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The Microsoft High-Profile Exodus Continues
snydeq writes "Bing principal Scott Prevost is the latest of several high-profile exits from Microsoft in the wake of Bob Muglia's departure, causing some to question the long-term outlook for Redmond, InfoWorld reports. While the departures have spanned the company's business divisions, the concern centers square on the Microsoft core: 'Microsoft's numbers are looking good in the short term, but the future of core products remains unclear, and so far, Redmond's cloud and mobile strategies don't seem to be paying off.'"
Given how Microsoft has faltered in the marketplace, has failed to innovate and continues to misunderstand its customers, perhaps the old guys need to go.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
The demise of Microsoft, isn't that where we all have been waiting for? I hope the go bust soon, just like the USA also.
Actually, the future of Redmond is secure. They're strategically letting all these folks go, so that they can all go work for, and eventually destroy, Apple from the inside out. It's like the Cylon infiltration of the human race on Caprica in BSG...
Or Google, or both.
Ich suche die Leidenschaft, die keine Leiden schafft.
Bing principal Scott Prevost...
Considering Slashdot's other Bing story today, I can't say I'm sad to see him go.
This could be a simple case that the departing employees simply have no faith in the direction Ballmer is leading Microsoft. When the ship is headed toward an iceberg and the captain is being stubborn or unaware, the best course of action is often evacuation.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein
Why did the slashdot re-design not also update that stupid Microsoft icon here? It is so dated and lame, I wonder if anybody over 20 even understand the references to it.
Even fucking facebook has the real logo on this site, and you guys can't use the real Microsoft logo by now?
If you are fully vested in your lucrative stock options and the share price can't go anyplace but down in the future, you'd be crazy not to cash out.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I worked for Bob for a few years and had alot of admiration for the guy. I left about 2 years ago during the mass layoff and it was the best career move I ever made. Microsoft has become (and was becoming when I left) a horrible place to work. Please, if you are considering a professional career in software development, DO NOT work there. Almost anywhere else is better. I currently work for a small software company as a CTO with about $100million in sales last year and the work environment difference is night and day. The reason Microsoft is faltering is because it has moved from a fun, innovative place to work to a serious personal and professional nightmare. You have to go through a political circus to justify you job there (your two reviews per year) where you have little input in the final determination about your job (the politics of Microsoft). I shudder to think about the years I wasted jumping through those hoops instead of working on product and helping customers. Again, avoid working at Microsoft at all costs.
I still don't get why Microsoft feels they need to be a player in every category? Why Bling, smart phones, mp3 players, games, cloud computing, tablets and all the rest? Why not be a focused company with the leading office suite? Or an innovate O/S? Yeah yeah I know the investors must be kept at bay like howling wolves at the corporate door but how many missteps can a company make before they and we realize they are just followers and no longer leaders?
Other than maybe Xbox which isn't a major cash cow when have they released a hit product? The vast majority of their revenues still come from Office and Windows and related products. Take away those core products and there's virtually no company. It's not just innovation they seem to have trouble coming up with new products that a majority of people like. If they did have to start from scratch even with all their cash reserves they'd end up a minor player.
Sorry, never heard of him. Can someone name 10 'high profile' Googlers, Facebookers, Tweeters (maybe not that one), IBMers, Applers? Maybe five... two?
No, because maybe it doesn't matter. Was he some epic tech innovator, or just a business management type dude? My money's on the latter, and that means nowt.
Gawd, pennystock spammers in /. now, how low did we go!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
is Balmer.
Why is Snark Required?
but with the right people can grow existing markets and create new ones, where I apply?
The mobile strategy is pretty lame, after all - setting themselves up as a low-rent copy of Apple.
Combine this with no tablet presence at all, and you have MSFT positioning itself as trying to hold onto the shrinking desktop market.
Go ahead, we'll all continue to buy AAPL stock (Apple Computer)
WinMo 7 has been out for 3 months. In that time it has not gained complete dominance (or close) of the mobile market. Paint me surprised?
How long was it until Android started gaining any real traction? A lot lot longer if I remember correctly.
Et fin.
throw new NoSignatureException();
Many people first used Windows not by choice, but by mandate -- there was no other option and the Microsoft monopoly made sure it stayed that way. (unless you bought a Mac) My guess is many people have found the MS experience frustrating and a general PITA, but there was never any other choice. They had to live with the shoddy time wasting experience Microsoft called computing.
