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Windows is the Most Open Platform There is, Says Satya Nadella (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the to-each-his-own dept.

On Tuesday in a conversation with Gartner analysts, Satya Nadella talked about the future of AI, the cloud, Windows, and what his company plans to do with LinkedIn. But the most notable remark from Nadella was when he said this, "Windows is the most open platform there is." ZDNet adds: It came in the context of Nadella talking about Microsoft's mission to unite the three big constituencies in the technology world. "That's the approach we've always taken," said Nadella, "bringing users, IT, and developers together... When you bring them together, that's where the magic happens." He reminded the audience of several thousand technology leaders that Microsoft began by making tools, then it made apps, and now it makes platforms. Or, it buys them.

18 of 287 comments (clear)

  1. All those guys writing Malware couldn't agree more by MikeDataLink · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's why its so easy to infect a Windows system. Open holes every where you look! ;-)

    --
    Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
  2. Sigh by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well yes, if you're willing to just simply invent whole new definitions for words, you can make any claim you want. After all, I'm the strongest human being who ever lived, if you define human being as being a group of which I'm the only member.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:Sigh by NotInHere · · Score: 5, Funny

      This post is the first one in this thread.

    2. Re:Sigh by somenickname · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I dunno. "Open" and "porous" are somewhat related words. If he actually meant, "Windows is the most porous platform there is", I would tend to agree with him.

    3. Re:Sigh by Holi · · Score: 4, Funny

      His argument is solid. What other PC operating system supports as many hardware devices, has as much software developed for it? Regardless of the OS being open, Windows as a platform has been a very open to anyone who wants to develop for it.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    4. Re:Sigh by fbobraga · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Think in the server domain: Windows is very inferior to other alternatives in this matter (and by a huge margin)

    5. Re:Sigh by number6x · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't quite follow the point you are trying to make. How much software is written for a platform, or how much hardware the OS supports seems to not be related to how open the OS is. It is kind of like relating how the vast amount of shag carpeting in the Atlanta suburbs in the 1970's is related to the juiciness of peaches shipped from Georgia. Atlanta is in Georgia, but the subjects of the statements are unrelated. Your comment just doesn't really make much sense to me.

      I would also disagree with the hardware support statement. Whenever I plug a new device into a windows machine, windows goes and searches for a driver somewhere on the internet. If it doesn't find one, it asks me to load one. Windows seems to have almost no support for hardware built in and must rely completely on manufacturer's drivers. Windows isn't supporting the printer, the printer manufacturer is writing software (called drivers) that let Windows use the printer. That is hardware manufacturers supporting Windows, not Windows supporting hardware.

      Linux supports a vast amount of hardware right out of the box, and almost never requires a manufacturer's driver.

      It often surprises me at how little hardware Windows supports, out of the box, because the install footprint of Windows is measured in Gigabytes. Most Linux installs take up a few hundred Megabytes and yet include the drivers for tens of thousands of software devices. Just what is Microsoft doing with all that extra code, if Windows can't utilize most hardware until a driver is found, installed and configured?

      In Linux, plug most hardware in and it just works. having to find a driver is a rare event. Yes I know, people are going to comment that they have a 'Lucky Panda collective # 5' (put name of obscure hardware here) touch pad that needed a driver, or that the latest version of some nVidia graphics card that only has beta-drivers for Windows is not supported. But those are the odd occurrences.

      I just re-built a Windows 7 machine for my uncle a few months ago. To get his HP all-in-one printer working I ended up with a download from HP that was over 300 MB! I know the drivers for the printer/scanner/fax/copier were probably just a few thousand kB at most, and that most of the other crap was wasted on HP software that he'll never use. Just for fun I connected my Linux laptop to the printer via the wifi network and my laptop recognized the printer and I could print and scan without loading any additional software. Windows had no support without installing additional driver software. The printer was a brick to Windows without third party drivers, and yet Linux needed absolutely nothing else to use the printer, just plug and play. The printer was fully supported by Linux right out of the box.

      The amount of software developed for Windows is due to the fact that Windows is the dominant OS in the PC market place today. Nothing comes close. Mac has 5%, maybe 6 or 7 % on a good day. Of course developers are going to write for the dominant platform in the marketplace, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with 'openness'. It's like juiciness and shag carpeting again, just completely unrelated.

  3. You keep using that word by sjbe · · Score: 5, Funny

    But the most notable remark from Nadella was when he said this, "Windows is the most open platform there is."

    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

    1. Re:You keep using that word by number6x · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Windows supports very little hardware.

      Go buy a printer and set it up. Then connect it to your windows machine. Do not allow windows to search for a driver on the internet and do not load the drivers that shipped with the printer.

      Try to configure the printer and print. Windows won't be able to. Windows does not support the hardware.

