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Another Microsoft Exec Steps Down
Arcanimus writes "On Tuesday, the corporate vice president of Windows Live and MSN marketing, Martin Taylor, announced that he is leaving Microsoft.
Just three months ago, Taylor was appointed to his new position to manage the marketing of Windows Live. In his 13 years with the company, Taylor even worked directly with CEO Steve Ballmer."
I hope he took his chair!
Big shake-up going on at Microsoft. I wonder if this is related to Limbo Longhorn, or if something else is in the works. Change in direction, maybe?
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
is it because windows live sucks?
... but it's not new, it still sucks.
they were supposed to launch some 'new' (gmail competing) hotmail -
they ask you if you want to try hotmail live beta, and you agree
how do you think hotmail would be faring had should they still be running qmail and solaris?
they still would've had to inovate in UI, features and disk space.
Cue chair jokes in 3...2...1...
Either there's simply more focus on MS this year, or something is up -- why would they all be leaving prior to Vista's launch? Especially all of these "no comment" departures. Gates' reduction in responsibility makes sense, but these other guys seem to be in rather important roles ("head blogger," "exec responsible for Google competition," etc) and are bailing out. I could understand if they had people lined up for these positions, but it seems like they're just leaving.
After that many chairs flying in my direction, I'd quit, too. :)
Stop! Dremel time!
As evil as Microsoft is, I've never been able to decide whether or not Bill Gates himself is evil. My suspect, even, that Microsoft's evil behavior is an emergent property of their corporate culture. No one individual person in Microsoft (well, actually, I think Balmer is a nutball) is truly evil. It's like how one termite is insignificant, but a colony of them can destroy an entire neighborhood. :)
Still, a lot of corporate culture comes down from the top. Gates' ambition to have "microsoft products on every computer in every home" turns into overly aggressive business behavior. With him and others going, are things going to improve for the rest of us? Or have any of these guys been keeping others in check, and they're about to get worse?
Its obvious why he left. Check his picture - he is quite obviously a vampire, and one of the undead. Putting him at the wheel for something called "Windows Live" means there is quite obviously a conflict of interest.
Is it just me or does it seem like a lot of people are jumping ship now? Has Microsoft finally spread themselves too thin? Have they become so huge now that they don't even know what to do with themselves under the multiple multiple layers of complexity? Anyone else forsee a large implosion in the foreseeable future? Maybe those that are smart enough realize that they are fighting a losing battle against Google, Linux, and OSS. Then again, they may just to enjoy their million$.
By Robots!
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
I suspect that this is not really a big deal. Ray Ozzie likely want to have a chance to set up his own exec staff and this guy does not figure in that plan. I won't be surprised if other folks leave over the next couple of years as the company transitions from Gates to Ozzie.
Windows, Inc.
Office, Inc.
MSN, Inc.
Visual Studio, Inc.
XBox, Inc.
The smaller companies would be more nimble and would have to be more competative. They'd be better performers as they wouldn't have the mother organization as a cruch.
boxlight
But I'd speculate it could have something to do with Gates' moderating influence on Ballmer disappearing over the next two years...
Also note that MS execs hold a crapload of stock, and if they dump it while employed by the company, they could be investigated for insider trading violations. I wouldn't be surprised if when MS stock nosedives after the Vista release, it begins by the dumping of stock by ex-MS execs.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
FTFA...
That doesn't sound like he resigned to go elsewhere, but more like "There's the door, someone grab his badge and escort him out."
We'll probably never know why, but this is Slashdot, so speculation is almost as good as fact.
I wonder what his career options in the industry are, since he essentially represents the "anti-Linux", and outside of Microsoft, there are now very few companies that aren't involved in Linux somehow. He would have to claim to convert and "see the light", or go somewhere else that has a low interest in Linux succeeding...Sun perhaps? Apple?
(Music is Yesterday, by the Beatles)
Yesterday
All my competitors seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh I believe in yesterday
Suddenly, my head has half the hair that used to be
There's an office chair hanging over me
Oh yesterday, came sudlenly
Why Linux had to come
It wouldn't say
We did Netscape wrong
Now I long for yesterday
Yesterday
Monopoly was such an easy game to play
Now I need to catch up with IP
Now I long for yesterday
Yesterday
...but wouldn't it just be best for Microsoft to have Balmer leave? While I'm no Microsoft insider, I still think that most, if not all, of Microsoft's problems could just be solved if Steve Balmer left.
On a slightly related note, imagine if Balmer was re-programmed to work for Apple.
Megalomaniacal Steve vs. Crazy Steve with a quiet joker Steve off to the side.
