'This is Not Your Father's Microsoft': CEO Satya Nadella On Helping a Faded Legend Find a 'Sense of Purpose' (cnet.com) 175
News outlet CNET has two big stories on Microsoft today. The publication interviewed CEO Satya Nadella on the changes he has made since taking the top job. The stories, among other things, talks about Microsoft Hackathon, the diversity pushes Nadella has made at the company, and how Microsoft lost the touch with what made it successful, and how Nadella is trying to fix that. From story one: Nadella dreamed up the Microsoft Hackathon, which the company calls the "largest private hackathon in the world," when he became CEO in February 2014. Just a few of the thousands of projects pitched over the past five years have inspired mainstream products. Most of these let's-change-the-world ideas aren't the kind of business tech that Microsoft makes the bulk of its money on -- at least not today.
That's just fine with Nadella, because the meetup serves another purpose: rebranding Microsoft as a modern, relevant company. When he became the third CEO of the world's largest software company, after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Nadella made changing Microsoft's rigid, hierarchical and arrogant culture his top priority. He sort of had to. Though arguably one of the most successful technology companies in history, Microsoft's had a string of high-profile misses in mobile, search and social networking. Additionally, the company's toxic culture, characterized by corporate politics, infighting and backstabbing, fed an image of Microsoft as a fading legend.
Rivals Apple, Google and Facebook were seen as innovators creating shiny new opportunities with their disruptive tech. A generation grew up without ever having used a Microsoft product. "One of the things that happens when you're super successful is you sort of sometimes lose touch with what made you successful in the first place," Nadella tells us when we ask what he was trying to solve with the hackathon."I wanted to go back to the very genesis of this company: What is that sense of purpose and drive that made us successful? What was the culture that may have been there in the very beginning or in the times when we were able to achieve that success? How do we really capture it?" says Nadella, who joined Microsoft in 1992. It's about "the renaissance as much as about just sort of fixing something that's broken." From story two: CNET: What is the vibe or image of Microsoft you want the world to know?
Nadella: It's in our mission. It's empowering. Any association with this company should be, they put some tools, they put some platforms, they gave me the opportunity to really do something. Whether it's a student writing a term paper, whether it's a startup trying to create a company, a small business that's trying to be more productive or even a public sector institution that's trying to be more efficient and serve its citizens -- [they] should feel that association with Microsoft is empowering to them. That's what I want us to stand for.
That's just fine with Nadella, because the meetup serves another purpose: rebranding Microsoft as a modern, relevant company. When he became the third CEO of the world's largest software company, after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Nadella made changing Microsoft's rigid, hierarchical and arrogant culture his top priority. He sort of had to. Though arguably one of the most successful technology companies in history, Microsoft's had a string of high-profile misses in mobile, search and social networking. Additionally, the company's toxic culture, characterized by corporate politics, infighting and backstabbing, fed an image of Microsoft as a fading legend.
Rivals Apple, Google and Facebook were seen as innovators creating shiny new opportunities with their disruptive tech. A generation grew up without ever having used a Microsoft product. "One of the things that happens when you're super successful is you sort of sometimes lose touch with what made you successful in the first place," Nadella tells us when we ask what he was trying to solve with the hackathon."I wanted to go back to the very genesis of this company: What is that sense of purpose and drive that made us successful? What was the culture that may have been there in the very beginning or in the times when we were able to achieve that success? How do we really capture it?" says Nadella, who joined Microsoft in 1992. It's about "the renaissance as much as about just sort of fixing something that's broken." From story two: CNET: What is the vibe or image of Microsoft you want the world to know?
Nadella: It's in our mission. It's empowering. Any association with this company should be, they put some tools, they put some platforms, they gave me the opportunity to really do something. Whether it's a student writing a term paper, whether it's a startup trying to create a company, a small business that's trying to be more productive or even a public sector institution that's trying to be more efficient and serve its citizens -- [they] should feel that association with Microsoft is empowering to them. That's what I want us to stand for.
