Accurate as usual. Forced out like Ballmer or retired for health reasons like Steve Jobs? Just about the same right?

8/29/2013 2:47:52 PM

His health issues forced him out.

Sounds like a force out.

One that Tim Cook may follow -- minus the health issues hopefully.

[Edited on August 29, 2013 at 2:58 PM. Reason : .]

8/29/2013 2:58:30 PM

i posted this in another thread, but its more relevant here:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/27/4665166/microsoft-accuses-media-of-biased-steve-ballmer-coverage
Microsoft suggests bias in media's 'puzzling' Steve Ballmer coverage

Quote :

"Intertwining mentions of Dickens and Kurosawa, he goes on to cite examples of these "quick-twitch" and "puzzling" stories that have come from "so many writers, pundits and self-promoters." In particular, Shaw takes issue with shining a light on Microsoft's missteps "while ignoring the successes" enjoyed by the company elsewhere. "Another approach has been to go a step further, criticize our lack of 'focus' and suggest that those other successes are actually a distraction from what they believe should be our single priority." The Verge touched on issues of focus and Microsoft's ill-fated consumer products in our report analyzing Ballmer's tenure as CEO, also highlighting the executive's strong successes. "What these themes reveal is a single narrow frame through which the writers and pundits view the industry itself that leads them to reach these conclusions." "

8/29/2013 3:31:00 PM

Really? Because even apologists and hardcore kool aid drinkers admit they need to change drastically to turn their future fortunes.

http://m.windowsitpro.com/windows/assessing-ballmer-years

Quote :

"Having completely missed mobile devices and cloud computing, Microsoft now ironically calls itself a devices and services company, a moniker that does nothing more than call attention to the fact that these are two key areas in which the firm cannot effectively compete. Its Xbox consoles, while popular with fans, are money losers and its Surface tablets are a disaster. Bing has lost $17 billion over the past decade, and Microsoft's online ad business was the subject of a $6.2 billion write-off of its own. These kinds of miscues would sink other companies, but Microsoft, ripe with profits, weathered it all. Allowed it to happen."

8/29/2013 3:52:48 PM

What's a Surface Tablet?

8/29/2013 4:15:39 PM

The surface is fantastic, MS just needs to kill Windows RT. Its not necessary considering the kind of battery life you can get on a Windows 8 tablet with a low power processor.

^^dude, read the piece again. see where they say "ripe with profits?" the point is that people only mention the bad things and never the successes. MS is making money and doing well, so even the haters and "M$" kool-aid drinkers should realize that they are obviously doing some things right.

(and SkyDrive is the best cloud service available, fuck saying they completely missed it)

8/29/2013 4:49:44 PM

I guess this should go here

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/exec/nadella/

2/5/2014 4:51:25 PM

I am stoked. Satya really is as he appears. A humble visionary who can actually execute.

After the 2nd or 3rd time I heard him speak, I was sold on his leadership in C+E. For him to now be CEO just makes me that much more confident that Microsoft is firmly on the right future track.

2/6/2014 6:11:31 AM

They aren't declining, but they had to fire their CEO. riiight

2/7/2014 2:32:55 AM

Sometimes you gotta crack a few eggs to make an omlet.

2/7/2014 6:17:15 AM

Quote :

"I am stoked. Satya really is as he appears. A humble visionary who can actually execute. After the 2nd or 3rd time I heard him speak, I was sold on his leadership in C+E. For him to now be CEO just makes me that much more confident that Microsoft is firmly on the right future track."

When MSFT shares start to hover around $50 like they did in 2000, I'll be sure to tell my broker.

2/9/2014 1:21:31 AM

I remember when IBM's decline was unthinkable.

2/9/2014 1:32:37 AM

^I sure as hell don't and I'm probably older than you. As far back as the Amiga and Commodore 64, the writing was on the wall that IBM was on its way down. And for as much as the company has changed, IBM is still a fucking powerhouse tech company.

