Elop and Others Leaving Microsoft, Myerson Taking Bigger Role

jones_supa writes: Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and "Scroogled" mastermind Mark Penn are leaving Microsoft as part of a fresh company reorganization. "We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions," says CEO Satya Nadella in an e-mail to employees today. Alongside Elop and Penn, Microsoft executives Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder will also leave as part of a transition period. Tatarinov used to head up Microsoft's business solutions group, and Ruder was responsible for the company's advanced strategy. The reorganization will see Windows chief Terry Myerson take on more responsibility. Myerson will take over a new team called Windows and Devices Group. He will be focused on Microsoft devices and the engineering of Windows.

Comments

Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[ArmoredDragon]

You misunderstand. Stephen Elop just fulfilled his destiny created by Steve Ballmer: Appear competent while being incompetent, and destroy the world's largest handset manufacturer by making sure it never picks up Android so that it becomes an easy takeover target.

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.You misunderstand. Stephen Elop just fulfilled his destiny created by Steve Ballmer: Appear competent while being incompetent, and destroy the world's largest handset manufacturer by making sure it never picks up Android so that it becomes an easy takeover target.

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[ArmoredDragon]

Oops major editing mistake, now I appear incompetent.

Re: Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your point still trickles through, I believe.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[gstoddart]

Honestly, I'm willing to believe that actual incompetence plays a large factor here.

Yes, Microsoft was pretty much always going to fuck over Nokia with the "all Windows all the time" crap they did. That was pretty transparent.

But that doesn't mean neither Elop nor Ballmer weren't incompetent.

Elop could have been both incompetent and a plant intended to shift Nokia to Microsoft stuff. In fact, I assume that's the case.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[cfalcon]

...so did you just fulfill a destiny created by Steve Ballmer?

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[trabby]

Yep he has a history of this, see what he did to Macromedia before Adobe bought it up. It was well overvalued when Adobe got it.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Ralph Wiggam]

So Nokia's board, who hired Elop, and the CEOs before Elop, have absolutely no blame in Nokia's downfall?

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.

What makes you think is mission is complete? There are still lots and lots of other companys he can break and sell of. Every Parasite needs a *living* host... On a completely unrelated topic, anyone happens to know who the CEO was at Macromedia for less than a year, before they got eaten alive by Adobe...?

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't know this. He may be being launched out into the world to become CEO of another company and destroy it as well, so that MS can buy what it wants cheap again.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Ralph Wiggam]

Adding to my previous comment-

Here's Nokia's stock price over the last 20 years. Stephen Elop became CEO is late 2010, right when the stock price hit 10. Of course it got worse, but you can see that Nokia was on its way out before he showed up.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=NOK+Interactive#{"range":"max","allowChartStacking":true}

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[chill]

Great! You're now qualified to announce that you'll be running for President on the Republican ticket in 2016. Best of luck and may the best sound-bite or hairpiece win!

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

doesn't neither weren't incompetent? That's four negatives in a row. Can this be parsed?

Weren't incompetent = were competent

"neither were competent" -- check.

Doesn't mean neither = Might mean both

So, "But that might mean both were competent".

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[unixisc]

You misunderstand. Stephen Elop just fulfilled his destiny created by Steve Ballmer: Appear competent while being incompetent, and destroy the world's largest handset manufacturer by making sure it never picks up Android so that it becomes an easy takeover target.

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.

But there is nothing to prevent Nokia from re-entering the handset market, if they wanted to. But the truth is that the margins on handsets are increasingly thinner, w/ the major competition b/w Apple and Samsung, w/ Mot and Blackberry holding on to the remains. While Windows Phone was a good platform, it failed to attract the major apps, and now, Nokia too is a winner by no longer owning it.

Nokia is still profitable selling their telecom gear, which will probably remain the core of their business. Which will be good for their bottom lines, if not their top lines. If they sell HERE to Uber, they make more money as well.

Only thing I'm not getting here - what did Microsoft gain by buying up the Lumia line? Verizon once sold the Lumias while Nokia owned them, but now, sells only the HTCs from the Windows Phone platform.

On the Windows & Devices thing, Myerson would do well to completely split the OS into 3 - laptop, tablet and phone: I'm not too impressed w/ the 2-in-1. For tablets, the Windows 8.1 Metro look is actually better, while for laptops, the Windows 7 look is. The Windows 10 look just looks too lame.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

Tragic error while calling others incompetent.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[gbjbaanb]

four negatives in a row

I believe this is easily parsed:

Stephen Elop, Mark Penn, Kirill Tatarinov and Eric Rudder.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Carewolf]

So Nokia's board, who hired Elop, and the CEOs before Elop, have absolutely no blame in Nokia's downfall?

