7 ms·

Kind of interesting because I assume Microsoft has deep technical talent in operating system kernel and user space design. But they chose someone who I assume

by chubot 10y ago

Kind of interesting because I assume Microsoft has deep technical talent in operating system kernel and user space design. But they chose someone who I assume must be a distributed computing ("web/cloud") guy instead. I guess that's where they see the bulk of their business being in the future.

maxxxxx 10y ago
I would think his role as CTO is less specifically about one field like distributed computing and more about creating a coherent vision over the whole of Microsoft which has been lacking for a long time .
- supernovae 10y ago
  Microsoft has a vision, it just had problems executing on it. Those who paid attention knew of what was coming these years because of their infamous 10 year vision and interim video releases they had. Terrible at execution and I hope this guy can help that.
  - samfisher83 10y ago
    I think Bill Gates achieved his vision which was put a computer on every persons desk running his OS. Its still a highly profitable company with pretty much a monopoly on desktops.
    - throwaway91111 10y ago
      While that's nice, that's not saying Microsoft succeeded since the early 90s.
  - Arizhel 10y ago
    I don't, I hope they fall flat on their face. Microsoft's visions are always horrible dystopian nightmares.
    - metaphorm 10y ago
      I would have played along if you had said "Microsoft's visions are always disappointingly clunky and 3 years too late". What is the horrible dystopian nightmare?
      - Arizhel 10y ago
        Well basically everything running MS-ware. Sounds like a nightmare scenario to me, much like GM's vision of the future where everyone is driving a GM car, or Comcast's vision where everyone uses Comcast service and cord-cutters don't exist. Throw the Windows 10 UI on top of that, add in Windows phones and tablets, and it's a really bad nightmare.
        alex_anglin 10y ago
        ...and yet Office runs just fine on my mac, iOS and Android devices. SQL Server is getting a lot of press for their Linux support - and so on. Ultimately, they seem to be much more pragmatic under Satyas leadership and that seems to be reflecting on them well. They are a fierce competitor in a variety of domains and are ultimately accountable to the market.I say all of this as someone who has distinctly not been a MS fan over the past two decades.
        tracker1 10y ago
        Agreed, I've been really happy (Win10 privacy issues aside) with the direction under Sataya than Balmer/Gates... DevDiv is a shining example of cooperative open-source in a lot of ways today. And beyond that, Azure services have been pretty nice to use (if a bit on the pricey side). I'm actually looking at C# via .Net Core again, something I'd been moving away from for about 6 years now. Although that transition has been pretty confusing in a lot of ways. Looks like .Net core 2.x will be pretty ready when it ships, and 1.x is at least usable. Still leaps and bounds better than Java imho. The services surrounding Office 365 have been pretty compelling, and well priced around their competition, it will be interesting to say the least.
        10y ago
  - DaiPlusPlus 10y ago
    Microsoft's vision since attaining Bill Gates' "A computer on every desk..." has been this vague pen-computing drive that just won't seem to die. The latest iteration on his is the much-hyped and never-used ink notes feature in Edge Browser (deemed more important than Chrome-compatible extensions) and the otherwise outstanding Surface Studio desktop computer. If I was a C-level at MS I'd push for "A computer in every palm, running Microsoft software" - they failed with Windows Phone but succeeded with Office 365 apps for iOS and Android. I would swallow MS' pride and release a custom Android-based OS and encourage OEMs to adopt it with favourable terms compared to Google Play's. I think that would sustain the company until the next big thing. Oh, and research in self-driving cars. Everyone else is doing it ffs! (And "Make the Windows Desktop Developer Experience Great Again(tm)!")
    - supernovae 10y ago
