This article is so bitter and dismissive of Microsoft that I have a hard time even taking it seriously.
"Nadella begins at the altar of innovation, a word that at Microsoft has traditionally meant stealing technology. Of course he is the company cheerleader to some extent but Microsoft’s tradition of innovation is hard to even detect, much less celebrate or revive. This is revisionist history. Can he really believe it’s true?"
Seriously? We're going to poopoo them stealing tech and completely dismiss everything they've ever done? I guess Apple/Google/IBM/HP get a pass...
I'm a Linux fanboy first and foremost, so I don't exactly view MS with rose colored glasses. With that said, regardless of how they did it, MS has left a mark on the world. Show me a huge tech company that doesn't "steal tech" or engage in anti-competitive practices. That doesn't make it OK, but completely dismissing MS's history seems silly.
If the author missed the mark this bad on what Microsoft is and has done, I have a hard time taking him seriously when talking about the future.
Agreed. This writer is just being a dick to stir up controversy. Microsoft has a lot of potential and what looks like good leadership from their new CEO. I think and hope things will go well for them.
I don't see it as so bad, given how much others have written Microsoft off. I think their stock performance highlights how little they've done to build on their legacy and expectations. Now they have a chance. When I read the following, I don't see it in nearly as negative a light as others.
The reality here that Nadella — to his credit — at least alludes to, is that the playing field is now level, the score is 0-0 (or more likely 0-0-0-0-0) and for Microsoft to win they’ll have to play hard, play fair, and win on their merits. And that’s what leads into the discussion of culture and how the company will do anything it must to succeed. “Nothing is off the table,” Nadella wrote. This is the most important part of the message and, indeed, is probably the only part that really matters.
I almost gave up when he said "I don’t mean to be a pedant but which is it — mobile first or cloud first? Only one thing can be first."
If you don't recognize that those are two different areas then you are either dense, or being intentionally contrarian. Given the earlier statements he made it is clear the latter is certainly true and quite possibly the former as well.
I don't think so, especially because Nadella specifically mentioned that D&S is not the governing principle (well, he didn't say that exactly, but almost). What Mobile-First means to me is that mobile is _the_ platform, and being present on portable devices is the key to survival for Microsoft (and don't forget, almost every end-user device is portable, including dockable mobile workstations). That means that MS cannot afford risking not being present on dominant mobile operating systems, for example -- it would be stupid to risk the survival of the company and only push stuff on Windows Phone, for example.
Other than that, I disagree with the article on a many points.
> Microsoft’s tradition of innovation is hard to even detect, much less celebrate or revive.
The tradition of innovation is there -- see Microsoft Research, one of the best funded institutes. The tradition of polish is not there. Microsoft has produced tablet PCs, smartphones, voice and handwriting recognition, mapping, and so on. It has a bad record of taking stuff out from R&D departments and delivering them to end users in a neat and easy-to-use way.
> I don’t mean to be a pedant but which is it — mobile first or cloud first? Only one thing can be first.
I think the opposite: the two goes together hand in hand, and cannot really live without each other. That's the big problem of Apple: they are not that good in cloud services, and a phone (or a tablet) increasingly relies on cloud services. Google is mostly winning the mobile war because it's cloud services. It's the cloud services why Google can release Android for free, it's them why many iOS users slowly gravitate towards Android ('because Google stuff works better'), it's them why many people don't want Windows Phone ('I don't use too many apps but I need Google Maps and GMail').
You put your finger right on the danger there. It could mean anything from "We're, selling off all the hardware, replacing Windows Phone with an AOSP-based system, like Amazon's, and implementing all our mobile apps for iOS and Android, and doubling the resources on our Azure/Bing ecosystem" to "We're keeping everything, laying off a few people to get another bump-up from Wall St., and muddling through."
Given the content, I can't tell if the allusion to the disastrous Chinese Cultural Revolution is intended or not. It seems more like Cringely's actually talking about changing Microsoft's culture, which makes the title quite poor.
That was the intention of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, too. It failed in the long term, but from the perspective of its architects, most of what we call its disasters were actually its successes.
I just read the comments on posts with "Microsoft" on the title so I can laugh at the people who says "I do not care about microsoft" (but I am here commenting on a topic about it anyway).
It would nice if they don't follow Android and iOS by having everything totally locked down. (Unless you root or jail break). They can see Microsoft give you flexibility, freedom.