Of course, but it is polite not to blame the victim even if the victim did start a relationship with a useless CEO/wifebeater.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[beefoot]

It's funny you say that. I always thought Mr Elop's mission is to destroy nokia so Microsoft could buy it at pennies. I thought his mission accomplished.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[CptPicard]

In hindsight, I am actually starting to feel that the Microsoft move was the right one exactly so that Nokia could make their handsets a takeover target. Devices were quickly becoming commoditized; Nokia had not managed to create a content ecosystem; and as yet another Android manufacturer they could not have brought much more to the table than companies like Samsung.

Of course WP hasn't taken off, but that Nokia managed to offload its handset business to MS in time was genuinely a positive thing for for company. Most importantly the patents were kept in the company, and the networks business seems to actually have more future growth potential for a strong engineering company than rectangles any Chinese firm can churn out at massive quantities.

I'm a happy shareholder since 2012.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Uecker]

The networking unit had trouble at that time. The smartphone unit was highly profitable and growing faster than the competition in absolute sales (the quarterly reports are all available). And yes, i don't deny that Nokia had problems before in this area (despite profits and growing sales), but "on its way out" is far from the truth. The numbers simply do not support this. If your sales grow faster than from your competition while you are profitable you are clearly not "on the way out".

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Aighearach]

The problem with attempting to assess his competence on slashdot is that people just assume that the goal is "the company makes more money" or "the stock price goes up." But in reality, if they're chasing dollars in a corporate environment the goal isn't to increase the stock price. The goal is often for the stock price to go up and down at convenient times, without (clearly) violating any rules. Other times the goal is more opaque. You can't follow the money, because they have tools to move it around where you can't see it, and much of it moves based on secret contracts with other mega-corps.

So abstract is the modern corporate governance environment, there is just no way to judge his competence or incompetence by the outcomes for the company itself. Even when a company appears to completely fail and go out of business, often the assets were "sold" to a subsidiary and then resold out of the company's control, and it was just a debt-laden shell that failed. From the sidelines the worst possible failure cannot be distinguished from the most magnificent success.

In the old days I hoped MS would fail. These days, they are no threat to anybody. I want the company to succeed because they make good keyboards. And that is a bigger impact on *nix users than anything they do in the software sector these days.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Ralph Wiggam]

So the stock price lost 75% of its value in less than 3 years because everyone on Wall Street is a complete idiot?

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Darinbob]

In that case, time to wait for Microsoft to call you up to fill an executive position.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[sootman]

Thanks for tarnishing Slashdot's previously unblemished reputation for flawless editing. :-/

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Darinbob]

Elop's first actions were to gut things. No attempt was made to improve the company.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Type44Q]

He fulfilled a destiny caught from Steve Ballmer (like an STD).

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a chance that's the case. There are investors out there that think Uber and other do-nothing tech companies are good buys.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Ralph Wiggam]

That's awesome that you're smarter than everyone on Wall Street. You must have billions.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Ralph Wiggam]

Either the Board of Directors hired him to "gut things", or they hired him to improve the company, and then sat there doing nothing while he did the opposite. Either way, they're responsible.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Uecker]

No. What does this have to do with what I said? The stock price depends on a lot of things. But yes, one of the reasons the stock price was low was certainly that Nokia was underperforming in the smartphone market relative to the expectations investors had. But this is something else than being "on the way out" which would imply that they already essentially lost. If you add more sales than your next best competitor and are profitable you are obviously not "on the way out", even if you disappoint Wall Street. Nokia was on "on the way out" the moment they decided to switch to Windows Phone. Just look at the slashdot comments when this was announced: It was entirely predictable that this strategy will fail.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Trogre]

So Nokia's board, who hired Elop

I see, so I guess you could blame the Trojans for opening the gates. Fair enough.

I wonder what company he'll help next.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[jrumney]

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.

Or maybe they do need his services again. Watch where he goes next very closely. That is the industry Microsoft wants to fail in next.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Nyder]

You misunderstand. Stephen Elop just fulfilled his destiny created by Steve Ballmer: Appear competent while being incompetent, and destroy the world's largest handset manufacturer by making sure it never picks up Android so that it becomes an easy takeover target.

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.You misunderstand. Stephen Elop just fulfilled his destiny created by Steve Ballmer: Appear competent while being incompetent, and destroy the world's largest handset manufacturer by making sure it never picks up Android so that it becomes an easy takeover target.

Now that his destiny has been fulfilled, Microsoft no longer needs his services.

Why did you repeat yourself 3 times?

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

The networking unit had trouble at that time. The smartphone unit was highly profitable and growing faster than the competition in absolute sales (the quarterly reports are all available). And yes, i don't deny that Nokia had problems before in this area (despite profits and growing sales), but "on its way out" is far from the truth. The numbers simply do not support this. If your sales grow faster than from your competition while you are profitable you are clearly not "on the way out".

Essentially all the mobile phone manufacturers of that Nokia's era were toast. Seen many friends pulling out their Ericsson, Morotola, Siemens, or Blackberry phone lately?

