
Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader - prostoalex
http://www.wsj.com/articles/look-whos-back-microsoft-rebooted-emerges-as-a-tech-leader-1481900876?mod=e2fb
======
marricks
I was going to rag on this article for touting the the same non-specific
garbage we've seen the past couple days like, "more mac users switching to
surface than ever!" without any hard numbers, did is go from 20 to 25? But
this article is actually pretty interesting.

It focuses on how Satya Nadella has respected the leaders of Companies he's
bought out and invited them to key meetings. Using their insight not only for
product and company direction, but importantly creating culture as well. Very
key to Microsoft and any tech company's success.

I recall hearing many stories about how Microsoft had like 3 managers per
programmer, probably exaggeration, but the point remains, who would want to
work there if you skilled/lucky enough to choose? Looks like they may be
changing in some good ways.

~~~
Pigo
As a developer there's been so many times that I've gotten tired of MS
solutions, and get excited about new emerging platforms elsewhere. Then I
smirk when MS incorporates that new platform's ideology. Then I'm pleasantly
surprised when it turns out to be cool, and often surpassing the original.
I've heard some devs claim they cherry pick from other people's work, and
others that they work hard to remain progressive and relevant.

I don't know if .NET Core will catch up with Node, probably not, but I respect
their effort and believe competition drives the best products and technology.

~~~
blakeyrat
I have different priorities than you. In terms of IDE quality, debugger
quality, flexibility (ability to use actual threads if you want them!),
performance... in my opinion .NET Core is already so far ahead of Node.JS it's
embarrassing for them.

The only thing I might stack in Node.JS' favor is their NPM package manager.
Maybe. Possibly.

~~~
tigershark
Are you seriously saying that NuGet/paket are worse than a flawed package
manager that even managed to cause a JavaScript global outage when a padding
package was retired? What are your problems with NuGet and paket?

~~~
Pigo
Nuget dependency management is a nightmare for my team. Mostly because there's
usually only one package for a given problem, and you're always at their
mercy. I suppose it's a community issue, because npm packages I seem to find
few complications. Also, I always find plenty of
documentation/tutorials/friendly community to help with the package, and never
anyone expecting money for a out-of-date pdf generator that works with tooth-
picks and bubble gum holding it together (for example). The manager in VS has
gotten better, but it's still far more cumbersome than a cli.

------
yummyfajitas
I recently bought a Lenovo sporting Windows 10 and decided to give it a fair
try. I've been using Windows exclusively on my personal laptop for about 2
months and so far it's a good experience. This is after 16 years of running
linux (or briefly a mac) on the desktop.

The window manager is tolerable (not as good as Xmonad, but equivalent to
Unity). Windows subsystem for linux is letting me get my work done with no
problems. Anaconda lets me do scientific python work natively from within
windows. Emacs seems to work just fine. Cortana is actually pretty cool.

Overall, I haven't felt the need to race back to Linux. I'm surprised to say
this, but Windows _might_ be an acceptable linux.

(A while back I wrote about my failed attempt to use OS X:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1787411](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1787411)
)

~~~
chmln
My experience has been the complete opposite.

I've got a Lenovo Y50 running Win10. With a HiDPI display, it is pretty much
unusable. While OS elements scale rather well, most of the software doesn't,
even using the "DPI fix." [1] There are also ads on lock screen. [2] The
"terminal", PowerShell, is slow to launch, path completions are crawling.

The subsystem for linux is great, and certainly a move in the right direction.
There's ConEmu with Bash, which is also usable. Admittedly, if it weren't for
aforementioned DPI issues, which have been around for far too long, I'd
probably use Windows as my primary OS.

Also have to mention that VS Code is a fantastic editor with an MIT license.
So definitely there are strides in a good direction. Compared to e.g.
Facebook's "open source" offerings, while great products, yet containing a
`PATENT` file in every repo

[1]
[http://windows10_dpi_blurry_fix.xpexplorer.com/](http://windows10_dpi_blurry_fix.xpexplorer.com/)

[2] [http://www.howtogeek.com/243263/how-to-disable-ads-on-
your-w...](http://www.howtogeek.com/243263/how-to-disable-ads-on-your-
windows-10-lock-screen/)

~~~
widowlark
>ads on the lock screen

You understand that you approved these ads when you set up windows initially,
and that they can be removed with the flick of a switch in the lock screen
settings?

~~~
KirinDave
They aren't even the default now, right?