Just do what IBM and Oracle do... (Score:1, Interesting)
Outsource all labor to the cheapest pajeets in India, and milk existing government and corporate contracts to the last drop.
Re: Just do what IBM and Oracle do... (Score:4, Funny)
Plenty of alternatives for the admins. Few for the lusers.
Suspicious (Score:5, Funny)
'This is Now Your Father's Microsoft'
I was always suspicious why my mum carried a photo of Bill Gates in her purse.
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typo (Score:3)
'This is Now Your Father's Microsoft':
I think you mean "not".
I hope.
Re:typo (Score:4, Insightful)
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noun
"An unintentional error regarded as revealing subconscious feelings."
Best example I've seen in... well... years.
Re:typo (Score:5, Insightful)
It was better the other way. My father's Microsoft was small and not yet dominant over the whole industry, just peddled crapware, not spyware. And I believe those days can come again.
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s/better/truer/
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That's exactly what I was thinking. At least my father's Microsoft (or actually the Microsoft of when I was growing up) actually sold products. They weren't trying to spy on everyone or put ads in your OS or nickel and dime people with microtransactions and subscriptions or tell you how you could and couldn't use your computer.
The Microsoft of today is a fucking joke. They try so hard to be relevant by copying all of the scummy shit that some other companies do instead of the good stuff. Honestly, Microsoft
Re: typo (Score:5, Insightful)
You have no idea just how entrenched Windows is in organisations. If an OS wants to replace corporate Windows desktops it will need some way of running Windows software.
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You have no idea just how entrenched Windows is in organisations. If an OS wants to replace corporate Windows desktops it will need some way of running Windows software.
That's true for many businesses, but small businesses don't care. They don't have a bunch of access databases, and they don't do stuff that will cause their files not to open in LibreOffice. It doesn't matter to them if they get quickbooks as an application, or quickbooks as a webapp. And they will switch first.
Re: typo (Score:2)
Microsoft don't really care about businesses that small either. Dislodging Microsoft is going to take a lot more than moving your local shop to Libre Office.
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Is it really spyware if you know it is there and reporting ?
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Is it really spyware if you know it is there and reporting ?
Yes. If you can't disable it, it's malware. And if it's malware that spies on you, it's spyware.
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That's correct -- what an embarrassing error. Thanks for pointing it out. We have fixed it.
It may have been a misquote; but it was probably an accurate one.
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I think you mean "not".
I think they meant "now". My father admired the company and believed it represented the future.
I think it's a form of inoperable ass cancer.
Nobody wants ads or to give you monthly payments (Score:5, Insightful)
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But MSFT was only compensated ONCE! That's no good!
What's a bit better, is MSFT getting compensated monthly for the software, what's even better is a locked 1-2 year agreement with hefty cancellation fees. And what's even better, is the added telemetry, so they can use your money, to make more money off you.
To cap it off, MSFT should technically own anything you produce with their software, to be used at their discretion, without compensation or credit.
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What is this habit some people have of quoting the ticker tape codes for companies? I mean, who cares what their ticker tape code is - it's not like it's something you use out in the real world. Wouldn't it be more relevant to write their name in an octal representation of ASCII? Why do people do that?
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Only peasants pay for Office and Windows, the rest of us abuse the ability to generate licenses at will from our MSDN accounts.
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Seeing as Microsoft is in the process of improving Windows and Oracle decided to improve Java Licensing, not even mentioning the finer points of Systemd, things look dire.