Sort this list by release year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Look down for the first manufacturer that hasn't failed or been taken over -- you'll get Samsung with a phone in 2009. In other words *every* manufacturer of a popular mobile phone before the iPhone has failed in some way. (Even "Sony Ericsson" is now just Sony keeping the brand in some markets, after Sony bought it out marking Ericsson's departure from the phone business).

Yes, Nokia was already toast.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Uecker]

If you want to sell a division, you don't run it into the ground first. No, this wasn't good for Nokia.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Uecker]

Nice case of magical thinking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/?titl...

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[ArmoredDragon]

I know. You hear that Satya?

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[ArmoredDragon]

Because I typed the message elsewhere on a smartphone and copy pasted it. Only I didn't see that it actually copy pasted because the desktop UI is kind of broken (the mobile one is worse though) and I didn't realize it the paste was successful all three times until after I had already hit the submit button.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[ArmoredDragon]

So Nokia's board, who hired Elop, and the CEOs before Elop, have absolutely no blame in Nokia's downfall?

Their mistake was going with Windows Phone. Even Microsoft has made a big mistake creating it to begin with. They're trying to inject a very non-disruptive smartphone platform into an OS market segment, and consumer OSes tend to be a market of only two major competitors with practically no room for a third.

Microsoft executives and fans insisted that Microsoft has to have some kind of mobile presence in order to have a future, which is dead wrong. That would be like saying EMC, Oracle, or Redhat need a mobile OS in order to have a future.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[dbIII]

I'm sure they have many millions of blames in their bank accounts due to choosing to be more loyal to Microsoft than the company they were supposed to be working for.
Remember that they didn't pick Elop from a list of successful CEOs - they were offered him by Microsoft and there was nothing at all in his history to recommend him as being suitable to run a company of such a size.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's awesome that you're smarter than everyone on Wall Street. You must have billions.

I do!!

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[udippel]

Alas, wrong on a number of accounts.

Me, and a good number of other people, including *nix-people, have recently acquired a very competitive Microsoft Lumia. I guess, it gets subsidized by MS for all that it has included from the side of hardware as well as software. If they keep offering prices below comparable phones of the two major competitors, price alone will make them one of three equals.

EMC, Oracle, RedHat have income beyond the consumer market paying for OSes, while MS lives on income through OS for customers and some notorious office suite.

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[udippel]

For tablets, the Windows 8.1 Metro look is actually better, while for laptops, the Windows 7 look is.

Exactly. I am a *nix person who recently acquired a Lumia because I consider it the most intuitive of the two in the reasonable price bracket.
While 8.X is simply c**p on the desktop. And once you've seen it both on desktops and small gadgets, it is totally clear that the designers had tiny touch screens. Desktops usually don't -> that's Windows 8 for you!

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[Anonymous Coward]

does not take much to be smarter, but making money from that is a lot harder very tricky to work out what an idiot is going to do next!!!

Idiot's have an advantage, they would do the same moronic thing!

Re:Elop just fulfilled his destiny.

[ArmoredDragon]

MS lives on income through OS for customers and some notorious office suite.

Correct, and that mainly comes from enterprise customers, who the most part don't even touch Windows Phone.

Microsoft will fall

[faway]

But Linux will not win either. Because of the controlling behavior of Chinese manufacturers, hardware drivers will always be an impossible problem to solve. This means the Apple has a achieved checkmate. Windows is loathed, Apple is well-liked, and Linux is hobbled.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[rogoshen1]

Apple? Really? Those same chinese manufacturers will ensure that Apple's game plan of squeezing a premium out of commodity hardware will eventually fail.

They will not be able to come up with miracle iDevices perpetually -- eventually they'll hit a misstep or two, and be put in the exact same situation as Dell and HP.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[bondsbw]

Except that Apple is starting to look like they are out of (good) ideas, Microsoft has breathed fresh life into its consumer and development spaces, and Linux is more legitimate and necessary than ever.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[faway]

Your reasoning is poor. Apple is forcing the Chinese to help them innovate, which is like herding cats, whereas manufacturers like Dell and HP are forced to do the bidding of Microsoft and they can only make the Chinese do their bidding because of large volumes. Apple is in the driver's seat.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[rogoshen1]

asking the chinese to help you innovate is like asking the fox to guard your hen-house.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[faway]

Apple is probably foolish to do so, I agree. But there is an upside: Most of the pollution resulting from that manufacturing is staying in China!

Re:Microsoft will fall

[CastrTroy]

Exactly. When there's plenty of $200 or cheaper Android and Windows Phone devices that do a very good job, it's not going to be long before people refuse to pay $700 for and iPhone. I'm surprised they've lasted as long as they have. There is no reason to pay such a high price for a phone. I don't see any with really compelling features. Perhaps the Lumia 1020 with it's 41 megapixel camera has a feature that no other phone does, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be a single phone out there that can do something that a $200 phone can't do. They're really doing to have to start offering real hardware differences like perhaps a real SSD inside the phone, or a phone that can run desktop software (even if it only works when you plug it in) if they want to continue asking $700 for a phone.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[lgw]

Apple hasn't charged a premium for a better phone since maybe the first iPhone. It's just modern jewelry. And when you're buying a status symbol, as long as it's distinctive it's worth what you paid for it. Like a mechanical watch, an iPhone says "marvel at my disposable income and middle-class buying habits".