~~~
yummyfajitas
My windows machine does not display them, and I don't remember even being
asked.

~~~
jandrese
IIRC the wording wasn't "let us display ads", it was cloaked in some deceptive
language.

~~~
KirinDave
I don't remember the exact wording, but it was something akin to, "Show
Microsoft's images on my lockscreen" or somesuch similar.

It wasn't clear there might be ads there.

~~~
jandrese
I actually have that option turned on, and it's exactly what it says on the
tin. Pictures of landscapes/buildings/etc... that you might see in some mid
tier gallery and a link to a short description. It's bland, but marginally
more interesting than the basic lock screen.

------
riazrizvi
To me, there is no doubt that Windows laptops are seeing a resurgence around
Silicon Valley compared to MacbookPro's. Personally I think it is due to their
overall superior compatibility with new technologies/hardware (graphics cards
for VR and CUDA developers, FPGAs, Arduino, Intel RealSense3D) and better
workflows for virtualization/cloud-computing vs MacOS which has become harder
to virtualize because of closer binding to the AppStore and withdrawal of
access to old OS versions.

As an outsider, I also think Apple seems to have spread their best technical
minds thin, by adding the platforms watchOS and tvOS. While I understand the
rationale behind watchOS, without the ability for developers to create the
watch faces, it's not that exciting a platform, it's too controlled. Anyhow,
the result of this talent dispersion, is that they have failed to maintain the
MacbookPro's status as the most exciting development platform, which it had
been IMO throughout the 21st century.

~~~
ChuckMcM
The idea of having their own "brand" of laptop I think was really important
for recognition. It was always easy to tell the Apple users with the glowing
Apple logo but the other laptops could be all shapes and sizes and that didn't
say there was one competitor or 15. Having the branded laptops making an
appearance really helped solidify in people's minds that it was a Microsoft
product these other people were using.

~~~
shmerl
That's why I like to put Debian sticker on my laptop. Otherwise people assume
I'm using Windows. Kind of silly, but years of Windows domination brainwashed
people.

~~~
kijiki
I've been completely unable to find a Debian sticker that: a) is big enough to
see from more than 3 feet away b) that works on a black laptop.

Do you know of a good supplier?

~~~
shmerl
Here is one: [https://www.unixstickers.com](https://www.unixstickers.com)

Examples:

* [https://www.unixstickers.com/stickers/linux_os_distribution_...](https://www.unixstickers.com/stickers/linux_os_distribution_stickers/debian-os-saped-sticker)

* [https://www.unixstickers.com/stickers/linux_os_distribution_...](https://www.unixstickers.com/stickers/linux_os_distribution_stickers/linux-debian-logo-large-shaped-sticker)

* [https://www.unixstickers.com/stickers/linux_os_distribution_...](https://www.unixstickers.com/stickers/linux_os_distribution_stickers/debian-linux-full-logo-shaped-clear-sticker)

* [https://www.unixstickers.com/stickers/linux_os_distribution_...](https://www.unixstickers.com/stickers/linux_os_distribution_stickers/debian-logo-shaped-clear-sticker)

~~~
kijiki
Thanks for the pointers!

Your 3rd example is the one I bought, but it is clear, so doesn't show up on a
black laptop. They don't seem to have a non-clear version of that one.

The non-clear ones they do have are just the spiral, without the word
"debian", which seems a little vague for evangelical purposes.

One of these days, I may have to learn how to get stickers made.

------
anon987
Microsoft continues to try to convince us that they are great with press
releases and non-organic stories such as this.

I, my peers, and my co-workers just don't see it. With billions in reserve
it's no surprise they are trying to buy popularity.

~~~
supernovae
I find these kind of comments depressing mostly because they scream "group
think". (my inner circle says this, so I repeat it) The new MS is much
different than the MS I grew up with in the 90s. It's time for the community
to recognize this and just let people bask in positive news that is worthy the
bask in.

I love my Surface Pro 4, I love the fact .net is cross platform, I love that
Azure is fast and easy to use, I love that Office on my mac is current and
that Microsoft's mobile strategy is 100% cross platform unlike that of Apple
and Google.. I love that MS is honest these days and its disappointing the
community is largely dishonest in return.. often snarky.

