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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

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Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#641

Post by politician »

fhd2 wrote: post #563
BrandonM wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Microsoft developing some of the best enterprise programming tools in the world? I don't use any of the following, but I have to admit that they are (or at one time were) best-in-class is basically all of them: * C#, F#, and all of .NET * Visual Studio * SQL Server * DirectX * ActiveX[1] [1] ActiveX is not the best technology, but it paved the way for the AJAX programming that everyone does today.

> ActiveX is not the best technology, but it paved the way for the AJAX programming that everyone does today. You can safely add AJAX to the list, XMLHttpRequest is from Microsoft as well. I never had much symphathy for Microsoft, but I can't help but respect some of the things they've done, both in the Gates and Ballmer eras. They used to really care about developers.

I've often heard XMLHttpRequest described as an "own goal" instead of a "win".

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#642

Post by robotresearcher »

StavrosK wrote: post #625
laureny wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft's approach was different: let others innovate, then we'll dominate. XBox, Surface and ergonomic keyboards would beg to differ. Not mentioning the countless other innovations that didn't become as popular as these ones. I know the Hacker News hive mind likes to perpetuate the myth that Microsoft doesn't innovate but it innovates at least as much as, if not more than, Google and Apple.

When people hear about Microsoft innovating, they think about the Kinect and the Surface, but Microsoft Research is very well respected in academia and constantly creates new technology. An academic friend of mine frequently tells me that Google et al do not compare to MSR in either quality or volume.

Jamie Shotton and others at MSR were directly responsible for the pose detection software for Kinect. MS bought in the RGBD camera from outside, but did really good work on the software internally, using the talent at MSR. A great success story for the corporate lab model. I don't know how often things work out as well as that, as the labs must be enormously expensive!

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#643

Post by ams6110 »

LarryMade2 wrote: post #269
hvs wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 7 was hardly a failure.

I think the bad pat about windows 7 is that they put out Windows 8 way too quickly. There are a lot of people that would be OK with being dragged into upgrading if Windows 7 was an easily available option. Bu now, MS is pushing manufacturers into pre-installing 8, which is NOT a good transition path from XP as Windows 7 was.

The bad part about every Windows since Windows 2000 is that it didn't really offer any new value. A bit more bling in the GUI, yes, and security, yes, but fundamentally Windows 2000 is just as good as Windows 7 from a productivity standpoint. So a lot of people saw that, and decided to just stay with XP until they are forced to do something different.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#644

Post by keithnoizu »

laureny wrote: post #614
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sadness here - Microsoft has been a stain on the last decade of the computing industry. The only sadness is that their trajectory of circling of the toilet might change, with a new CEO. But I doubt it.

> Microsoft has been a stain on the last decade of the computing industry. Wrong decade. Microsoft has made a lot of positive changes these past ten years. If anything, I'm betting that we are going to uncover some pretty dirty business practices exercised by Apple this past decade (I'm predicting that the e-book price rigging is the tip of the iceberg).

How could you possibly imply that the electronic device messiah could somehow do wrong.

Apple lost me at their ridiculous patent fights with Samsung.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#645

Post by ams6110 »

djspin80 wrote: post #370
leetrout wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does feel like MS just shows up like that. Azure did (and does) give that impression; Zune, as well. And Surface tablets are also a clear response to the iPad (whether MS ever had anything in R&D previously or not, they certainly didn't ship). But I think Google is much more prone to jump in to a market with force, they just seem to execute "better" (I leave that open to interpretation). FB comes out and MS buys i…

Azure wasn't so much "Amazon has EC2? We should have our EC2 as well!", Azure was one of the few products Microsoft actually succeeded in launching. Otherwise, Ballmer greeted Microsoft with a series of failures...only when Ballmer has no control does the company actually succeed.

Azure in the private cloud has been a flop though, in fact I'm not even sure you could run a equivalent Azure cloud privately. Meanwhile OpenStack is going gangbusters.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#646

Post by ams6110 »

bentcorner wrote: post #343
anuragramdasan wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ballmer has always lacked the ability to see the future. Be it about him calling Zune the iPhone killer, or much prior to that claiming it in the media that no one would ever wan tto buy an iPhone. Also, really below par products.

> Be it about him calling Zune the iPhone killer, or much prior to that claiming it in the media that no one would ever wan tto buy an iPhone. Really though, do you think the CEO should say anything different? "Yeah, our Zune isn't too bad, but the iPod is still better."