Re:Microsoft will fall

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple hasn't charged a premium for a better phone since maybe the first iPhone. It's just modern jewelry. And when you're buying a status symbol, as long as it's distinctive it's worth what you paid for it. Like a mechanical watch, an iPhone says "marvel at my disposable income and middle-class buying habits".

"Besides some bourgeois desire to fulfill an ideal that society embeds in us from an early age to promote a consumer capitalist agenda?" Definitely, Maybe

Re:Microsoft will fall

[Anonymous Coward]

Which you can do if you are a lion.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[sootman]

Last year I got a phone with Windows Phone 8 for $59* (I still can't believe it that's possible) just to mess around with. Even as a hobby, I couldn't stand to use it. The OS was JUST THAT HORRIBLE. It was stupid and annoying and deeply flawed. If my choices were a) that phone for $59 or b) an iPhone for $650, I would choose b) in a heartbeat. Oh, wait, actually, I did. (I'm on T-Mobile so I actually pay full price for my phones.) I returned the phone within 30 days.

Paying $700 for a good phone vs. $200 for a crappy one is really not that hard to imagine. Look at what people spend on cars.

Note: I haven't used Android heavily, so I can only speak of Windows, but from what I've seen of Android, I'm pretty sure I'd still stick with an iPhone. My point is, price is NOT everything.

I'm not saying iPhones are the best for everyone, or that everyone should buy them. Apple has grown their desktop and laptop sales greatly in the past decade despite "perfectly good" competitors existing for ~1/2-1/3 the price, so I have no reason to think a flood of dirt cheap phones will greatly harm their iPhone business anytime soon.

* I got a Lumia 520. This current one is similarly specced and priced. http://www.microsoftstore.com/...
The hardware was awesome. I still can't believe you can get something that good for so little. But the Windows Phone OS is just so, so, so bad. Not even worth keeping as a toy.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[DNAgent]

No wonder they're called Fox Con.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[CastrTroy]

I'm actually surprised that you found Windows Phone to be such a bad OS. I recently switched to it from Android, and I couldn't be happier. What was it that you found so bad about Windows Phone? They've made some updates to it in the past while in usability. If you still have that old phone, I would boot it up to install the updates to see how you like it.

My biggest problem with the phone is lack of apps. There's some apps that I used to use an Android that aren't available on Windows phone like Strava. Fortunately I've been able to find third party alternatives that works just fine. I can still do everything I want, but it's just kind of an annoyance that some of the major players ignore the OS. For instance, the Facebook app is actually produced by Microsoft, and the only app Facebook has for Windows Phone is Messenger.

I spent $200 on a better phone rather than $59. Also, if you watch for sales, you can now get the Lumia 520 for around $20, but it's locked to a specific carrier (no contract). That is the most insane part. Some people are just buying them as media players. Or even as a second phone for when they don't want to take their phone somewhere it might get broken.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[exomondo]

It's just modern jewelry. And when you're buying a status symbol, as long as it's distinctive it's worth what you paid for it.

It's not though, it's just a good tool for getting a job done and it has about the same "status symbol" status as buying a Ford F150, the iPhone is the most common smartphone in the world, it really couldn't be less exclusive. They sold something like 10 million of the things in the first weekend and people buying a Galaxy or a HTC One or G4 aren't buy those because they can't afford an iPhone it's because they don't want an iPhone.

an iPhone says "marvel at my disposable income and middle-class buying habits".

Yep that's certainly what I think when I see all those kids, part-time McDonald's workers with iPhones. It's just a phone, if you think having it says something about you then you're an idiot - though I don't doubt the existence of a significant number of idiots - I have one because it does what I want, if it ceases to do that or if Android (or hell, even Windows Phone) comes along and does what I need significantly better then there's no reason I wouldn't switch to that.

Re:Microsoft will fall

[sootman]

Windows Phone OS (whatever it's called this week) just had so many bad details, it was like walking around and constantly tripping on things.

One example: I wanted to run with a white background instead of black. When doing that, the white-on-transparent icons disappeared.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/15o7...

Things like that might have been fixed in 8.1, but 8.0 was the third major release of this UI (after 7.0 and 7.5) and they should have caught a lot of things like that by then.

There are a lot of places where an overuse of transparency and other effects causes more harm than good. In trying to make something that looks better than iOS, they went a little too far with the effects.

Here's another place where white text on top of random backgrounds -- which happen to contain white -- falls apart. (The one on the left looks OK on a big monitor but they were pretty bad on the phone. And you can see how if the photos had more white in the wrong place, it would be even worse.)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cke1...

