Microsoft's Nadella: Congratulations on 12 months of not being Steve Ballmer It’s Satya Nadella’s first year as chief executive of the world’s largest software company. What has happened during that time? My Reg colleague Neil McAllister listed the notable developments here earlier today. Over the past 12 months, we've seen Windows 10 as a preview; Office for iOS, Android and even HoloLens; a new …
Microsoft are much worse lately in my opinion, trying to force the crap that is Windows 10 (still in BETA in my opinion) on everyone.
I wanted to use a local account on two Microsoft Surface pros (3 and 4) and both regularly lost their windows store apps, one by one in no particular order. No one knows why and it still happens. It's known about, remains unfixed so I am not alone with this. Even the start menu disappeared one day, along with the "Action Center"...
( I'm sure I've seen this somewhere else in a different earlier OS, name beginning with "A")
... so much for bringing back the Start Menu.
Yes they did bring back the Start Menu, but it's not a patch on the "proper" one from Windows 7 and previous.
Windows 7, was Vista fixed properly and what Vista should have been. I thought Microsoft had learned something. No such hope. Yes they've been giving Windows 10 away, but like a sore thumb or a pain in the posterior, that's what it represents. A complete pile of crock.
Have Microsoft fixed this problem with disappearing "Windows Store" apps, on their flagship hardware running their flagship OS ? Nope. I would have thought this would have been at the top of the list to deal with. It started off with that ridiculous 1511 update which was stupidly equivalent to a windows 10 re-install, and hasn't stopped since. Even the store app stops working along with the start menu. Windows 10 was OK (ish) before that update.
The only solution I've found is to use system restore. But then it's hard to install anything on the machine. Maybe I should just pretend it's Windows 7, after putting a 3rd party start menu on it. The sad thing is, that I actually LIKE some of those store apps. Not for SERIOUS use you understand but some of them are handy. But when "One Note" (yes I gave it my MS account details) stops working without notice, along with "Photos" it's time to give up I think. Meanwhile in my office my Windows 7 i5 dev machine now well over three years old rolls on and on since the day it was bought, without any issues whatsoever.
Software as a service ? I question that Microsoft is even competent to provide such a thing when so many updates break so much. Windows 10 1511 update also broke two of our creations, when Win32 DefineDosDevice API function started to behave in a seriously undocumented way by returning error 6 when called from a service. Last I checked it wasn't fixed. We had to write a work around in the kernel and so far so good.
But Windows 10 is (in my opinion) a mess and will break an app favoured by you in due course.
As for me, I'm seriously considering embracing Linux.
As for Mr Nadella, well I've seen Microsoft get more arrogant and less capable under his leadership, and if I had any shares it would be a priority to get rid of them as soon as possible.
Even the tech support guy I was talking to, told me he still has Windows 7 on his machine at home. Now why on earth would that be ? Now Microsoft are somehow persuading the CPU manfuacturers to make sure Windows 7 and before aren't supported, well before the end of life of Windows 7.
Isn't that (or shouldn't that be) a matter for the chip manufactures ?
Has Mr Nadella anything to do with that too ? I suppose with his $millions he can afford to make a mess. Some of us can't afford to live with that mess though.
Sorry about the rant. But Windows 10 is the pits. Worse even, than Vista, Worse than Windows ME.
Simple: The other article was well-informed, carefully structured, considered and genuinely worth reading. This one wasn't.
For example, Gavin confidently states that Ballmer would find making Office for non-Windows OSes 'unconscionable'... despite the fact that it's pretty obvious from timing alone that Ballmer was still CEO when the call was made, and inside sources cited in the other article make it clear Ballmer was one of the driving forces behind it. Meanwhile, much of this article reads like a first-year student's lecture notes - disjointed sentences, meaningless digressions, hypothetical questions with only the most oblique connection to the rest of the piece and no conclusions beyond the most mind-numbingly obvious in sight. It's like the author came up with the 'congats' title, thought it was funny, and then didn't really have an article to follow it up with...
No, no it isn't an OS.
It is a set of application libraries. An OS provides an interface between applications and software. An OS provides an abstraction of the hardware so that applications don't need to be programmed for each hardware instance. Windows does this, but for MS, it is mostly user-space application libraries which allow MS to drive version upgrades.