There's also Vista that got thrown under the Bus (Why would anyone need some old KB-Articles or Software about Vista? Security Essentials can just go and stop working on Vista). XP and Vista got thrown under the Bus by Steam. Lest someone actually wants to install some old game on an old machine. Drivers vanish from vendor pages as soon as
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> Java Licensing, not even mentioning the finer points of Systemd
Those are two major problems. We've been an Oracle customer for over twenty-five years, but we still can't get a quote from them on continuing to get Java 8 updates. The licensing including the term NUP (named user plus) is so confusing even their salespeople don't understand their convoluted licensing. We're will to pay a good bit of money to not have to upgrade to 11 in September because of the high cost of testing and supporting users
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Now I know nothing about mongodb but I installed 4.0.1 in CentOS 7 and changed the user of /var/run/mongodb/ to root:root and when I launched mongo from the console with the mongod user (I could find no lock file, don't know if that is used in prior versions only or if that is something that have to be configured) but the error from mongod could be seen in the journal:
[root@localhost ~]# systemctl status mongod.service
mongod.service - MongoDB Database Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mo
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I know that you where trying to be sarcastic here but you are actually correct. What people tend to forget here is that the design of systemd is asynchronous, systemctl will exit with a non zero value if there where any problems with the unit file (and with any of the constraints put into the unit file) but once the binary is launched it's a new fork so systemctl exits 0 since the fork+launch was successful. If the binary encounters any problems after launch then of course systemctl cannot exit with an erro
Re:Nobody wants ads or to give you monthly payment (Score:5, Informative)
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Once folk leave for another os they are not coming back, and windows 7 looks to be my last windows os.,
Me too, and what's especially sad about this for Microsoft is that I for one would have bought Windows 8 if they hadn't mangled the UI, and I would have bought Windows 10 as well if they hadn't made it spyware. And I know I'm not alone, as a gamer. Windows is where the games are, so it was a no-brainer that I'd keep giving Microsoft money even though I despised them... right up until they made those decisions. I'd have upgraded just to get DX12, and the desktop duplication API. Instead, I'm going to run Win
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Ditto. Also, please bring back Bill Gates. Or even Steve Ballmer!
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Cut the force-installed game apps in Win10 and stop pretending I'm going to give you $1200 to run office for 10 years when we paid about $150/seat for Office 2003 in 2003 and used it until 2014.
To be honest, this isn't quite the part that bothers me. You get an always-up-to-date copy of Office that can be installed on up to five computers, plus some online storage. The licensing is also easier to manage and track. I'm kind of ok with it.
However, it's a little frustrating that for all that money that's gone into Microsoft licenses, there's been very little improvement over the past 20 years. Same with Windows. If Windows 7 was still on sale, and supported by the latest hardware, I'd have stuc
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Are you seriously bitching about $1,200 over 10 years? What are you, a barista at Starbucks?
I can bill that in 3 hours, and my staff is pretty much required to bill that much every single day. If you're business is such shit that you can't afford $1,200 over 10 years, well - guess what? Microsoft is not the company for you.
For the rest of us in the real world, it's a damned pittance, especially with the cloud storage thrown in.
That I can earn it in 1 or 2 days doesn't mean I want to spend it on stuff I don't want to upgrade to in the first place. While moving to a "services" (hah! try to get service of any kind) model will make sure my Microsoft stock will continue to rise at a very fast pace, I prefer not to be the sucker who pays for their profits in the first place.
This is Not Your Father's Microsoft: Spying, etc (Score:5, Informative)
Dam right this isn't your father's Microsoft.
* Thinks MSVC telemtry [google.com] is OK
* Thinks Forced updates [google.com] is OK
* Thinks 100+ endpoints for Win10 [microsoft.com] is OK
* Thinks DX12 only for Win10 [google.com] is OK
Yeah, no. Sorry, no longer interested in what spyware you are peddling today MS.
Re:This is Not Your Father's Microsoft: Spying, et (Score:5, Insightful)
Sub-point under "forced updates": Forced reboots.
Doesn't matter if you have unsaved work. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
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+100. Can't believe I forgot that one.
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And we have the problem with updates not being forced for our developers. We recently did an SSAE 16 audit, and the first three Windows machines they looked at hadn't been updated since last summer. Ouch.