For what it's worth, I think iOS 7 was a big step back from iOS 6 in a lot of ways too -- too many thin lines; not enough contrast.

What you said was exactly my idea -- for $59, it was WAY better hardware and software (from a stability point of view, at least) than some generic Android-based media player, but every single task I tried to do had some obstacles. And it wasn't just a case of being used to iOS -- I use Mac OS and Windows every day at work -- it was that everything MS did differently, they did worse. I just returned it after a few weeks. If someone gave me one for free, I still wouldn't use it.

Mastermind?

[PvtVoid]

Calling the guy who came up with Scroogled a "mastermind" is a bit of a stretch, if you ask me.

Re:Mastermind?

[faway]

Haven't you heard? Techies are all geniuses according to journalists! The obvious falsehood of that claim is harder to address, as it requires *work*, whereas it is so easy to be a cheerleader. Tech journalism is a joke.

Re:Mastermind?

[gstoddart]

Tech journalism is a joke.

More like an oxymoron.

Re:Mastermind?

[Anonymous Coward]

And Mark Penn isn't even a techie, he's a longtime political adviser, my bet is he'll be on the Hillary train, hes a long time clinton confidant having worked for both bill and hillary campaigns in the past. I detest the guy, he's a master triagulator, the king of the non-answer and a class a douche bag. This coming from someone who leans pretty far to the left, and would vote hillary against anyone of the republicans that they will run this time. I put him right up there with the Donald, more then willing to just make shit up and/or twist context to the point of intellectual dishonesty simply to sell a narrative.

Re:Mastermind?

[Aighearach]

If nerds didn't desire quality sources of information about what is new in the technology sector, then I would agree it is a joke.

But no, actually it is just pathetic. And the most pathetic thing is, if somebody did a good job at it they would probably get a lot of readers from high value demographics. But it is impossible; editors are apparently compelled by some powerful force to cut corners continuously, even without any information theory analysis of how many corners would be too many. If they ever catch up with economic theory from the `90s, somebody will try a different method. I'll give it another 50 years.

Re:Mastermind?

[Jason Levine]

But it is impossible; editors are apparently compelled by some powerful force to cut corners continuously, even without any information theory analysis of how many corners would be too many.

I believe the cutting-corners kind of thinking runs along these lines: "We cut ONE_THING and our profits went up 2%. If we cut TWENTY_MORE_THINGS, we'll have 40% more profits!" Somehow, they fail to realize that cutting everything won't get you more and more profits. Cutting out one or two inefficiencies? Sure, that'll boost your profits. Cutting out an important thing? That might result in a temporary profit boost (which might be enough for an executive who's looking to raise stock prices until he bails). Cutting out a lot of important things will just result in chaos and losses (both people leaving and money intake dwindling).

"our three core ambitions"

[roc97007]

Apparently, one of which is to become a much smaller company.

Re:"our three core ambitions"

[sconeu]

Fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency.... and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

Re:"our three core ambitions"

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"Scroogled" mastermind Mark Penn are leaving Microsoft as part of a fresh company reorganization. "We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions,"

Hard lessons learned the hard rather than easy way:

1. Innovate rather than copy and spread FUD, check!
2. Don't attack in advertising ("Scroogled") a beloved thing like Google, check! Burger King learned this the hard way in the 1970s.
3. Hiring managers who fiddle while Rome burns, then leave with the gold parachute, check! Jobs grabbed by the balls, while other managers coast waiting for their 7 years to be up and retire. Best to retire in a company 80% of what it was than risk upsetting it.

I would recommend Microsoft cancel planned ads talking about what jackasses Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey, Jr., are.

Re:"our three core ambitions"

[gbjbaanb]

our 3 core ambitions are

Create more personal computing; reinvent productivity and business processes; build the intelligent cloud and integrate business decisions . Ah, our 4 core ambitions are more personal computing, reinvent productivity, build intelligent cloud, integrate business decisions and drive market excellence... , our 5 core, no. amongst our core ambitions are reinvent productivity and business processes; build the intelligent cloud, integrate business decisions, drive market excellence and get nice red uniforms.

oh damn, I'll come in again.

Linux will not win for a different reason: systemd

[Anonymous Coward]

If Linux ever has a downfall, and it is looking more likely that this will eventually happen, it won't be due to Microsoft or SCO or any force like that, but rather it will be due to systemd.

We've already seen how much strife and controversy that systemd has caused. Its inclusion into Debian has literally torn that project apart. What was once the most cohesive, united distro has suffered irreparable harm to its community, its software and its mission thanks to systemd. Many Debian users have reported severe quality issues due to problems with systemd. Many of these users, and even many others who haven't upgraded to Debian 8, have already left it behind and moved to FreeBSD or Slackware. Worst of all, many people have lost their trust in the Debian project. Even if Debian were to eventually remove systemd, the damage has already been done. The trust and goodwill that have been lost cannot be regained.

