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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

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Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#471

Post by ensignavenger »

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?

That is Code OSS, MS official binary builds of Visual Studio Code, as explained at the top of the Readme, include proprietary code. MS also has several very popular proprietary extensions. Some of those extensions, older cersions were open source.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#472

Post by agurk »

kstrauser wrote: post #206
causality0 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brief data transmissions being called "squirts" is common, and was more common at the time.

I've been involved with computer networking since approximately 1982, and I've never once heard someone use "squirts" outside talking about Zunes. I don't doubt that it was jargon inside very specific niches, but it has never been common elsewhere.

Before the Ballmer/Zune use of the term I remember my father talking about data being squirted to A2A missiles (he was military) prior to launch, so perhaps that is one of the niches.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#473

Post by StableAlkyne »

archerx wrote: post #313
addicted wrote: post #182

This article doesn’t understand what was fundamentally wrong with Ballmer’s leadership and what Nadella actually changed. The specific technologies that were successful is irrelevant. Microsoft has and continues to invest in nearly every computer related technology that may come around the corner or they got late on. The problem with Microsoft was everything went through Windows. The entire company was designed to pr…

Well since Nadella I have been using less Microsoft products and probably won’t be using Windows anymore once my Windows 10 LTSC stops working. I keep hearing praise for Nadella but all he is doing is alienating a lot of customers with his terrible decisions.

> he is doing is alienating a lot of customers with his terrible decisions

Windows doesn't even make up 1/5 of their income, and in contrast a bit over half of their income is Office and Cloud*

The real money is in enterprise IT and cloud services. The average consumer doesn't keep their prebuilt computer long enough to buy another version of the OS. They don't need to keep a niche within a minority (privacy-oriented customers who would buy an OS) happy with Windows to continue drowning in revenue.

It seems like he has done a fantastic job, if the goal was to decouple their fortune from Windows.

*Based on googling and a lazy reluctance to dig through their earnings calls

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#474

Post by rbanffy »

belter wrote: post #466
Hypergraphe wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that devaluating Windows is a good strategy at all...

Bad strategy for Microsoft but clearly a wining strategy for the World.

Selling licenses is not where the money is. Selling subscriptions to corporations so that every corporate-supplied computer (including Macs) pay Microsoft for something, be it Office or a full Windows+Office+Sharepoint license. All things considered, they can give Windows for free and they'll still profit from it as an enabler for further Microsoft lock-in.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#475

Post by dymk »

elzbardico wrote: post #464
vjust wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ballmer hated Linux & open source. He would've driven their cloud division to the ground trying to sell Windows servers in the cloud. It would've taken him another 20 years to accept that Linux was key to the cloud. VSCode (Visual Studio Code) - would never have taken birth. Microsoft survived and thrived once Ballmer had no option but leave. In this era of Python development, Microsoft Windows still feels a step or…

Ballmer didn't hate linux and open source. He feared it as a threath to Microsoft's business model and revenue streams.

That’s a distinction without a difference

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#476

Post by belter »

legitster wrote: post #75

Having spent some time at the Microsoft campus, I can tell you this is basically the consensus view from employees today. Ballmer was not a cool, trendy, or fun CEO who people rallied behind - but he more or less "got the job done". He was the captain of a massive ship with a turning radius the size of a continent guiding it through icebergs. Azure's success was specifically set in motion under Ballmer. Owed to the f…

Memories get a bit fuzzy after 5-10 years.But this take from 2012 is a reminder of what a mess Steve Ballmer was as CEO: https://www.netnetweb.com/content/blog/blog/top-10-reasons-w...

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#477

Post by rbanffy »

nl wrote: post #297
Uvix wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's just "what you're used to", but I'd swap Azure and AWS in that statement. Going from Azure to AWS, I found it not nearly as nice to use or easy to understand. Even basic features like "see all the resources in my account" were missing from AWS.

I use all three regularly. AWS has a horrible , inconsistent UI, and the Azure portal is mostly ok (although I think GCP is the best of the three) But OTOH AWS generally works and usually does what you think, whereas I'm never surprised when Azure breaks or some random Azure API works nothing like we expect.

> GCP is the best of the three

I must have very different needs. In my perception, AWS is the best of the three, Azure is second, and Google would be #3. Depending on your unique news, you might choose different CSP's, from Digital Ocean to Oracle or IBM (the only place you can get AIX, IBMi, and z/OS)

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#478

Post by throw4950sh06 »

switch007 wrote: post #370
throw4950sh06 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably bought an expensive one that should be working longer than that. You don't get rich by buying cheap shit that breaks often.

You don't get poor from that level of rich replacing a lawnmower The mower was £500 (my Dad was the gardener)

It's the mindset, not the specific action.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#479

Post by arandomusername »

AdieuToLogic wrote: post #184
arandomusername wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What frugality? He was paying the full price that it was being sold at.

> What frugality? He was paying the full price that it was being sold at. By that logic, most reading these comments should expect to hear from their employer: What annual bonus? What stock options? The company is paying full price that your time was being sold at.

A lot of the times your contract will actually include bonus and stock options, so those are part of the price. And if not, then the employer absolutely does not have to pay bonus or offer stock options. The employee, ofcourse, has the right to move jobs if they desire.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#480

Post by globalise83 »

rowanG077 wrote: post #460
archerx wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well since Nadella I have been using less Microsoft products and probably won’t be using Windows anymore once my Windows 10 LTSC stops working. I keep hearing praise for Nadella but all he is doing is alienating a lot of customers with his terrible decisions.

This is true for me as well. I do have a VR gaming machine which I don't think will linuxify soon but I would if I could. Nadella has grown Microsoft no doubt. But in the process has trashed Windows. One of the most valuable pieces of software. I wouldn't be surprised this will bite them in the long run a lot.

Our company is absolutely full of Microsoft products (all the Office 365 stuff, PowerBI, Azure, Microsoft SSO etc. etc.), yet most of our teams use Macbooks. Windows is no longer a necessity to work in a mostly-Microsoft environment, and that strategy is making Microsoft fabulous amounts of money.
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