~~~
digler999
> I love my Surface Pro 4,

I'd love one if I could put linux on it. or if I could buy an OEM pc without
an OS (and yes I know there are _some_ vendors that "allow" (just that word
makes me cringe) you to do it, but it should be a right). If, by their own
definition, it's "intellectual" (and not material) property, then if I dont
use it I shouldn't have to pay for it.

If they want to sell Surface because it's an awesome product, why do they need
to go out of their way to lock their software on it ? If it's so awesome,
surely people would _want_ to use it, right ? If the proverbial destination is
so great, why do they need to lock their guests inside ?

~~~
Zaheer
You're not their target demographic. 99% of people don't want to put linux on
it.

~~~
digler999
back in the 90's, 99% of people didn't want linux either, and MS did _just
fine_ without "physically" locking you out of their competition.

~~~
eropple
I'm curious if you have a conception of exactly how much money creating,
testing, and deploying a SKU of a product actually runs. Now multiply it by
the number of permutations of the product. You should get a reasonably large
number with six or seven zeroes at the end. Be honest: are they going to even
break even off of the micropopulation that cares?

~~~
digler999
I dont follow your point. I'm not asking MS to sell me a linux version of
their tablet. I"m saying they shouldn't use UEFI or other proprietary
bootloader tricks to keep me from wiping windows off and installing my own
software on it. That would be _cheaper_ for them to do than spending extra
development time to keep me out.

~~~
eropple
But...you can do that. Right now. The Surface Pro 4 has no "bootloader
tricks"; it has Secure Boot, which you can disable from the UEFI menu. No x86
Surface ever has ever had any "physical" methods of "locking you out of their
competition".

So either you want something that already exists or you want something new,
and I'm very confused as to your initial post.

~~~
freehunter
Just goes to show how damaging FUD actually is. Someone made up this fear and
people still believe it even when the proof is literally everywhere. They just
don't want to look, repeating a lie is easier.

~~~
digler999
It's more nuanced than just FUD. I admit I may have been wrong and that the
surface 4 might work on linux. but its disingenuous to call my position FUD.

at least according to this [1] article, MS requires secure boot in win 10. and
the criticisms about UEFI and how it makes linux much more difficult to
install (which I have experienced firsthand) are documented on wikipedia [2].
I'm going to enjoy my friday evening and not try to make a solid case, but of
course microsoft denies that they ever intended to use UEFI to block
competition (because they've never done that before :) ).

[1] [https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/201722-linuxs-worst-
case...](https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/201722-linuxs-worst-case-
scenario-microsoft-makes-secure-boot-mandatory-locks-out-other-operating-
systems)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_In...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#Secure_boot)

~~~
eropple
It really isn't disingenuous to call it FUD. A simple Google search would've
clued you in. You don't have to mean to spread FUD to spread FUD, and you
should own it and stop.

------
suprgeek
The young'uns here probably have not lived thru the Microsoft era in the 90s
when "Embrace Extend Extinguish" was the operating motto and any Market where
MS entered would send competitors quaking in fear.

They were late to the internet party and then under the disastrous leadership
of Ballamer (mindshare wise, not revenue) they completely lost the plot.

Now they are indeed enjoying a resurgence, less evil, more relevant and
surprisingly accepting of Open source software. How the world turns....

~~~
lisivka
They are still trying to sue IBM for Linux via SCO:
[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/linux-kernel-
laws...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/linux-kernel-lawsuit-sco-
v-ibm-is-alive-13-years-and-counting/) .

So I see no change.

~~~
cutler
MS still operates a Linux patent extortion racket yet the tech press seem to
be all over them since their recent charm offensive. MS is The Beast and
always will be. See [http://techrights.org/2016/03/10/charm-offensives-
distract/](http://techrights.org/2016/03/10/charm-offensives-distract/) for
more.

------
rubyfan
This article loses credibility with the opening line...

FTA: After years of missteps, the software giant is among the few titans of
the 1990s to figure out the new world of _mobile_ technology and cloud
computing.

