Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to retire within 12 months

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by stapp, Aug 23, 2013.

  1. chrcol

    chrcol Registered Member

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    Far too sensible to do one OS for each.

    I think the most logical sounding reason I read was that microsoft wanted people to get used to windows 8 on the desktop and then look for a phone with the same UI and as such get marketshare. The 2nd also been to shift tablets.

    My thoughts are vista wasnt as bad as made out and as others said by the time win7 was launched it was a very good OS, because microsoft dedicated lots of time to fixing its issues. Win7 in many respects was vista been relaunched as the vista brand was tarnished.

    But I have been seeing some very alarming issues with microsoft that are putting me off using them for the long term.

    1 - They keep changing their interface frequently now. So in win 7 they dumped quick launch to replace it with some horrible taskbar stuff copied from the mac, thankfully this can be undone quite easily so wasnt a showstopper for me to use the OS. However not long after Win 7 is out in the market Win 8 is launched which rehauls the UI, removes many trademarks of previous versions of windows such as aero theming, start menu and various features such as the image backups and shadow copy service. This company is in a very unstable state, they are acting in a manner which shows they panic easily and will dump existing UI support in a flash if the results arent good. Metro could be considered obselete in 2 years for the same reason. I think this is 1 reason dev's have not come back to windows.
    2 - They are removing evidence of previous software of their website, 2 days ago i tried to get a office 2010 trial license, if I follow the link to the try office 2010 page, it leads me to a buy and try office 365 page, I want office 2010 not office 365. Various windows 7 pages lead to windows 8 marketing pages, this also leads to dead links in apps like media centre as resources it links to now generate a 404 or some other error as pages have been removed.
    3 - Abandoning service packs like little babies, clearly a move to make people move from windows 7 due to increased diffilculty in maintaining installations.

    The big problem here is in corporate speak if a company isnt growing its effectively in crisis, lots of media news reports claim the PC is dieing, its dead etc. its not. Its' simply shrinking and will eventually settle down on a smaller number as some ex pc users can do what they need on a mobile device, however many people will still use pc's for years/decades to come. Microsoft would still have a steady userbase because of this but because o ftheir tinkering and silly windows 8 they are even making people like me looking at alternative OS's to use post windows 7 when typically I wouldnt even dream of ditching windows. Apple arent to blame for that. microsoft are.

    I also think google has been very damaging to the software market. Prior to google getting big it was the norm for long development of apps, meaning UI's lasted longer, bugs were less and so forth. Google started a craze for apps to move online, and to encourage that they released a web browser and that web browser also has a rapid release schedule. MAny developers seem to see google as a god and google's practices are rubbing off on people all over the place, we even see firefox blatantly copying them. Android due to such rapid releases is extremely fragmented, unlike microsoft OS's the users of the older versions dont get security fixes.

    I would like to see a new CEO go back to what microsoft was good at, windows and office and abandon mobile devices or make seperate software for mobile devices, however I think microsoft will continue this addiction in trying to get big on the touchscreen.
     
  2. chrcol

    chrcol Registered Member

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    sorry this ubnified idea doesnt work.

    not only is windows 8 evidence of that but so is web 2.0.

    Look at the majority of large websites now days.

    3 or so years ago the average website looked far better than they do now because they were designed to be viewed on pc's, mobiles had their own seperate website. Then when iphone got big which apparently was so good it could use desktop pc websites, website owners started redesigning sites to work better on mobile/touch devices and then claiming the experience wasnt damaged on the pc. When it clearly is, some examples.

    ! - A trend to shift from clicking page 1,2,3 etc. to continuinly scrolling down forever until content runs out, youtube is a great example of this, works hideously on things like video comments where the only way to get to the end comment is to keep clicking down until they stop coming. Many other websites ahve also copied this design.
    2 - Larger thinner fonts. Some fonts look really bad as designed for high ppi screens, others not so bad but still worse than 3 years ago.
    3 - Dumbing down of content, as people are reading on smaller screens and need space to tap with a finger (less precise than a computer mouse) content is dumbed down so it can be spread out. So more wide open spaces on pages bigger text etc.
    4 - Designed for touch optimisation, an example is skysports website, 2 weeks ago they changed their menus, previously the menu would popup when hovering mouse pointer over the title, now one has to click to get a menu to appear.

