
How Satya Nadella Has Changed Microsoft In 3 Months - aronvox
http://www.businessinsider.com/nadella-builds-new-microsoft-in-3-months-2014-5?IR=T
======
jljljl
I wonder how many of these major changes were decided on while Ballmer was
still in charge, and simply didn't take effect until Nadella's turn at CEO
began.

I also wonder how many of them were strategically delayed until a new CEO was
in office, to really underline the regime change nature of his promotion.

~~~
ryanburk
so I was at microsoft until recently and I can say that almost everything on
this list had nothing to do with the CEO change outside of him being on the
earnings call and the exec changes.

at a company as large as microsoft and after the billg era of constant product
reviews, most of these decisions were never "ballmer" decisions, they were
made by the folks who run their divisions. e.g. changes to windows for the
start menu in 8.1 update were made over a year ago and by folks working for
terry myerson, not ballmer and definitely not nadella.

~~~
yuhong
I have my own personal wishlist: [http://hal2020.com/2014/03/03/satya-
shuffles-his-leadership/...](http://hal2020.com/2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-
leadership/#comment-14856)

What do you think?

~~~
ryanburk
hal berenson is super smart and I think says it best in his reply to your
comment[1].

microsoft, just like google and apple and redhat and linkedin and facebook, is
a company - it is there to make money for shareholders. what they do to make
money and how they do it can be very different and cause disagreements. but I
think people don't always think of that when considering tech endeavors,
particularly when there is any entry in a market that is free.

[1] [http://hal2020.com/2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-
leadership/...](http://hal2020.com/2014/03/03/satya-shuffles-his-
leadership/#comment-15007)

~~~
yuhong
Well, at least some of this stuff was unethical, for example OOXML.

This wishlist was partly inspired by this comment BTW:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7281319](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7281319)

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richardlblair
Microsoft has always had a diverse product offering (outside of windows) with
Office, dev tools, entertainment (xbox), and now cloud services.

What Nadella realizes is that not every device needs to run windows, they all
just need to run the diverse software microsoft offers. I was at the bar last
night and I overheard a group of like 10 people (all over 40) talking about
how awesome office 365 is. People, at the bar, talking about office 365...
This alone is big because Office accounts for a large amount of microsoft's
revenue.

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pistle
Serendipity. For the past 3 years, movement has been coming to a couple recent
waves of watershed moments. It has taken a long time for insiders - many
related to Scott Gu's organization, but also included numerous (maybe even
legions) other proponents of openness and "happy dev story" folks who all
wanted to go in this direction.

There has been leadership from within the ranks for a while.

It's to the point where the overall story is objectively compelling and move
shave been made to adjust the footing and direction which enable now to be.

There couldn't be now without everything that's been baked into the web
landscape (great strides in shortening cadence and solid foundations to
support that quicker responsiveness), cloud tooling and infrastructure
(Azure), Win+8/Xbox One/RT/WinPhone8+ etc which refactored the OSs to support
and drive the momentum, etc.

People could complain along the way about each piece, but, organizationally,
under Ballmer's reign transformation was taking place.

Sinofsky is a great example. He did drive Windows (and indirectly Office)
changes with which people weren't necessarily happy. But, the foundations were
solid and the talent undeniable. From there, we get here.

The blossoms are coming out now, and the benefits are widely being
appreciated. But plowing, sowing of seeds, and feeding the plants and sprouts
is all coming together.

It's a good time for everyone. A strong, more open Microsoft is good for
driving Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. to continue their drive. Competition is
good for us all, even if we don't all get sold on any one team's garden.

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brown9-2
_He convinced developers to create more apps for Windows 8 and Windows Phone
by offering them what is known as the "Holy Grail" in app development, tools
that let an app developer write the app once and easily convert it to all
Windows versions (Windows 8, Windows Phone and Xbox) and also to iOS and
Android._

That seems like the sort of thing that needs much much more time, and data, to
actually judge.

~~~
adventured
Yep, it's Business Insider, land of bogus lists that they never feel the need
to fact check.

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e40
"Microsoft said it would end the tactic of making Xbox users pay for an
upgraded Live Gold subscription just to use the entertainment features
included in the console."

Well, considering I didn't renew my Gold sub because the price almost doubled
(3 users for $99 to 3x$60), I'm not surprised. I think they made the move
because they realized they were losing subscribers because of it.

~~~
nivla
Honestly, are there people (techies) who buy Gold membership at the regular
price? Everytime my renewal rolls around, I search and find them around
$30-$35 online. Also with Xbox One doesn't MS allow one membership to be
shared among family members with different gamertags. [1]

[1] [http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/xbox-live/xbox-
live-g...](http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/xbox-live/xbox-live-gold-
sharing-features)

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onedev
This is probably a standard PR piece.

~~~
Dorian-Marie
Exactly what I thought: www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

~~~
sremani
I read that article from PG.This is not a submarine - it just a puff-piece by
20 somethings. There is no trying to paint the conversation like "suits are in
vogue again" to add stealth or mystic.

To fellow hacker news readers/posters - please do not post anything from BI,
they are most of time light on content and context.

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cracell
This article was terribly biased. Many of those decisions could go either way.
Stock price being up just means the company is being perceived more
positively. We'll see how this really plays out.

~~~
rbanffy
Stock would go up regardless of any other change. Just getting rid of Ballmer
was enough for that.

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gurkendoktor
IMHO one big challenge is missing from the list: He needs to convince the non-
US world that a centralised cloud (and internet of things) is a good idea. I
can see how that'll work for consumers who need to sync their contacts, but
will e.g. foreign governments move from classic Microsoft to Office 365
anytime soon? Does anyone have data on this?

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sssilver
I see most of those steps as being bad for Windows. I guess that has been one
reason Ballmer was resistant.

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pearjuice
Advertisement wall; didn't read. Can anyone mirror it?

~~~
rbanffy
Don't bother.