Saying MSFT have figured out mobile is a little too much of a stretch. They
have tried many things in the space, they have figured out more of what
doesn't work than what does. Unfortunately the market doesn't reward learnings
alone.

~~~
slezakattack
They might not be a huge contender in the smart phone market, but are tablets
not considered "mobile"? I agree, it might've been more appropriate to not
generalize with saying they solved mobile and instead point out a particular
mobile offering that is excelling or something.

~~~
scholia
Tablets, 2-in-1s and most laptops are actually mobile. This is one of the
reasons why Windows 10 is in large part a mobile operating system.

The next generation of ARM-based Windows 10 tablets, 2-in-1s and laptops will
also be much more SIM-friendly.

------
bargl
Microsoft has done some very good things and some very bad things. I'll let
everyone else point out the bad things because there seems to be plenty of
that.

I personally like the:

    
    
      Surface products,
      Typescript, 
      C#/F#,
      .NET Core,
      Visual Studio Code, and
      the Hololens.
    

These are all recently new developments for Microsoft that are really awesome.
The fact that a lot of this has become open source is even better. You have to
give Microsoft credit for one thing, they've shifted the company so much and
that is impressive for a large company.

I enjoy Azure but I understand some people's frustration with it so I exclude
it from the list above, I get that it's contentious so I'm leaving it off.

~~~
johansch
Have you personally tried the Hololens? They appear to have oversold the
qualities of at least the first version.

~~~
bargl
Yes and I recognize that there is a lot of room for improvement, but it's a
really cool idea and I think it's the best Augmented Reality product on the
market right now. If there is another one then let me know, because I'd love
to see it.

The biggest issue with Hololens is it's field of view.

~~~
johansch
I guess it all comes down to how expensive they'll be (at least for consumer
applications). The $3000 cost for the new developer edition doesn't bode well,
IMO.

------
ebbv
I just can't agree with this conclusion.

Microsoft has taken some great steps since Nadella took over. Doing more
projects aimed at regular developers and taking baby steps towards open
source, but that is not enough to be a leader.

In fact, I think in 2016, we are in a much worse place when it comes to tech
leadership than we were in the late 90s and early 00s. The tech world has been
poisoned by money and everything is focused on maximizing profit. Almost
nothing is being created because it's innovative or really life changing. The
new products that are coming out like Google Home or Microsoft Office 365
which claim to be innovative, really aren't. They are repackaging an existing
product in a new context. That's called marketing. That's not tech leadership.

In the 90s we had the launch of Linux, the web and home internet access.

In the 2000s all we've really had is smart phones. Everything else has just
been building on what was done in the 90s because the people in charge are all
marketers and profit seekers.

Do something truly innovative with all your billions Microsoft, and then I
will buy that you are a tech leader. No amount of press releases or fluff
articles will convince me.

~~~
ZenoArrow
> "Do something truly innovative with all your billions Microsoft"

What exactly are you looking for? Are devices like HoloLens and Kinect and
Surface Studio not innovative enough for you? What would you class as 'truly
innovative'?

~~~
ebbv
No, they aren't. Kinect was using motion tracking and stereo vision technology
that already existed. They just refined it and it was clearly a dead end. Also
it was just a "me too" response to the success of the Wii.

Surface studio is just a big touch screen. Nothing new.

HoloLens is the most innovative but again this kind of AR has been around for
a while, it's a refinement and I think it will just be a dead end like Kinect
ultimately.

Truly innovative means something that actually changes things. I think the
list I gave in my comment makes that pretty obvious; the web, home broadband,
Linux and smartphones. Those changed the world. The Surface Studio will not.

~~~
ZenoArrow
> "the web"

Okay, but that's sort of technological shift is rare. Nothing else in my
lifetime has come close.

>"home broadband"

Just a refinement of the web.

>"Linux"

Linux is based on designs from the 70s, it was old before it was first
released.

>"smartphones"

I hope you realise smartphones did not start with the iPhone. The smartphone
has gone through a long period of iterative design improvements.

If you're looking for a product that emerges out of a vacuum, you won't find
it, all products build upon their predecessors, even the web (which made use
of existing telecommunications infrastructure and existing work in the field
of computing).

What you will find are new forms that build upon the past. For example,
quantum computing is a relatively new field, but has roots in the existing
fields of computer science, physics and electrical engineering.

Would quantum computing count as 'truly innovative' to you? If so...

