[dba-Tech] Microsoft and its future

Peter Brawley peter.brawley at earthlink.net
Wed Sep 11 10:53:24 CDT 2013


On 2013-09-11 7:49 AM, Arthur Fuller wrote:
> Initially I shared your frustration with Windows 8, but after a few days
> and a reading of a free PDF I downloaded from somewhere called Windows 8
> User Guide, I found myself growing fond of it. One big deal was attaching
> an external monitor to my laptop, in stretch mode so both the built-in and
> external were regarded as a single monitor. The aforementioned Guide taught
> me a very important keystroke: a single tap on the Windows key, which
> invokes a Win7-style desktop. Hence the beauty of having a pair of
> monitors: I dragged the whole Win7 desktop to the external monitor and left
> the tiles on the built-in.
>
> Most of my work and tools are Win7-era, but once I'd installed all the
> usual suspects (Office, NoteTab, Alpha Anywhere, SQL Server, MySQL etc.),
> most of which In pinned to the taskbar, and from then on I was a very happy
> camper. I guess you could colour me Converted.

If an accomplished Windows developer couldn't master its basics in a few 
days, Win8 wouldn't have made it out of beta. Presumably corporations 
that have married themselves to Microsoft give Win8 training sessions to 
users. I'm writing from the perspective of a longtime individual 
non-techie user (my wife) who didn't expect to have to take classes to 
continue using Windows as her OS. For many such people, Win8 is 
somewhere between chronically annoying and infuriating.

PB

-----

>
> Arthur
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 12:23 AM, Peter Brawley <peter.brawley at earthlink.net
>> wrote:
>> We have one 'puter running Win 8. Despite its prettiness, it made a
>> terrible first impression. Once we got round the idiocies of the
>> unswipeable Metro UI modelled on a swipeable UI, Win 8 didn't seem all that
>> bad.
>>
>> After a couple of months of trying to help my wife find the stuff she
>> needs in Win 8, I wish I could throw the machine in the lake.
>>
>> Windows 8.1 was supposed to fix some of worst Win 8 problems. It doesn't (
>> http://www.infoworld.com/d/**microsoft-windows/windows-81-**
>> review-new-version-same-mess-**226510<http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/windows-81-review-new-version-same-mess-226510>
>> ).
>>
>> The utter cluelessness of the Win 8 design and unfix 8.1 doesn't argue
>> that Microsoft will or should have a bright future.
>>
>> PB
>>
>> -----
>>
>>
>> On 2013-09-10 9:36 PM, Hans-Christian Andersen wrote:
>>
>>> I honestly don't see a brighter future for Microsoft - especially if they
>>> promote a CEO from within, like Stephen Elop. Even the mere suggestion that
>>> they are considering Elop raises some serious questions about what really
>>> happened at Nokia and Elops/Microsofts role in the matter.
>>>
>>> Never the less, Microsoft is so stuck on the old business model of the
>>> Microsoft OEM tax and MS Office, that, unless they break the company apart,
>>> everything will always be held back by those concerns. The Xbox division of
>>> Microsoft is a perfect example and a rare one too. From what I've read,
>>> they were given a lot of freedom to make their own decisions compared to
>>> other parts of the company. Ballmer or any of the other usual misfit
>>> executives were not directly involved in that division and, as a
>>> consequence, the Xbox did quite well and has an enthusiastic fan base. Now
>>> compare that to mostly every other new consumer market Microsoft has pushed
>>> into lately? MP3 devices, pre-iPad tablets and the Surface, smartphones
>>> (before and after WP7), etc.
>>>
>>> Rather than a DEC, I can imagine Microsoft becoming like IBM. What MS
>>> does well is software and integrating software. They don't do hardware well
>>> and they are even worse as a platform monopoly. It's is part of why they
>>> are struggling in this brave new world.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>> Hans-Christian Andersen
>>>
>>>
>>> On 10 Sep 2013, at 11:12, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>>   Microsoft for many years played it safe.
>>>> Safe, in that it did not get invested heavily in commodity market
>>>> (selling hardware). It has done well with the XBox but so far its latest
>>>> ventures can not be said to have been that successful.
>>>>
>>>> In the late seventies and early eighties, I worked exclusively with the
>>>> two largest computer companies in the world. IBM and DEC (VAX). DEC made
>>>> the first 64bit PC computer and our office bought one for only 15K...a UNIX
>>>> box. For a short time, while in my own business, I even sold Compac
>>>> computers (I even sold AST). In the mid-nineties DEC crashed, was sold off
>>>> to Compac which followed suit shortly after. Even today I still find that
>>>> amazing...amazing that a company, originally so large and successful (with
>>>> an excellent virtual OS) should just crash, burn and then disappear.
>>>>
>>>> In the following link, the article draws close comparisons between
>>>> Microsoft and DEC and the author feels a note of caution should be
>>>> seriously observed. IMHO, Microsoft should be taking some serious courses
>>>> and learning lessons from recent history.
>>>>
>>>> http://www.computerworld.com/**s/article/9242253/Decline_of_**
>>>> Digital_Equipment_offers_**lessons_for_Microsoft<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9242253/Decline_of_Digital_Equipment_offers_lessons_for_Microsoft>
>>>>
>>>> Aside: Do not get me wrong; I do not dislike Microsoft, in fact they
>>>> have been very very good to me, but I truly believe that Steve Balmer was
>>>> the worse thing that could have happen to MS and the damage he has done to
>>>> the company may have not run its full course, yet. I still believe
>>>> Microsoft will survive all this but it is going to be a bumpy ride.
>>>>
>>>> Jim
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