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
Other tech companies need to take advantage of this before it's too late ... with the MSFT shake-ups, resignations, and whatever else ... Google, Apple, Linux, FireFox, Opera, Open Office, and everybody else needs to immediately step-up their product pitches ... get some non-tech people to notice the issues MSFT is facing, and the fact that there are alternatives. These companies need to jump at the bit now ... grab some shares ... and introduce the world to a computer that doesn't depend solely on MSFT.
Who cares if a VP left the company? The only reason this is news is because it is from Microsoft. A VP left my company a while back and I never saw it in the news, he was even the VP of IT.
Here on Slashdot if the article contains "Microsoft" it becomes an important story.
Next on Slashdot...."Mailroom clerk leaves Microsoft, claims he is tired of putting free AOL disks in all the mailboxes.
Slashdot +1 funny -4 Insightful +1 informative -2 Redundant
Karma: Somewhere between SCO and Microsoft
Yikes! That sounds even more painful than I would expect from Microsoft.
"You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older."
Exactly what holes did you think should be barred?
Here's a hint: that phrase pertains to fighting, and it's no HOLDS barred.
I wonder if in his announcement, he concluded with: "And all of the friends I've made these past 13 years can still contact me at my new address, MicrosoftMartin@gmail.com."
*sounds of struggling in the background*
"We bolt them down now, Steve."
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
these people truly think they are doing the right thing. They are not inherently evil, even if their actions end up seeming that way. In the end it is a skewed view of the individual, not someone being actively evil.
At the risk of calling out the Godwin Nazis, Hitler and Sadaam also truly thought they were doing the right thing for their respective countries and were honestly not trying to be evil, but were trying to be a savior for their respective peoples. Anyone who knew them personally knows that.
It is amazing how many people don't understand this basic thing, that no successful leader considers himself evil, but sincerely considers his opponents evil, i.e. the caricatures of the Jews in the case of Hitler, etc., as the source of all evil. And there is some logic that can be used to justify any such demonization. It is spin leading to polarization, which is what makes the world go around and often becomes the excuse for ignoring one's own supposed ethics and morals.
One of Gate's villified enemies (I can name a series of others) was so-called software piracy, which he more than anyone else has made into a crime more than it ever was before. As much credit as the uninformed give him for progress in computers, this has destroyed growth and freedom that would have come otherwise. Could Unix have emerged under the current copyright regime? Operating systems would have been built for commodotized hardware one way or the other, but it was one more degree of freedom lost that is now hard to recover from under his shadow.
At one time, IIS 5 looked hopeless. It was completely riddled with security holes and was basically the joke of the industry. People who used it did so with either ignorance or extreme caution.
Microsoft realized they needed to fix this but it took Code Red and various other major worms that took advantage of IIS to really kick the company into gear.
What was the result of this? IIS 6. IIS 6 is an excellent web server and is one of the most secure web servers you can use. It's certainly the most secure application server you can use. It's had a total of 2 vulnerabilities since its release about 4 years ago. (See: http://secunia.com/product/1438/) Add to that the fact that IIS 6 is extremely performant, easily configurable and maintainable, and is very robust, you have to conclude that Microsoft improved. A great deal in fact.
I see the work on Windows Vista and IE 7 being very similar in nature to the work done on IIS. They've completely revamped their development methodologies to focus on security.
IE 7+ (the one that comes with Vista) has a feature that essentially runs the browser as a very low privs user. Any operations that need high privs (such as writing to the user's desktop or other directories) are done by a broker. This broker has only a few thousand lines of code (and is therefore FAR easier to audit for security issues) and runs with the privs of the current user. This is actually fairly innovative and will undoubtedly make it far more difficult to exploit and holes in IE.
Obviously we'll have to wait and see if Microsoft has done with Vista and IE what they did with IIS, but it's hard to deny that Microsoft has proven they can take a product people view as a hopeless security mess and turn it into one of the most secure products on the market.
The appropriate cliche is "rats leaving a sinking ship"
In this case, it is well in advance of Vista shipping, so maybe it is more like a game of catch by the three stooges tossing around a hand granade. Somebody gets left holding on to the booby prize when it the spam hits the wall, so to speak.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
uh-oh, we lost another one to Google!
This is really starting to sound like a bloodletting in response to the Vista release debacle.
Who knew that *consequences* could find the folks in Microsoft's executive suite.
Well, at least if the DOJ, FTC, and SEC can't effectively regulate monopolies, their natural hubris can bring them down. . .
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
For what it's worth I met Martin Taylor once. Aside from the fact that he worked for M$, I found him to be a great and knowledgeable person. Very engaging. M$ doesn't know what they're missing with his departure.