[https://stationq.microsoft.com/](https://stationq.microsoft.com/)

~~~
ebbv
> >"home broadband"

> Just a refinement of the web.

What? Not remotely. It enables the web but the underlying technologies are
totally different. Home broadband also enabled a lot of other things. Your
statement makes me think you don't actually understand technology at all.

> Linux is based on designs from the 70s, it was old before it was first
> released.

Again you're failing to understand what was revolutionary here. GNU had been
around for quite a while. It's Linux that was revolutionary. It's a kernel
that worked well and that people could contribute to and package up with GNU
to enable operating systems of very high quality.

> I hope you realise smartphones did not start with the iPhone. The smartphone
> has gone through a long period of iterative design improvements.

Aye carumba. What were called smartphones before the iPhone were awful. WinCE
was a disaster, and Blackberries were a niche tool for a niche market. iOS and
Android devices made computing usable on a mobile platform by everyone for the
first time.

Of course everything builds on the past, all of these things are based on
integrated chips and transistors and on and on.

But some technologies are actually revolutionary (like the ones just listed)
and others are not (Kinect.) This is obvious by the impact or the lack of
impact that they have.

You are not fun to talk to because you are missing very obvious things, and I
think you're doing it deliberately, so I'm done with you.

~~~
ZenoArrow
> "What? Not remotely. It enables the web but the underlying technologies are
> totally different. Home broadband also enabled a lot of other things. Your
> statement makes me think you don't actually understand technology at all."

In terms of impact, which is seemingly how you want to measure how innovative
something was, home broadband changed how much the web was used. Compared to
the dial-up era it made the Internet something people could connect to 24/7\.
However, in my own personal experience I was already a heavy Internet user
before home broadband, so it mostly changed how quickly things got downloaded.
I still watched videos, listened to music, chatted to strangers, played games,
etc... in the dial-up era.

>"Again you're failing to understand what was revolutionary here. GNU had been
around for quite a while. It's Linux that was revolutionary. It's a kernel
that worked well and that people could contribute to and package up with GNU
to enable operating systems of very high quality."

If open-source was the thing you wanted to point to as innovative, then you
should've said open-source. Other than the development methodology behind it
and how widespread it is, there's not much that's interesting about Linux. As
for 'enable operating systems of very high quality', that's debatable. High
quality compared to what? Linux is far from perfect. To give one example,
CoreAudio is far better than ALSA or ALSA+PulseAudio when it comes to
flexibility and latency respectively.

>"Aye carumba. What were called smartphones before the iPhone were awful.
WinCE was a disaster, and Blackberries were a niche tool for a niche market.
iOS and Android devices made computing usable on a mobile platform by everyone
for the first time."

Again, this seems to come down to you wanting to measure innovation in terms
of impact. Quite a bit of the UI of the iPhone has its roots in the PDA
market, which was arguably also started by Apple with the Newton. The iPhone
introduced capacitive multitouch, and had a sleek design, but if it didn't
become popular it would've been just another evolution of the smartphone, just
like the LG Prada.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada)

>"But some technologies are actually revolutionary (like the ones just listed)
and others are not (Kinect.) This is obvious by the impact or the lack of
impact that they have."

So it's not the design that's revolutionary but the impact it has? Was putting
wheels on luggage revolutionary?

>"You are not fun to talk to because you are missing very obvious things, and
I think you're doing it deliberately, so I'm done with you."

Feel free to ignore me if you like, I'm not fussed.

------
mmmeff
How do these paywall articles keep finding their way to the top? I call BS.

~~~
witty_username
Use the link named "web" below the submission title to bypass the paywall.

~~~
johnward
It just searches google and when I click it, they still want me to subscribe.

~~~
amitdeshwar
Incognito mode

------
cannonpr
Not to say that Microsoft hasn't done some good work in say Linux lately
because of Azure, but I just don't see Microsoft as an innovator, it's very
hard to see a company that makes 2 billion a year off android patent's as
innovative... I wonder how much of Microsoft in the future will be a tech
leader, versus a patents company.

~~~
cylo
I don't think this is an accurate view at all. How can you say they aren't
innovating when you've got Microsoft Research still going strong with the
fruits of its labor becoming visible in commercial applications such as
speech, augmented reality, etc.

Not to mention the open source efforts they've put forth with .NET -- which
admittedly is still in rough shape but certainly seems to have a future.