He should have said that, internally, and demanded better. Or said, if that's really the best you can do, forget it.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#647

Post by jordanthoms »

nivla wrote: post #490
potatolicious wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no fan of Ballmer, but I think "insulting OEMs" is one of the good things he did. The OEMs carry a great deal of blame for the collapse of Windows. While Apple was shipping beautiful metal enclosures with great convenient features like MagSafe and magnetic latches, OEMs like Dell were shitting all over the Windows brand with plasticky (and still expensive!), heavy, unreliable, loud-as-shit laptops with terrible s…

>but I think "insulting OEMs" is one of the good things he did. Agree with this statement. OEMs is also the one of the reasons why Android gets a bad rep. Android doesn't suck, it just gets thrown into incompatible and low spec'd devices and when the lag starts rolling in, people blame the OS. I guess this is one of those unavoidable quirks of being an OS vendor and having no say in the hardware. Atleast in Microsoft…

Google can't prevent an OEM from installing Android on a crappy device, but they could refuse to pass it in the CTS, which would mean they couldn't include Google Play, Gmail, etc.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#648

Post by yuhong »

scj wrote: post #353
the_bear wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, one of the greatest "see the future" CEOs has said similar things. Just off the top of my head, I know that Steve Jobs said that no one would want a larger screen than the original iPhone had, and he said that 7" tablets didn't make any sense. Now Apple has a larger iPhone screen and 7" tablet. That's not to say that Steve Jobs was wrong about the future, but he had to sell devices in the present which me…

Ever watch Steve Jobs promote Mac OS 8 or 9? Rumour is, he didn't use either (he used NextStep until Mac OS X). He also spoke negatively about video being on iPods while it was being developed. Ultimately, you have to remember that he had an agenda, and if he wasn't selling it that day, then he would probably say something negative about the idea or implementation (of a competitor's product). Here's a page that has m…

Of course, I don't like this kind of thing or other results of the legacy PR/sales mindset.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#649

Post by niels_olson »

laureny wrote: post #611
niels_olson wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone still use Facebook? Seriously, I'm medicine. It doesn't even come up anymore. The only thing that reminds me is HN. My daughter and her friends seem unimpressed. The only reason I haven't deleted my profile is that I don't want to cede the namespace. Don't cross the street to get your ass kicked.

> Does anyone still use Facebook? 1.1 billion people. Which makes you part of the majority on the planet that doesn't use it. Does that make you feel good or were you going for the hipster angle?

I'm on HN, I'm probably aware of how many people use FB. The question was more to the issue of leading minds. Are smart people, people looking to the future, using Facebook? In my slice of meatspace, the answer is no. I was hoping to tap into the tech sector youngins to shed some light on their experience.

Re: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

#650

Post by dntrkv »

300bps wrote: post #446
corresation wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My most recent purchase was a Dell laptop with a 3rd gen i7, 16GB RAM, eMMC accelerated TB magnetic disc, IPS 1080p screen, fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, blah blah. Weight and battery life fit my usage. I believe it was somewhere around $800, and is a perfect device for my needs. Spent a few minutes after booting removing the various trials of junk on it. Colour me clueless, I guess.

For me, i7 2650QM, 8 GB of RAM, 500 GB hard drive, 17.3" monitor, fingerprint reader, 9 cell battery. $550. People who buy Macs can't even conceive that you can buy 4 PC notebooks for the price they are buying 1 Mac notebook. They can't conceive that the typical person doesn't buy overpriced Ultrabooks that are different only in marketing name. All they will say is that their computer "holds its resale value" or that…

I know that I could have purchased 4+ Windows laptops for the price of my MacBook. I know that they would have been faster and have more ports and "features". In fact, I used to hold the same opinion as you do and went through 5 windows laptops before I switched to macs. Then I realized all of those specs are complete bullshit when you have to clear your machine of malware when you buy it, it weighs 10lbs, the hinges break after a year of use, and it's as thick as 4 windows laptops (I kid, sort of...) and the keyboard feels like shit (except my thinkpad, that keyboard was awesome), and anytime you have to reinstall Windows you have to spend time installing drivers for the webcam and fingerprint sensor and all of those awesome features.

Once I switched to mac I began to focus more on the work I do, and less on the machine I use to do it. Plus, I sold my 3 year old MacBook Air for ~70% of it's value, whereas my brother was barely able to sell his 2 year old xps 15z (which is NOT a cheap laptop) for ~40% of it's value.

Another thing I have noticed is that many Windows laptops have their own strengths, ThinkPads have great keyboards and are indestructible but are pretty thick, not very stylish, and still quite expensive. The Asus Zenbook has great build quality and looks very stylish, but is also expensive, has a finicky trackpad, not the best keyboard, and still has some bullshit software that comes preinstalled (although it is better than most Windows machines in this regard). That's what I love about my MacBook, sure it's expensive, but it has amazing build quality, it's plenty fast for 99% of my needs, has an amazing screen, no malware when you buy it, the best trackpad in the industry, keyboard is as good as the ThinkPad (in some ways better, in some worse), the warranty is unmatchable, and the resale value is also the best in the industry. These are the things that matter to me now.

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