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Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

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Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#11
post #8
post #2

Use my bookmarklet to hide that horrible image of Balmer sticking his tongue out javascript:(function (){var x = document.getElementsByTagName("img");for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++){x[i].setAttribute("src","");}}());

Seriously, this should almost have a NSFW warning for that image alone. Brrr.

Oh my, that is some Jabba the Hutt + Baron Harkonnen + Aeon Flux level of excrescence. I feel violated just by having seen it.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#13
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suggesting a rewrite of something as important as the NT kernel is ignorant at best. I think Bash on Windows is a great compromise.

Why is the NT kernel so important? It hasn't touched my life much in about eight years, private or professional. Nokia thought Symbian was very important too.

Why switch from a tested kernel that is technically very nice? Nothing about the kernel prevents proper support of POSIX and it has a lot more drivers and hardware support than any existing kernel.

Your exposure to the kernel in the last 8 years is not representative of 90+% of computer users.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#14

I've always said sales (and marketing) was Microsoft's biggest problem. The are finally starting to be cool again as the engineers take over. The silo between Windows and development (Azure, .net etc) needs to come down fully to fix Sinofsky's mess too. We're still left with a desktop OS UI with huge animated icons designed for a phone even though they've now given up on the phone market anyway. They gave up too easi…

Very well said on the Windows phone.I have used three windows phones before switching to Android and I think the UI for simpler things like dialer ,messages or emails was better on windows phone.Especially email was so good ,it used to work a charm even on 2G.I have used built in clients and other options on Android and nothing beats the basic email client on windows phone.May be it was not feature rich for gmail but usability was better .Many of my colleagues is of the same opinion who switched from windows phone to Android.All Microsoft had to do was fix the developer ecosystem but looks like the platform is abandoned. An alternative other than Android or iOS would have been better

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#15
post #2

Use my bookmarklet to hide that horrible image of Balmer sticking his tongue out javascript:(function (){var x = document.getElementsByTagName("img");for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++){x[i].setAttribute("src","");}}());

I thought it was interesting to try and diagnose his imbalances via the ancient indian/chinese medical systems: http://healthy-ojas.com/assets/system/ayurveda-tongue-diagno...

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#16
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suggesting a rewrite of something as important as the NT kernel is ignorant at best. I think Bash on Windows is a great compromise.

Why is the NT kernel so important? It hasn't touched my life much in about eight years, private or professional. Nokia thought Symbian was very important too.

The kernel isn't that import but all the software that depends on it and the win32 libs is. There is lots of software that is w32 only, more then enough to keep windows around for years.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#17

I'm reading this from my linux laptop running firefox. my colleagues use macs. I don't think microsoft is gaining anything. nothing against the guy but perhaps its too little too late.

Microsoft has shifted focus from the laptop to the cloud. And they are most definitely gaining there. You're just measuring the wrong thing.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#18
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suggesting a rewrite of something as important as the NT kernel is ignorant at best. I think Bash on Windows is a great compromise.

Why is the NT kernel so important? It hasn't touched my life much in about eight years, private or professional. Nokia thought Symbian was very important too.

Unless you're OK with breaking compatibility with all existing Windows apps - most of which you have no control over - rewriting the kernel as a POSIX thing is going to look a lot like 'bash on windows' in reverse. You'd have to have some kind of shim layer to translate all the old system calls, so most everyone's existing software is going to be slower and there will be bugs, etc. Including your own, since Windows is a kernel, a ton of drivers, a userland (including basic runtimes), a windowing system, a basic set of productivity tools and games, etc.

I think this would be a total disaster that killed Windows, personally.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#19
post #6

I was a Windows user for a long time. 5 years ago I switched to OS X, because I think it's closer to the deployment environment I use as a dev. However what OS X did ( when they killed the old one - MacOS 9 and rewrote the whole thing on UNIX based kernel ) was the single greatest move, which I think pays off even these days. This is what I hope should happen with Windows. They should decide on POSIX kernel and compl…

> This is what I hope should happen with Windows. They should decide on POSIX kernel and completely rewrite most of it.

They simply can't afford it, not because they lack the resources but from a strategic point of view. See the other comments talking about compatibility. Windows works for many, many, many people and businesses. It would be a suicide move. People, and even more importantly businesses, don't jump on any hot new thing just because it's available, because change has huge costs in an enterprise context. If Microsoft ever tried to pull the rug from under them, you can be pretty sure that would be the end for them.

Re: Satya Nadella just fixed Microsoft’s biggest problem

#20
post #6

I was a Windows user for a long time. 5 years ago I switched to OS X, because I think it's closer to the deployment environment I use as a dev. However what OS X did ( when they killed the old one - MacOS 9 and rewrote the whole thing on UNIX based kernel ) was the single greatest move, which I think pays off even these days. This is what I hope should happen with Windows. They should decide on POSIX kernel and compl…

Microsoft killed the old one and replaced it with new stuff -- Windows New Technology -- long before Apple did. In fact, when Apple was shopping around for a new OS base, Windows NT was one of the options that Apple considered. (Didn't consider it very seriously, Hancock told me, but still, she did consider it.)
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