It goes much beyond Debian, obviously. Pretty much every major and practical Linux distro has switched, or will be switching, to using systemd. This monoculture means that long-time Linux users can't just switch to another distro, but they need to move to FreeBSD or some other non-Linux OS. We've also seen projects like Devuan fail to produce anything of value, an in fact they could very well be considered "shrapnel" of systemd, causing more strife, agony and damage. The mailing list and IRC discussion for the Devuan project quickly devolved into accusations of people being "systemd trolls", which only served to disrupt the community and project even more.

There's nothing that Microsoft could do to Linux that would cause more harm than systemd has already managed to bring, and will likely continue to bring.

Re:Linux will not win for a different reason: syst

[faway]

A pity. I use Slackware but sometimes it is too tedious for me to endure. At times I just want things to be automatic. I really liked Debian's automatic hard drive encryption feature. I have requested that the next Slackware include precisely that.

Translation

[pteddy]

"We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions" is CEO speak for, "We fired some folks."

I Used to Work For Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

...and then I left. Like a lot of people, I thought working at Microsoft would be great. A chance to work for the mothership, as it were. I duly applied, made it through my three interviews, was hired and began work. Almost immediately, I noticed how fractured the company was internally. They had no real mobile strategy and still don't. I noticed the backbiting and political shenanigans that plague most businesses were present as well. Internally, Microsoft is very poltical, much more so than I imagined. So much so, in fact, I felt awkward from day one until I left.

The company is a good place to work if you like high structure and a very real and very apparent hierarchy. I neither want "high" structure or a political leadership environment. There are some very talented people there. To me, it all felt as if they were grasping at straws because they know the Office/OS gravy train is coming to an end sooner or later and no one really has any concrete ideas. Everything coming out of Microsoft in the last several years makes them appear to be an also-ran.

Re:I Used to Work For Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

How much of a hierarchy is there (or how much of it you feel, at least) very much depends on where you work inside the company. There's less of it in general in the past couple of years, and there are teams here and there that operate, essentially, more like a startup, with no micromanagement from above.

I have an idea

[slashmydots]

Here, let me run MS for a second.
- Fire everyone responsible for Windows 8's design
- Fire anyone who thinks charging for products over time is a good idea
- Fire anyone responsible for UEFI and attempt to press criminal and civil charges against them for it
- Fire all H1B workers and hire Americans or green card citizens
- Fire anyone who thinks releasing a new mega-update to Windows every year is a good idea and strongly suggest they go work for Apple
- Fire anyone who thought touchscreens would take off as a primary input method for laptops because they're too stupid to be a functional human being let alone do their job

Problem solved!

Re:I have an idea

[DrPeper]

Actually, although probably worded a bit on the extreme side. You do have some good points.
- Windows 8 was a poor design, but it was better than Windows 7.
- Software as a service is something that I too am completely annoyed with.
- UEFI is to this day a uniquely HORRIBLE concept, and I'm surprised the government hasn't stepped in on this one.
- H1B worker expansion is a complete joke, I think Congress is finally waking up to this inescapable fact. But then they never cease to astound me with their stupidity.
- Yearly new Windows is a lame way of milking the cow I suppose.

The one point that I may disagree is the toughscreen issue. Personally I think Microsoft totally dropped the ball on this. As a long time computer user, I personally want as many ways as possible to interface with the computer. With my tablet (which I carry everywhere) the touchscreen is my primary interface. However I do get frustrated with said touchscreen and do say "oh heck just give me a real computer" when I need to do a lot of typing or manipulating. So I guess I kind of do agree with you on that point.

Re:I have an idea

[neilo_1701D]

Here, let me run MS for a second.

- Fire everyone responsible for Windows 8's design

Which bits of Windows 8? The UI or the kernel?

The kernel is probably the best ever out of Microsoft; the UI not so much. And the person most responsible for the UI (Steven Sinofsky) is already gone.

So, which group or groups did you want to fire?

Re:I have an idea

[slashmydots]

Loading drivers in a similar manner as hibernation pre-boot is a horrible idea considering drivers are how viruses bypass the UAC most of the time. The order in which it turns off hardware devices is misleading and dangerous on all Windows 8 laptops. The whole EUFI thing is BS. UAC basically doesn't even work at all on a basic level and they haven't fixed it since Vista. So really the kernel isn't anything special aside form performance modifications.

Re:I have an idea

[shutdown -p now]

So basically you want to carry out a bunch of your own personal vendettas. Why do you think the board or the shareholders should be interested?

Food for thought

[DrPeper]

Ok, so NOBODY ever leaves a position of power and/or authority of their own will. History is replete with a plethora of examples of this. The only way people leave positions of power is by force. Usually arrest, assassination, or execution. So WHO has enough power to force these MICROSOFT executives to leave? I find the explanation that they did so of their own free will not supported by history. I'm also quite aware that they will be paid handsomely to leave, but this is always just a front to make the appearance of an amicable separation. Please realize that Elop, unarguably, RUINED Nokia in order to get on the board of Microsoft. He left THOUSANDS of employees without jobs. So who has enough power to dethrone a person of this ruthless character?