I don't think it's quite right to discount Microsoft entirely and see them as
the next IBM.

~~~
ctvo
Agree, even when Microsoft was unpopular and declining in relevancy MS
Research was putting out the best information out of any tech company.

Please browse [https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/research/](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/) and try to find a
comparable resource from anyone else.

~~~
cannonpr
These are just as respectable:
[https://research.fb.com/publications/](https://research.fb.com/publications/)
[https://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html](https://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html)

I have a fair bit of respect for Microsoft research lab's and it has also done
a fair bit of interesting work in hardware, I was talking about Microsoft as a
company in it's totality.

I always viewed Microsoft research labs as a spot of bright light in an
otherwise relatively dark company, perhaps that is slightly schizophrenic of
me.

------
henshao
Is it just me, or is the usual "copy title, paste into google search" not
working this time? I can't manage to find the google search result for this
article, even after trying many combinations of google filters/date filters.

They've caught on?

~~~
arenaninja
I think it's just you.

They don't want to disable that, because it's an easy and free way for them to
rank higher in search engines.

------
setq
I don't buy it. As a formerly epic consumer of Microsoft products, I can't say
I've actually seen ANY change other than a new fluffy marketing facade and a
figurehead who appears to be able to walk on water unquestioned simply because
he's not Gates or Ballmer. My rationale is as follows:

There is a massive decline in privacy with Windows 10 and retrofitted code to
Windows 8.1. There is no option to disable these unless you eviscerate it with
a 3rd party tool and/or get a licensing agreement that allows you to use
Enterprise Edition and push out GPOs. There is no discussion from Microsoft on
this other than some weasel words which say nothing of value. You have to
resort to whack-a-mole techniques to secure yourself or business and use their
products. The only responses are similar to "we have privacy policy. privacy
good!" (read in Lars Ulrich Napster Bad voice).

The migration to a subscription model for everything is bad. Everyone ends up
paying more over time and for it we're getting online software delivery that
at some points doesn't even work properly or leaves you in the dust. What you
end up buying is golden handcuffs.

There is so much fragmentation, it's unreal. As someone who deals with .Net a
lot, there is no conclusive plan that lasts more than a few weeks. Tools are
volatile, frameworks are fragmented, tooling is pushing more features instead
of quality. The rate of churn is also so high, no one knows what the hell is
going on. Add to that, reckless abandonment of the last few years is still a
major policy. Even looking at Microsoft Office extensions, the bread and
butter of many industries, no one has any idea what they hell they are playing
at with VSTO and Office 365 at the moment. They plugged a half baked script
API in it and consigned everyone to the side bar. No one talks about fight
club, or VSTO either apparently.

There are still really bad quality issues. Not a single day goes by where
anything isn't poking you in the eye to the point you want to throw your
computer or handset out of the window. There is no way to report this or get
it fixed conclusively. Even enterprise reps have no idea how to get products
fixed at the moment. It has become worse than the days of Microsoft Connect
which was a "write this down so we can close it and say fuck you". A lot of
things simply just don't even work properly as well. Shit is shiny but it's
still shit.

Customers are getting a pricing shafting across the board. Average Joe
Consumer doesn't see this but enterprise pricing is paying for all of this.
It's horrific some of the prices I've seen floating around recently.

On top of this there is also a new policy of telling the customer what they're
getting and being permanently correct. Occasionally to appease the masses, one
or two things a year in one of their uservoice type systems close to the
business vision (which appears to be totalitarian cross platform domination)
get chucked out half baked with a grand announcement. This is celebrated as a
major success while a thousand new and old paper cuts, well actually
proportionately speaking, eviscerations with a knife, go unnoticed.

I'm not saying they are worse than any of the other larger "tech leaders" but
they are not worthy of the mindless praise that is slathered all over them by
some members of the tech community and the media recently.

------
roymurdock
_Look Who’s Back! Microsoft...

That could be the title of a horror movie..._

Great comment from Mark stamp in the comments section.

------
blowski
> Under Mr. Nadella, Microsoft is shaping up to be the only pre-internet tech
> giant to escape the decline of its legacy product—the Windows PC operating
> system—and emerge as a leader in the new era of cloud computing.

Other than Apple, Oracle and IBM?