      The "Ink" stuff in Windows 10 is part of the next update inked (har har har) "Creators Update" - its meant for enhancing the digital creator, publisher, writer and digital note taker with tools that make it stupid easy to use a pen to draw, note, clip, cut, trace, diagram.. It's been growing into edge - and I use it ALL the time to grab snippets from books on safarbooksonline and with ePubs coming to Edge and an ebook store, my use case gets even better. My wife uses pen for photoshop and adult coloring.. so different strokes for different folks. As for chrome extensions.. MS makes it absurdly easy to port them: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platform/documentation/extensions/guides/porting-chrome-extensions/ https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platfor... Regarding mobile devices, WIndows 10 is "Universal".. I don't know what the big delay is as a fan of the products - seems mostly developers obsessed with Apple really than MS not having a product and the last thing that MS needs to do is spread itself into ANOTHER OS - they already provide a robust "launcher" for android to bring in MS ecosystem. It's google that is generally playing hardball here and the world would be a better place if GOOGLE worked with MS and brought its ecosystem on par. I mean, it really sucks to enjoy to use edge and have google telling you on every one of their websites to switch to chrome with popups, sliders, notifications, alerts, text boxes and all sorts of crap making the experience suck.. as for self driving cars? its just an extension of the ecosystem.. i'm curious why you want MS in your pocket but not in your car and lastly for Dev stuff.. MS owns that shit. The Windows Developer experience is a superb story and now with all their cross platform stuff you may just not be paying much attention.. MS development tools do Linux, Windows, OSX, Android, iOS, ARM & more.. also, edge extensions are generally chrome compatible.. (why doesn't google make their shit work with edge? or even win10?? eh eh? :) https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platform/documentation/extensions/guides/porting-chrome-extensions/ https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platfor... BTW, I think the compute in every palm is already saturated to a degree and MS is doing long tail here but who knows.
- spydum 10y ago
  Honest question: do Product owners report up through CTOs usually? I am not even sure how it works at a technology company (where the technology literally is the product). I guess I ask this because I don't usually think of the CTO defining the product vision.. just the teams and tech to DELIVER the vision as defined by some product folks (obvious there is feedback both ways but..)
  - mason55 10y ago
    It depends but frequently in a tech company the CTO is the main product owner/"person with the vision". Execution is handled by a VP of Engineering (or lots of them when you're as big as MS)
supernovae 10y ago
If I were a kernel/os hacker at MS my end game would be to do something fun at MS Research, not head to CTO.
- nolok 10y ago
  I 100% agree with you, but to be fair, if you are a kernel/os hacker at MS right now, you're probably having fun doing your thing already since the windows kernel has been going through several big revamps the past few years.
  - alex_hitchins 10y ago
    Such as Windows 10 running on ARM. I bet that was a big deal for many OS devs at MS.
    - supernovae 10y ago
      Windows has been cross platform since NT 3.x days. What was really interesting for Windows on ARM was that ARM could run Win32 X86 apps with good speed. (and I bet the same group of smart engineers also emulated PowerPC on X86 for BC games on the One)
matchagaucho 10y ago
This move puts Salesforce CRM squarely in Microsoft's sight. More than Kevin's tech skills, this announcement reinforces that the identity of Microsoft B2B users and customer relationships will be strategically aligned around LinkedIn profiles.
- r00fus 10y ago
  Is Dynamics getting that much marketshare? I thought SFDC had things nailed up in the CRM space with distant 2nd/3rd place Oracle and SAP? [1] [1] https://www.appsruntheworld.com/top-10-crm-software-vendors-and-market-forecast-2015-2020/ https://www.appsruntheworld.com/top-10-crm-software-vendors-...
  - matchagaucho 10y ago
    Dynamics is beating Salesforce in SMB. Salesforce has nailed up enterprise. It's a classic Innovators Dilemma for Salesforce. Could "good enough" Dynamics CRM move upmarket by integrating LinkedIn identities?
    - r00fus 10y ago
      Got any figures for Dynamics beating Salesforce in SMB? Seems like the multitude of CRM offerings (SugarCRM, Act, Goldmine, even Netsuite) in the SMB space would pose an issue for Microsoft if they were to go upmarket.
    - zelias 10y ago
      What they need to do is make a deal with Facebook. Solve the social component without necessarily ruining the widespread enterprise product.
    - ppcc 10y ago
      OMG I just puked. The two worst products of all time, "integrated". Note I'm not speaking for the engineering - but the user experience is just terrible on both LinkedIn and Dynamics.
kbart 10y ago
The best engineers/programmers/hackers I know are nor very keen managerial positions and prefer architect or senior roles.