Does he really talk like that?

[QuietLagoon]

Nadella said in an email to employees: "We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions. This change will enable us to deliver better products and services that our customers love at a more rapid pace."

And is he really under the impression that customers love Microsoft products?

.
Most of the Microsoft customers I talk to use Microsoft products either because they are required to do so at work, or the Microsoft product came with the computer they bought.

I have yet to hear one customer use the word "love" in relation to any Microsoft product.

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Keyboards, mice?

No doubt many find the Office suite indispensable?

Visual Studio and several of the languages (e.g, C#, F#)?

Kinect, I'm sure some people love capabilities.

Webcams?

XBox?

I don't really know the breadth of Microsoft products but is seems that you're just towing some line.

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[ljw1004]

I have yet to hear one customer use the word "love" in relation to any Microsoft product.

Let me "google" that for you:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=i...

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[QuietLagoon]

...but is seems that you're just towing some line....

Typical Microsoft astroturfer... :)

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[starkadder]

I think you mean "toeing some line".

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, realized that was probably wrong after hitting submit. Not a phrase that I tend to use.

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[Anonymous Coward]

OneNote. It's free, really good and cross platform. Love it.

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[TeknoHog]

I have yet to hear one customer use the word "love" in relation to any Microsoft product.

I love staying away from Microsoft products. I'm not their customer, but I'm one customer of other businesses.

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[unixisc]

Well, kids and dancers seem to like their big screen TVs w/ Kinect, and practicing their dance moves outside every Microsoft store I've seen in malls. In fact, that's the main attraction of the Microsoft store, and something to love if you fall within that demographic

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you should keep to the templates in the microsoft astro turfing manual. So when is lunch?

Re: Does he really talk like that?

[Anonymous Coward]

I really love Windows 7, hopefully Windows 10 is more of the same, love how Im getting a free upgrade. Love my Microsoft mouse. Love how Windows PCs are now much easier to support than 10 years ago. Love how UAC stops users from doing stupid shit. In addition to the many things they have got wrong, I think Microsoft have done some realy neat things recently.

Re: Does he really talk like that?

[Anonymous Coward]

I love my Microsoft Internet Keyboard. Not the Pro version by the way.

I love Windows XP.

Re:Does he really talk like that?

[Undead Waffle]

You obviously don't read the comments section at arstechnica. Tons of Microsoft fanboys over there. Though I think many of them are actually Microsoft employees so I don't know if that counts as "customers" if it's all bought from the company store.

Let's start an Elop POOL!

[DrPeper]

Ok so let's start a pool! Where is Elop going next??? I've got the Apple, Google, and government squares. Who's next?

Re:Let's start an Elop POOL!

[SlashDotterOne]

Ok so let's start a pool! Where is Elop going next??? I've got the Apple, Google, and government squares. Who's next?

Facebook !

Re:Let's start an Elop POOL!

[DrPeper]

BRILLIANT!!!!

Re:Let's start an Elop POOL!

[DrPeper]

I wanted to say "Samsung", but I realized every company that he works "for", is destined to take a nose dive. So then I thought AT&T would be a more appropriate choice.

Re:Let's start an Elop POOL!

[starkadder]

I hope he goes to Comcast. I really, really do.

Re:Let's start an Elop POOL!

[Dragonslicer]

HP? They seem to like to hire complete failures.

Re:Let's start an Elop POOL!

[unixisc]

Make him the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party!!! May he do there what he did to Microsoft!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure he won't mind.

Why no quote from John Thompson?

[Anonymous Coward]

He's the guy running Microsoft now. He was the one that picked and hired Nadella. Why is the man in charge not talking? Does he not know what is going on? When he ran Symantec, he certainly didn't know or care what was happening. Not long after that, and before he took his current rule of Microsoft, he was into politics rather than tech. I guess you get what you deserve when you hire someone for their race rather than hiring a qualified candidate. Both him and Nadella have been promoted way above their abilities.

Re:Why no quote from John Thompson?

[Anonymous Coward]

When he ran Symantec...

And he is now running us into the ground like he did them. Symantec's products are terrible, and he has decided to make our products horrible to. That is Thompson's game. He fires all of the good people and replaces them with morons that work cheap and are picked because they're a minority. AA has destroyed my department. Over the past year, I think I've interviewed about 150 developers. Only one was competent. This month, we're only hiring women. So, now I have five female developers on my team that will never be able to contribute. Thompson has destroyed another good company.

Re:Why no quote from John Thompson?

