Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer calls it quits, to retire within a year

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  • Reply 301 of 330
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I'm having a lot of problems too... it locks up and doesn't come back -- or just disappears. Don't know who's at fault: Me. Mavericks, Safari or AI?
    Is a pro version of iWorks really needed? The majority of new and non-pro users would never use the features. And I don't see the Spreadsheet Jockeys and DTP Pimps (no slur intended) leaving the safety of their Office apps for anything equal or slightly better.

    Those uses will need to be disrupted and replaced by something that blows away the need for them ala VisiCalc!

    As someone who had an Apple Dealership 7/10 of a mile from Apple HQ for 11 1/2 years... I, too, have been torpedoed by Apple dropping things after an enthusiastic start. All-in-all I prefer Apple abandoning things to MS continually dragging legacy baggage along.


    BTW, you forgot free iTools!

    Edit: Am I the only troll on this thread?

    Oh yes, iTools! I did forget that.

    By the way I just had fun in Mavericks ... although I think it was MagicPrefs getting its knickers in a twist. What ever window i scrolled nothing happened but another would be scrolling in a different app! It was very trippy ... Cured on a reboot ...

    This thread is sooooo long ...

    My comment about a pro iWorks was related to a way to get the last anti Apple hold outs excuse, being full Office support, out of the way, that's all ... Me, I miss Visicalc, especially on the Apple /// :)
  • Reply 302 of 330
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    h2p wrote: »
    I think your correct, digitalclips -- But with my clients it's the Management that pushes IT to embrace iPads. Macs (MBA) are only occasionally mandated.

    Re: MS and Ballmer leaving. How about MicroSoft becoming a Software company again. If they feel they Must keep XBox around -- then crank up the titles for XBox.

    Leverage the experience and coding resources to write great software for iOS, Android, Windows & MacOSX. Not via Office365. Renting software drives me toward an alternative. For a larger biz this may not be an issue -- I object. Being platform agnostic would get All of the hardware manufacturers back on your side.

    "How about MicroSoft becoming a Software company again" ... ???

    Sorry not ranting at you :) ... But the problem is Gates bought his Q DOS, so no innovation there, and even that was questionable given Digital Research's operating system. I'm sure had Gary Kildall had the money to take on IBM he'd have had quite the law suit. Then Gates purloins Mac OS for Windows and later is helped by that idiot John Sculley giving away the rest. Office had various precursors such as Visicalc and Word Perfect, Gates blatantly stole QuickTime and was let off the hook for a billion dollar law suit by Jobs in return for a measly investment and a marketing agreement ... exactly what software innovative experience has Microsoft ever had to 'become one again'? It never was a software company, it was simply an aggregator of others' work. I don't seeing them 'becoming a software company again' after 30 years unless they rip off someone else.
  • Reply 303 of 330
    I remember dos she'll or 6.22 it was so shit apple was like 10 ahead. As far as this dick your a wanker!
  • Reply 304 of 330
    Look I've had pc when it started and was not able to pay for a mac. Today you buy a mac duel boot it if you want gaming and dare I say windows 7. I'm waiting for Xmas cos it's my first new mac well new. This guy and gates make money well it's now time to go. You did knowing I can't even remember this guy so he must of been a tosser. In 10 years time when they say windows ill smile for a sec only and think how shit it was then think of something better.
  • Reply 305 of 330
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    n057828 wrote: »
    Look I've had pc when it started and was not able to pay for a mac. Today you buy a mac duel boot it if you want gaming and dare I say windows 7. I'm waiting for Xmas cos it's my first new mac well new. This guy and gates make money well it's now time to go. You did knowing I can't even remember this guy so he must of been a tosser. In 10 years time when they say windows ill smile for a sec only and think how shit it was then think of something better.

    Well enjoy your new Mac :)
  • Reply 306 of 330
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    "How about MicroSoft becoming a Software company again" ... ???

