
Restart: Microsoft in the age of Satya Nadella - phatboyslim
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/microsoft-nadella/
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kevinqi
I don't know how much of it has been Nadella, but I've been impressed by
everything I've heard about Microsoft the last few months - open sourcing
.NET, adopting new platforms, this holographic tech and the free Windows 10
upgrade. If this is anything to go by, Nadella is going to do great things at
MS.

~~~
jordanpg
Most of it sounds like run-of-the-mill new products to me. Might be good,
might not. Unlikely to make waves in either case.

The open sourcing of .NET is the real news and as far as I'm concerned, the
jury is still out on what that actually means for the world. Don't know about
you, but I'll be sticking with JVM langs until I see a CLR for OSX on MS's
download page.

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suprgeek
Everything I hear from friends at MS was positive (atleast until they
shuttered the lab in Mountain View). More than anything else the rise in
morale among Softies has been almost unbelievable.

Steve Ballmer hurt Microsoft in many insidious ways that may not be visible in
the numbers - but hurt Microsoft he did. I once had the opportunity or
misfortune to hear him speak about the cloud (~2011) and it was clear to
everyone there that he had no-firckin idea what he was mouthing about - it was
cringe-worthy. He was the epitome of Hubris & Cluelessness.

Satya seems to be making the right moves embracing open source, making MS
office for tablets, Windows 10 for free upgrades, Substantial investments in
Azure, A new Device focus - I heard the Microsoft Band team were given a Blank
slate and told to go nuts (mostly).

There seem to be a number of other interesting things brewing...

~~~
ekianjo
> Satya seems to be making the right moves embracing open source

Let's not get carried away. You can't say "Embracing" when only very few of
their products or libraries are actually Open. They are still a business
massively based on DRMs and Proprietary Software and Technologies.

~~~
capkutay
I don't know why you're being down-voted. I think all their core consumer and
enterprise products are proprietary and expensive. Maybe they contribute to
open source as PR or something...but they certainly aren't 'Embracing' with
their wallet. Not that it's a bad thing.

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mandeepj
Satya Nadella will complete his first anniversary as CEO next month. I am sure
all these nice things Hololens, Windows 10 , Band etc did not got started and
ready-to-be-released within a year.

~~~
saosebastiao
He's worked there since 1992. Are you saying that he couldn't have possibly
had an impact on anything at Microsoft until he became CEO? I mean, he's held
VP-level positions for at least a decade.

~~~
mandeepj
He was more on the enterprise side

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JacobAldridge
_" The release of Microsoft’s Skype Translator, which translates multilingual
conversations in real time, is an early success."_

Is it just me who has seen loads on the updates to Google Translate but never
heard about this?

If not, then that suggests that shifting media perception about Microsoft will
be critical, and isn't there yet (this piece will help). Only when the media
(bloggers and mainstream) filter Microsoft announcements through a context of
'they do innovative exciting things' will product and feature releases garner
the publicity Microsoft needs to change the broader public perception.

~~~
staunch
Real artists ship. Microsoft obviously has plenty of good ideas but their
execution is always lacking. I see nothing different about what Nadella is
doing. If anything he seems more inclined towards flashy bs and talk over
shipping.

Microsoft:

> _" You could be one of the first to experience Skype Translator. All you
> need to do is sign up to be a preview user and we will keep you posted on
> what comes next."_

[http://www.skype.com/en/translator-
preview/](http://www.skype.com/en/translator-preview/)

Google:

> _" What's New in Version 3.1.0 • Word Lens: Just point your camera to a sign
> or text and the Translate app will instantly translate the text, even
> without Internet/data connection. • Automatic language detection in
> speech/conversation mode - start translating with speech input and Translate
> will recognize which of the two languages is being spoken, allowing you to
> have a more fluid conversation with another person."_

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-
translate/id414706506...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-
translate/id414706506?mt=8)

~~~
stevecalifornia
This has been in Windows Phone 8 since it came out.