I don't understand why I can't seem to disable updates on my home Windows 10 machine. They're blocked for a while but every method I've tried has eventually stopped working. It's the worst of both worlds.
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I don't understand why I can't seem to disable updates on my home Windows 10 machine. They're blocked for a while but every method I've tried has eventually stopped working.
Because Microsoft has switched from enabling users to do things to forcing users to do things. The former model made them great, at least when combined with their anticompetitive behavior. Their current model is making them hated, even by people who used to think they were great. Microsoft tricked users into upgrades because they knew they couldn't convince them. One of the ways they tricked them was with supposed security upgrades which actually were OS delivery tools. They've completely squandered what li
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My father didn't have many choices. We do. (Score:3, Interesting)
My father didn't have many OS choices. We do. That's the real difference.
Dad could use MS-Dos, PC-Dos or DR-Dos on his x86 compatible PC. That was pretty much it.
But MSFT wasn't in the business of demanding personal data back then as their OS crashed multiple times a day. They had enough work just making it stable.
NT4 was pretty stable. I was a developer and my NT4 workstation wouldn't usually crash more than once a month. It didn't spy.
Vista sucked. It didn't spy.
Then something changed. MSFT decided
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My father didn't have many OS choices. We do. That's the real difference.
Dad could use MS-Dos, PC-Dos or DR-Dos on his x86 compatible PC. That was pretty much it.
there has never been a shortage of OS choice as far as i can remember.
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The last two are definitely things that are not new. MS has been beating the Windows-for-everything dog to death since at least XP. That's about the point they reached saturation in the PC desktop space and growth was mostly confined to replacement and population/job expansion. Meanwhile, DX10 was Vista+ only, DX11.1 was a Windows 8+ only thing (too lat e to make DX11 exclusive, I guess), and it's little wonder they'd pull the same trick with DX12.
But yea, the former two they weren't quite as willing to
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By your definition of spyware a software system free of it would have no services connecting it to the internet, no services reporting system faults and issues, no way to receive updates, and the last one.... you want state of the art games, but you want the platform which supports those games to be compatible with every archaic version of windows ever released.
I don't think there's an OS out there like you're talking about. Even linux has these sorts of services, the only difference is that by default the
Much easier said than done (Score:2)
MS has spent decades building a reputation as a greedy, cutthroat, and not terribly competent behemoth.
Even if they could somehow instantly change their internal culture (yeah right), it would take further decades before their reputation recovers.
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This is a reputation only to the Apple and Linux user base. Who have invested interest in seeing Microsoft getting its comeuppance.
The general population for the most part has seen MS rather fondly as the ones who gave them their internet, play their games, and power their businesses. Being that Microsoft was able to keep such a wide range of hardware compatibility and the last 15 years or so of Windows has been able to run so well is actually a testament to its quality.
Linux and Apple systems do crash and
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Is that the reputation to Apple users? Most Mac owners I know use Microsoft Office and are happy with it. The linux gutter trash that has been the staple of Slashdot for 20 years doesn't matter. They've been hating on Microsoft and proclaiming some kind of software revolution my entire adult life, and OpenOffice still blows.
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All fine and good. But back in the Z-80 days was it because you hated Microsoft, or that you like the Z-80 Better? Back in the early times, Going with an IBM PC with MS DOS was just as much as a risk as going with any other system. They were a lot of systems faster and cheaper then the IBM PC.
But that wasn't from Microsoft messing it up. Just the fact that IBM Made an expensive computer. Because it was build to survive a nuclear Holocaust.
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Applied Engineering built Apple II add on cards. MS also built a Z80 card for the Apple II, which was actually not a bad piece of engineering. I owned one and at the time MS was known mostly for BASIC and I was happy with the card and MS labeled CP/M.
It wasn't until I moved to the PC that I learned to hate MS.