    Sorry not ranting at you :) ... But the problem is Gates bought his Q DOS, so no innovation there, and even that was questionable given Digital Research's operating system. I'm sure had Gary Kildall had the money to take on IBM he'd have had quite the law suit. Then Gates purloins Mac OS for Windows and later is helped by that idiot John Sculley giving away the rest. Office had various precursors such as Visicalc and Word Perfect, Gates blatantly stole QuickTime and was let off the hook for a billion dollar law suit by Jobs in return for a measly investment and a marketing agreement ... exactly what software innovative experience has Microsoft ever had to 'become one again'? It never was a software company, it was simply an aggregator of others' work. I don't seeing them 'becoming a software company again' after 30 years unless they rip off someone else.

    At this stage of technology, there are not too many things which were not already floating around, in some form or another. They all steal when they can, license or purchase when they cannot.

    But I think you should look outside of old '80 DOS/Windows margins, there is a lot of innovation happening in Microsoft (even if there is a lot of borrowing and buying out), albeit consumers are probably not aware of most of them. You can find some info around, of course, if you choose to look for rather than make your beliefs a "fact" ;)

    http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/03/microsoft-invention-factory/

    I really don't see Apple, Google... much different. Or at all.
  • Reply 307 of 330
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    nikon133 wrote: »
    At this stage of technology, there are not too many things which were not already floating around, in some form or another. They all steal when they can, license or purchase when they cannot.

    But I think you should look outside of old '80 DOS/Windows margins, there is a lot of innovation happening in Microsoft (even if there is a lot of borrowing and buying out), albeit consumers are probably not aware of most of them. You can find some info around, of course, if you choose to look for rather than make your beliefs a "fact" ;)


    I really don't see Apple, Google... much different. Or at all.

    Thanks for the laughs. This from your link ....

    "So while Microsoft makes most of its money from Windows and Office, it is definitely pushing the limits of innovation. Some of these mad-science inventions even make their way into products. You can see a direct line from these R&D projects to truly inventive products like the Kinect. The real question, then, is why Microsoft isn’t making better use of all those patents.:

    Love that last question .... :D

    I know I know ... the mad inventions from MS that fail or never see the light of day have been endless. I loved the three ton table with a touch surface. The duel screen tablet concept video was a hoot. We should also remember the Apple Knowledge Navigator in the same level of note worthy 'mad-science inventions'.

    Oh and Kinect ... look up PrimeSense, an Israeli 3D sensing company based in Tel Aviv. MS fans have even rewritten history to say it was an internal project. :no:
  • Reply 308 of 330
    h2p wrote: »
    I think your correct, digitalclips -- But with my clients it's the Management that pushes IT to embrace iPads. Macs (MBA) are only occasionally mandated.

    Re: MS and Ballmer leaving. How about MicroSoft becoming a Software company again. If they feel they Must keep XBox around -- then crank up the titles for XBox.

    Leverage the experience and coding resources to write great software for iOS, Android, Windows & MacOSX. Not via Office365. Renting software drives me toward an alternative. For a larger biz this may not be an issue -- I object. Being platform agnostic would get All of the hardware manufacturers back on your side.

    "How about MicroSoft becoming a Software company again" ... ???

    Sorry not ranting at you :) ... But the problem is Gates bought his Q DOS, so no innovation there, and even that was questionable given Digital Research's operating system. I'm sure had Gary Kildall had the money to take on IBM he'd have had quite the law suit. Then Gates purloins Mac OS for Windows and later is helped by that idiot John Sculley giving away the rest. Office had various precursors such as Visicalc and Word Perfect, Gates blatantly stole QuickTime and was let off the hook for a billion dollar law suit by Jobs in return for a measly investment and a marketing agreement ... exactly what software innovative experience has Microsoft ever had to 'become one again'? It never was a software company, it was simply an aggregator of others' work. I don't seeing them 'becoming a software company again' after 30 years unless they rip off someone else.

    I was going to reply to the OP, but wanted to think about it for a while...

    At first it seemed like a reasonable opportunity for MS.

    Several thoughts here:

    Gates has always meddled in hardware -- remember the Z-80 SoftCard, Language Card and 80-Column Card for the Apple ][?

    I believe that Gates always looked at Apple, Steve Jobs and [Apple] hardware with envy.

    And remember that Jon Shirley left Tandy/Radio Shack to become President/CEO of Microsoft in 1983-1990 -- Kinda' Gates Eric Schmidt.

