5 ms·

Windows 8 will be Microsoft's 'riskiest product bet'

27 points by Ocho-Bits 16y ago

levesque 16y ago
Off topic: Is Steve Ballmer supposed to be a good speaker? He sounds arrogant to me.
- chaosmachine 16y ago
  Perhaps you are unfamiliar with Steve Ballmer... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc
  - citricsquid 16y ago
    That's it, I'm sticking with Windows for life.
  - levesque 16y ago
    Wow, this was... unexpected.
- Keyframe 16y ago
  He's a party dude at college that everybody knows. Eccentric and likable. Impulsive, yet benign (I don't want to say simple on purpose).
  - josephcooney 16y ago
    He's the party dude that graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a B.A. in mathematics and economics.
  - raganwald 16y ago
    As a foreigner unfamiliar with US fraternity culture, may I ask: How does he differ from George W. Bush in that respect?
    - mahmud 16y ago
      Ballmer is competent enough to manage a gas station.
    - Keyframe 16y ago
      I'm not from US either - replace college with school, college. And to answer your question, it doesn't differ, personality-wise.
- forgottenpaswrd 16y ago
  Extremely arrogant to me. I didn't knew this face, I would despise having a boss like him.
okeumeni 16y ago
Why Windows 8 we have barely used 7?
- Ocho-Bits 16y ago
  Windows usually has a three year cicle. Vista stopped this mostly because of the development hell that it was.
  - zsouthboy 16y ago
    My favorite part is where they threw it all out, reset to 2003 codebase, and started from scratch basically, 18ish months before release.[1] So from a technical standpoint, Vista took longer [5 years] and had less development time [under 2 years] actually make it into the product. (Yes, code they already had they could and did reincorporate into the final product, but still, wow.) [1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/10/16/481625.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/10/16/481625.as... This post is full of snark by the way, but it is useful to know what went wrong with Vista. (TL;DR: Management of very large software development is _hard_)
- ugh 16y ago
  1985: Windows 1.0 1987: Windows 2.0 1990: Windows 3.0 (1992: Windows 3.1) 1995: Windows 95 1998: Windows 98 (2000: Windows ME) 2001: Windows XP 2006/2007: Windows Vista 2009: Windows 7 2012: Windows 8 Nothing out of the ordinary.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
moserware 16y ago
No real content here. Perhaps we'll learn more on Thursday at microsoftpdc.com
pohl 16y ago
Here's the bit I found most interesting, wherein Steve has a hard time selling the idea that "Windows" is somehow the same whether it's the Windows 7 variant on the HP pad or a WP7 phone. The interviewer wanted to know if the latter was coming to tablets, but Ballmer didn't pick up on that or tried to deflect the implicit fragmentation question. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKB8XEXm3Oo#t=2m54s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKB8XEXm3Oo#t=2m54s
thought_alarm 16y ago
I thought Scoble's take on this was actually kind of interesting. http://scobleizer.com/2010/10/22/starbucks-cio-shows-why-next-version-of-windows-is-risky/ http://scobleizer.com/2010/10/22/starbucks-cio-shows-why-nex...
- PlanetFunk 16y ago
  Slightly off-topic, but my ultimate device is something like a smart phone that can dock into different "stations" (think desktop, laptop, tablet) and utilise that stations peripherals (screen, mouse, keyboard, etc). Ignoring the fantasy hardware, an OS that could handle that would be mind blowing.
jsz0 16y ago
Risky in a legal sense maybe? It seems to me Microsoft has been really trigger shy about pushing forward on integrating all their various services and non-PC products closely with Windows due to their past problems with DOJ/EU. I feel like if they made a big push to integrate things like Zune Pass, Xbox Live integration, Windows Phone, cloud services, Bing search/maps, etc they would have a much more compelling platform. All their competitors are doing it so maybe they now have the cover they need with the DOJ/EU to wrap everything together.
mikepurvis 16y ago
I dunno. I'm kind of having a flashback to the 2003 Longhorn video. Wasn't that kind of the same message, promising all the risky and exciting things that were in a release mere months away?
marcamillion 16y ago
Hrmm...people still listen to Balmer? As far as I am concerned, Microsoft would be in the exact same position today (or maybe even better off) if there was no one in top spot. It has become a well-oiled machine that can just continue churning out Windows & Office versions. There will be no one to drive new product innovation, granted, but there is no one there right now either.
jchonphoenix 16y ago
His argument that Windows is no longer a game changer seems somewhat faulty. He claims Apple has impact because they decided not to support flash, so he is now moving Starbucks to HTML5. But if Microsoft decided to not support HTML5, would he still be using HTML5? I personally would still hedge my bets with more people using Windows than Macs.
jeffreymcmanus 16y ago
Microsoft has never released a new version of Windows without referring to it as a "bet-the-company" release. This includes Vista. Just because they say it, doesn't mean it's true -- in fact it's probably never actually been true.