    There is more but I will stop there, personally I believe is no such thing as unifying both experiences, one has to be compromised for the other.
     
  3. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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  4. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021743100_microsoftnokiaxml.html
     
  5. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    http://allthingsd.com/20130926/is-fords-alan-mulally-now-in-the-lead-to-be-new-ceo-of-microsoft/
     
  6. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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  7. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    Bill Gates Met With ‘a Lot’ of Microsoft CEO Candidates

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-19/bill-gates-met-with-a-lot-of-microsoft-ceo-candidates.html
     
  8. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    I care less. Whether it's Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ballmer, they all get their tax breaks from the IRS with NSA's thank you note in exchange for unlimited access to our data and access to our private files.
     
  9. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    Clearly, there are others that care less, but that's not the point of this thread.
     
  10. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    Steve Jobs died Oct 5 2011 if you didn't know! :(
     
  11. Dave0291

    Dave0291 Registered Member

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    I'm not certain Mr. Ballmer is right about the industry being innovative at all at the moment. I mostly see a lot of hype in technologies such as 4K that greatly remind me of the struggle to make 3D catch on. Where there isn't as much hype, I see more of the same old thing in either bigger or larger sizes. I'm also not sure I agree that Microsoft is in a position to produce or define a next big thing. I'm uncertain of their relevance in these times, if I'm to be frank. All that is certain is that the next CEO has their work cut out for them.
     
  12. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    Off topic for this thread.
     
  13. Dave0291

    Dave0291 Registered Member

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    My apologies.
     
  14. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    With all the criticism over the span of all ms platforms to date, indirect & directly aimed in the direction at Mr bill, looking back now Balmer's short run is concluded, one can't help but mr gates was always strong enough to move his agenda along rather nicely despite ups and downs.

    It's a very disappointing outcome for our desktop systems founder.

    The hope i suppose is that ultimately his vision won't be completely abandoned given someone is up to challenge of assuming it in the same manner that he did.

    EASTER
     
  15. senlamy

    senlamy Registered Member

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    Finally! :)
     
  16. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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    I keep hearing a lot lately about Ballmer saying that he's leaving, but I'd love to see some action too :)
     
  17. Wroll

    Wroll Registered Member

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    I wouldn't be so happy, because if Elop is next, he might make Balmer look like a genius.
     
  18. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    All this conjecture and apprehension over a qualified successor just shouldn't be.

    I can't believe in all honesty the hesitation that's being exhibited. There are absolutely sparkling genius techs albeit spread about the globe who are more then capable to take hold of this company responsibly and propel it to new heights, well able to lift it easily from it's current stagnated status.

    It just looks like to me that the current ms board of decisions are happy and content to sit on their ruffs and wallow in indecision over it.

    Boggles the mind.
     
  19. mattdocs12345

    mattdocs12345 Registered Member

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    Thanks! I threw my last TV out of the windows after I found out it was spying on me.
     
  20. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    http://www.geekwire.com/2013/microsofts-ceo-named-early-2014-board-member/
     
  21. SweX

    SweX Registered Member

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    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-16/microsoft-ceo-candidate-list-said-to-include-vestberg.html
     
  22. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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    Nadella to be named Microsoft CEO; Gates out, too, report says
    http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...named_Microsoft_CEO_Gates_out_too_report_says
     
  23. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    http://www.infoworld.com/t/technology-business/the-case-against-nadella-microsofts-next-ceo-235432
     
  24. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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    From the article (emphasis mine):
    If that means that Microsoft will start caring more about cloud and related services, I'm really worried about how a new Windows will look like...
     
  25. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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