    Shirley grew MS into a player -- Gates watched, learned and earned his big-boy pants -- AIR, taking over from Shirley until relinquishing control to Ballmer in 2000.

    I suspect that Gates was behind the MS Policy of "embrace, extend and extinguish". He couldn't do that in the early days, because Apple was too powerful. Later, with the DOJ looking over his shoulder -- he couldn't do that because MS was too big and Apple too weak.

    I suspect that Gates tended to micromanage "technology" in much the same way that Jobs did.

    I suspect that Gates, at the very least, gave approval for Xbox, Longhorn/Vista, early Windows tablets, Windows Mobile, Windows 8, Surface, "Windows Everywhere" and the many other fiascos under Ballmer's reign.

    I donno', but Gates might have felt that he was mislead -- and one of them had to go... and Gates was going to stay put -- there never was any question.


    So, while it might make sense for MS to transition to software and services only -- I agree with @digitalclips: MS will continue to try to put its hands in other peoples' pockets... that includes Apple, Google, Sammy... anyone!


    I think that Gates sees in Apple a threat to MS dominance and resents that MS is no-longer the mover and shaker of tech!


    Most in tech predict that tablets will dominate the tech segment for the next 5-10 years.

    Apple has the OS, the Hardware, the IP, the ecosystem and is rapidly building cloud/services offerings -- so they are a major player with a big bankroll.


    One other exclusive that Apple has is a perfectly usable office suite that runs on touch tablets!  MS pissed away 3 years and didn't bring a usable office suite to a tablet -- their Surface/Widnows 8 effort is a resounding failure on the hottest consumer, industry, military, education, enterprise segment -- the touch tablet.

    AFAIK, MS still holds the rights to MS Works (developed for MS by Don Williams' company). If so, MS could have ported that to the iPad and had a credible offering that was/is upward compatible with Office on the desktop...


    But they didn't, and now it may be too late to offer any MS office suite in the hottest tech segment.


    I think the Surface/Windows 8 and Office 385 offerings are just MS' attempt to finesse the situation until they can come up with a "good enough" office suite for touch tablets.


    Problem is -- Apple beat 'em to it!
  • Reply 309 of 330
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    Thanks for the laughs. This from your link ....

    "So while Microsoft makes most of its money from Windows and Office, it is definitely pushing the limits of innovation. Some of these mad-science inventions even make their way into products. You can see a direct line from these R&D projects to truly inventive products like the Kinect. The real question, then, is why Microsoft isn’t making better use of all those patents.:

    Love that last question .... :D

    I know I know ... the mad inventions from MS that fail or never see the light of day have been endless. I loved the three ton table with a touch surface. The duel screen tablet concept video was a hoot. We should also remember the Apple Knowledge Navigator in the same level of note worthy 'mad-science inventions'.

    Oh and Kinect ... look up PrimeSense, an Israeli 3D sensing company based in Tel Aviv. MS fans have even rewritten history to say it was an internal project. :no:

    Yah, it seems we keep entertaining each other. All good.

    Re Kinect... "Kinect builds on software technology developed internally by Rare, a subsidiary of Microsoft Game Studios owned by Microsoft, and on range camera technology by Israeli developer PrimeSense...".

    Like I said... at this stage of IT, I don't think we will be seeing too many products completely invented from scratch by one company. Apple did not invent capacitive touch screens, for example, but they still deserve a credit for implementing that technology in creation of modern, smooth, sensitive and easy to use devices.
  • Reply 310 of 330
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    Oh, you haven't been following DED's features then? :)

    By the way, my camera choice isn't about 'brand loyalty' … as with my computer choices, it's about quality, performance and how they empower me to do my thing … hence Canon for DSLRs (got to love those L lenses!) , and Apple for computing and Sony for HD pro video cameras and I am seriously thinking Tesla for next car … Obviously all just my personal opinions in all cases but also based on 35+ years in the tech field mainly as a CEO of various tech based companies in UK and USA. Now semi retired and playing with most of these things :)

    edit I had to add the + to 35 :(

    DED, eh? Reading, yes. But I find him too biased, too... self-indulging to take him seriously. Most of his features are hardly anything more than extremely one-sided opinion, IMHO.