27 points by Ocho-Bits 16y ago

levesque 16y ago

Off topic: Is Steve Ballmer supposed to be a good speaker? He sounds arrogant to me.

chaosmachine 16y ago
Perhaps you are unfamiliar with Steve Ballmer... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc
- citricsquid 16y ago
  That's it, I'm sticking with Windows for life.
- levesque 16y ago
  Wow, this was... unexpected.
Keyframe 16y ago
He's a party dude at college that everybody knows. Eccentric and likable. Impulsive, yet benign (I don't want to say simple on purpose).
- josephcooney 16y ago
  He's the party dude that graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a B.A. in mathematics and economics.
- raganwald 16y ago
  As a foreigner unfamiliar with US fraternity culture, may I ask: How does he differ from George W. Bush in that respect?
  - mahmud 16y ago
    Ballmer is competent enough to manage a gas station.
  - Keyframe 16y ago
    I'm not from US either - replace college with school, college. And to answer your question, it doesn't differ, personality-wise.
forgottenpaswrd 16y ago
Extremely arrogant to me. I didn't knew this face, I would despise having a boss like him.

okeumeni 16y ago

Why Windows 8 we have barely used 7?

Ocho-Bits 16y ago
Windows usually has a three year cicle. Vista stopped this mostly because of the development hell that it was.
- zsouthboy 16y ago
  My favorite part is where they threw it all out, reset to 2003 codebase, and started from scratch basically, 18ish months before release.[1] So from a technical standpoint, Vista took longer [5 years] and had less development time [under 2 years] actually make it into the product. (Yes, code they already had they could and did reincorporate into the final product, but still, wow.) [1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/10/16/481625.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/10/16/481625.as... This post is full of snark by the way, but it is useful to know what went wrong with Vista. (TL;DR: Management of very large software development is _hard_)
ugh 16y ago
1985: Windows 1.0 1987: Windows 2.0 1990: Windows 3.0 (1992: Windows 3.1) 1995: Windows 95 1998: Windows 98 (2000: Windows ME) 2001: Windows XP 2006/2007: Windows Vista 2009: Windows 7 2012: Windows 8 Nothing out of the ordinary.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

moserware 16y ago

No real content here. Perhaps we'll learn more on Thursday at microsoftpdc.com

pohl 16y ago

Here's the bit I found most interesting, wherein Steve has a hard time selling the idea that "Windows" is somehow the same whether it's the Windows 7 variant on the HP pad or a WP7 phone. The interviewer wanted to know if the latter was coming to tablets, but Ballmer didn't pick up on that or tried to deflect the implicit fragmentation question. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKB8XEXm3Oo#t=2m54s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKB8XEXm3Oo#t=2m54s

thought_alarm 16y ago

I thought Scoble's take on this was actually kind of interesting. http://scobleizer.com/2010/10/22/starbucks-cio-shows-why-next-version-of-windows-is-risky/ http://scobleizer.com/2010/10/22/starbucks-cio-shows-why-nex...

PlanetFunk 16y ago
Slightly off-topic, but my ultimate device is something like a smart phone that can dock into different "stations" (think desktop, laptop, tablet) and utilise that stations peripherals (screen, mouse, keyboard, etc). Ignoring the fantasy hardware, an OS that could handle that would be mind blowing.

jsz0 16y ago

Risky in a legal sense maybe? It seems to me Microsoft has been really trigger shy about pushing forward on integrating all their various services and non-PC products closely with Windows due to their past problems with DOJ/EU. I feel like if they made a big push to integrate things like Zune Pass, Xbox Live integration, Windows Phone, cloud services, Bing search/maps, etc they would have a much more compelling platform. All their competitors are doing it so maybe they now have the cover they need with the DOJ/EU to wrap everything together.

mikepurvis 16y ago

I dunno. I'm kind of having a flashback to the 2003 Longhorn video. Wasn't that kind of the same message, promising all the risky and exciting things that were in a release mere months away?

marcamillion 16y ago

Hrmm...people still listen to Balmer? As far as I am concerned, Microsoft would be in the exact same position today (or maybe even better off) if there was no one in top spot. It has become a well-oiled machine that can just continue churning out Windows & Office versions. There will be no one to drive new product innovation, granted, but there is no one there right now either.

jchonphoenix 16y ago

His argument that Windows is no longer a game changer seems somewhat faulty. He claims Apple has impact because they decided not to support flash, so he is now moving Starbucks to HTML5. But if Microsoft decided to not support HTML5, would he still be using HTML5? I personally would still hedge my bets with more people using Windows than Macs.

jeffreymcmanus 16y ago

Microsoft has never released a new version of Windows without referring to it as a "bet-the-company" release. This includes Vista. Just because they say it, doesn't mean it's true -- in fact it's probably never actually been true.