~~~
afsina
Voice to Voice translation for multiple languages? Citation needed.

~~~
stevecalifornia
It also does voice to voice. I speak into my phone, it types it out,
translates it to whatever language then speaks it in that language. It's a
travelling app that they don't seem to advertise. It also does the augmented
reality translation someone else posted about.

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q2
One thing that surprised me is, how common it is having secret, confidential,
access-restricted rooms/facilities at American technology companies, where new
technology/products are developed. We read in the tech press, how much
secretive Apple is. Even this article, mentions confidential room related
thing in the beginning of the article itself. It seems, tech industry
implicitly consider the presence of secret/confidential
rooms/facilities/projects as a badge of honour.It is more surprising, given
American political leaders speak of free or open society unlike closed ones
like North Korea (perception-wise).

I get the impression that, as a society, you want to be open but in the
industry, you want to be closed/highly secretive and in personal life, privacy
is preferred. (i.e. not open/sharing all aspects). This appears contradicting
each other and it suggests that, guiding principle is not openness/freedom
itself but selecting profitable/suitable style and spreading forcibly across
the globe.

Many countries/cultures cannot really comprehend these sharp edges/changes and
this partly explains the tensions/conflicts in the world.

~~~
andrewfong
The distinction isn't open vs. closed so much as voluntary vs. involuntary.
The point of a free society is that if I _want_ to share my secrets, I'm
allowed to do so, and if I _don 't_ want to share those secrets, I'm also
allowed to do so. It's my choice.

In contrast, in a place like North Korea, there isn't quite the same level of
choice. Censorship prohibits me from saying certain things and surveillance
makes it difficult to hide other things, regardless of whether I want to or
not.

That said, you could certainly argue (and many have argued) that a company
placing onerous restrictions on what its employees can say or do is contrary
to the principles of an open society, the implication being that the power
dynamics in a employment relationship make restrictions on employees less than
voluntary.

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h43k3r
This all seems to be a result of Satya and the restructuring of Microsoft.

------
sidcool
This statement had me thinking a bit:

>it’s the first major test of whether Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, can
restore the company’s long-dormant reputation for innovation and creativity.

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marak830
A little off topic, but after that puff piece about the new Microsoft
headset/aug reality I'm not sure if I really trust wired :s

Although I do agree Microsoft is going a much better direction than with
balmer.

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nether
He should become CEO of Apple.

~~~
nether
Lol @ downvotes. We all know Cook is dead in the water.

------
CrazyCatDog
Don't be confused, Win10 will be sold as a service: "free in the first year"
will make it very difficult to re-win-d back to win7 or win8 once uncle
Nadella starts threatening to brick your pc lest you start paying.

New vision: Two paid subscriptions (O365 + Win10), accessed from every desk
and every home...and (unfortunately) 1 of every 10M phones

~~~
aceperry
If MS threatens something like that, you'll probably see a large scale
migration to desktop linux.

------
fidotron
This "Microsoft Missed Mobile" meme should die in a fire. They didn't so much
miss it as fail to deliver anything anyone wanted in the space, except for
their most extreme fanboys, for about 15 years. Bill Gates famously went
absolutely nuts about Symbian and considered them a giant threat to the
company. It really didn't help.

On the strength of today Nadella hasn't reined in the Windows group anything
like enough. Clearly too much of the same management as presided over Windows
8 remains. They would have been better off producing Windows 7.5 than this. A
good start would be to accept that the Live Tiles might have been a nice
design project, but have completely failed in the wild. The same goes for the
ludicrous swipe on sidebars.

So I'm calling it now: Windows 10 is another turkey. Not as bad as 8, but
Windows 7 has got a new lease of life.

This is a shame because the world could do with Windows 10 actually being
good, and Azure and the Microsoft services are close to best in class (Office
365 has stopped Google in it's tracks) but today they demonstrated they still
have that inability to score from an open goal.

~~~
stevenjohns
Windows 8(.1) is great and I've used it since it was released. Going back to
Windows 7 is seriously slows down my productivity in almost every way and I
find it fairly inhibiting. I can see how from an administration standpoint it
becomes difficult, but as an independent user there is absolutely very little
wrong with it and it is miles ahead of Windows 7.

Talking specifically about live tiles: I love that I am able to hit the
Super/Windows key and immediately see an overview of all of the information I
care about. This includes notes, emails, weather, calender and stocks. I don't
see how it failed at all-- it's wonderful.

I think this "Windows 8 sucks" meme should die in a fire, because it's grossly
inaccurate at best. And this is coming from someone who primarily uses an OS
X-inspired GNU/Linux distro (Elementary OS) as a daily operating system.

~~~
jordanpg
This custom homepage idea has been around since Google Home and probably any
number of internet portals before that.

MS's version just ropes you into the MS App Store ecosystem. Found anything
you want to download there recently?

~~~
nightski
It does nothing of the sort. I use the start screen all the time and none of
the apps on it are MS App Store apps.

