4 ms·

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

by gtaylor 12y ago

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.

dsschnau 12y ago
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.
- sheetjs 12y ago
  > This writer is just being a dick to stir up controversy You clicked, ad shown (Ghostery claims there are Amazon ads), mission accomplished
icantthinkofone 12y ago
What Microsoft has done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor...
- gtaylor 12y ago
  Nobody here is denying that they've done bad things, but name a public tech giant that hasn't done stupid/bad things. They all suck. They answer to profit, first and foremost. They're going to bend rules and push the limits in the name of making a few pennies for their shareholders. Apple does it, Google does it, IBM does it, Amazon does it, they all do skeezy things in the name of profit. MS isn't special in this regard.
  - astrodust 12y ago
    Microsoft is uniquely special in that they've built an empire on making second-rate versions of things other companies have done well. Internet Explorer, Windows Server, Windows itself. Apart from BASIC, which they built independently, everything else has been ripping on someone else. DOS, their first big success, was actually a crappy clone of CP/M. Design decisions in that haunt Microsoft to this very day. It's like the adage "good artists copy, great artists steal". Microsoft is firmly in the copy department. In any case, this recent missive from Microsoft shows, at best, a tiny shift in strategy. They're still doomed to obscurity. They'll be around for decades to come, they might even be fairly profitable, but nobody will care about Microsoft. They'll use their products for lack of choice. Few people today are choosing to use Microsoft and this couldn't be any clearer than their nearly complete failure in the tablet and phone market. Until they reinvent themselves, divest themselves of all the baggage anchoring them to the past, they're stuck. IBM unloaded an awful lot to get to the place they are today. Imagine how crippled they'd be if they were still making PCs and printers.
    - mkr-hn 12y ago
      Microsoft ICE is pretty solid. Also: https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/our-research/default.aspx https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/our-research/defa... My understanding is that Microsoft does a lot of cool stuff, but until recently most of it got shut down for conflicting with Windows/Office-centric priorities.
      - astrodust 12y ago
        It's interesting to see the contrast between Google, Apple and Microsoft. Google: Does tons of crazy things, launches a lot of them, many fail. Apple: Does tons of crazy things, tells nobody, launches a select few that turn into huge hits. Microsoft: Does tons of crazy things, tells some people, launches almost none of them, instead sells perpetually boring but massively profitable Office + Windows suite. The few break-out hits that Microsoft has had, Bing and Xbox, are both renegade projects that succeeded only because the teams were exceptionally determined and fought tooth and nail to avoid being sucked into the "Microsoft" world. Others, like Kin, were given weak support and pulled almost immediately after launch. The rest never see the light of day other than through papers and glimpses in tech demos.
- wernercd 12y ago
  Woosh. That's the sound of you being a complete retard. The post you are replying to even mentions anti-competitive practices. Pay attention? DESPITE faults (like anti-competitive behavior), MS has changed the world... What company hasn't made mistakes?
wnevets 12y ago
I stopped reading after that line. It was so silly and wrong I couldnt bear finish it.
mathattack 12y ago
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.

by gtaylor 12y ago

dsschnau 12y ago

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.

sheetjs 12y ago
> This writer is just being a dick to stir up controversy You clicked, ad shown (Ghostery claims there are Amazon ads), mission accomplished

icantthinkofone 12y ago

What Microsoft has done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor...

gtaylor 12y ago
Nobody here is denying that they've done bad things, but name a public tech giant that hasn't done stupid/bad things. They all suck. They answer to profit, first and foremost. They're going to bend rules and push the limits in the name of making a few pennies for their shareholders. Apple does it, Google does it, IBM does it, Amazon does it, they all do skeezy things in the name of profit. MS isn't special in this regard.
- astrodust 12y ago
  Microsoft is uniquely special in that they've built an empire on making second-rate versions of things other companies have done well. Internet Explorer, Windows Server, Windows itself. Apart from BASIC, which they built independently, everything else has been ripping on someone else. DOS, their first big success, was actually a crappy clone of CP/M. Design decisions in that haunt Microsoft to this very day. It's like the adage "good artists copy, great artists steal". Microsoft is firmly in the copy department. In any case, this recent missive from Microsoft shows, at best, a tiny shift in strategy. They're still doomed to obscurity. They'll be around for decades to come, they might even be fairly profitable, but nobody will care about Microsoft. They'll use their products for lack of choice. Few people today are choosing to use Microsoft and this couldn't be any clearer than their nearly complete failure in the tablet and phone market. Until they reinvent themselves, divest themselves of all the baggage anchoring them to the past, they're stuck. IBM unloaded an awful lot to get to the place they are today. Imagine how crippled they'd be if they were still making PCs and printers.
  - mkr-hn 12y ago
    Microsoft ICE is pretty solid. Also: https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/our-research/default.aspx https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/our-research/defa... My understanding is that Microsoft does a lot of cool stuff, but until recently most of it got shut down for conflicting with Windows/Office-centric priorities.
    - astrodust 12y ago
      It's interesting to see the contrast between Google, Apple and Microsoft. Google: Does tons of crazy things, launches a lot of them, many fail. Apple: Does tons of crazy things, tells nobody, launches a select few that turn into huge hits. Microsoft: Does tons of crazy things, tells some people, launches almost none of them, instead sells perpetually boring but massively profitable Office + Windows suite. The few break-out hits that Microsoft has had, Bing and Xbox, are both renegade projects that succeeded only because the teams were exceptionally determined and fought tooth and nail to avoid being sucked into the "Microsoft" world. Others, like Kin, were given weak support and pulled almost immediately after launch. The rest never see the light of day other than through papers and glimpses in tech demos.
wernercd 12y ago
Woosh. That's the sound of you being a complete retard. The post you are replying to even mentions anti-competitive practices. Pay attention? DESPITE faults (like anti-competitive behavior), MS has changed the world... What company hasn't made mistakes?

wnevets 12y ago

I stopped reading after that line. It was so silly and wrong I couldnt bear finish it.

mathattack 12y ago

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.