Now given the option of having their "desktop experience" on their "phone" or "pad" I am sure many people are interested in real alternatives. My prediction is no matter how hard Microsoft tries to play the "we are the future of computing because we invented everything" song and dance, most users will chose iOS and Android for exactly that reason. Hi-tech karma at its best.
HPC for Primates. Read Cluster Monkey
They do that thing they did with other corporations and their products?
Like Google, Apple, Intel, Android, iOS, Facebook (both the square AND the rectangular version), SONY...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
... be sure to power down the NT box running hotmail.
I've worked in a large range of companies.
I'd say anything under 100 people is "small", or small enough that you gain most of the same benefits in terms of increased responsibility and some lack of excessive management that you get from a "large" company.
A company that size, could be doing 100m in sales (didn't say if that was gross or net after all).
Even if it's mid-size though you can often be better off than with a truly large and ossified company. Certainly I think that would be true early on in your career where increased variety of duties means you learn a lot more.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Perhaps it is time for Steve Ballmer to go?
I don't know what goes on in Redmond but I have never been able to figure out why Balmer speaks out loud. I have no doubt he is a smart man but the guy scares me and as a face for a company that I am supposed to trust with my business, I think that a simple logo would be far more reassuring. I think if I worked for him, I would have the old resume spic and span too.
Many industry observers fear that Muslim extremism will prevail in the struggle over the future of this proud corporation. Obama is urging Balmer not to run again for CEO, as many citizens call for his ouster via Twitter, SMS and phone messages. The army is showing forbearance as employees demonstrate freely and peaceably in the streets. The whole world watches as the outcome is bound to send ripples through the entire industry.
...Roz Ho, destroyer of worlds, still works for Microsoft. I guess Windows Mobile 8 for the win then, eh Roz? Maybe this time you'll get it right.
with a new post, his first in about four months. He was so quiet after Muglia's departure that I was beginning to suspect he was Muglia! As usual, check out the entertaining and informative bitching^H^H^H^H^H^H^H posts from readers, who seem to be mostly Softies, ex-Softies, along with some trolls pretending to be same. It's the public online version of Redmond's water color.
To sum up, he thinks that Windows President Steve Sinofsky is waiting in the wings for Ballmer's eventual departure.
I have no idea why this made the news. The artcile says he is "a" principle development manger, not "the" principle development manger.
"Principle" is a job title:
Mangers go like this
For several years, I was "a" princpiple development manger in Windows. Im now a principle lead becuase there was a specific team I wanted to be a part of. If I leaft, it would be news.
-foredecker
Jibe!
... Developers, developers, developers, developers.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
Microsoft's stock price is down 20% over 10 years. Their chart really stinks. Most options have long expired. That alone will drive away the best people.
an ill wind that blows no good
That's a different picture of Borg Gates then I'm used to is all I can say.
Steve Ballmer should have been fired immediately after his infamous DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS monkey dance. Seriously. This is the guy you want running the biggest software company in the world? However, all the articles I've read always say two disturbing things:
(1) Microsoft's Board of Directors thinks Steve Balmer is just wonderful because during the 10 years he has been CEO Microsoft's revenue has tripled and profits have doubled.
(B) Even if they wanted to get rid of Balmer, there's nobody who can replace him. Really? What happens if he dies suddenly tomorrow
I would say these changes are healthy for Microsoft. Come to think about it, if someone really believes M$ is in a bad position then it's time the "culprits" got going. Or maybe the Redmond folks are just looking foward to replenishing their higher ranks with younger people who don't carry the scars of the times past. Either way, predicting the demise of Microsoft (again!) has really become boring. Trial and error is the name of the game and they can afford it.
Given how Microsoft has faltered in the marketplace, has failed to innovate and continues to misunderstand its customers, perhaps the old guys need to go.
Microsoft Reports Record $0.77 Earnings Per Share in Second Quarter
Among the factors driving Microsoft's record revenues and earnings per share was the 55% growth in revenue for the Entertainment & Devices Division, as the success of the Kinect sensor boosted sales of Xbox 360 consoles, Xbox Live subscriptions and Xbox games.
