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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

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Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#381

Post by freilanzer »

pheatherlite wrote: post #364
godelski wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone, chill Regardless of how you feel about tipping culture we're not talking about the average person nor are we talking about the average * experience* . The dude is worth north of $100bn, and is making nearly $10k per minute![0]. Someone who cannot spend his wealth. Someone who'd have to spend tens of millions of dollars every single day just to stop his wealth from growing. Someone who makes money faster tha…

That's not the point, though. It's not how generous he is with his money. It's how he sees money, its purpose in his life. People who see wealth as a force multiplier don't gorm habits of being careless with it. Just like you see people who have no money live pay check to pay check, take on debt just to assume a class they don't exist in. Yet you used to see Bezos in a camry and Buffet in some equally run of the mill…

> Back to the topic at hand: Tipping is a ridiculous notion that the wealthy can see through, while the rest of us are too brainwashed to objectively analyze

Oh yes, the wealthy are superior to us unwashed masses in every way. How I wish I could see through and objectively analyse, but my bank account won't allow that.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#382

Post by signa11 »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #371
metadat wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have as much disdain for the monkey man as the next OSS fan. But VSCode was always closed sourced crap at the arbitrary whims of a soulless zombie corp, and they never promised otherwise in a significant way. It's not relevant and not a good foundational signal or basis for any argument.

... https://github.com/microsoft/vscode ? It's MIT licensed. Or are we here to start GPL vs MIT for the 10,000th time?

oh please :)

the old ‘embrace-extend-extinguish’ model is what it _truly_ is, f.e. , you cannot take extensions from m$ store and use it.

there have been large number of discussions around this topic, and folks have highlighted these concerns more articulately than i could ever hope to do.

take your pick.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#383

Post by 71bw »

datavirtue wrote: post #235
cyberax wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember working with Microsoft as a client in 2000-s, it was awesome. We started as a startup, and enrolled in a BizSpark program. It gave us basically free access to Microsoft tools and with very responsive support. We later transitioned into volume licensing, that also was simple and straightforward. The business side of Microsoft was a streamlined unstoppable train at that point. The technical side, not so much…

WPF is still unmatched.

Exactly and I'm never going to change my opinion. Nothing in this area was ever so easy and yet so powerful.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#384

Post by Nevermark »

senderista wrote: post #279
Nevermark wrote: post #186

> Microsoft under Ballmer made deep, long-term bets that set up Microsoft for success in the decades after his reign This is no doubt true. Under Ballmer, Nadella "led a transformation of the company's business and technology culture from client services to cloud infrastructure and services." [0] But the number of failed mobile (phone, small PC) initiatives and products, from long before the iPhone to multiple waves…

Are you remembering Windows Mobile? That sucked, but Windows Phone did not (and was famously built by a totally different team). But it was too little, too late.

> (I did have friends with Microsoft's last phone, and they really liked it. Just too late.)

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#385

Post by throwaway48476 »

mvdtnz wrote: post #239
not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #124

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

If you want more money per drink put it on the menu price. Don't passive-aggressively await each customer's random generosity.

"Price discrimination"

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#386

Post by chucke1992 »

RandomThoughts3 wrote: post #101
chucke1992 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We cannot tell if the currently most profitable divisions would become that profitable under Ballmer. That's the whole point - Satya somehow was able to develop the platforms through acquisitions and business vendor lock much better than Ballmer ever could. And we saw what happened with Windows division under Ballmer - it was profitable but it had no future. MSFT could become another IBM. With Ballmer we could get so…

> And we saw what happened with Windows division under Ballmer - it was profitable but it had no future. Microsoft under Ballmer was insanely profitable, more than its competitors and far more than before he took the helm. And despite that Ballmer launched Azure, started the push towards Entreprise software and at no point stopped investing. I don’t think Ballmer was the best CEO ever but his poor reputation is very…

> Microsoft under Ballmer was insanely profitable, more than its competitors and far more than before he took the helm.

Yeah, that's the thing - he was a good CFO. He was able to maximize profit and stuff. But people remember CEOs by their achievements - "a founder", "made MSFT into top three world companies"...With Ballmer people remember the lost decade and that's it.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#387

Post by oefnak »

EasyMark wrote: post #275
unixhero wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tipping for a convenience item at the till really really sucks. Am I the only one sane on this? Best regards Norway

Baristas in Norway get paid far more than here in the USA except in the fanciest of coffee shops. Tip culture is simply a part of the restaurant scene here, while I don’t agree with it, I don’t see hurting the baristas/waitstaff as an option either. I may not give exorbitant tips, but I give a reasonable 10-15%

You're keeping the system in place by contributing to it. I don't see how people don't understand that. You should act how you want everyone to act.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#388

Post by chucke1992 »

RandomThoughts3 wrote: post #105
chucke1992 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am biased but I am not disconnected from the facts. I am still pissed at Ballmer with how they missed search and mobile market. They were late with Search and they were late with mobile. With Teams it was just luck, but even then Team's growth happened years years after Ballmer and can be attributed to the multiplatform push of O365 by Satya.

Bing is insanely profitable. I fail to see how they missed search. You are not disconnected from the facts but you happily discount Ballmer wins when they don’t suit your narrative.

> Microsoft under Ballmer was insanely profitable, more than its competitors and far more than before he took the helm.

Being profitable means nothing if your marketshare in low 10%. You are leaning too much on "profit". Ballmer was a good CFO (finance guy), but not CEO.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#390

Post by [deleted] »

ethbr1 wrote: post #338
ryandv wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is eye-opening. I make a fraction of what Steve does and am still dumb enough to be hitting 20% at the machine every time I go out. If 0% is good enough for Mr. Ballmer, it's good enough for me.

There's a difference between being frugal and being an asshole. If you have enough money that tips are a rounding error for you -- not tipping just makes you an asshole.

[deleted]
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