Saying Windows is an OS, is like saying the purpose of commercial TV is to show dramas, comedies and documentaries. It isn't. The purpose of TV is to make profit, which it does by selling advertising and/or subscriptions. The programmes are just the vehicle.
Exchange Server needs Powershell does it? But, doesn't MS write powershell? Powershell is a shell, not the OS, if Exchange needs it, why doesn't the company include it? The OS does things like memory allocation, CPU scheduling etc, I'd be surprised if Exchange needs a specific CPU scheduler or memory allocation mechanism. So if Exchange needs powershell, MS has bundled half the application into the OS and half into the Exchange license and charges you for both. Then it runs an alternating upgrade program between the "OS" part of the application and the licensed part of the application, upgrading half the app at a time; forcing applications to expire because the "OS" has been upgraded.
Its Friday - I shouldn't rant so much....
The subs will pull in more than the previous licensing model would. I'm not so sure it will pull in as much as the previous licensing model has done, in the past though. The reason being that software has matured, like hardware. People are quite happy with Office 2010 and probably wouldn't bother upgrading if left to their own devices. Subs get around that problem. The question then becomes, how many (companies) will jump ship from Office altogether? The answer is, "not many" in the short term. The danger for MS is that if people do jump from Office, they have almost certainly gone, not to Symphony or Corel or Groupwise, but to open-source, which is likely to spread through the organisation's infrastructure. Even if the customer is paying for open-source support, it is likely to open up a world of options and skunkworks projects that MS doesn't want. Unlike other commercial offerings, FLOSS software can be rolled out in parallel with MS, without the license cost barrier that makes companies nervous about switching commercial providers.
If I were a large organisation, I'd be throwing money at some selected FLOSS projects, asking for specific features which I feel I need. More integration between LibreOffice and Sharepoint perhaps, some simple rsync-explorer/dolphin/file manager integration; simple version control integration with automated version increments and a purge facility. It would be nice to see some larger consumer companies take on open source responsibilities rather than just wait around for things to happen.
"No, no it isn't an OS. It is a set of application libraries."
Quite clearly it is. Most alternative OSs also include similar libraries / APIs.
"An OS provides an interface between applications and software."
Nope: "An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is a component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs usually require an operating system to function."
"if Exchange needs it, why doesn't the company include it?"
Because Powershell is already provided as a free download - or as an optional component when you install the underlying OS - just like say IIS Server - another optional OS component also used by Exchange. Exchange needs lots of different services that are provided by the OS and associated features. PowerShell is not specific to Exchange.
"forcing applications to expire because the "OS" has been upgraded."
Utter rubbish. Windows Server and Exchange have well defined product lifecycles - generally over a decade - that do not depend on subsequent product releases - and extended support is also available.
Well, that was a very high price for digital Lego. I read the other article where it was explained in "marketing speech" why it was a 'wise' (ROFLMAO) decision ... I guess that with less than 500k you can build a much better minecraft clone - after all, it is just a remake of a 1980's game, anyway - the only difference being the open world side of things.
Minecraft has the poorest graphics I have seen in almost 15 years and requires gazillion resources doing just that, display a pixelated, artifact-ridden world. I guess it is related to the JVM - it was not designed for proper hardware accelerated 3d graphics.
They probably paid 10000 times too much for that company.
"Minecraft has the poorest graphics I have seen in almost 15 years and requires gazillion resources doing just that, display a pixelated, artifact-ridden world. I guess it is related to the JVM - it was not designed for proper hardware accelerated 3d graphics."
Hence why Microsoft ported it to .Net and it's now much much faster.
The article says: "Nokia needs to turn into a success if Microsoft is serious about mobile phones and running Windows on those devices: Nokia is the only device maker shouldering Windows Phone, and Microsoft’s operating system is almost a market-share rounding error."
Nokia did make Windows Phone devices, but not anymore; Microsoft itself does. Microsoft did not buy Nokia from its shareholders -- insted, it bought the mobile phone division of Nokia from the company, which still exists, and remains a major telecommunications infrastructure equipment manufacturer.
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