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Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

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Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#71

Post by ProAm »

electrichead wrote: post #4
bayulxc5 wrote: post #3

The only product from Microsoft I use is Windows and they're ruining it. So, sorry Satya, but...

You don't use GitHub or LinkedIn or Skype either? You might also rely on sites that are built with Microsoft technologies (Stack overflow for example) or find that your workplace gets by with Excel. It's hard to say you don't use their technologies.

> It's hard to say you don't use their technologies

Use or rely on. I have to rely on Windows. Everything else you listed has acceptable replacements.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#72

Post by eknkc »

nailer wrote: post #39
devereaux wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding #1, eventually I expect Microsoft to release their own Linux distribution and keep Windows as a GUI. I would not be surprised if their failed project Astoria was reused to run android apps on that.

Windows is a pretty good kernel, GNU/Windows (aka WSL) effectively feels like Linux, with some drawbacks mainly NTFS being very slow (which Microsoft are aware of and working on - see https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/873#issuecomment-425... ).

Yeah I remember reading this particular comment when it was new.

It mostly feels like “ok guys this is the best we get out of this” to me though. If they do not go with a different approach, the filesystem will always be an issue with WSL.

I planned ditching my mac in favor of WSL. Due to MBP hardware issues and the fact that a git status would take 10x time drove me away.

I wish it was good enough though.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#73

Post by duxup »

markbnj wrote: post #69
duxup wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But all the cards and the tablet interface stuff ... is all side stuff that you don't need to use? At least I hardly ever see any sign of it. Am I missing something? There was an issue a LONG time ago when the tiles were more front and center but they dumped that a while ago.

I agree with you generally but it's not just the tiles. They also made a lot of changes around how settings and other features are accessed to make them more touch friendly, and if you're just trying to get in and change a thing it's often more work to get to it. There are ways to work around almost all of it but its just sort of ongoing evidence of a design direction that didn't really pan out for the mobile users i…

I actually like the settings changes. Fewer things on each screen and the search-ability is pretty great now.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#74

Post by king_magic »

nostromo wrote: post #65
Bamafan wrote: post #11

Long story, short: 1. Realize the world is moving beyond Windows 2. Cede mobile OS to Android/iOS, that battle is lost. 3. Realize, next great revenue stream is the Cloud (Azure).

The problem is they are no longer best-of-breed for any of their markets, except maybe Office. Microsoft doesn't break out Azure revenue, but by all accounts it's quite small compared to AWS. And Office is very much under threat. If you work with young people you'll notice they tend to prefer G Suite apps over Office - most likely because Google has done a great job getting their software into schools.

Uh, Azure revenue, by many accounts, is greater than AWS:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/10/29/1-microsof...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/04/27/microsoft-...

And sorry, G Suite is a joke compared to desktop Office for serious work. It doesn't matter what the youngin's prefer, what matters is what gets (or facilitates getting) real work done in the enterprise, which generally revolves around Excel and PowerPoint in some fashion.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#75

Post by _e »

nostromo wrote: post #65
Bamafan wrote: post #11

Long story, short: 1. Realize the world is moving beyond Windows 2. Cede mobile OS to Android/iOS, that battle is lost. 3. Realize, next great revenue stream is the Cloud (Azure).

The problem is they are no longer best-of-breed for any of their markets, except maybe Office. Microsoft doesn't break out Azure revenue, but by all accounts it's quite small compared to AWS. And Office is very much under threat. If you work with young people you'll notice they tend to prefer G Suite apps over Office - most likely because Google has done a great job getting their software into schools.

G Suite is very appealing over MS Office with the collaboration and version history features until you experience waiting MINUTES for spreadsheets to update. If Google moved some of the processing from the user's browser to their servers then, I believe, more people would make the switch.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#76

Post by GordonS »

nostromo wrote: post #65
Bamafan wrote: post #11

Long story, short: 1. Realize the world is moving beyond Windows 2. Cede mobile OS to Android/iOS, that battle is lost. 3. Realize, next great revenue stream is the Cloud (Azure).

The problem is they are no longer best-of-breed for any of their markets, except maybe Office. Microsoft doesn't break out Azure revenue, but by all accounts it's quite small compared to AWS. And Office is very much under threat. If you work with young people you'll notice they tend to prefer G Suite apps over Office - most likely because Google has done a great job getting their software into schools.

> The problem is they are no longer best-of-breed for any of their markets

Operating systems? I personally love Windows 10 (now its more mature), and Windows Server 2019 is embracing containers.

On cloud, AWS is very entrenched, but Microsoft can capture a lot of the enterprise market. I've worked extensively with Azure, and I think it's a fantastic product. TBH, I'm not sure there is a "best of breed" cloud provider - they each have their strengths and weaknesses, and there is plenty of room in the market for all the big players as well as smaller, specialised ones.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#77

Post by rjf72 »

sovnade wrote: post #10
bayulxc5 wrote: post #3

The only product from Microsoft I use is Windows and they're ruining it. So, sorry Satya, but...