by chubot 10y ago

maxxxxx 10y ago

I would think his role as CTO is less specifically about one field like distributed computing and more about creating a coherent vision over the whole of Microsoft which has been lacking for a long time .

supernovae 10y ago
Microsoft has a vision, it just had problems executing on it. Those who paid attention knew of what was coming these years because of their infamous 10 year vision and interim video releases they had. Terrible at execution and I hope this guy can help that.
- samfisher83 10y ago
  I think Bill Gates achieved his vision which was put a computer on every persons desk running his OS. Its still a highly profitable company with pretty much a monopoly on desktops.
  - throwaway91111 10y ago
    While that's nice, that's not saying Microsoft succeeded since the early 90s.
- Arizhel 10y ago
  I don't, I hope they fall flat on their face. Microsoft's visions are always horrible dystopian nightmares.
  - metaphorm 10y ago
    I would have played along if you had said "Microsoft's visions are always disappointingly clunky and 3 years too late". What is the horrible dystopian nightmare?
    - Arizhel 10y ago
      Well basically everything running MS-ware. Sounds like a nightmare scenario to me, much like GM's vision of the future where everyone is driving a GM car, or Comcast's vision where everyone uses Comcast service and cord-cutters don't exist. Throw the Windows 10 UI on top of that, add in Windows phones and tablets, and it's a really bad nightmare.
      - alex_anglin 10y ago
        ...and yet Office runs just fine on my mac, iOS and Android devices. SQL Server is getting a lot of press for their Linux support - and so on. Ultimately, they seem to be much more pragmatic under Satyas leadership and that seems to be reflecting on them well. They are a fierce competitor in a variety of domains and are ultimately accountable to the market.I say all of this as someone who has distinctly not been a MS fan over the past two decades.
        tracker1 10y ago
        Agreed, I've been really happy (Win10 privacy issues aside) with the direction under Sataya than Balmer/Gates... DevDiv is a shining example of cooperative open-source in a lot of ways today. And beyond that, Azure services have been pretty nice to use (if a bit on the pricey side). I'm actually looking at C# via .Net Core again, something I'd been moving away from for about 6 years now. Although that transition has been pretty confusing in a lot of ways. Looks like .Net core 2.x will be pretty ready when it ships, and 1.x is at least usable. Still leaps and bounds better than Java imho. The services surrounding Office 365 have been pretty compelling, and well priced around their competition, it will be interesting to say the least.
      - 10y ago
- DaiPlusPlus 10y ago
  Microsoft's vision since attaining Bill Gates' "A computer on every desk..." has been this vague pen-computing drive that just won't seem to die. The latest iteration on his is the much-hyped and never-used ink notes feature in Edge Browser (deemed more important than Chrome-compatible extensions) and the otherwise outstanding Surface Studio desktop computer. If I was a C-level at MS I'd push for "A computer in every palm, running Microsoft software" - they failed with Windows Phone but succeeded with Office 365 apps for iOS and Android. I would swallow MS' pride and release a custom Android-based OS and encourage OEMs to adopt it with favourable terms compared to Google Play's. I think that would sustain the company until the next big thing. Oh, and research in self-driving cars. Everyone else is doing it ffs! (And "Make the Windows Desktop Developer Experience Great Again(tm)!")
  - supernovae 10y ago
    The "Ink" stuff in Windows 10 is part of the next update inked (har har har) "Creators Update" - its meant for enhancing the digital creator, publisher, writer and digital note taker with tools that make it stupid easy to use a pen to draw, note, clip, cut, trace, diagram.. It's been growing into edge - and I use it ALL the time to grab snippets from books on safarbooksonline and with ePubs coming to Edge and an ebook store, my use case gets even better. My wife uses pen for photoshop and adult coloring.. so different strokes for different folks. As for chrome extensions.. MS makes it absurdly easy to port them: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platform/documentation/extensions/guides/porting-chrome-extensions/ https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platfor... Regarding mobile devices, WIndows 10 is "Universal".. I don't know what the big delay is as a fan of the products - seems mostly developers obsessed with Apple really than MS not having a product and the last thing that MS needs to do is spread itself into ANOTHER OS - they already provide a robust "launcher" for android to bring in MS ecosystem. It's google that is generally playing hardball here and the world would be a better place if GOOGLE worked with MS and brought its ecosystem on par. I mean, it really sucks to enjoy to use edge and have google telling you on every one of their websites to switch to chrome with popups, sliders, notifications, alerts, text boxes and all sorts of crap making the experience suck.. as for self driving cars? its just an extension of the ecosystem.. i'm curious why you want MS in your pocket but not in your car and lastly for Dev stuff.. MS owns that shit. The Windows Developer experience is a superb story and now with all their cross platform stuff you may just not be paying much attention.. MS development tools do Linux, Windows, OSX, Android, iOS, ARM & more.. also, edge extensions are generally chrome compatible.. (why doesn't google make their shit work with edge? or even win10?? eh eh? :) https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platform/documentation/extensions/guides/porting-chrome-extensions/ https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platfor... BTW, I think the compute in every palm is already saturated to a degree and MS is doing long tail here but who knows.
spydum 10y ago
Honest question: do Product owners report up through CTOs usually? I am not even sure how it works at a technology company (where the technology literally is the product). I guess I ask this because I don't usually think of the CTO defining the product vision.. just the teams and tech to DELIVER the vision as defined by some product folks (obvious there is feedback both ways but..)
- mason55 10y ago
  It depends but frequently in a tech company the CTO is the main product owner/"person with the vision". Execution is handled by a VP of Engineering (or lots of them when you're as big as MS)