2/9/2014 3:06:10 AM

Quote :

"IBM is still a fucking powerhouse tech company patent portfolio"

ftfy

2/9/2014 2:39:55 PM

I think we need to separate:

In decline, danger of going out of business.
Blackberry, Yahoo

Makes money hand over fist, but isn't exactly cool.
MS, IBM, SAS

Every newly minted CS grad dreams of working there.
Facebook, Space X, new hot startups like Dropbox or Airbnb, Google to a lesser extent.

2/9/2014 2:40:44 PM

Yahoo does really well with their commercial APIs, don't they? A lot of companies use them.

Meanwhile, Microsoft can't make a $500 machine that understands "Xbox on" more than half of the time

2/9/2014 3:02:21 PM

I interface with a handful of Microsoft Evangelists (the actual paid ones) every other day at my current job, and I swear Azure is all we end up talking about.

2/9/2014 7:26:36 PM

I work next to Yahoo in LA and their employees always look like doom is coming.

I use no MS products and haven't since 2006 or so and don't know anyone that does, however I saw a Surface RT prototype at Microsoft in SF when they were trying to get startups to use Azure at first launch. There were some certifiable badasses that worked there, so I know they still have talent. Seems like more a lack of direction and an image problem.

2/9/2014 8:02:17 PM

You interface?


Anyway, it's easy to see MS not existing. Real work gets done on Linux, and more and more awesome consumer apps are on ios/android/cloud. It's viable to run a business, now, without any Windows stuff.

2/9/2014 8:08:34 PM

Anyway, it's easy to see Linux/OSX/Sun not existing. Real work gets done on Windows, and more and more awesome consumer apps are on windows/cloud. It's viable to run a business, now, without any Linux/Java/ObjectiveC stuff.

Just because you can imagine a world without a business, doesn't make the business "in decline" or irrelevant.

2/9/2014 8:32:59 PM

^^

Yeah, I never saw one startup at many top tier incubators in SF and LA you've heard of using MS products. I take that back, I remember hearing one was hiring .NET developers and got laughed out of the first VC meeting if only because of the sheer number of startup people with Python, Ruby, JS experience now. Was just as true in the Raleigh/Durham scene as well.

Even the accounts and biz people at the startup, of 100+, my wife worked at used Mac's.


[Edited on February 9, 2014 at 8:40 PM. Reason : a]

2/9/2014 8:38:56 PM

Yes, relevant in the sense that buggy whip sellers were relevant before everyone got around on automobiles

2/9/2014 8:58:47 PM

I work at a startup and use a PC.

We also use some Azure too

[Edited on February 10, 2014 at 2:11 AM. Reason : .]

2/10/2014 2:11:17 AM

^^^I've spent a fair amount of time in the bay area. The anti-MS mentality in the California tech industry is as much about being perception as it is about technology choices. I can't say a lot about it, but I can tell you that a lot of startups, in fact a large, large percentage, end up adopting at least some MS technologies as they mature.

Avoiding a company or technology "just because" isn't a very sound business decision.

2/10/2014 2:53:21 AM

^^ In what area? Fucking unicorns always show up at the worst times

^ It isn't just because. It's because every step in the bay area you are likely to trip over someone coding in Python, JavaScript, or Ruby. Back when Ruby on Rails came out it was standard and common for some of the web frameworks to require 1000s of lines of XML configuration to build an app that takes your name in a text box and stores it in the database. When Rails came along it showed the power of convention over configuration leading to a mass adoption. The second thing is until a few years ago people were still maintaining their own linux machines, if not hardware than VMs. This requires a deep knowledge of unix, the internet and it's underlying protocols and shell script hackery that most people don't have coming from Windows. If you ask a .NET guy what the difference in POST and GET are he will say that POST is more secure because you don't see the parameter string. A unix guy will direct an http reply to a file and capture the outgoing request and show you the differences in the messages. Perception is part of problem, but there are practical reasons why .NET isn't cool.

Also, git. Windows git support was atrocious.

[Edited on February 10, 2014 at 1:13 PM. Reason : a]

2/10/2014 12:57:23 PM

^Oh, I don't disagree. Like I said, as much about one as the other.

I pushed really, really hard for TFS to adopt dvcs (git specifically) and fortunately the product went in that direction (who knows if I had any actual effect on the direction). Ruby and other scaffolding web frameworks are amazing for startups and high value delivery.