Microsoft Business Division revenue grew 24% year-over-year. Office 2010 is the fastest-selling consumer version of Office in history, with license sales over 50% ahead of Office 2007 over an equivalent period following launch.
Microsoft announced it has now sold over 300 million Windows 7 licenses, and Windows 7 is now running on over 20% of Internet-connected PCs.
The company announced that during the quarter, it bought back $5 billion in stock and declared $1.3 billion in dividends.
Back when "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM", they had an exodus of top talent, too -- just before things went south for the company. Luckily, they were in the process of repositioning them self as a service company instead of a hardware company.
Both companies followed the same "fat-cat" syndrome. Small lean company innovates and captures a large part of the market. As company grows, focus shifts to maintaining status quo. Company becomes too large and lazy (fat cat) to respond quickly to changing environment. Somebody else becomes the new lean tiger. Pattern repeats for new comer. Fat cat isn't just for technology companies. It happens in all industries. It's just that change occurs so quickly in technology companies that instead of taking decades to be toppled, it happens in years. Both IBM and Microsoft lasted longer at the top of their game than most technology companies, but the same forces are still at work.
Back when they were trying to bust up Microsoft for being a monopoly (again, same thing happened to IBM), was when they needed to change. Microsoft had the opportunity to get rid of all competition with Office by improving the product. Instead, they chose to change file formats to try and make the competitors incompatible. That is a very short sighted solution, as it also makes your own installed product base incompatible. Next, they re-did the interface, but still didn't really improve upon the functionality. Next they played around with pricing structures and actually started to remove features, accept for the top end product. Again, not a long term growth strategy. A similar scenario played out with the browser and the OS itself.
Meanwhile, others in the tech industry have been chipping away at Microsoft. Nobody is saying that OpenOffice/LibreOffice will topple Microsoft Office. It doesn't have to. Just like Mozilla, Safari and now Chrome, it only has to take a percentage of small percentage of market share to make a big impact on Microsoft's bottom line.
It's like the prevent defense in football (American Football, that is). It may keep the opposing team from making the big play, but gives up a tremendous amount of yardage in the process. Then, one small mistake and the opposing team scores.
Microsoft, like many before it, has become too large and inflexible to adjust to quick change in the modern market and relies on protecting itself with a prevent defense. The problem with that is that in football, you only need to keep the other team from scoring until the clock runs out. In business, there is no clock to signal the end of the game.
I can see why people feel the need to bail out of Bing and Microsoft. I worked in Live Search and then Bing for four years, finally getting up to L65 SDE until I left last year. Internally, it's politics as usual just like with the rest of the company. No one cares if you're doing good work unless you have friends in high places. The yearly reviews and the stack-ranking (forced evaluation curve) really hurt morale, and the fact that the OSD unit is losing $2 billion a year doesn't help. I talk with my colleagues from Google, and from what I can tell from comparison, everything going on inside of Bing is second-rate. The management style is worse, the day-to-day work schedules are worse, the experimental platforms are worse, the tools and map-reduce system are worse, the food is worse and quite expensive, and heck, even the building I worked in sucked (you have to take one elevator, then take the stairs, and then another elevator to get to the cafeteria on the top floor). I still remember my last division all-hands when the VP cheered us on, saying that our search share had increased -- only that it was because we had bought share from Yahoo. So to my former friends still inside: congratulations on your ever-increasing gain in NDCG! No one outside cares.
One can only hope that the real reason the good people are leaving in droves is the business methods and strategy.
If I remember correctly a key statement from Steve (The Balrog) Ballmer was something to the effect... very soon hardware will be worth nothing and IP will be the real money. This implies that the Microsoft strategy is to deliberately devalue the worth of high tech goods, and in this they have certainly succeeded.
The methodology is to make reusing a product not worth the effort for the consumer...they just go out and by a new device and in doing so wind up paying money to Redmond indirectly. This troll at the bridge economic strategy has worked very well....but with the advent of cheap internet and business ready tablets the equation changes. He who builds the most robust and longest lasting mobile hardware will win the OS war. Lets face it the fastest and quickest boot with features that are really simple is the way to go. Things like I7 sandybribge is a huge overkill, and will not be economically effective on tablets. So the historic Intel/Microsoft way of doing things is about to hit a brick wall.
The only real ace Microsoft has left is to play they the old... It Only Works With Genuine Windows... game, by making sure that their mobile device OS offering is absolutely the only way to connect with the office.
My prediction is that there will be a flood of cheap consumer grade tablets and only the ones that can connect to the home or office net will succeed. So unless Apple goes to bed with Ballmer and Android finds an effective citrix like capable app that can run .net crap and work like the Linux Citrix client to do remote work Microsoft will just wait it out and push out the competition the same way they screwed over IBM and Netscape and and ...
One can only hope that the people that are leaving Microsoft see the economic consequences and are starting to realise that perhaps very soon the business and home consumer is going to revolt at the costs to society of all this material waste and stupidity created by 1; our greed 2; the corporate greed and legislative stupidity that allows one corporation to dominate an entire industry.
All you have to do is see the child labour being used currently in the third world to extract all the gold and rare earth elements as cheaply as possible from circuit boards to realise that what Microsoft is doing is completely unsustainable and will eventually cause huge economic woes for more than just the US and the so called first world. Just perhaps some of these intelligent and dedicated individuals that have been working for Microsoft are starting to see the consequences of the Balrog of Mount Rainier. Cutting down all the trees leaves a clear vista, but beware when you can no longer see a forest because there are no trees. If there is another severe economic downturn Microsoft will be an early casualty, because the business and home consumer just is not going to run out and buy the latest and greatest. Like during the depression people will just make do with what they have, and the business strategy of Microsoft will fail miserably.
hiybbprqag, I say.
It's like rats deserting a sinking pirate ship.
Good lord, it's "principal"!
helpful hint: you might want to turn on the IE option that puts the red squiggle under misspelled words.
posted anon so as to merely whisper.
Finally.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
As in they could coast for years without bringing in a dime?
I wouldn't count them out any time soon.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
It's not an exodus. It's the next stage of viral infection. The carriers are now spreading out to other businesses to finish the transformations. (Many businesses began transforming years ago, as the BillG became their CEO's god). It is necessary for these infectious units to leave the mother colony because the hosts are beginning to notice the damages from the parasite.
We will achieve the One Microsoft Way. You will become a proper revenue generation unit regardless of what business or government you serve. We thank you for your contributions to our cause.
Tried renewing our partnership membership today. After jumping through several hoops (and wading through too many conditions, clauses, initiatives) finally was able to qualify to join. But wait, we would be better using this option in the same partner program! let's join that! it is more money but it's worth it. Click to join, more hoops, more agreements to click on, more questions and answers and finally we qualify for it. But wait! there is another membership!? you can't do that! Impossible! So go read the support forums, here is a list of 20 you can read to get help. Each link 'access denied'. You want Google GWT? download it. Java? go download it? PHP? apache software? linux? click a link and you get it. Microsoft is stuck defending their huge government and corporate accounts and have a bureaucracy to match. And by eating their own dogfood (everything must use Active Directory/IIS/Sharepoint/Exchange) they have become a monoculture of technology. Maybe it's time for the Baby Bills model.
You forgot "interns".
Kinda makes you wonder if s/he's a great coder, doesn't it? Not because it's a big mistake, but the title is on his (I'll assume male) business card and clearly he is slightly obsessed with it. I think a really good coder should have excellent textual recognition within a very restricted domain/vocabulary, so they can quickly spot when something is out of place.
What I'm saying is I call BS on foredecker being all that at MS.
I've got an idea for Microsoft: hire people who can spell.
"artcile", "Devleopers", "Devloper", "manger" (repeatedly), "princpiple", "leaft"... are you stupid, drunk, or both?
1) it was developed and researched outside microsoft - they bought the tech and payed to have it mass produced; the concepts involved are even older.
2) The motion capture craze was created by Nintendo years ago and before that they attempted the idea with the failed power glove because the tech wasn't good enough back then to pull it off. (Although I saw a university VR lab put that glove to use as a 6degree motion controller)
3) Kinect is not that innovative, its an improvement to an existing idea of Nintendo's. Arguably, its not even an improvement because for many Wii games you only need the acceleration motions to play just fine and after the 1st hours of swinging around like an idiot I discovered I could do just as well sitting down using much smaller motions. I'm not just talking about the simple applications where the motion is really simple. Its more flexible to different styles of input. The kinect is a literal minded approach to somebody who doesn't quite "get it" which is typical Microsoft thinking. Take the motion thing and throw money at it and buy everything that lets you technically do the thing as well or better at an initially HUGE expense. They miss the concept of your natural inclination to move the controller about while STILL holding a controller and go 150% for capturing my body's motion. Its great for dance and stuff but its targeting an even SMALLER niche than nintendo's technically limited approach. If Nintendo did kinect, it would be done better because they are the true creative thinkers.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
If you were a Principal anything, you would know how to spell "Principal".
So much noise about some CS bachelor turned into IT Manager. He wants to leave? Good for him! What does that means to MS? Almost nothing, they'll just promote some younger and more energetic developer to take over.
Good lord, it's "principal"!
That's right; we all know Microsoft has no principles.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
URL Fix: Microsoft Reports Record $0.77 Earnings Per Share in Second Quarter
Here is another look at Microsoft's second quarter.
Microsoft may be a big, sprawling company, but it's hardly acting like a deer in the headlights facing a speeding Steve Jobs at the wheel. Given the decades-old and often bitter rivalry between Apple and Microsoft, that narrative is tempting. But a deeper look into Microsoft's report reveals a company that's surprisingly nimble for its size.
First of all, the idea that Microsoft can't create a phenomenon like the iPad anymore simply isn't true. The iPad sold 2 million units in its first 60 days. The Kinect sold four times as many, tapping mainstream interest much sooner.
What's especially interesting is that the Kinect sold so well despite the lack of buzz in the tech media. Comparing Google search and news trends for the word "Kinect" with that of "iPad," and you'll find that the iPad attracted much more of the public conversation. And yet the Kinect's 8 million sales in November and December surpassed the 7.3 million iPads that Apple sold in the entire fourth quarter.
Factoring out the effect of the Windows launch, Microsoft estimated growth around 3%, "in line with PC market growth." Again, 3% growth isn't terrific, but it's nowhere near as bad as the headline figure suggests.
Even if Microsoft's Windows revenue does start to slide in coming years, the company can weather the blow. Sure, Windows revenue makes up a quarter of Microsoft's total sales. But its business-software division -- including Office, as well as SharePoint and Exchange -- contributes 30% of its revenue, and that division expanded its profit by 35% last quarter.
Other divisions are seeing similarly strong profit growth. Microsoft's server and tools division, which makes up another 22% of revenue, saw its profit rise by 21%. And the entertainment group, which makes Xbox and Kinect and accounts for 19% of revenue, posted profit growth of a whopping 86%.
The threat of tablets to Microsoft is real and shouldn't be trivialized. But neither should Microsoft's ability to keep sales and profits growing in other areas of its broad-based businesses.
No, the iPad Is Not Killing Microsoft's Business
I love bashing Microsoft like the rest of us, but this guy was only a dev manager! Why don't we talk about the college hire tester who left for Goldman Sachs this month on the front page of Slashdot, while we're at it!
If you're not familiar with Microsoft, dev managers are middle management. They manage line managers and have little impact on the product vision, features, or strategy. The principal title is very misleading if you think he was important. Plus, he was only there for 2 years -- which should be suspicious to any hiring manager. From his LinkedIn profile he now is a VP at eBay. Who wouldn't make a jump from middle management to executive? This looks more poorly on eBay to me than Microsoft.
And I'm not saying Microsoft is the place to be... but what a non-story!
His profile
"...Redmond's cloud and mobile strategies don't seem to be paying off."
This statement assumes that they actually have a strategy.
All I'll say is that I don't share your experience. I'm pretty happy at MS. I'm sure it varies from team to team but I've been pretty impressed by the customer focus my product group has compared to my prior work experience.
Heh, what do you think MS employees do with their stock awards anyway?..
If I leaft, it would be news.
Yes, yes it would. Blooming would probably make some headlines also.
Does being a princpiple Devloper manger require being able to spell? Or were you only in Windows ME?
While the developer information looks mostly correct - I thought there was an SDEIII, but may be mistaken. Distinguished and Fellow have nothing to do with rankings or seniority. Merely a very large bonus and some publicity. The management chain you listed also isn't very fleshed out at all in comparison, and is missing quite a few levels - even the level you claim to have been isn't listed.
Given the number of mistakes and misconceptions given by your post, I highly doubt you actually worked at Microsoft - especially in the position you stated.
I have no idea why this made the news. The artcile says he is "a"
principle development manger, not "the" principle development manger.
"Principle" is a job title:
Mangers go like this
For several years, I was "a" princpiple development manger in Windows.
Im now a principle lead becuase there was a specific team I wanted to be a part
of. If I leaft, it would be news.
-foredecker
You couldn't spell developer until the third try and you have yet to spell manager correctly, wtf?!
From your resume you write tools that run timers. No one outside Microsoft would give a shit if you leaft.
Does that mean Bill Gates will return to fix his company like Steve Jobs? ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
This is Slashdot, if Microsoft's landscaping company quit it'd be news of their imminent demise.
For several years, I was "a" princpiple development manger in Windows. Im now a principle lead becuase there was a specific team I wanted to be a part of. If I leaft, it would be news.
Headline would read "person who can barely spell finally gets canned"
I have no idea why this made the news. The artcile says he is "a"
principle development manger, not "the" principle development manger.
"Principle" is a job title:
Mangers go like this
For several years, I was "a" princpiple development manger in Windows.
Im now a principle lead becuase there was a specific team I wanted to be a part
of. If I leaft, it would be news.
-foredecker
> "Principle" is a job title:
No, "Principal" is a job title.
"Principle" refers to your ethical and moral framework.
Certainly you can be a principled developer, but it means something completely different to a Principal Developer.
On the other hand, you apparently managed to parlay your time at Microsoft into a job as CTO at a $100M company. Whether or not Microsoft sucked (I believe you), it sounds like it was a stellar career move.
www.clarke.ca
55% growth in revenue for the Entertainment & Devices Division, as the success of the Kinect sensor boosted sales of Xbox 360 consoles, Xbox Live subscriptions and Xbox games.
A Christmas launch sure helps, but how long will it last?
Office 2010 is the fastest-selling consumer version of Office in history, with license sales over 50% ahead of Office 2007 over an equivalent period following launch.
Hmmm, sort of. If you RTFA you will see that " "Office Deferral" refers to copies of Office 2007 sold at the end of 2009 with guaranteed free upgrades to Office 2010. Half of the consumer revenue increase is due to an accounting technique that shifted items sold in 2009 (viz, Office 2007 with an upgrade guarantee) to income in 2010." and that " reflecting licensing of the 2010 Microsoft Office system to transactional business customers [which is to say, one-time sales]" .
Also FTFA " If you take out the spike and the deferral, quarterly Windows revenues were up 3 percent year-to-year. If you include the deferral but ignore the spike, you see a 5 percent decrease in Windows revenue year-to-year. And if you include the deferral and the spike, Windows sales were down a whopping 30 percent compared to last year."
In conclusion, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Accountants' jobs are to pull such numbers from their asses that make the balance sheet look good for investors.
It was mainly developed by Rare, using PrimeSense's technology
See subject-line above, & this url:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1467692&cid=30356844
You said you'd get back to me on this years ago here, in regards to HOSTS files no longer being able to use 0 as a blocking "IP Address" in HOSTS files (vs. the larger & slower parsing 0.0.0.0 + especially 127.0.0.1, which still work in VISTA/Windows7/Server 2008, where 0 does not (but still does work in Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003)).
So - just checking again now: Any word on this as to why it was done?
APK
P.S.=> It doesn't make any sense to make the HOSTS file larger than it has to be, bloating it (by 5-8 characters per line using 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1 vs. the smaller & faster 0) & slowing it down on reads/re-reads... did you ever get a determination WHY it was removed (and yet it still works in older MS' Windows NT-based OS')... apk
The more fields your business dominates, the safer it is.
What's the value to society of company stability?
I understand clearly why you as an investor want to use diversification to stabilize a stock portfolio (that spans multiple companies). But who benefits from having one particular company be stable and secure? Risk-averse investors? Don't they buy bonds or ultra-stable, ultra-diversified portfolios anyways?