I hope somebody picks him up and puts him in a position in which he can use his skills.
the future is but past forgotten
Please say "beleaguered". Oh, please say "beleaguered"!
"IIS 6 is an excellent web server and is one of the most secure web servers you can use"
.. has a feature that essentially runs the browser as a very low privs user .. This is actually fairly innovative and will undoubtedly make it far more difficult to exploit and holes in IE""
As compared to what exactly?
"It's certainly the most secure application server you can use""
As compared to what exactly?
"It's had a total of 2 vulnerabilities since its release about 4 years ago""
Flash Video Showing Microsoft IIS Being Hacked
"IE 7+
What's innovative about copying what has for years been standard in nix land. Renaming it low-rights, Least-Privilege User Account (LUA) or User Account Protection (UAP) doesn't change this fact. By what standard of logic is low privs any different.
Currently a standard Linux installation and a combination of sudo, chroot, chown, chmod and standard user gives you the same innovative feetures. Now where do I click?
"[IIS is ] "one of the most secure products on the market"
As compared to what exactly?
davecb5620@gmail.com
You think? Until mid 2003 they conducted the exact same financial manipulations that Enron was criticized for. See the following for details:
Sure things have changed there a lot in the last few years. But they were just like Enron except for Enron's shell companies used to multiply deceptive financial reporting. Microsoft's financials were under investigation for many years.
Developers: We can use your help.
all your base are belong to chair!
free software, open standards, open file formats, no software patents.
It's just a name for what used to be called a PR drone. It's the guy putting a believable face on whatever message wants to send to the sheep. It can involve manufacturing some "news", manufacturing some "impartial studies", faking a grassroots movement, or lately... pretending to be a hip and independent blogger just like you, so you're inclined to trust him. Enter the "head blogger" role.
What I'm saying is: it's nothing new. It's the same old corporate scam under a shiny new name.
And when I say that just the name is new, I really mean it. Even the "hip, young and honest guy that you can connect to" image isn't invented there. Read a bit about the music producers and you'll find out that the music industry has been using people fitting precisely that image to wine and dine the artists and promise them the moon if they just sign this contract. (Incidentally the contract doesn't mention the moon, but this guy is _so_ just like you and looks so sincere, that you're sure he really means it that you'll get the moon.) Turns out to work waay better than having some corporate fatcat talk to them, not even speak the same language, and raise all their "this guy wants to shaft me so hard that I'll walk funny for _years_" red flags.
So now MS has done the same thing. Instead of letting Steve "Uncle Fester" Balmer do the talking to the world at large, they got someone who'll spend half the time establishing a bogus image as a hip, irreverent and _totally_ independent blogger. (MS just gave a guy a camera and a security pass and will pay his salary no matter what he writes, even if it were anti-MS, you know? If you believe that, can I interest you in a lumber mill in Sahara?) And the other half the time taking the idyllic bits of info out of context and painting them as the whole image about MS.
Or to put it otherwise, it's never been that MS is stupid enough to take "blogger" for an important job. It's that their PR department figured that that particular title has enough "street cred" that they can rape and use for their own purposes. And when that "street cred" is used up, they'll find some other thing they can exploit instead.
So, I don't know... would you feel less threatened about your kid's future if that job title just said "PR"?
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
-- Alastair
I don't know if that guy looks more like Dracula, or a blood sucking weasel in that photo.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
After reading all of the various blogs and press over the last few hours, I can piece everything together except for the exact reason. Martin was terminated for cause. If an exec is leaving, it takes several months to coordinate. This was very sudden and abrupt. If Martin left on his own, there would not have been anything scheduled for him. Instead, he just didn't show up to a press event. So, why would Microsoft just fire someone and walk them to the door? There are, according to Microsoft HR, two reasons one can be walked out without due cause or process. The first is having child porn on your computer. The second is physical violence. I know this because I had to fire someone for getting into a fight with his girlfriend in the Microsoft parking lot. He pushed her to the ground, it was all caught on camera and she filed a complaint. Two days later he was on a plane back to his home country (he was here on a visa). I, as his GM, was given no choice, no recourse, no room to wiggle and this is when the HR policy was spelled out to me. Heck, we caught a guy mastrubating in his office and all he got was a warning. Regular porn gets a warning, child porn gets a boot. Martin did not just get mad and quit in a huff, people do not walk away from a $500K/year position in a huff. The only logical explaination is a termination, and the only two reasons for such an abrupt termination is the above. Even Ballmer can't override this particular policy. We can olny hope it was the physical violence, not the child porn.
A most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a bit.
he finally Got The Facts
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife