Microsoft CEO Sees Company Becoming More Like Apple

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Noooooo! Say it isn't so Mr. Ballmer. :( Let's just hope this is a case of Reuters reading too much into what Microsoft's CEO said.

"There will be times when we build specific devices for specific purposes, as we have chosen to do with Xbox and the recently announced Microsoft Surface," wrote Ballmer. The new approach mimics Apple Inc, whose massively successful iPhone and iPad demonstrated tight integration of high-quality software and hardware and made Windows devices feel clunky in comparison.
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Wow ... I can hear the rustling sounds as all the paranoid types adjust their tin foil ... I think I also hear an orgasmic sigh of joy from the Linux crowd too ;)

Either MS thinks the software market is dying off (as a cash cow) or they are willing to pursue a very high risk hardware strategy ... it is much easier for a hardware company (like Apple) to become a software company than for a software company to become a hardware company

I think a better strategy for MS would have been to become more like Intel ... using their dominant status to help facilitate the business of their customers without going into direct competition against them ... it will be interesting to see how this plays out
 
With Interface Design as bad as they have become, no fucking way, Ballmer.

Is this guy kidding? He's definitely delusional.

I spent 4 hours setting up Server 2012 Essentials last night. Three of those hours were figuring out where the FUCK things were. I can do a basic setup in Server 2008r2 in about an hour.

By the time 3am rolled around I was so furious at this Bugs fucking Bunny interface that I had to stop and go get a slurpee.
 
Oh, and lets not forget those productivity robbing ribbons in office that are starting to poison everything from Microsoft.

Every time I opened a new window in Metro last night I fully expected Bugs fucking Bunny to pop up and say "Whatcha lookin' for, Doc?"

Under all that bullshit is a nice server. It's just a shame you have to claw your way to it.
 
Microsoft may not have been as aggressive as Apple about it, but they've released their share of walled garden devices. Zune, Windows Phone, Xbox, and soon to be released Surface RT, all of those examples lock you into their respective marketplaces. Both companies are doing the same thing, Apple is just doing it better (WAAAAY better) in the portable device space.

I don't think Microsoft can become more like Apple. They can only hope to be as successful in the areas where they don't have market dominance.
 
TechLarry said:
Oh, and lets not forget those productivity robbing ribbons in office that are starting to poison everything from Microsoft.

Every time I opened a new window in Metro last night I fully expected Bugs fucking Bunny to pop up and say "Whatcha lookin' for, Doc?"

Under all that bullshit is a nice server. It's just a shame you have to claw your way to it.
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Embrace it bro, it ain't going away. :)
 
TechLarry said:
Oh, and lets not forget those productivity robbing ribbons in office that are starting to poison everything from Microsoft.

Every time I opened a new window in Metro last night I fully expected Bugs fucking Bunny to pop up and say "Whatcha lookin' for, Doc?"

Under all that bullshit is a nice server. It's just a shame you have to claw your way to it.
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The ribbon....<shudder>
 
SilverSliver said:
The ribbon....<shudder>
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What frustrated me was that they didn't even put in a way to revert back. Fine, let the sheep use the ribbon whom you think it might help, but let the people who knew where things were and how they were grouped in the toolbar utilize that interface. It's really sad a 3rd party utility has to be used/bought to remove the toolbar even.
 
kbrickley said:
I think a better strategy for MS would have been to become more like Intel ... using their dominant status to help facilitate the business of their customers without going into direct competition against them ... it will be interesting to see how this plays out
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That's really how the MS has existed for nearly 20 years... Intel and MS emerged as the giant blue chip foundations of personal computing around the same time and were the backbones of the PC 'revolution.' Apple was always the niche product. It took a mass marketing breakthrough and a brand-centric shift in culture due to the 'coming of age' of slightly more tech-savvy consumers to adopt Apple's one size fits all platform before it really began to change the game.

I'd say something about it being obvious MS is trying to focus more on form over substance like Apple, seeing Win8. But if Metro is how things are moving toward 'form' for MS, they're going to fail in the general consumer-base. Hard. They alienated the hardest of the hardcore younger generations long ago, which went to linux. Now guys like me, who have been making a living working with windows machines for most of their professional lives, are getting hit with this candy wrapper crap. At best, it's being grudgingly tolerated by my peers. At worst, interest in function has shifted sharply to *nix, with Win8 and Server '12 as a total write-off.

At the end of the day though, as long as the powershells and bash consoles exist and I'm able to work my magic without an idiotic GUI second-guessing my every click, I can get my 'Architect' rocks off.
 
I guess Micro$oft is now just a "me too" company.

Emmm... just defies description...

Free fall wasn't fast enough I guess, gotta strap on some rocket engines to make sure to run it into the ground faster.
 