The only thing that will keep Microsoft and Apple going in the consumer markets over the next few years are patents and binary blobs. Once chips become fast enough and non-free drivers become irrelevant their days will be over.
Already a $150 smartphone contains as much CPU power as a desktop of 5 years ago. Add a keyboard and attach it to big screen, presto you have a desktop. Their days are over and they are living on sales hype and clever apps.
Already a $150 smartphone contains as much CPU power as a desktop of 5 years ago. Add a keyboard and attach it to big screen, presto you have a desktop.
Microsoft is working on unifying their OS versions. Please catch up.
I don't really care what Microsoft is doing. I don't use any of their products. I don't intend to in future either. It took me years to fully extricate myself from the disaster zone which was Microsoft Windows, and having done that I have no desire to return.
[+] [-] gtaylor|11 years ago|reply
"Nadella begins at the altar of innovation, a word that at Microsoft has traditionally meant stealing technology. Of course he is the company cheerleader to some extent but Microsoft’s tradition of innovation is hard to even detect, much less celebrate or revive. This is revisionist history. Can he really believe it’s true?"
Seriously? We're going to poopoo them stealing tech and completely dismiss everything they've ever done? I guess Apple/Google/IBM/HP get a pass...
I'm a Linux fanboy first and foremost, so I don't exactly view MS with rose colored glasses. With that said, regardless of how they did it, MS has left a mark on the world. Show me a huge tech company that doesn't "steal tech" or engage in anti-competitive practices. That doesn't make it OK, but completely dismissing MS's history seems silly.
If the author missed the mark this bad on what Microsoft is and has done, I have a hard time taking him seriously when talking about the future.
[+] [-] dsschnau|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mathattack|11 years ago|reply
The reality here that Nadella — to his credit — at least alludes to, is that the playing field is now level, the score is 0-0 (or more likely 0-0-0-0-0) and for Microsoft to win they’ll have to play hard, play fair, and win on their merits. And that’s what leads into the discussion of culture and how the company will do anything it must to succeed. “Nothing is off the table,” Nadella wrote. This is the most important part of the message and, indeed, is probably the only part that really matters.
[+] [-] wnevets|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] icantthinkofone|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keithwarren|11 years ago|reply
If you don't recognize that those are two different areas then you are either dense, or being intentionally contrarian. Given the earlier statements he made it is clear the latter is certainly true and quite possibly the former as well.
[+] [-] rimantas|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chiph|11 years ago|reply
I dunno. I see this as "devices and services" rephrased.
[+] [-] sz4kerto|11 years ago|reply
Other than that, I disagree with the article on a many points.
> Microsoft’s tradition of innovation is hard to even detect, much less celebrate or revive.
The tradition of innovation is there -- see Microsoft Research, one of the best funded institutes. The tradition of polish is not there. Microsoft has produced tablet PCs, smartphones, voice and handwriting recognition, mapping, and so on. It has a bad record of taking stuff out from R&D departments and delivering them to end users in a neat and easy-to-use way.
> I don’t mean to be a pedant but which is it — mobile first or cloud first? Only one thing can be first.
I think the opposite: the two goes together hand in hand, and cannot really live without each other. That's the big problem of Apple: they are not that good in cloud services, and a phone (or a tablet) increasingly relies on cloud services. Google is mostly winning the mobile war because it's cloud services. It's the cloud services why Google can release Android for free, it's them why many iOS users slowly gravitate towards Android ('because Google stuff works better'), it's them why many people don't want Windows Phone ('I don't use too many apps but I need Google Maps and GMail').
[+] [-] sp332|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Zigurd|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kvb|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pessimizer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] corprew|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] craigching|11 years ago|reply
http://www.mondaynote.com/2014/07/13/microsofts-new-ceo-need...
[+] [-] leo_mck|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] venomsnake|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ape4|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vfclists|11 years ago|reply
Already a $150 smartphone contains as much CPU power as a desktop of 5 years ago. Add a keyboard and attach it to big screen, presto you have a desktop. Their days are over and they are living on sales hype and clever apps.
Once developer lock in ends, thats it for them.
[+] [-] CmonDev|11 years ago|reply
Microsoft is working on unifying their OS versions. Please catch up.
[+] [-] motters|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CmonDev|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pistle|11 years ago|reply