~~~
scholia
This is the IBM that has enjoyed 18 consecutive quarterly declines in
revenues, including the most recent 21% fall in hardware revenues? ;-)

It has bought more than 100 companies to try to reverse its decline (including
Softlayer), so maybe it won't get much worse. However, this is a company that
used to be a titan when Microsoft was a midge on its PC division's backside...

------
Diederich
Tens of billions of dollars of cash laying around, used well, enables a lot of
pivoting.

~~~
ferentchak
When you are Google and Microsoft is seems you don't pivot you just try all
the ideas at once

~~~
Diederich
Well said! 'pivot' is too limited of a concept for what they're doing.

------
dbg31415
At what point can we safely assume that Balmer was simply incompetent?

~~~
strictnein
Balmer was good at what he did: making Microsoft lots of money.

Balmer ran MS from 2000 to 2014. Here's what the profits for that time period
(since 2002) looked like: [https://www.statista.com/statistics/267808/net-
income-of-mic...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/267808/net-income-of-
microsoft-since-2002/)

So not incompetent, just focused on something else.

~~~
throwawaymsft
I'd say he was average at making money. It sounds impressive but you need to
annualize and compare it to the market as a whole.

5.36B to 22B in 12 years = 11.7% annualized profit increase from 2012 to 2014.

However, MSFT stock appreciation was 22 -> 41 or 5.2% annualized. (Stock
includes expectations of future growth, etc.)

Average S&P was ~7.8% for that time period.

Ballmer would have done better for investors by just investing in an index
fund.

~~~
strictnein
You including their 2003 stock split in your calculations?

edit: because, if not, it's more like a 9.85% return on the stock

~~~
throwawaymsft
Thanks for the catch; I didn't account for the split. Still, it looks like the
SPY handily beat MSFT's return over that time period.

[https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=0&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=0&...](https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=0&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=0&chvs=Linear&chdeh=1&chfdeh=0&chdet=1392411600000&chddm=1081115&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=NYSEARCA:SPY&cmptdms=0&q=NASDAQ:MSFT&ntsp=0&ei=UGpUWIn_NoL82AaWl6iQCw)

------
scotty79
Microsoft feels now, from software developer perspective, as if they finally
leashed their lawyers and peddlers, that were running the show for previous
decade or more, and let the engineers have a saying in what should be
produced.

Express/Community versions, VS Code, typescript, open source, github, browser
standards, Windows 10. So many good signs. I can't name the other company that
have shown so many good signs in recent past.

------
stcredzero
So the pendulum has swung yet again!

[http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html)

~~~
MichaelGG
MS has gone up 131% since that essay. I love the silly suggestions in it, too,
about putting shielding around a hypothetical new MS to prevent Redmond ideas
from getting in. And it'll be fun to see how their $25BN investment in a SV
company, LinkedIn, actually pays off.

~~~
rch
> There can only be one big man in town, and [Google is] clearly it.

This is still _mostly_ true, and Amazon is in an even more interesting
position than Microsoft will _ever_ be in.

I buy cluster-compute time, movies, and sacks of organic flour from the same
company.

------
brilliantcode
I look forward to seeing what's in store for Build 2017. It's going to be
tough to outdo Reinvent.

Basically early in 2016 I gravitated towards MS mainly due to the tight
integration with VS + Streamlined Azure Portal UI....but the overwhelming
amount of new C# ASP.NET stuff I was now encouraged to use...was a tough sell.

tl;dr: Build 2016 convinced me to switch to Azure but now I'm back on AWS post
Reinvent 2016

------
jrdmcgr
Just curious. How do you read wsj.com articles? WSJ requires me to subscribe
or sign in. >To Read the Full Story, Subscribe or Sign In

~~~
jrdmcgr
So, I just read elsewhere that if I come in through google, then it doesn't
show the paywall. So, I just pasted the title into google.

~~~
scholia
If you look at the top of the page, there's a "web" menu item next to the
number of comments.

------
rb808
I dont understand the new Microsoft business model. I've stopped using office,
Windows is now free(?), but most stuff is in the browser anyway. We used to
pay a lot of money for SQL server but now there are lots of free open source
alternatives.