      The truth is pretty much the exact opposite.The hardware manufacturer supports Windows. The hardware manufacturers write software drivers that allow Windows to use their hardware. The cost of the support is paid for by the hardware manufacturers. The distribution of the support software is paid for by the hardware manufacturers.

      Microsoft supports almost no hardware, hardware supports Microsoft.

      Try the same printer with any major Linux distribution. You will probably just have to plug the printer in and configure it. You won't have to download anything. Linux will already have support for the printer built in. This is true of almost all hardware for Linux. You usually don't even have to do any configuring in most hardware, just plug and play.

    2. Re:You keep using that word by higuita · · Score: 5, Informative

      you are kidding, right? or just ignorant? or maybe one more shill?

      ODF is a official standard, older than OOXML, simple, consistent and very well documented:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      https://docs.oasis-open.org/of...

      OOXML on the other hand, was heavily pushed by MS to be a standard and only got approved by using very shady tactics. The format have fields of "closed binary" blobs for "compability" reasons and is not even correctly used by MS office, as their documents fail to pass the standard validation tools. The format is also extremely complex (that is why it needs 6000+ pages spec) and have patents (MS promises to not sue anybody due to this... but this is MS and history show that it can be trusted). Finally, it uses embedded objects in several formats that only exist in windows, instead of already existent standard format objects. Everything to lock up the format to windows and MS office, even if the format is (almost) "open"

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Higuita
  4. Open.... by tekrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think that word means what you think it means...

    Unless I can download the source code to the current version of Windows, make modifications and recompile, it's not really "open"...

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  5. Open? Open season perhaps... by evolutionary · · Score: 4, Informative

    Uh, Linux is open. MS is more like, "open season" for hackers since MS leaves so many holes and doorways it's like open season especially with Windows 10.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  6. Satya Nadella is an arrogant ass by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This sounds about like some authoritarian dictator, after staging a successful military coup and executing everyone in the previous government, claiming what a 'benevolent ruler' he is, that 'his administration will be open and transparent', and 'any citizen may contact me directly at any time with any concerns they may have'. In other words: Unbelievable bullshit. You literally FORCE your spyware-laden 'operating system' on people who were perfectly happy with what they already had, hide spyware in updates to previous versions of your software, use trickery to get Windows 10 onto people's computers, then make wildly inaccurate claims about the 'adoption rate' of your crappy malware/spyware 'operating system' and your 'installed user base'. Then you proceed to systematically annex the Linux world or lock them out of platforms completely, and likely have some sort of plans to destroy Apple, which will be the only other commercial OS available to anyone. Microsoft can go to hell. I'd rather not own a computer anymore than put up with bullshit of this magnitude.

  7. Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Network World article: Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. Quote: "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."

  8. Re:Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever m by linear+a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, it seems to be pretty effective spyware.

  9. Wow by ilsaloving · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, Microsoft has a tendency to copy everything Apple does. It was only a matter of time before they started copying Apple's Reality Distortion Field as well.

  10. Re:Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever m by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ya know what? Lets just ignore the spying for a moment, all the nasty hidden shit that requires 41 pages of switches, GPOs, and reg hacks to get rid of not to mention that most of which will ONLY work on Win 10 Enterprise, AKA "the one you have to rent for all eternity", lets just pretend all of that doesn't exist,mmmkay?

    What I want to know is this.....WHAT MORON THOUGHT BSODs NEEDED TO MAKE A COMEBACK!?

    When people came to me to get rid of Windows 8 it was strictly because of the UI and when I showed most of them classic shell? They were happy, but Windows 10? People are coming to me saying "OMFG this thing just keeps crashing GET THIS THING OFF MY PC!!!", I swear I haven't seen so many hangs, crashes, and outright BSODs since Windows 95! I know 90s nostalgia is a thing but I seriously doubt anybody was saying "Ya know what I miss? I miss my PC just throwing a BSOD at random intervals"

    Can we get Bill Gates back PLEASE? They replaced a moron whose idea of running the company was "Hey lets just ape Apple without knowing why people like Apple" with a complete dipshit who thinks moving the company forward is "hey lets just ape Google without knowing why people like Google, oh and lets take out flagship product and make it so fucking buggy and crashy it gives people Windows 3.1 flashbacks, yeah thats the ticket"....Say what you will about Bill Gates, he may have been a douchebag but he was a douchebag that had focus, and he sure as hell didn't put out 3 stinkers in a row!

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  11. Re:Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever m by Aighearach · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Upgrades never works properly regardless of the OS(Windows, OSX, Linux, BSD).

    You're obviously not a linux or bsd user! LOL

    Upgrades rarely cause an application to fail. They do not routinely cause system crashes, freezes, etc. Even application failures are years between. And that is linux. Over in BSD-land, it is very rare indeed because they're basically allergic to adding new features in a bug fix.