There are for sure features that I disagree with in Win10 like telemetry and automatic reboots while I'm using the computer (which has been resolved), but it's a far stretch to say they're ruining windows. I don't think I've ever had a full crash on my current Win10 box that I use daily. Driver issues are almost nonexistent. It does everything I need it to without issue. I'm not sure what else I would want from an OS…

How about not having spyware? I don't think we should use the word "telemetry" when we do actually mean spyware. Telemetry, in connotation, is data used for diagnostic, maintenance, and 'real' quality assurance. I opt-in to various forms of telemetry for a number of different pieces of software I use. I'm happy to help other developers create a better product. What Microsoft is doing goes far above any reasonable notion of telemetry alone.

Disable all telemetry options so much as you can. And then setup a sniffer, run Wireshark, etc on your traffic. Windows 10 is a disaster. It is constantly phoning back home, through a wide array of different addresses, sending back unknown data to Microsoft. It's safe to assume that, at the minimum, they're building extensive profiles on users which, in the most benign case, will be used to facilitate targeted advertising and messaging.

Aside from that there are also technical issues with the OS such as treating production deployment as sending out code seemingly just after it passes the 'it compiled' standard of quality assurance. An update for Windows 10 in April of last year was one of several that has resulted in bricking numerous machines. Another update a few months back was deleting files on users machines resulting in Microsoft having to roll back the update, and so on.

Not only is this itself all completely unacceptable, but I think it also reflects the new direction of the company. Even if you might be willing to tolerate their actions, and failures, today I think this reflects a new Microsoft. Put another way I think these issues are likely to become more substantial, and not less, as time progresses.

---

As an aside, I say this all as a Windows 'enthusiast.' My 'native' environment is Visual Studio working in .NET, C# in particular. I've also been using Windows since 3.1, but Windows 10 is simply unacceptable to me as an operating system. I'm still happily running Windows 7, which also has no issues with stability/drivers. The day Microsoft decides to try to make Visual Studio Windows 10 only is the day my Ubuntu partition gets bumped to the top of the boot order.

So yeah, at least from my perspective, Windows under Nadella has indeed been destroyed.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#78

Post by hutzlibu »

devereaux wrote: post #13
sonnyblarney wrote: post #5

"When Satya Nadella took Microsoft Corp.’s helm five years ago, the conventional wisdom was that the company’s glory days were behind it." Have a look at this MS revenues [1] and consider why for a moment there is any 'conventional wisdom' like this? MSFT stock price did languish during this time of amazing growth which I guess validates that 'conventional wisdom' was in fact sour, but it's hard to see why it was. Ro…

They are small things, but they could also be good signals- a bit like canaries in the mine. To say that differently, every story about Google or Facebook is usually some horrible thing. I would not touch their product with a 10 foot pole. A few years go, I uninstalled all facebook stuff and even whatsapps. Now I do not buy anything even remotely connected to google (such as android phones) because it gives me the cr…

You do not get the creeps from all the windows bloat?

Tons of blinking apps I never wanted all connected to whereever to the internet?

All those nice things like cortana you can only get rid of by messing with registry?

Agressively pushing you to except all kinds of phoning home?

Not saying that google is the nice guy, but thinking MS is nicer ... I don't know

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#79

Post by bradford »

VRay wrote: post #31
tomnipotent wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and yet their employees are pretty comfortable admitting to their friends that Windows and Azure are crap You make a whole lot of claims with absolutely zero evidence to back it up.

I take it you don't know anyone who works at MSFT?

I work at MSFT.

There's a difference between being critical of a product in an effort to improve it, and classifying the product as 'crap'.

My opinion, and I think most msft employees would share it, fall into the former, and not the latter. There's a lot to be proud of in both Windows and Azure, even with full recognition that they aren't perfect.

Re: Microsoft’s Resurgence Under Satya Nadella

#80

Post by GordonS »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #23
partiallypro wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are they ruining Windows? People have been saying this since XP (before SP1 or SP2, when everyone hated it.) Yet there's not much evidence to support it...they are actually doing some really cool things with Windows now like adding bash and having different flavor Linux subsystems. The main issue I've had is some lack of quality control since they let go tons of testers and used Insiders instead. That has not eff…

I'm not the one you're asking. But to me, the (most recent) way they ruined Windows was the new interface. I don't want to interact with my desktop via a phone/tablet interface. I don't want to use a touchscreen. I want to use only the keyboard and mouse. More: I don't want to use my computer as a media consumption device. So for me , all the new UI changes are counterproductive. But that's me. Others have different…

So, it seems like you are describing the car crash that was Windows 8?

Seriously, if you haven't tried Windows 10 since it first came out, try it - I held out on Windows 7 for years, but I'm really glad I switched.

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