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Bill Gates Has An Android Phone. Has Microsoft Changed? (neowin.net)
Bill Gates uses an Android phone now. "It may not be the most surprising revelation, given profits are sinking faster than a boat without a hull and big-name partners are jumping ship left and right, but the founder of Microsoft has presumably left Windows Mobile," reports Neonwin. Long-time Slashdot reader Billly Gates (no relation) writes:
I would assume this is the final nail in the coffin for Windows Phone and the rumored Surface Phone which may never see the light of day. Over the past few months we have seen a change in Microsoft with them being friendly to Linux with stories of porting .NET core over to Linux, helping write a custom Linux kernel, as well as introducing the not-so-popular-on-slashdot WSL Ubuntu for WIndows 10.
Noting the Android emulators in Visual Studio, he's wondering if the company's ambitions go beyond developers, and if they're planning a Microsoft version of Android, "as the tools are in place with Ubuntu, Node.js, Python, Microsoft Code editor, and the Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition."
His original submission points out that 10 years ago these stories would have been unimaginable, but he also asks a second question: has Microsoft really changed? "Could we be seeing a new Microsoft now that the world is moving to mobile and they have no operating system in it?"
Noting the Android emulators in Visual Studio, he's wondering if the company's ambitions go beyond developers, and if they're planning a Microsoft version of Android, "as the tools are in place with Ubuntu, Node.js, Python, Microsoft Code editor, and the Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition."
His original submission points out that 10 years ago these stories would have been unimaginable, but he also asks a second question: has Microsoft really changed? "Could we be seeing a new Microsoft now that the world is moving to mobile and they have no operating system in it?"
Fuck of click bate
I'm sure Bill has the worst carrier distro of TouchWiz possible, all full of bloatware, loaded onto something like a Galaxy S3.
That way it at least feels like Windows on an HP, even kinda makes Billy feel at home.
lots of phones; lots of of people
Could we be seeing a new Microsoft now that the world is moving to mobile and they have no operating system in it?
This prattle is not new, and is bandied about every time someone notes whatever the current level of PC sales are. But here's the thing: Yes, the consumer has no need for anything other than their phone. But things are not (strictly speaking) created on the phone. Engineers don't do cad-cam on the phone. Commercial applications are rarely written on the phone. Secretaries do not manage memorandums on the phone. Factory controls (hopefully) are not accessed from the phone by some engineer on a chaise lounge by the pool.
Phones and phone apps are big. In a consumer way. Otherwise, I do most of my work on a PC running CentOS, though I could get by with Widows. I don't do much work from my phone except to receive communications from my boss who is reclining on a chaise lounge by his pool.
The world is not moving to mobile, consumers are moving to mobile.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I mean come the fuck on his haircut never changed in 40 years? right.
"Linux is worse than cancer"
-- Steve Ballmer
"profits are sinking faster than a boat without a hull".
Today must be Opposite Day. Nice fact checking SD. MSFT is doing just fine.
He has been out of the company as its head for some time now. Are people really expecting him to clutch to a an unsupported mobile platform like a drowning man in the sea because he's too proud to admit his former company made a bomb? I think he's a little more practical then that. Not being indoctrinated into the Kool-Aid Klub, the choice of where to go is obvious.
.... that Microsoft probably makes more money on Android device sales than anyone else including Google themselves, due to patent royalties?
Bill doesn't work for Microsoft anymore. He can use whatever phone he wants.
Bill Gates phone is irrelevant, he is no longer the CEO of Microsoft. Just like Steve Woz's phone is not relevant. These guys are not tech leaders in any sense of the word anymore.
What Microsoft is likely doing is throwing in the towel on "windows mobile" because they were stupidly slow to adapt, threw their mobile OS away in favor of porting the god damned desktop OS to it, and then did the same with Xbox. Microsoft goals seem to be all over the damn place and if I was CEO of Microsoft I'd get them out of all hardware production ASAP. They are not god damned Apple, and unless they want to make Windows exclusive to surface, which they CAN damn well do, they will be on a losing track on all hardware they produce, and if they do they cede ownership of the desktop to Apple, because no business will ever put anything but an Apple iMac on their staff's desk. Few businesses have enough nerd capacity to deal with a Linux office.
