The Coming Microsoft Cultural Revolution

http://www.cringely.com/2014/07/15/coming-microsoft-cultural-revolution/

by rfreytag • 12 years ago

55 51 12 years ago

kvb2• 12 years ago

Given the content, I can't tell if the allusion to the disastrous Chinese Cultural Revolution is intended or not. It seems more like Cringely's actually talking about changing Microsoft's culture, which makes the title quite poor.

pessimizer• 12 years ago

That was the intention of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, too. It failed in the long term, but from the perspective of its architects, most of what we call its disasters were actually its successes.

JoeAltmaier• 12 years ago

Mass starvation? Technological stagnation? Which success are you referring to?

corprew• 12 years ago

I think you can assume that was his goal (an indirect reference to the cultural revolution that works in the way you say.)

chiph• 12 years ago

Mobile-First, Cloud-First

I dunno. I see this as "devices and services" rephrased.

sp332• 12 years ago

Services maybe, but I took "mobile" to mean mobile apps and not so much hardware.

Zigurd• 12 years ago

You put your finger right on the danger there. It could mean anything from "We're, selling off all the hardware, replacing Windows Phone with an AOSP-based system, like Amazon's, and implementing all our mobile apps for iOS and Android, and doubling the resources on our Azure/Bing ecosystem" to "We're keeping everything, laying off a few people to get another bump-up from Wall St., and muddling through."

sz4kerto• 12 years ago

I don't think so, especially because Nadella specifically mentioned that D&S is not the governing principle (well, he didn't say that exactly, but almost). What Mobile-First means to me is that mobile is _the_ platform, and being present on portable devices is the key to survival for Microsoft (and don't forget, almost every end-user device is portable, including dockable mobile workstations). That means that MS cannot afford risking not being present on dominant mobile operating systems, for example -- it would be stupid to risk the survival of the company and only push stuff on Windows Phone, for example.

Other than that, I disagree with the article on a many points.

Microsoft’s tradition of innovation is hard to even detect, much less celebrate or revive.

The tradition of innovation is there -- see Microsoft Research, one of the best funded institutes. The tradition of polish is not there. Microsoft has produced tablet PCs, smartphones, voice and handwriting recognition, mapping, and so on. It has a bad record of taking stuff out from R&D departments and delivering them to end users in a neat and easy-to-use way.

I don’t mean to be a pedant but which is it — mobile first or cloud first? Only one thing can be first.

I think the opposite: the two goes together hand in hand, and cannot really live without each other. That's the big problem of Apple: they are not that good in cloud services, and a phone (or a tablet) increasingly relies on cloud services. Google is mostly winning the mobile war because it's cloud services. It's the cloud services why Google can release Android for free, it's them why many iOS users slowly gravitate towards Android ('because Google stuff works better'), it's them why many people don't want Windows Phone ('I don't use too many apps but I need Google Maps and GMail').

revscat2• 12 years ago

The tradition of innovation is there -- see Microsoft Research, one of the best funded institutes... Microsoft has produced tablet PCs, smartphones, voice and handwriting recognition, mapping, and so on.

I don't see how you can claim Microsoft has been innovative, ever. Windows was a reaction to the Macintosh, the Zune was a reaction to the iPod, C# was a reaction to Java, IIS to Apache, Surface to iPad, MSN to AOL, MS Money to Quicken, XBox to PlayStation, Bing to Google, Internet Explorer to Netscape Navigator, Excel to Lotus 1-2-3, DOS to CP/M, Windows Phone to iPhone, Azure to AWS, etc., etc.

Microsoft's history is a long list of occasionally successful (but mostly not) efforts at me-too-ing the competition. In the 90s this worked -- occasionally -- because they were able to enter those markets and dominate from their sheer size. Now, however, it does not. In any case, I cannot think of a market that Microsoft created or a product that they introduced that has seen success since the 1990's.

Google is mostly winning the mobile war because it's cloud services.

I don't understand this at all. Apple is making the lion's share of profit in mobile. Last time I checked, Google wasn't making much money form Android at all.

gtaylor3• 12 years ago

This article is so bitter and dismissive of Microsoft that I have a hard time even taking it seriously.

"Nadella begins at the altar of innovation, a word that at Microsoft has traditionally meant stealing technology. Of course he is the company cheerleader to some extent but Microsoft’s tradition of innovation is hard to even detect, much less celebrate or revive. This is revisionist history. Can he really believe it’s true?"

Seriously? We're going to poopoo them stealing tech and completely dismiss everything they've ever done? I guess Apple/Google/IBM/HP get a pass...

I'm a Linux fanboy first and foremost, so I don't exactly view MS with rose colored glasses. With that said, regardless of how they did it, MS has left a mark on the world. Show me a huge tech company that doesn't "steal tech" or engage in anti-competitive practices. That doesn't make it OK, but completely dismissing MS's history seems silly.