supernovae 10y ago

If I were a kernel/os hacker at MS my end game would be to do something fun at MS Research, not head to CTO.

nolok 10y ago
I 100% agree with you, but to be fair, if you are a kernel/os hacker at MS right now, you're probably having fun doing your thing already since the windows kernel has been going through several big revamps the past few years.
- alex_hitchins 10y ago
  Such as Windows 10 running on ARM. I bet that was a big deal for many OS devs at MS.
  - supernovae 10y ago
    Windows has been cross platform since NT 3.x days. What was really interesting for Windows on ARM was that ARM could run Win32 X86 apps with good speed. (and I bet the same group of smart engineers also emulated PowerPC on X86 for BC games on the One)

matchagaucho 10y ago

This move puts Salesforce CRM squarely in Microsoft's sight. More than Kevin's tech skills, this announcement reinforces that the identity of Microsoft B2B users and customer relationships will be strategically aligned around LinkedIn profiles.

r00fus 10y ago
Is Dynamics getting that much marketshare? I thought SFDC had things nailed up in the CRM space with distant 2nd/3rd place Oracle and SAP? [1] [1] https://www.appsruntheworld.com/top-10-crm-software-vendors-and-market-forecast-2015-2020/ https://www.appsruntheworld.com/top-10-crm-software-vendors-...
- matchagaucho 10y ago
  Dynamics is beating Salesforce in SMB. Salesforce has nailed up enterprise. It's a classic Innovators Dilemma for Salesforce. Could "good enough" Dynamics CRM move upmarket by integrating LinkedIn identities?
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Got any figures for Dynamics beating Salesforce in SMB? Seems like the multitude of CRM offerings (SugarCRM, Act, Goldmine, even Netsuite) in the SMB space would pose an issue for Microsoft if they were to go upmarket.
  - zelias 10y ago
    What they need to do is make a deal with Facebook. Solve the social component without necessarily ruining the widespread enterprise product.
  - ppcc 10y ago
    OMG I just puked. The two worst products of all time, "integrated". Note I'm not speaking for the engineering - but the user experience is just terrible on both LinkedIn and Dynamics.

kbart 10y ago

The best engineers/programmers/hackers I know are nor very keen managerial positions and prefer architect or senior roles.