This statement had me thinking a bit:
>it’s the first major test of whether Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, can restore the company’s long-dormant reputation for innovation and creativity.
Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
31–40 of 46 posts
Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Satya seems to be making the right moves embracing open source Let's not get carried away. You can't say "Embracing" when only very few of their products or libraries are actually Open. They are still a business massively based on DRMs and Proprietary Software and Technologies.
I don't know why you're being down-voted. I think all their core consumer and enterprise products are proprietary and expensive. Maybe they contribute to open source as PR or something...but they certainly aren't 'Embracing' with their wallet. Not that it's a bad thing.
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Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#33Everything I hear from friends at MS was positive (atleast until they shuttered the lab in Mountain View). More than anything else the rise in morale among Softies has been almost unbelievable. Steve Ballmer hurt Microsoft in many insidious ways that may not be visible in the numbers - but hurt Microsoft he did. I once had the opportunity or misfortune to hear him speak about the cloud (~2011) and it was clear to eve…
> Satya seems to be making the right moves embracing open source Let's not get carried away. You can't say "Embracing" when only very few of their products or libraries are actually Open. They are still a business massively based on DRMs and Proprietary Software and Technologies.
You forgot the Android phone manufacturer extortion.
Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#34One thing that surprised me is, how common it is having secret, confidential, access-restricted rooms/facilities at American technology companies, where new technology/products are developed. We read in the tech press, how much secretive Apple is. Even this article, mentions confidential room related thing in the beginning of the article itself. It seems, tech industry implicitly consider the presence of secret/confidential rooms/facilities/projects as a badge of honour.It is more surprising, given American political leaders speak of free or open society unlike closed ones like North Korea (perception-wise).
I get the impression that, as a society, you want to be open but in the industry, you want to be closed/highly secretive and in personal life, privacy is preferred. (i.e. not open/sharing all aspects). This appears contradicting each other and it suggests that, guiding principle is not openness/freedom itself but selecting profitable/suitable style and spreading forcibly across the globe.
Many countries/cultures cannot really comprehend these sharp edges/changes and this partly explains the tensions/conflicts in the world.
Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#35One thing that surprised me is, how common it is having secret, confidential, access-restricted rooms/facilities at American technology companies, where new technology/products are developed. We read in the tech press, how much secretive Apple is. Even this article, mentions confidential room related thing in the beginning of the article itself. It seems, tech industry implicitly consider the presence of secret/confi…
In what part of the world do companies openly tell everyone the products in their pipeline? Wouldn't their competitors just copy any features/products they plan on releasing?
Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#36He should become CEO of Apple.
Lol @ downvotes. We all know Cook is dead in the water.
Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#37One thing that surprised me is, how common it is having secret, confidential, access-restricted rooms/facilities at American technology companies, where new technology/products are developed. We read in the tech press, how much secretive Apple is. Even this article, mentions confidential room related thing in the beginning of the article itself. It seems, tech industry implicitly consider the presence of secret/confi…
The distinction isn't open vs. closed so much as voluntary vs. involuntary. The point of a free society is that if I want to share my secrets, I'm allowed to do so, and if I don't want to share those secrets, I'm also allowed to do so. It's my choice.
In contrast, in a place like North Korea, there isn't quite the same level of choice. Censorship prohibits me from saying certain things and surveillance makes it difficult to hide other things, regardless of whether I want to or not.
That said, you could certainly argue (and many have argued) that a company placing onerous restrictions on what its employees can say or do is contrary to the principles of an open society, the implication being that the power dynamics in a employment relationship make restrictions on employees less than voluntary.
Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Satya seems to be making the right moves embracing open source Let's not get carried away. You can't say "Embracing" when only very few of their products or libraries are actually Open. They are still a business massively based on DRMs and Proprietary Software and Technologies.
You forgot the Android phone manufacturer extortion.
Using patents to extort money is hardly what I would describe as "embracing Open Source".
Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#39I don't know how much of it has been Nadella, but I've been impressed by everything I've heard about Microsoft the last few months - open sourcing .NET, adopting new platforms, this holographic tech and the free Windows 10 upgrade. If this is anything to go by, Nadella is going to do great things at MS.
If anything, Nadella presents a vastly different attitude from MS than the previous CEOs. For one thing, I haven't seen the incredible arrogance towards other companies and technologies that MS has had in the past. Such as when Ballmer promised to kill linux, and called open source software a cancer. Now MS is open sourcing a lot of software.
Another thing that Nadella is doing is pushing new technologies and ideas which is not usually seen from MS. As the article mentions, MS was usually playing catch up or me too. These are promising changes, but still, because MS has been a fierce competitor who pretty much screwed over a lot of their partners and other companies that they've done business with, they became one of the most feared companies in the tech field. I'm left with the sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Maybe one of the reasons for that is the way MS pushed Windows 8 and their tablets. I've seen the corporate speak and boosterism that their people have been spouting when it first came out. Although it was still under Ballmer's reign, they are recent enough to make me wonder how quickly MS people can change under Nadella. Or if they'll even change. Nadella needs to make a huge impression to both the public as well as to MS employees if he's going to really change the culture and business practices of MS. In summary, Nadella seems to be the best person to do this job.
Re: Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella
#40This "Microsoft Missed Mobile" meme should die in a fire. They didn't so much miss it as fail to deliver anything anyone wanted in the space, except for their most extreme fanboys, for about 15 years. Bill Gates famously went absolutely nuts about Symbian and considered them a giant threat to the company. It really didn't help. On the strength of today Nadella hasn't reined in the Windows group anything like enough.…
Windows 8(.1) is great and I've used it since it was released. Going back to Windows 7 is seriously slows down my productivity in almost every way and I find it fairly inhibiting. I can see how from an administration standpoint it becomes difficult, but as an independent user there is absolutely very little wrong with it and it is miles ahead of Windows 7. Talking specifically about live tiles: I love that I am able…
Strange, but most people I know really can't stand windows 8(.1). Some have been beaten into submission by being forced to use it, but if anything, they'd prefer to go back to windows 7 or xp.
I may be a linux user, but that's only because windows sucks so bad. Lots of people will tell me that it's really my fault that windows is behaving badly on my machine. But when I explain to them that I don't have the same problems using linux on the very same machine as windows, they can understand my point.