Which goes back to the problem with Android. Android is fundamentally broken, it's built by a company that doesn't take privacy seriously, is a nightmare to program, makes Windows look sane by comparison, slow, battery sucking, and makes absolutely nobody money. The few people making money in the Android field are Samsung, LG and nVidia, for vastly different reasons. Samsung and LG phones are money makers for carriers because the phones cost them less than 100$ wholesale and they sell them for 600$, while Apple gets all the money on iPhones. nVidia sells a lot of nVidia Shield TV devices entirely because they are the most popular thing to use as a Kodi piracy box since it can play all video formats. Nobody uses Shield to play games, and nobody uses Android to make serious games because you end up with unsurmountable support costs from the few people who do buy the games on phones that suck, and everyone else pirates your software.
TL;DNR version: Nobody makes money on Android software, Microsoft is almost certainly doing this to make sure that software developers can target Android, iOS, OSX and Windows so they can sell their Visual Studio premium products, and nothing else, primarily to Unity developers.
microsoft brings in $2 billion for all the android phones sold, the last time i checked.
in a few years, (as soon as win-10 starts getting old) MS_Linux under the hood with their own desktop environment and icons & themes, maybe their own office suite too, unless they give that up too and go with libre/open office
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
https://slashdot.org/comments....
from 2006
"even if Windows dies, nothing (from a legal standpoint) could stop 'Microsoft Linux' (Optimized for Office, with IE, etc.)"
If Gates was still using Windows Phone, which was basically end-of-lifed, I think.
Notice I didn't say Ballmer.
Does the tin man have a sheet metal cock?
How many times will Microsoft try (and fail) to make a successful phone before they give up and admit that they suck at making phones?
They've had about 10 different phone projects in the last few years and they've ALL failed miserably.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
In all seriousness, as a long-time Linux user I'd love to use a Microsoft-created Linux distro. But this would only be if it doesn't include systemd, it doesn't include GNOME 3, and it doesn't include PulseAudio. In fact, I don't want it including any software coming out of that particular camp.
If they could take the Linux kernel, choose a sane init system (like OpenRC), use KDE (or pretty much any other non-GNOME 3 desktop environment), have it include excellent support for .NET Core by default, and have it come with Visual Studio Code, I think it could make a great environment for developers and regular users alike.
I'd even be perfectly fine with them throwing out X, KDE, and all of that and instead porting over the Windows UI. If they could finally get the video driver situation fixed up, that would be amazing. I'd also like a port of Edge, to give more browser options now that Firefox has gone stupid.
I would also be cool with them getting rid of Linux, and just basing it off of FreeBSD instead.
macOS has shown us that there's a lot of potential in a modern OS with a robust underlying UNIX-like system, but with a user-friendly UI. Linux distros used to give us the robust underlying UNIX-like system, but lately that's gone to hell with software like systemd and PulseAudio becoming so common. Linux distros have never given us a good UI experience, and it has just gotten worse with GNOME 3.
A decade ago I never thought I would be saying this, but I would welcome Microsoft coming in and restoring Linux's glory. I think that the modern incarnation of Microsoft, which has proven itself to be far friendlier to open source software, could help undo so much of the damage that the Linux community has done to its own software.
Linux has lots its way, and it's looking more and more like Microsoft could be the best organization around to get Linux back on track, restoring it to something that's reliable and worth using.
Hell fucking no they haven't changed and never will. Period!!!
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
I'd be curious and maybe pretty quickly it would become one of the best distributions around?
With some locked down/in content? Maybe the rest of the community would had tried to fight back with GPL everywhere?