A lot of hot air there... (Score:2)
Microsoft, despite being a near monopoly, made truly useful products for productivity that you could buy and own. Now they are shifting to the same business model as all others - software as a service - turning all of us into digital serfs who make endless monthly payments for everything we use. The truth is that it is wildly lucrative for the company to do this, not to mention a very steady income compared with the traditional product release cycle. But the problem is foisted on to the user, who is payi
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I will start to look into LibreOffice and the like, so long as compatibility problems don't arise.
Are you new here? Of course Microsoft will introduce compatibility problems...
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I have been using Star/Open/Libre office decades. The question about compatibility problems is always what are you expecting to do.
If you create a file in LibreOffice I don't see much compatibility. However if going back it may cause some issue, if they are using a brand new feature.
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Part of Microsoft's illegal business model of the past was being the only solution—by hook or by crook (usually both)—was also being a cheap(ish) solution.
The heavy users of the Windows OS and the office suite were implicitly subsidized by the rare and casual users. Because it was ubiquitous (by hook and by crook), the heavy users would get into a habit of sending Office documents without even asking if the other party had purchased the software (hence many reticent, casual users paying the same
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At a small aerospace company I worked at, we used very advanced features in Excel to do trajectory calculations, and moderately unique at the time features of MS Word (track changes.) And like many companies, we unfortunately abused powerpoint.
For any reasonably sized company with decent revenue, paying full ride for MS Office is not a problem. It's for casual use at home or a sole proprietor / home business where it hurts. Thus things like LIbreOffice start to be interesting alternatives. I have been
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> we used very advanced features in Excel to do trajectory calculations
the fact that you did use the wrong tool for a job does not mean that anybody should use the wrong tool for a job
http://blog.wolfram.com/2007/09/25/arithmetic-is-hard-to-get-right/?year=2007&monthnum=09
(captcha: analyzes)
Been there done that (Score:2)
Microsoft can go join DEC, CDC, Borroughs and UNIVAC.
Forgot that they empowered their customers (Score:2, Insightful)
The thing that made MS great was empowering their users to make choices. The primary choice was to throw out the forced IBM ecosystem that dominated computing in those days.
The problem is they got greedy and BECAME what IBM was and the cycle started all over again.
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There was the minicomputer revolution too. Starting with "Buy our computers that are affordable for your department and get out from under the thumb of the mainframe", and slowly becoming "UNIX is snake oil", "don't look at that PC", "that was an unauthorized hardware modification".
The big rise in IBM PCs and clones, as opposed to other types of personal computers, was driven by the IBM monoculture. Because it had the word "IBM" on it that meant it was safe to request it in your budget.
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Actually it was more due to the PC Clone makers who reverse engineered the IBM Bios. Thus could license MS Dos to work on their systems.
IBM didn't want the OS license because the BIOS was suppose to be the key that locked them in.
Microsoft would probably would be happy being the IBM OS.
However being the clone makers were more about empowering alternatives. Once deemed legal, Microsoft was happy to sell them their software.
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IBM didn't want the OS license because the BIOS was suppose to be the key that locked them in.
It wasn't very much of a key given that anyone that wanted the source could simply buy the Technical Reference manual and get it, along with full schematics.
Our fathers' Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Microsoft Wanted to Subscription Office even as early as 1999. If I were ambitious I could probably find a Slashdot article on it.
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Speak for yourself. Since I was considering a job where there would be some work with Microsoft technologies, I looked into what dot-net is like today. I didn't exactly have high expectations, after what it looked like 12 years ago when I last used it.
I was very pleased that everything was friendly and easy and seemed to work with no hassle. On my Ubuntu system. Wut??? Even the cloud stuff they try to push, Linux is option number one. Wait, they're not serving this up to me just from the browser useragent,
Become Honest Slime [Re:Our fathers' Microsoft...] (Score:3)
"Honest" and "Microsoft" never went together. Sure, the methods of evilhood may have changed, but MS has always been slimy. I could tell you stories all day about the good 'ol days (or not so good).