It's Reuters looking for a way to talk about Apple and how successful it is. Microsoft has been making hardware for years, years and years.... and years.

Microsoft is Microsoft. They're not copying Apple, nor do they have aspirations to copy Apple. This is silly.
 
Yakk said:
I guess Micro$oft is now just a "me too" company.

Emmm... just defies description...

Free fall wasn't fast enough I guess, gotta strap on some rocket engines to make sure to run it into the ground faster.
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???

From the day they sold QD-DOS to IBM, Microsoft became a "me to" company, where "me to" was meant to be 100% of market share. You name it, if it was a microsoft produce it was either a copy of something else or they bought the company that made it (only if they could get it cheaply). The only difference is the last thing they managed 100% market share was Office (explorer came close), and without Bill they don't appear to have a clue about doing it again.

Wait for me, I'm the leader has always been Microsoft's rallying cry. With Ballmer at the helm, less and less people are waiting.
 
This could also be Ballmer suffering a podiatary oral insertion that he apparently feels the need to do periodically ... the best model for MS, if they don't want to really piss off their established customers, is to follow a combo of the Google and IBM approaches:

- Use hardware, like the surface, to showcase software capabilities and desirable hardware characteristics (like Google does with the Nexus)

- Use services to make dedicated software and hardware more desirable to corporate clients and hardware customers (like IBM)

- Support core technologies that will enable the customers to better utilize your product (work with display suppliers and touch technology to enable key features in their OS); this is the Intel approach

I think those would all be useful for MS and not piss off their customer base. If they go wholesale into the hardware space where they are in direct competition with their customers (make tablets, PCs, and phones) then I don't see that working out so well for them ;)
 
And so it begins. If they want to be more like apple, why shouldn't I just start using apple products? Apple has been doing it for way longer, and their way better at this approach than M$ will ever be. People use windows because of its openness and flexibility, take that away, and you're much less appealing. MS has been making some extraordinarily bad decisions as of late (anyone used vs2012? It's atrocious!), so I guess this shouldnt come as any surprise.
 
Don't like the Mickey Mouse interface on a server? Switch to Linux, where the command line always works the way you expect it to! :D
 
tesfaye said:
Embrace it bro, it ain't going away. :)
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And that is what pisses me off the most :)

Hate it as much as I do, I don't have a choice BUT to dive into it. It's my job. I have to be ready for it. That doesn't mean I have to like it.

I just hope enough people who aren't in a forced position simply say NO that MS gets hit hard in the wallet, the shareholders demand Ballmers bald-ass head on a Pike, and they get someone in there that at least gives a little bit of shit about what their customers want and need.
 
Maplehamwich said:
It's Reuters looking for a way to talk about Apple and how successful it is. Microsoft has been making hardware for years, years and years.... and years.

Microsoft is Microsoft. They're not copying Apple, nor do they have aspirations to copy Apple. This is silly.
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Microsoft has been, for the most part, a HORRIBLE hardware company. They try stuff, do it half-assed, it doesn't make enough money, then they cancel it without warning leaving all the users and OEM's in the lurch. They have a well established history of this.

About the only thing they've showed any reall balls at standing behind is the XBox. A game console. Go figure.
 
Today's statement of the day: "No Shit, Sherlock" - after taking a glance at the first ever beta Windows 8 screenshots - anyone could have seen this coming 2 years ago.
 
Mohonri said:
Don't like the Mickey Mouse interface on a server? Switch to Linux, where the command line always works the way you expect it to! :D
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Hehe. Looney Tunes (their apparent focus group) to the Tasmanian Devil :)

I will tell you this. I'm going to build up a cheat sheet of useful PowerShell commands just so I don't have to fart around in Metro.

Hey, I know what. Since they can't call it Metro any more, they should call it something they already own and have registered.

Bob 2.0 !
 
TechLarry said:
With Interface Design as bad as they have become, no fucking way, Ballmer.

Is this guy kidding? He's definitely delusional.

I spent 4 hours setting up Server 2012 Essentials last night. Three of those hours were figuring out where the FUCK things were. I can do a basic setup in Server 2008r2 in about an hour.

By the time 3am rolled around I was so furious at this Bugs fucking Bunny interface that I had to stop and go get a slurpee.
Click to expand...

My friend feels the same way about Server 2012.

One night, we're talking over IM and he tells me: "Server 2012 was supposed to have less UI than Win 8 and 2008 R2, and a traditional Windows interface."

I joked back: "It does have 'less UI'-- the Metro interface isn't as stand out as it is in Windows 8."