MS has been slowly waking up to pretty much every point you've raised for several years now. There are some areas that they are doing a pretty good job catching up and many others they aren't. The thing I've heard over and over again though is not that MS makes terrible products, it's that they make products that very few software startups NEED.

Ruby is amazing until you hit scale, and by the time a company is to that point a rearchitecture (and platform switch to Java/PHP/.NET) is usually needed anyway. Most startups don't see a need for integrated tooling until they're much larger and the overhead of cobbled-together toolchains actually negatively impacts the business.

I get it, trust me I'm a PHP guy and have been for over a decade. I vastly prefer Apache and MySQL to IIS and SQL Server. But I know it's as much because of my perception and experience in those platforms as it is because the platforms actually offer me some unbiased advantage.

2/10/2014 2:14:42 PM

Being primarily Node for the past 3 years I was happy MS embraced JavaScript, and even went with the tide of having Windows apps be in JS--it seems to have increased the amount I can charge clients astronomically. I know them legitimizing node definitely helped my bottom line.

A friend/old boss was a Microsoft MVP or whatever and went to the IE team and begged them to use Webkit. If they went with Webkit for IE and had a shell that worked like every other shell I'd have zero issue with them.

[Edited on February 10, 2014 at 2:44 PM. Reason : a]

2/10/2014 2:29:36 PM

Most of my Azure work involves Azure Queues and Storage. I also maintain a large, federated SQL Azure Federated Database. All of it is maintained in PHP, including the PHP worker roles the push data through all these systems.

Part of the reason we started was because BizSpark Plus handed us $60,000 of free usage when we were first starting out.

Queues and Blob Storage are solid products that work exactly like you'd expect. SQL Azure is fine (even connecting from a Linux environment), but federated databases are all over the place. Performance isn't terrible, but every so often it will just fuck up and support for Azure is (largely) terrible.

A lot of the reasons people insist I should be using a Mac is because I don't have a native terminal application, but I'm connected via PuTTy to a good 7 Ubuntu boxes at any given time so it's not like I'm really missing much of anything. I primarily write PHP and Bash, so Sublime Text is the same for me as it is for someone on OSX. If I were obsessed with local development, I'd be doing it in a VM anyway whether I was using OSX or not.

Also, Git for Windows is pretty nice nowadays.

2/10/2014 3:54:09 PM

BizSpark has been a godsend for me.

[Edited on February 10, 2014 at 4:15 PM. Reason : ]

2/10/2014 4:14:49 PM

The scene: Billy Madison, test to pass school.

Or, in this case, Satya Nadella's 3000+ word spew of bullshit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0

Team,
As we start FY15, I want to thank you for all of your contributions this past year....
With the courage to transform individually, we will collectively transform this company and seize the great opportunity ahead.

Quote :

"Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

so, how many people do you think MSFT is going to layoff? 10k or more? (not in decline, of course)...

[Edited on July 14, 2014 at 7:10 PM. Reason : quote]

7/14/2014 7:07:40 PM

^Not bullshit, not spewed, no layoffs.

Its a lot of shit that needed to be said, and I think has actually set in stone a differentiated position for the company.

There's a massive amount of varience inside MS right now. Some teams and organizations are super forward looking, data driven and lean. Many are still operating with the same culture they have for the past 20+ years.

Just happy to see Satya making shit happen and charting a solid course for the company.

7/15/2014 2:45:47 AM

you don't think there will be layoffs? most of the business news outlets are reporting it's coming as soon as this week

7/15/2014 8:18:39 AM

Heres the layoffs

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/07/report-microsoft-to-undergo-biggest-layoff-round-in-companys-history/

7/15/2014 12:27:30 PM

^^I guess if you count "layoffs" as consolidating the 30,000 people we acquired from Nokia, and axing the comically shitty Xbox market team(s), then sure. I think that's more just a natural part of an acquisition. You're always going to have ass tons of redundant middle and upper management who are no longer needed.

But across the company layoffs? Doubtful. More likely a lot of shifting of teams and organizations. I think over the next year or two there will be a lot of weedouts through our changing review process, and through the changing makeup of engineering and test, but I don't see a big number of people getting kicked to the curb.