Sure Azure might make some money but its a commodity business, I can't see how
it will replace the old cash cows.

~~~
kolme
\- Windows is not free, they just offered a free update for a limited time,
which is already over.

\- Basically, every non-apple consumer computer comes with Windows
preinstalled, and they charge a licence (I think around 50$). That's a solid
business model right there.

\- Most of the people around me who are not programmers, prefer MS Office to
do their work, and they swear by Excel. Google Apps still doesn't cut it for
many people. That's also a big source of revenue.

So, the good old business model.

They're not replacing anything that I know of. They're just trying to
diversify their products/markets/etc.

Edit: price ([http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-RT-
Windows-8-Licens...](http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-RT-
Windows-8-Licensing-Supply-Chain-OEM,16267.html))

~~~
scholia
_> they charge a licence (I think around 300€)_

Pretty interesting if Microsoft can charge €300 for an operating system that
ships on €150 (£150/$199 or less) laptops ;-)

The Windows installation fee used to be around $42-$44 and some versions cost
around $11-15 (Windows XP Ultra Low Cost PC version). IBM used to pay $27
(which we know because it complained bitterly about Microsoft tripling the
price).

The tablet version of Windows 8.1 cost $10 but OEMs got a $10 kickback for
making Bing the default search engine. (Microsoft did not describe this as
free, it said it was "zero paid".)

Be nice to have a current figure if anyone wants to break the non-disclosure
clause, but the fee for Windows is a lot closer to €30 than it is to €300.

OEMs also charge software houses to distribute software (ie crapware). This
can reduce the cost of Windows _to the user_ almost to zero. In fact, when
users subscribe to a pre-installed AV product, the OEM gets recurring fees
which means the pre-installed Windows has actually generated a profit.

~~~
kolme
You are right. I was thinking of the price you get when you buy it off the
shelf (which is also now cheaper as it used to be).

~~~
scholia
Yes, the off-the-shelf package includes a large fee for Microsoft support, and
the right to move the OS from one machine to another. You don't get either of
those with the OEM versions.

One obvious factor in the fall of Windows pricing is the fall of PC prices.
Microsoft could charge a lot when PCs cost $/€/£2,500 each.

As PC prices fell through $/€/£1,500 each and $/€/£500 each to today's levels,
the cost of Windows would have been an increasingly large proportion of the
total. That was bound to be unsustainable, so I imagine (without any proof)
that the price of Windows has come down much like the cost of hard drives and
screens....

------
wslh
There are, at least, two Microsofts, and one of them is disastrous and nobody
is talking about it. Skype is one example.

------
cutler
Whatever may have changed on the surface MS will always be MS, ie. dictating
what you can and cannot do with your machine. Hell, you even need their
permission to dual boot now. How is that progress? I lived through the years
of the MS monopoly and watched them intentionally leave IE festering with
standards incompatibilities. They set back progress a good 10 years before
Mozilla and Google took matters into their own hands. I learnt my lesson -
never trust anything that comes out of Redmond. MS "embraced" open source
silently kicking and screaming as Google and Facebook set about building the
future. Their biggest frustration these days is that it's not so easy to
extend what they embrace but it won't stop them trying.

------
DoodleBuggy
Windows 10 is steadily improving too.

------
camus2
Microsoft rebooted ! Windows home license ? $100 . Sure , rebooted...

------
jhgjklj
Nice Joke.

------
TruthSHIFT
Here's a Google link in case you wanted to read the article:
[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjlotK2jfnQAhXFLSYKHQGwBdIQFggkMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Flook-
whos-back-microsoft-rebooted-emerges-as-a-tech-
leader-1481900876&usg=AFQjCNF2uyF49ffhUD9lo1j4ZKchdiMYoQ)

~~~
dschuetz
Why is it even walled?

~~~
ProAm
Because real journalism costs money to produce.

~~~
komali2
It's blocked behind a registration which is free. How does someone registering
for the site get them money?

~~~
bduerst
This article specifically isn't free after registration, unless you are a paid
subscriber. I think WSJ makes some of their articles free after a week, but I
could be mistaken.

------
NLips
This title has had the exclamation mark after 'back' removed, making it hard
to parse.

Are exclamation marks automatically removed? If so, can someone replace with a
full stop?

------
baybal2
Microsoft is so uncool

------
floopidydoopidy
How much does it cost to buy an article in WSJ?

~~~
Paul_S
A good lunch is probably enough.