It took him, like you, quite a while to find wherever everything is in Server 2012. Unfortunately for him, he has to learn how to use it. His work is, sadly, migrating to it by next year for whatever reason his company is thinking. He joked that night: "Maybe I can try to convince my boss in keeping 2008 R2 around since it'll be less of a hassle for everyone in the IT department." :p
 
They're acutally making Apple look a lot more attractive. If game developers started focusing on MacOS, I'd really consider switching over. Hate hate hate windows 8
 
They shouldn't talk until they sell more copies of w8 than w7, which is what over 500Million?
 
TechLarry said:
And that is what pisses me off the most :)

Hate it as much as I do, I don't have a choice BUT to dive into it. It's my job. I have to be ready for it. That doesn't mean I have to like it.

I just hope enough people who aren't in a forced position simply say NO that MS gets hit hard in the wallet, the shareholders demand Ballmers bald-ass head on a Pike, and they get someone in there that at least gives a little bit of shit about what their customers want and need.
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I hear ya. I have it up and running but lately I haven't had much time to really get to know it. I'm stuck in 2008 R2 land right now as far as work is concerned.
 
Ballmer really needs to go. They should've given him the boot years ago but he's still there making 'brilliant' and 'market-leading' decisions. The greatest success of his tenure has been Windows 7, a great result to be sure, but it is surrounded by failures and missteps that have cost the company and shareholders billions. Entire brands were created to then languish, atrophy, and finally be swept under the rug. Then there's the issue that he is absolutely insane.
 
TechLarry said:
Hehe. Looney Tunes (their apparent focus group) to the Tasmanian Devil :)

I will tell you this. I'm going to build up a cheat sheet of useful PowerShell commands just so I don't have to fart around in Metro.

Hey, I know what. Since they can't call it Metro any more, they should call it something they already own and have registered.

Bob 2.0 !
Click to expand...

wasn't it more reminiscent of aol?
 
Sacrifice a market you have 90% of the market in for a much smaller one you have 3% in... yeah that makes sense... :p
 
TechLarry said:
Microsoft has been, for the most part, a HORRIBLE hardware company. They try stuff, do it half-assed, it doesn't make enough money, then they cancel it without warning leaving all the users and OEM's in the lurch. They have a well established history of this.

About the only thing they've showed any reall balls at standing behind is the XBox. A game console. Go figure.
Click to expand...

Actually I'm a big fan of Microsoft's keyboard and mouse - particularly the Wireless Comfort 5000 combo. Remember the Intellimouse? They did pretty good with that too, bringing optical USB mice to the mass. I loved their old Sidewinder and Sidewinder Pro they used to have about 15 years ago.

But yeah other than that, Microsoft hasn't been making big strides in the hardware market.
 
TechLarry said:
With Interface Design as bad as they have become, no fucking way, Ballmer.

Is this guy kidding? He's definitely delusional.

I spent 4 hours setting up Server 2012 Essentials last night. Three of those hours were figuring out where the FUCK things were. I can do a basic setup in Server 2008r2 in about an hour.

By the time 3am rolled around I was so furious at this Bugs fucking Bunny interface that I had to stop and go get a slurpee.
Click to expand...

2008R2 has been out for several years now. I would hope you could. Give it time...or go with another OS. Simple as that.
 
I&#8217;m really over all the crybabies ranting about the new Win8/Server2012 UI. Yes, it's different, strange and you have to learn something new. If you are an IT professional and it takes you longer than few hours to learn the new UI's. Then it is time to find a new line of work because it isn&#8217;t going to change.
People must understand there is a paradigm shift in how the industry and Personal computing is evolving the desktop is no longer the king shit. Thanks to Apple, the tablet/mobile space is the next big thing and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. So naturally that is where everything is moving to. Not just products, but business functions and operations. This is why Microsoft has moved in this direction because if they didn't do it now, they would be relevant later. Just FYI, Microsoft makes a good chunk of their money in the business/enterprise sector and Apple&#8217;s iPad and iOS has started to invade in the area.
So as they have said above, accept the change and move on. Or just move to a different OS and good luck with that.
 
SGTGimpy said:
I’m really over all the crybabies ranting about the new Win8/Server2012 UI. Yes, it's different, strange and you have to learn something new. If you are an IT professional and it takes you longer than few hours to learn the new UI's. Then it is time to find a new line of work because it isn’t going to change.
People must understand there is a paradigm shift in how the industry and Personal computing is evolving the desktop is no longer the king shit. Thanks to Apple, the tablet/mobile space is the next big thing and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. So naturally that is where everything is moving to. Not just products, but business functions and operations. This is why Microsoft has moved in this direction because if they didn't do it now, they would be relevant later. Just FYI, Microsoft makes a good chunk of their money in the business/enterprise sector and Apple’s iPad and iOS has started to invade in the area.
So as they have said above, accept the change and move on. Or just move to a different OS and good luck with that.
Click to expand...
So filled with buzz words. This is how decisions and direction is set by the board of directors.

Apple who had the "tablet/mobile space" for long while now show no move to forcing the desktop into that same interface. They sure as hell merge the two but in a productive way. Particularly they way they interact. Not by trying to share the same interface.
 
jpm100 said:
So filled with buzz words. This is how decisions and direction is set by the board of directors.

Apple who had the "tablet/mobile space" for long while now show no move to forcing the desktop into that same interface. They sure as hell merge the two but in a productive way. Particularly they way they interact. Not by trying to share the same interface.
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x2

Apple, to their credit, kept MacOS the same as it always was and just slowly added some more iOS like functions into it (where it made sense) to make it a more seamless experience, which can also be disabled. They didn't try to throw a desktop OS on a mobile device, and aren't putting a mobile device OS on the desktop. I really wish MS would of taken this approach as well.

I'm sure Windows 8 will sell okay just because there really isn't an alternative OS for most casual computer users but I honestly think that they're going to see some of their marketshare go to apple (people that were on the fence before, and don't like the new windows interface)
 
Maplehamwich said:
Microsoft is Microsoft. They're not copying Apple, nor do they have aspirations to copy Apple. This is silly.
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Microsoft should have aspirations of being like Apple. Remember: $640/share; $600B market cap.

Suffice it to say that if Microsoft doesn't aspire to be more like Apple, the organization is being grossly mismanaged. Love it or hate it, that's all Ballmer is trying to do right now. His failure has been in understanding why Apple is so enormously successful.
 
SGTGimpy said:
I’m really over all the crybabies ranting about the new Win8/Server2012 UI. Yes, it's different, strange and you have to learn something new. If you are an IT professional and it takes you longer than few hours to learn the new UI's. Then it is time to find a new line of work because it isn’t going to change.
People must understand there is a paradigm shift in how the industry and Personal computing is evolving the desktop is no longer the king shit. Thanks to Apple, the tablet/mobile space is the next big thing and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. So naturally that is where everything is moving to. Not just products, but business functions and operations. This is why Microsoft has moved in this direction because if they didn't do it now, they would be relevant later. Just FYI, Microsoft makes a good chunk of their money in the business/enterprise sector and Apple’s iPad and iOS has started to invade in the area.
So as they have said above, accept the change and move on. Or just move to a different OS and good luck with that.
Click to expand...

Finally a post with some sense. I mean really TechLarry, you're complaining about the ribbon? Jeez, it's been around since 2007, yet you still haven't become acclimated with it yet? C'mon man!

They changed my Start menu, ohnoez! Did you really spend all day starting at All Programs in Windows 7? If you didn't I've got great news, you don't have to in Windows 8 either. There's this new feature called Desktop that works exactly the same as the desktop in every other version of Windows. There you can find other useful applications like Explorer and My Documents and anything else you used before. Though they're fun to use, they're nowhere near a fun as complaining about a new interface that you spend 1% of your time actually using.

Getting tired of people whining about the damn Start menu already. Log in, click Desktop and you don't have to see it again.
 
wilsonrdfl said:
Finally a post with some sense. I mean really TechLarry, you're complaining about the ribbon? Jeez, it's been around since 2007, yet you still haven't become acclimated with it yet? C'mon man!
.
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I still find the ribbon horrible as well. Half the time I can't find anything, because you can't intuit where something might be located like you could before. I seriously spend a lot of time googling "how do I do something in office whatever" because the UI is so ridiculous for casual users, and help....well often isn't very helpful.

I know that people who use office on a daily basis love the ribbon...perhaps Microsoft achieved their goal then. But for a casual user, I find it horrible.
 
Monkey God said:
I still find the ribbon horrible as well. Half the time I can't find anything, because you can't intuit where something might be located like you could before. I seriously spend a lot of time googling "how do I do something in office whatever" because the UI is so ridiculous for casual users, and help....well often isn't very helpful.

I know that people who use office on a daily basis love the ribbon...perhaps Microsoft achieved their goal then. But for a casual user, I find it horrible.
Click to expand...

I use Office '10 daily and can't stand the ribbon either. It's horrible from a design perspective... very cluttered and not very well organized IMO. I'm forced to use it, but I'm certainly not happy about it. I'd LOVE to have open office on my work PC.
 
I've gotten used to the ribbon, slowly but painfully. Knowing where everything was from Office 2000 to 2007, then going to the ribbon in 2010.... *bangs head on desk*

It's not that I like it, but I've gotten used to it. I'm pretty much as good with Office 2010/2013 as I was with 2007 and earlier now even though took a while longer to learn it. It's one of those things you grow into it and learn about it. It's kind of like when you have robotic guards set up by the government to patrol your neighborhood to quell insubordination and rebellion from the meek.

Yup, no difference at all.
 
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