"I know now why you cry. But it's something I can never do."
As icon.
Bill Gates today delivered an emotional speech to the Microsoft shareholders, choking up as he described his history with the company and the search for a successor for his friend Steve Ballmer. "We've got a commitment to see that the next CEO is the right person, for the right time, for the company we both love," said Gates, …
if you really mean this:
"We share a commitment that Microsoft will succeed as a company that makes the world a better place."
Then you need to stop your company acting like total scumbags in every corner of your business. You need to make products people want, not tricking them into buying your products by badmouthing the competition.
You need to invest in ENGINEERING rather than viral marketing.
"We share a commitment that Microsoft will succeed as a company that makes the world a better place."
For those not long in the tooth, one thing MS did create for 'normal' people was that computers crash and it is normal. Secondly, it got 'normal' users to expect computer virii (spelling?), worms and trojans (MS created the whole anti-virus business by accident!).
And, of course:
http://www.catb.org/esr/halloween/halloween1.html
Let alone the committee stuffing to get an ISO on the document format.
"Make the world a better place" Yeah? Just for MS people, that's who.
Windows 8.1 has done lots of stuff that is for no benefit other than mobile.
(Don't get why they didn't just only enable that stuff when something was running from a battery).
For me it has caused loads more hassle than the upgrade from 7-8
(The workaround for the mouse issues is probably more complicated than anything I have had to do since the Windows 3.1 days just to get individual apps to work).
We share a commitment that Microsoft will succeed as a company that makes the world a better place.
Sorry Bill, but that is just pure, unadulterated bullshit.
<rant_mode>
Virtually everything MS has ever done has caused the world to be a worse place. The only people who have benefited from the actions that Microsoft have taken over their 38 year history are the upper managment types in MS and their early investors.
The number of companies that have been destroyed by the ruthless, illegal and downright immoral activities of MS are legion. of course for every company destroyed there have been countless *people* whose lives have been adversely affected due to their attachments to those companies.
Even if you were not directly affected by Microsofts bullying rampages through the IT industry there are billions of other people today who have been raised with uneccessarily low expectations about computers based on their ignorant assumptions that computers have to be buggy, malware infested shitfights that they are because due to Microsofts rampant market bullying almost every computer sold on the planet by default has a crappy, bug ridden, malware magnet OS installed on it.
Every person who has ever purchased a PC and been forced to purchase a MS product along with it has been ripped off.
This lack of consumer choice and forced purchasing of substandard software has done immeasurable harm to the fledgling IT industry, and all for the sole purpose of lining the pockets of sharks like Gates and Ballmer.
For that man to stand there and make such a statement with a straight face is a total disgrace.
Being a ruthless, money grubbing worm is one thing. Pretending you are making the world a better place while you do it is entirely another.
</rant_mode>
Yes, MS have been marketing and legal scumbags, but, they *helped* bring computing to the masses.
What was it like in the early 90's?
There were competing OSs (MS-DOS, O/S2, Windows, UNIX (of various flavours itself), VMS etc), productivity suites (MS Office, although it was separate programs in the early 90s, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3 Wordstar etc) and no unified way to do anything.
MS and their very clever strategies effectively killed the competition but let the masses get their hands on cheap(ish) easy to use computers with a common UI.
I know, I know. Most of what they did was pure evil, but do you really think that we would have the computing environment we have today if it wasn't for the single mindedness of Gates?
In the 2000s MS seemed to stand still. Yes, they still released newer versions of their software, but most of it was rubbish (even XP needed two service packs to become good). Linux gained ground and seemed poised to take over, but the SCO <del>investment by MS</del> controversy tainted Linux, so many corporations didn't give it a first thought, let alone a second.
Now MS is realising, possibly too late, that the new wave of computing is leaving it behind.
Corporate buyers will still buy MS, but BYOD may well kill that off in the next 10 years or so. MS may just become the new Novell.
It's time that El Reg mirrored the appropriate image for this article onto its site.
"The Internet is the Home Shoplifting Network" - Gates
"The iPhone is a sea of icons! It will only sell single digit market sales." - Ballmer
"Android is so complicated, you need a Computer Science degree to use it." - Ballmer
"Not impressed with the iPad, don't think it will be successful like the iPhone." - Gates
It's time for the old guard to leave. They just don't get it. I for one found Gates crying a positive sign for Microsoft, as they are finally letting go. Just... let... it go. Time for a younger leadership.
But that would spoil all the fun...
Also doubtful whether there are any "young leaders" wanting to go into "battle" with the antique weapons in the MS arsenal of turds which are poorly designed, insecure, vulnerable, high maintenance anachronisms that continually misfire, lock-up and crash...
MS is legacy... like IBM mainframes... the world has moved on... the "young leaders" are busy polishing a new generation of products that are poorly designed, insecure, vulnerable, high maintenance turds that are destined to be anachronisms.
Seems the only option is to ride the "cash cow" into the ground... and I think they know that - hence the tears... so unbuckle your belt... drop your pants... bend over... and be prepared to be shafted... again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
Basically, IT is good at two things:
1) Continually reinventing the "square wheel".
2) Extracting as much cash as possible before the "square wheels" fall off.
Yeah, except that:
- The Internet kind of *is* the home shoplifting network, but while the shoplifters think they are getting away with something, they are actually paying Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. for whatever they thought they were getting for "free".
- The IPhone *is* a bit of a sea of icons, Pretty much anything that uses icons, from Macs to Windoze to mobes, ultimately becomes a sea of icons.
- Android is complicated to the point that you would need a CS degree to understand what privacy you are giving up every time you install or update an app. Not that Android is alone in that critique, I'm just sayin'...
- iPads (and tablets in general) are successful, but they are only impressive to the "point-and-grunt" generation.
Younger leadership? How about just *leadership*? Leave the ageism out of it.
We can only hope that the next person to come on board has common sense and the strength to say... "Let's clear this mess up" and drop this nightmare called Windows 8 and the Metro interface.
And, ignoring the obvious change required to get Windows 8 sorted out, I can only hope that Microsoft rethinks the decision to get rid of Small Business Server, clearly the biggest mistake they have ever made in all the years they have been going.
Gates' words from Feb 3, 1976: "Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software."
The thing is, we're still waiting for this mythical "good software" from Microsoft to arrive. I think this 38-year practical joke has run its course: it's no longer Halloween, and we've had the trick for 38 years, and still no treats.