MS could do somewhat of a turn-around if they made their terms clear. Consumers may be okay with ads and/or snooping if they are given a price menu and the effects are clear. One could get a discount and even free software if they accept various degrees
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Ballmer fell asleep at the wheel for over a decade. Azure is moving fast. o365 is making progress against Google's lock-in. Win10, visual studio, even Github, all moves to attract developers. Win10, although ugly, goes a long way to improve security while fixing UI flubs over previous Windows.
It's a mess, but they're throwing money in to fix it, and they have a lot of money.
Meanwhile Apple has taken their turn at sleeping. Google is running out of favour in privacy.
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The reality was Apple nut checked Microsoft as it blew by them in the end-user market with iPhone and Apple services. Amazon (an online e-commerce bazaar at that) Chuck Norris'ed kicked them to the face with AWS with cloud services. And Google laughed from the sidelines and then stuck up at the end to goose pinch them as they blew past them into the schools with Chromebooks.
I don't 100% disagree with this, but there is definitely revisionist history here.
Apple did indeed manage to outdo Microsoft, no question about it. However, Ballmer wasn't asleep at the wheel here. Remember, MS had mobile phones in a pre-Facebook, pre-Instagram, pre-Spotify, pre-App-store, pre-reasonably-priced-data-plan world. They had a healthy presence in a three horse race, with their larger competition was Blackberry for the enterprise. Palm's focus on simplicity was not gaining them a whole lot of gro
Certain you want to use those words? (Score:1)
May that catchphrase work as well for Microsoft as it did for Oldsmobile...
"...the campaign that served as Olds’ final and famous (infamous?) death gasp: “Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile.”
Reference: https://godsofadvertising.word... [wordpress.com]
they put some tools, they put some platforms, ... (Score:1)
they gave me the opportunity to really do something
Linux. You're talking about Linux. Microsoft tries to take my computer from me and wants me to pay rent.
Huge differences (Score:1)
Now instead of just making bad, buggy software they also make bad buggy hardware!
Thanks Bizarro Steve Jobs!
No. It is far worse (Score:2)
The old MS just tried to make a good OS and Office package. Then they got the delusion that they had actually succeeded and now they are destructive wherever they can be.
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adios, microsoft (Score:2)
When my windows 10-based laptop died recently, that gave me the impetus I needed to cut the remaining tiny cord to microsoft. I found an old, abandoned machine and installed ubuntu, cups, firefox, gimp, i
Synergy! (Score:1)
I wonder how much of an urge he had to say "synergizing" instead of "empowering".
My father ... (Score:2)
He is right (Score:2)
Back when I was young, MS was what rescued us from the clutches of IBM and their mainframes. MS was the alternative, the one that gave us the option to tell IBM to go suck a donkey dick when they came with their "you can't avoid us, eat our shit and call it ice cream" attitude.
Today's MS is not what our father's MS was. Today's MS is what our father's IBM was.
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I would personally rather have a mainframe vs. Microsoft's forced update we-know-whats good for you crap.
It would also alleviate the upgrade "cancer" that happens when you upgrade one piece of Microsoft software, the moss starts rolling down hill and before you know it you have to upgrade your entire Windows Server environment. I should be able to pick and choose, not get caught on the upgrade train against my will.
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You are aware that by having a mainframe, you will basically just have a "dumb" terminal at your disposal, which intrinsically means that whoever controls that mainframe decide if and when you get whatever upgrades, right?
Trust MS at your own peril (Score:2)
Probable fail (Score:2)
Microsoft can allow and encourage some truly independent skunkworks, (and keep their damned hands off until it either succeeds or goes bust), or the whole corporation can pull a complete 180 like Apple did when they brought back Jobs. Short of that kind of drastic change, I think Microsoft is unlikely to regain its long-lost status as an innovator, regardless of Nadella's efforts to initiate a company-wide culture shift. The agile, risk-taking, seat-of-the-pants development mindset that fosters innovation,
ROFLMAO, Lost touch with what made MSFT sucessful (Score:2)
it was freaking changing the OS API's last minute before releases and only then publishing the updates to the ISV Partners thereby ensuring Microsoft's software works the best on Windows first.