...because like a committee, once a company is created it almost never goes away. Especially when it's a corporation. The world changes all the time, and like it or not, businesses that are needed today won't have a place in the future. Try to tell them that tho, it's like talking to your cat. I'm sure people who ran wagon building companies thought the same way. MS, stole and slightly changed an innovative OS way, way back in the day and has since then innovated less and less each year until they can release an OS (windows 7) that is only a slight change from their previous OS (vista) and think "we are the best company in the world". Windows 7 is no where near to being the best OS no matter what measuring stick you use.
Now we have MS trying to be the best browser (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) and them trying to be the best search engine (bing?!?!?! I coulda told you that was gonna suck just from the name) and we even have MSNBC now. In the end, you have a fly-by-night back-alley company that stole it's original software and just happened to be in the right place at the right time just to balloon to a company that is a jack of all trades but a master of none. The faster people leave MS the better it is for the rest of the world.
So... you have a "Manger" who is a "manger of mangers" eh ?
Is this ultimate "manger" the one that the baby Jebus used ?
Or if it's a typo it will still make a great WWF name !
As /if/ you were a manager when you can't even spell it. Back under your bridge, troll :P
I think you mean "intnerns"
while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done
They aren't leaving Microsoft, they are invading enemy territory to kick out the FOSS and bring back Microsoft products to regain lost ground.
Just you watch. The Munich migration from Linux to Windows 7 will be the next high visibility project!
None of this is surprising. Windows 7 is pretty good and so is office. But these are not the paradigms of the future. Mobile and cloud computing together are the future. I think that the Meteoric rise of Android proves it. As well as the continued popularity of the Iphone and other mobile devices. I think the Ipad's success proves it as well. M$ has barely shown up lately for the mobile space. WP7 is decent but it doesn't have all the details and functions of the Iphone and Android. It amazes me how Android has barely existed for a little over a year (at least in the minds of consumers) and it is already a platform that is sophisticated, (relatively) easy to use, and has a large market full of usefull apps. Only the Iphone rivals it. And vice versa. Blackberry also has stagnated lately. The deal in the mobile space is Apple Ipad, Iphone, Android phones, and with honeycomb you can include Android tablets. Google is not going away in this space and certainly not Apple. Both have been visionary and innovative while M$ continued to rely on their desktop and corporate server Hegemony to live in lala land and hope for continued automatic replacement and upgrade sales for Windows and Office. They can no longer guarantee this market anymore. It is changing fast and M$ is asleep at the wheel. Interestingly enough, Linux has actually pushed forward into the consumer space in some forrm (finally) I mean this in the form of android. Now I wonder what is going to happen with intel? I mean they are not going away right away. But really they need to come up with something better than ATOM in the mobile space if they want to survive. I don't understand why they sold off their ARM division and products anyway. Especially now that ARM is growing in the mobile space and even the slumbering giant in Redmond has realized that the next version of windows will need to run on the ARM architecture.
Microsoft is the China of software. It copies software inventions, produces them for Windows and markets them aggressively. Spreadsheets, wordprocessors, operating systems, and even 'PowerPoint' (think Harvard Graphics). And then there is the Internet.
So losing creative leaders is nonsense. How creative is it to copy. Common the place runs on marketing and hype and a semi monopoly.
... of a flat stock price. It's making all of those compensation plans based on stock options look worthless.
Have gnu, will travel.
Well written summary. But the difference between IBM and Control Data, is quite small: they suffered similar occurrences about the same time, and radically different fates as a result. If we narrow our focus, a similar case might be made between SGI and Sun.
I just want to point out that there are companies who have a moment in history where things go pear-shaped.
Not that many people successfully predict this outcome, InfoWorld least of all.
MS didn't create Kinect, they licensed it from PrimeSense.
what is a "manger"? are you from texas or something?
Dang! I wrote this during a meeting in a bit of a hurry. This will teach me to not screw up cut-n-paste. I sure brought the spelling police out in force. Here is a correctly spelled and edited version.
I have no idea why this made the news. The article says he is "a" principle development manager, not "the" principle development manager. he most certainly is not an executive. There are many “Principle Development managers” at Microsoft. How this departure became news is a mystery. Microsoft is a big company – people come and go all the time.
"Principle" is a job title. The individual contributor levels go like this for software devleopers:
Managers go like this
For several years, I was "a" Principle Development Manager in Windows. I am now a principle lead because there was a specific team I wanted to be a part of. It certainly wouldnt be news worthy if I left Microsoft.
-foredecker
Jibe!