[Anonymous Coward]

> AA has destroyed

I work for a different large software company that had the same happen. When, for example, we can't hire a male for six months, we end-up with a lot of dead weight. The last nine developers I've hired have been female. Because most women get out of development and move on to management pretty quickly, we're stuck hiring new grads. Also, there aren't enough new female new grads, so I'm require to hire any female we can find no matter what their GPA or college. Most of our older developers had degrees from Univ of Washington. They're productive. I'm now forced to hire females with community college degrees. That is the legacy of AA. I'm not sure we're going to survive it.

Re:Why no quote from John Thompson?

[Anonymous Coward]

Great point. He has said many times he wants to get rid of whites in his company. As a white male that lives in Redmond, WA, I've just resigned myself from ever being able to get a job at Microsoft. I have a lot of Indian friends that are not competent, but most of them work at Microsoft. Affirmative action is ruining Microsoft. They've always had trouble with poor quality software before, and now that they're cleaning house and hiring developers by race rather than competency, it's just going to get even worse.

Re:Linux will not win for a different reason: syst

[Anonymous Coward]

If Linux ever has a downfall, and it is looking more likely that this will eventually happen, it won't be due to Microsoft or SCO or any force like that, but rather it will be due to systemd.

Not only systemd but little glitches in many places. The desktop breaks a lot. And didn't we just read about the TRIM problems. A lot of ACPI and power management weirdness as well. Nvidia Optimus is still laborous to get working. So I think Windows is simply winning in stability. The damn computer just works properly. Linux is starting to have problems with the increasingly complex PC hardware.

Rolex!!

[higuita]

Because one will want (for sure!!!!111) operate windows from the watch!

He will start by saying that mechanical watches are a thing of the past and the future is in "windows watch"(tm)

:D

Re:Rolex!!

[DrPeper]

Oh that is so brilliant! I thought that Swatch would make sense along those lines as well.

Re: Linux will not win for a different reason: sys

[Anonymous Coward]

I made the easy transition to NetBSD from Slackware. NetBSD has a lot going for it. The base install fits on a CDROM and includes a full working tool chain, X11, networking. The whole deal really. You can configure it by editing some text files in /etc and away you go. The whole deal, kernel and base userland, lives under a single CVS tag.

It's UNIX that you can admin using those hoary old O'Reilly manuals from way back when.

Maximum Jastoodo

[CrystalShepard]

"We are aligning our engineering efforts and capabilities to deliver on our strategy and, in particular, our three core ambitions,"

In other words, they are bajooling in order to slatinate their gibleglopp for maximum jastoodo.

Purity Through Fire

[Anonymous Coward]

Through these cleansing fires, Microsoft shall become pure. Hail to the one that is pure and without blemish!

Re:Linux will not win for a different reason: syst

[Anonymous Coward]

Who are the people behind these tedious anti systemd rants? Are they Microsoft shills? I simply don't understand that under almost every article there are anti systemd posts. Now again an anti systemd post because some employee who has nothing to do with Linux or open source leaves Microsoft.

They use every opportunity to spread FUD about Linux and they now use systemd because directly attacking the Linux kernel didn't have any impact on the popularity of the OS.
 
I've left Slashdot half a year ago because of those tedious messages, but the first article I read after half a year has yet again anti systemd trolls...

More than just incompetence: Extreme incompetence.

[Futurepower(R)]

"... actual incompetence plays a large factor..."

You are not the only one who thinks that.

The cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called him Monkey Boy -- on its cover.

Worst CEO: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."

Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)

Re:Linux will not win for a different reason: syst

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux has already won server war. Apple/Microsoft/Android have won client war. The rest are simply circling around them. Technicality like systemd are minor bumps in a giant roller-coaster ride. At this point, there is nothing in the radar to beat Linux/Apple/Microsoft/Android.

Re: Linux will not win for a different reason: sys

[Anonymous Coward]

The most vocal critics of systemd are skilled professional Linux admins.

is there one person here

[Anonymous Coward]

who has a shred of humility ?
is there one person here who doesn't know more then the entire executive team at MS, Nokia, Apple, ...

amazing: by their own self estimate, the commenters on this thread know enough to totally take over the tech industry

It's the legacy of tight arbitrary rules

[dbIII]

Don't blame the feminists for some overboard policy designed for unwanted rapid correction instead of a sensible hiring policy that merely insists women be given fair consideration for a job along with all the guys.
There's plenty of other HR idiocy in large places to show where the problem really lies, typically empire building and pointless busywork for HR to maintain headcount and have power in the org.

They were not an Island

[dbIII]

Notice how something big happened in 2008 which had aftershocks in Europe a couple of years later. Everything was going down. Not so spectacularly as the freefall of Nokia after Elop though.

Re:They were not an Island

[Ralph Wiggam]

You think it took 2 years for the US "credit crisis" to impact Europe?

Re:They were not an Island

[dbIII]

No, I don't "think", I KNOW, as does everyone that was paying attention at the time, that the bailouts in Europe in 2008 left the cupboards bare for that later problems that hit really hard two years later in that second crisis. Thus "aftershocks" on top of a pretty shaky situation. I'm sure you noticed. Everyone else did.