It was breaking things like the TCP/IP stack so things like AOL stopped working and then bringing up a dialog box saying to install MSN, it'lll work fine. Then brilliantly telling a judge it
Nadella is probably the best CEO so far (Score:2)
Personally, I think mr. Nadella is probably the best CEO in the lineup. Ballmer was way too aggressive and the company suffered from it. If you wonder why they were a bunch of backstabbing, arrogant assholes, look no further. Nadella really needed to provide some tranquilizer there. Which he did. He also put his cards on the cloud infrastructure. And currently, Microsoft's position is extremely good as a result:
- Microsoft Azure is pretty much unbeatable if you look at ease of use, consistency across platfo
Two big stories (Score:3)
Helping a faded legend find a sense of purpose? (Score:2)
Microsoft Litigation [groklaw.net]
Too little too late (Score:2)
Let's face it, Microsoft is a huge company and they have their hooks deep into corporate America. Much like Oracle does. It's going to be a long long time before we see businesses moving away from MS in mass. It doesn't matter that their are other viable products - Linux, OpenOffice, etc. The point is that businesses are so entrenched in the MS ecosystem they are highly unlikely to change.
The home user is a different matter entirely. As the article points out, there is an entire generation that grew up on i
Back to the basics. (Score:2)
"One of the things that happens when you're super successful is you sort of sometimes lose touch with what made you successful in the first place,"
Great, does this means their getting back in touch with their origins and using illegal tactics to hurt competitors?
Microsoft lost the touch with what made it success (Score:2)
Does he mean MS has lost touch with being a predatory company that squashes its competition with vapoware, patent trolling and abusing the Windows monopoly?
But my father never trusted Micro$oft either (Score:2)
Re:Developers Developers Developers! (Score:4, Informative)
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You never owned Microsoft software. You have always licensed it, like it or not. If you use Linux or macOS, you also license that software.
The difference is that iterative/successive versions cost nothing with Linux, and often nothing with Apple (unless you buy closed-source, paid-for software).
With free software, you may pay support costs, or usage counts. And as major organizations try to wrest control back (often to the "cloud"), you may or may not pay depending on the services rendered, or the "seats" u
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Not factually incorrect.
You use Linux and most FOSS software under some kind of license restraint, depending entirely on the license. The most free licenses are usually GNU.... and variants of BSD. Linux is only mildly constrained. Free licenses are, yes, free! Use of the code underneath may indeed be constrained.
I write this on a Linux laptop. Its license is different than the Windows 10 VM that's running on this VM, which is different still than the Windows 2016 also running on this machine.
Licenses aren'
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All good points. I have yet to download and use a distro that didn't ask me, one way or the other, to agree to the terms of the license (usually GPLv2 which covers the kernel) or other terms of use.
Git, subversion, etc etc have different methodologies for adding license terms. The code and its use are licensed, usually the same between source and use.
With free software, as you cite, often tough to go wrong if you're a user, and not a developer or integrator. There are a myriad ways to go wrong with licensed
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Ubuntu, RH, Fedora, and I'm probably sure that CentOS asks you, too.
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I've installed every single version of Ubuntu since day one and have never ever had to agree to anything. CentOS I have been installed since CentOS 3 and again have never had to agree to anything there either. Fedora I've only installed once but did not have to agree on anything there either.
Just for kicks I now launched VirtualBox and installed a iso of CentOS 7 that I had lying around. Did not have to agree to anything during the entire install, so where you have got this idea of yours from I have no idea
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Hmmmm. It's been a while.
I'll re-check a download. Thanks.
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An interesting exception. Did Commodore license the software to you? The haziness of shrink-wrap licensing always galled me.
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LOL. They might argue with you, but sounds like you're the owner to me. Needless to say, they don't do *that* anymore!