Bill Gates is using Android publicly, but, secretly, is using an iPhone.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
month for refusing to work without pay, so no they have not changed. They are still a dishonest shit company that hates their workers and ignores the law.
After I worked per hour at Microsoft, and was required to work over 60 hours a week, but only allowed to put 40 hours on my timesheet, I gave-up on them. They're a damn dishonest company from top to bottom.
It might not be Year of the Linux Desktop, but it has been Year of the Linux Mobile for a few years. Plus Java too ('Anrdoid' is the friendly brand for what is, at essence, Google's 'Java'-esque system on Linux).
I personally have an iPhone and a Mac, but if you count Android as a Linux then Linux is nearly everywhere - from tony mobile and embedded to zillions of servers running all over the Internet.
It is great Bill Gates has worked out that the Linux+Java+mobile hardware combination is a winner in terms of usability and feature set. I'm not holding my breath for Richard Stallman to do the inverse.
Bill Gates loved
1. Basic
2. C#
Is there any tool for supporting Basic and C# in Android.
Ohhh, thanks for clarifying that!
Bill...just stop. It's kinda sad. And anyone that cares also knows better.
Illegal == Il'll (s)ee Verb(gull), I'll-lee-gull.
Yes, he selected his user name by pure coincidence, and is not obsessed with digging up "dirt" (or at least what he thinks is dirt) on Microsoft.
Newsflash: Bill Gates no longer runs Microsoft.
I bet he even has a PS3 in his home entertainment center, and maybe even an iPod in his junk drawer. Maybe he's running Linux in his Roku! What a shocker!
Seriously, this has to be one of the dumbest anti-Microsoft posts yet here at Slashdot.
If he was using an iPhone it'd mean he's changed. That he went with Android just shows he's still smarting from the petty rivalry, the one where he knows that, even though he may be "the richest man in the world", he still *lost* to Apple.
I'm not sure why anyone would start speculating based on what Bill Gates uses. Just the other day we learned about Windows Core OS and we also know that Microsoft has been working with Qualcomm on x86 Windows for ARM. So it's obvious the Microsoft does continue to think about a mobile response. But yes, Microsoft has also realised that a lot of the market is elsewhere, and it would help keep more devs on Windows by allowing them to easily develop for Android and Linux. Windows 10 Mobile did have Android emulation planned, it just didn't pan out. So nothing new on that front either. Perhaps MS is still working on it. (All in all, feels like a meaningless 'news item' by someone who has no clue.)
Bill Gates did not have much choice. Android and Microsoft work better together then Apple and Microsoft. Not sure if this is Bill's endorsement of Android or a dis on Apple IOS? It has to be sort of rough for Gates to have to admit defeat in the smartphone market for Microsoft. This is really where everything is focused right now and Microsoft just completely dropped the ball.
Notice how Microsoft is focused on giving everything away and sacrificing its entire base for AI? Microsoft was too good a force for computing. Despite all the angst, Linux was stealing ideas from Windows all the time. The only other explanation is that Windows Phones have the mother of all spyware. Remember the photo of Mark Zuckerberg with a piece of tape over his laptop camera? The crime lords always give themselves away.
Bill Gates completely left MSFT in 2014. Also It's his business to use whatever he wants.
I mean it has been 17 years since he retired as CEO and 3 years ago he even stopped being chairman of the board.
He could be using all the Linuxses at once in a virtual machine running on his Macbook pro and it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference to Microsoft.
Gates isn't a spokesman of MS, not the leader of MS and have used products from other companies before. So what?
