thought.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#367

Post by flipped_bit »

Good luck to MS.

Their busineess metrics currently looks good but can they win the hearts and minds of the next gen.? On the gaming side, they are well positioned.

As mentioned by several commentators here, most new companies (incl. my own) entirely relies on Google Doc. offerings, Gmail etc.. to almost never using any MS products except in some scenarios. It is great to use for some advanced work - something even today when Google spreasheets is unable to work with large datasets.

MS Office Suite is really an amazing piece of SW - this coming from a Linux geek and yes I have tried others like OpenOffice etc....

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#368

Post by brianmcdonough »

zmmmmm wrote: post #364
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 It's extremely dangerous to think if Microsoft as weak. They have enormous profits and revenue - far, far bigger than Google, for example - that are secure far into the future. They are willing to plow this money for an almost indefinite amount of time into any product to brute force it to success (see Xbox) and they are willing stoop lower and employ underhand tacti…

Agreed. Microsoft tried to create a closed system, but they were prevented by governments worried about them consolidating their power forever. Now, we are faced with two closed systems fighting for power, ios and android. Companies like facebook talk about their "mobile moment" the time when their presences on closed systems eclipsed their presence on an open system, the Internet.

I long for a time when data flowed freely along pipes and tubes.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#369

Post by nilkn »

This is a bit of a tangent, but is not having an MBA a significant impediment to advancement in Microsoft to the executive level? I've never worked there, but the impression I have is that a programmer there could never hope to rise to this sort of level in the company.

Re: Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO

#370

Post by gress »

shmerl wrote: post #354
gress wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to use that analogy then I do think it's better to have more than one such power.

The problem is, this analogy is not precise. In patent wars it often doesn't work because there are privateers (NPE patent trolls) which have nothing to lose and MS and other patent aggressors readily employ them to do the dirty work for them in order to avoid retaliation. So, the mere existence of many big patent holders does nothing to prevent such threats, and especially for smaller players.

True - it doesn't reduce the patent threat for smaller players. But it does limit the dominance of any one big player and provide more opportunities for smaller players to participate.
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