Unlike the last round of layoffs years ago, there isn't a lot of cruft left. There's still a lot of political and cultural infighting, but pretty much everyone I work with now is REALLY good at what they do. Back in 09, there were a lot of clueless people hanging around the edges of teams and orgs.

7/15/2014 3:12:45 PM

18k

7/17/2014 10:30:15 AM

That is the type of consolidation I would expect to see after a large company absorbs another large company.

1. Buy out and absorb another company (nokia)
2. Analyze jobs, and have a layoff to get rid of redundant positions. Keep key people. Microsoft people probably have a better chance at keep their job than Nokia people, unless they're really important
3. Now you have their technology, trade sdcrets, etc... Without their employees.

[Edited on July 17, 2014 at 10:43 AM. Reason : sorry, didnt see previous posts]

7/17/2014 10:40:29 AM

Quote :

"I guess if you count "layoffs" as consolidating the 30,000 people we acquired from Nokia, and axing the comically shitty Xbox market team(s), then sure."

i didn't realize that "layoff" could be interpreted differently than letting people go, whatever the reason...just because it makes sense and is expected doesn't make it different than what it is

[Edited on July 17, 2014 at 10:54 AM. Reason : .]

7/17/2014 10:54:03 AM

Read that about 14k of those jobs are Nokia people. Definitely cleaning house.

7/17/2014 2:45:43 PM

For those struggling with reading comprehension, 18k personnel. 12.5k as a result of Nokia. 5.5k msft staff. Probably just the xbox marketing team eh (or 5% of their non Nokia employees)

[Edited on July 17, 2014 at 4:04 PM. Reason : Waiting for Baghdad Bob]

7/17/2014 3:57:16 PM

Quote :

"But across the company layoffs? Doubtful. More likely a lot of shifting of teams and organizations. I think over the next year or two there will be a lot of weedouts through our changing review process, and through the changing makeup of engineering and test, but I don't see a big number of people getting kicked to the curb. Unlike the last round of layoffs years ago, there isn't a lot of cruft left. There's still a lot of political and cultural infighting, but pretty much everyone I work with now is REALLY good at what they do. Back in 09, there were a lot of clueless people hanging around the edges of teams and orgs. "

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

7/17/2014 9:26:58 PM

With 18K people getting RIF'd, I bet the severance payout will be at least a billion

7/17/2014 9:32:30 PM

"Microsoft laid me off after 15 years of service. Life after Microsoft?"



Warning, you can cut it off as soon as he starts with the self-promotion.

[Edited on July 21, 2014 at 10:11 PM. Reason : ]

7/21/2014 10:07:27 PM

This new CEO might be Microsoft's Gil Amelio.

7/21/2014 11:55:45 PM

Pretty much as expected. Cant really talk about why, but all the testers who got cut had their heads in the sand if they were surprised about it.

7/22/2014 1:22:28 AM

Quote :

"people have been talking about Microsoft's decline for over a decade. and yet, they continue to post record quarters"

true 3 years ago, true today.

7/22/2014 10:12:52 AM

noen_flux / AK - those were interesting days

7/22/2014 12:03:42 PM

Quote :

"Pretty much as expected. Cant really talk about why, but all the testers who got cut had their heads in the sand if they were surprised about it."

What does the testing group look like in your area? For every developer, how many SDETs are there, approximately? Are developers expected to write most or all of their own unit tests/automated tests?

7/22/2014 12:11:21 PM

This is kind of a big fucking deal:

https://blog.onedrive.com/office-365-onedrive-unlimited-storage/

Office 365 subscriptions currently had 1TB of cloud storage. Now that limit has been removed. I am pumped as I will be getting Office 365 in the next couple of months through work.

10/28/2014 7:21:45 AM

I've never used OneDrive but I have 365 email. How do you even access it? When I go to onedrive.live.com it takes me to my regular Office365 dashboard, but how do I access it from there?

10/28/2014 10:20:07 PM

Apple Store


Microsoft Store

10/28/2014 10:37:06 PM