I can't get over the performance problems. Take a look at Super Mario Run for example, it runs so much smoother and faster on iOS. The Android version on a T-Mobile Galaxy S7 Edge which is more powerful hardware wise than iPhone, lags, hangs, slows, skips frames, and runs at a lower frame rate than the iPhone version. just clicking the game icon and it takes many more extra seconds to load, and transition from screen to screen.
it's something i'm getting tired of. every new android phone and version is the exact same piece of lard. it's slow, lags, stutters, loads apps slowly, transitions from screen to screen with huge latency.
but iOS is only superior in terms of performance, Apple forces developers to censor apps, such as requiring web browsers to only load pages on the web version of the site, unable to switch to a desktop user-agent. Furthermore other advanced features and hacks are not allowed to be included in iOS addition software, that are legal in Android software. additionally I like to record calls: Android and Windows 10 include built in phone recording features, Android just requires an app download to tap into the features most vendors add into the core OS. Windows 10 has it built right into the control panel now. iOS does not permit phone recording at all, except by hacks such as three way calling into a recording service. Android/Windows actually intercept the GSM stream and save it to amr, wav, flac, mp3, mp4, opus, right on the phone storage device.
What has changed is the fact the MS is not the 800 lbs gorilla it used to be. Today is little more than another player, but as foul and obnoxious as it has always been. If it is not wreaking havoc that's because it can't any more. But, don't be deceived: it still extorts millions upon millions on licensing fees from Android, and it still has a program to undermine free software whenever and wherever it can, as long as that effort does not clash with its own interests. Trust Microsoft and prepared to be killed.
If you want to have a current phone and there aren't any Windows Phones in the MS store what can you do?
So the PC market is stable, everyone that wants one has one and the market is basically replacing old systems. Windows 10 is a advertising platform. The main source of growth at M$ is in Azure and the cloud services. They tried and failed in the phone market but making money on the cloud, so that's where they are going. Microsoft is making plenty of money and all this Linux and Android love is just good business because M$ makes sure those devices work with their Azure system.
Imho, Microsft knows that in 10 years time, our computers and phones will all be augmented reality headsets. And are developing to be the leaders of the market. I tested hololens and besides the limited FOV it is a very good platform.
That's one of Microsoft's classic strategies. They did that with the web, gaining them many years of browser dominance.
Also Microsoft is changing. They want to go from software to services.
Never, until the non-volatile memory manages to come up with something that combines endurance with density with DDR access latencies, all at a commodity price point.
Some of these technologies are presently planning to embed a power-hungry FPGA into the NVRAM module to handle bit-error correction. The carbon nanotubes looks great, but at 32 MB per chip, you're not packing 16 GB into anything smaller than the original Motorola brick phone, with a sticker price to rival Iridium.
While the ARM processor may be a killer application, background DRAM refresh on 16 GB of working memory remains an application killer, for any mobile device.
Due to physics, charge storage cells are unlikely to ever improve from the present level (brought to you by the sexy Kate MOS insulation deficit).
NRAM set to spark a 'holy war' among memory technologies — 12 January 2017
Next stop, coming to a decade near you: volume arrays in volume production with volume endurance.
Microsoft is still the evil, avoid-at-all-costs, company that will screw you over any chance it gets.
On the bright side, Bill Gates now uses Linux! Hell may have just cooled down a few degrees.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Something bad is going to happen. Some new, great technology is about to be squelched. That is the way of Gates and MS.
I think the real question is why not an IPhone?
What is the amazing supposed change? They want to stop wasting money and provide a technology consumers actually want to buy so they can make profit?
AMAZING FUCKING CHANGE!!!!
Anyone thinking... "Microsoft really changed" is a fucking idiot. They didn't change, they lost, now they have to yield to the market's demands. No wonder slashdot is dying... fucking clickbaity bullshit.
I remember how seamlessly Windows Phone worked with Windows XP. Then, suddenly, all support was dropped and a Windows Phone quit synchronizing with Windows. And people wonder why a Windows 10 phone was viewed as a toxic proposition. Useful items orphaned leaving consumers with a WTF moment.
Windows Phone
Windows Mobile 5 (PDA OS)
Windows Reader
Streaming to Xbox360
Native video codecs in Windows 7
Windows Media Player (Under Win8, you had to pay extra to get it only to have it removed by the free Win10 upgrade)
NRRPT/RCT