If the author missed the mark this bad on what Microsoft is and has done, I have a hard time taking him seriously when talking about the future.

dsschnau• 12 years ago

Agreed. This writer is just being a dick to stir up controversy. Microsoft has a lot of potential and what looks like good leadership from their new CEO. I think and hope things will go well for them.

sheetjs• 12 years ago

This writer is just being a dick to stir up controversy

You clicked, ad shown (Ghostery claims there are Amazon ads), mission accomplished

icantthinkofone4• 12 years ago

What Microsoft has done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor...

gtaylor3• 12 years ago

Nobody here is denying that they've done bad things, but name a public tech giant that hasn't done stupid/bad things. They all suck. They answer to profit, first and foremost. They're going to bend rules and push the limits in the name of making a few pennies for their shareholders.

Apple does it, Google does it, IBM does it, Amazon does it, they all do skeezy things in the name of profit. MS isn't special in this regard.

wernercd• 12 years ago

Woosh. That's the sound of you being a complete retard.

The post you are replying to even mentions anti-competitive practices.

Pay attention? DESPITE faults (like anti-competitive behavior), MS has changed the world...

What company hasn't made mistakes?

wnevets• 12 years ago

I stopped reading after that line. It was so silly and wrong I couldnt bear finish it.

mathattack• 12 years ago

I don't see it as so bad, given how much others have written Microsoft off. I think their stock performance highlights how little they've done to build on their legacy and expectations. Now they have a chance. When I read the following, I don't see it in nearly as negative a light as others.

The reality here that Nadella — to his credit — at least alludes to, is that the playing field is now level, the score is 0-0 (or more likely 0-0-0-0-0) and for Microsoft to win they’ll have to play hard, play fair, and win on their merits. And that’s what leads into the discussion of culture and how the company will do anything it must to succeed. “Nothing is off the table,” Nadella wrote. This is the most important part of the message and, indeed, is probably the only part that really matters.

venomsnake• 12 years ago

Decent windows on unlocked devices with root and sideloading to the users. Still a winning idea.

ape4• 12 years ago

It would nice if they don't follow Android and iOS by having everything totally locked down. (Unless you root or jail break). They can see Microsoft give you flexibility, freedom.

keithwarren2• 12 years ago

I almost gave up when he said "I don’t mean to be a pedant but which is it — mobile first or cloud first? Only one thing can be first."

If you don't recognize that those are two different areas then you are either dense, or being intentionally contrarian. Given the earlier statements he made it is clear the latter is certainly true and quite possibly the former as well.

rimantas• 12 years ago

It has nothing to do with the areas being different or similar. The point is that only one thing can be the first.

jbigelow763• 12 years ago

They are two sides of the same coin. What use (aside from the incredibly useful feature of making actual phone calls) is a smartphone if there aren't services in the cloud that account for the "smart" part?

keithwarren2• 12 years ago

You would have a case if he said PC first, Phone first as they are both client consumption mediums.

Mobile first, cloud first is a rehashing of spector if priority for their devices and services. They are saying when we build new versions of Windows or Office we will put the priority on mobile devices. When we build server software, the focus will first be on our cloud varieties.

Take for example Service Bus, software they make for Windows Server and their cloud offering. New features are added first to the cloud offering and later trickle down to the licensed on-premise version.

motters• 12 years ago

I don't really care what Microsoft is doing. I don't use any of their products. I don't intend to in future either. It took me years to fully extricate myself from the disaster zone which was Microsoft Windows, and having done that I have no desire to return.

pistle• 12 years ago

Amen! I didn't read the post either! Take that WINDOZE!

CmonDev2• 12 years ago

Typical *nix closed-box thinking.

leo_mck• 12 years ago

I just read the comments on posts with "Microsoft" on the title so I can laugh at the people who says "I do not care about microsoft" (but I am here commenting on a topic about it anyway).

craigching• 12 years ago

In the comments there is a link to a critique that I think hits the nail on the head:

http://www.mondaynote.com/2014/07/13/microsofts-new-ceo-need...

vfclists• 12 years ago

The only thing that will keep Microsoft and Apple going in the consumer markets over the next few years are patents and binary blobs. Once chips become fast enough and non-free drivers become irrelevant their days will be over.

Already a $150 smartphone contains as much CPU power as a desktop of 5 years ago. Add a keyboard and attach it to big screen, presto you have a desktop. Their days are over and they are living on sales hype and clever apps.

Once developer lock in ends, thats it for them.

CmonDev2• 12 years ago

Already a $150 smartphone contains as much CPU power as a desktop of 5 years ago. Add a keyboard and attach it to big screen, presto you have a desktop.

Microsoft is working on unifying their OS versions. Please catch up.

The Coming Microsoft Cultural Revolution

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