    I didn't say your camera choice is influenced by brand loyalty, so don't take it personal. I'm just saying that I am trying to remain unbiased, without saying that others are not. I don't like to judge people, especially people I basically don't know at all.

    Beside Canon Prima Twin being my first film camera (not counting my father's cameras I was using before), Canon PowerShot A40 was my first digital. Nikon was my first dSLR, however, because I already had Nikon F801s - which came to me by pure coincidence - so I saw value in having SLR and dSLR capable of sharing glass, flash units... and I was already familiar with Nikon "interface".

    Anyway. Regarding rest of your post, well, good on you.
  • Reply 311 of 330
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    blackbook wrote: »
    Interesting analysis and it seems to even echo some of the more grounded tech press.

    Of the big 3 tech companies MS, Google, and Apple many believe Apple to be the weakest link.

    Although I don't personally agree their reasoning and yours as well makes sense.

    MS has a strong enterprise presence and don't stand a chance at being replaced there.

    Google's bread and butter is search and in that they don't stand a chance at being replaced. Android, Chrome, and all of their other initiatives make them no money and they could survive and thrive without them. Of course Google's biggest challenge would be Baidu.com, but even without China, Google is pretty set regardless of Glass or there other initiates taking off. Of course what the tech press doesn't take into account is if consumers and businesses change their behavior and no longer rely on Google for search. But it seems no one considers that possibility.

    Apple on the other hand is fueled by consumers of whom are fickle. Apple's growth and success comes from having the latest must have product and without that they have less stability than MS or Google in the mind of the tech press. And of course people think Apple's ecosystem is replaceable with Amazon's or even Google's but that's still far from true. Apple has proven over the past decades that they are more than just a flash in the pan fad as well.

    Anyway, I don't agree with the pundits that write Apple off, but I can at least understand why they would feel that Apple is in a weaker position than even MS.

    Thank you.

    I don't expect that any of them will go down any time soon - not in my lifetime, anyway. But should that sort of world-wide disaster strike, I'd be surprised to see MS falling first... that's all.

    Not that in such situation we all wouldn't have more important things to worry about.
  • Reply 312 of 330
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    h2p wrote: »
    I think your correct, digitalclips -- But with my clients it's the Management that pushes IT to embrace iPads. Macs (MBA) are only occasionally mandated.

    Re: MS and Ballmer leaving. How about MicroSoft becoming a Software company again. If they feel they Must keep XBox around -- then crank up the titles for XBox.

    Leverage the experience and coding resources to write great software for iOS, Android, Windows & MacOSX. Not via Office365. Renting software drives me toward an alternative. For a larger biz this may not be an issue -- I object. Being platform agnostic would get All of the hardware manufacturers back on your side.

    They never stopped being software company.

    But it is nature of every successful business in technology to try enter new markets, keep growing. Especially when you are close to theoretical limits of growth in markets you are already populating, and you will agree, I hope, that Microsoft cannot grow much more in desktop, server OS and their core applications.

    Why is MS trying to be more than software company is for the same reasons why Apple tried being more than computer manufacturer. At some point, they entered audio gadgets market. TV streaming market. Smartphone market. Tablet market. They did great job with most, not so great with some - Apple TV is only now catching a break after being around for a while - but Apple didn't give up on it after first gen Apple TV didn't explode. Speaking of which, first generation of iPhone hasn't taken the world in a blink of an eye either. But Apple saw potential, did their thing. And did well.

    And so, everyone - including MS, albeit with some initial brain-freeze on their side - realise that tablet and smartphone markets are still young, still lots of space to grow, and still lots of milestones to reach. It is still very fresh and dynamic segment, contrary to PC market which is around for much longer and have achieved level of maturity.

    It's a new world, really. New frontier. No one cares who found it. Colombo? Vespucci? Good on them. Now go out there and claim as much as you can, for his majesty the stock owner.

    Same game, new round.
  • Reply 313 of 330

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    I'll always remember the good times: stomping on iPhones, throwing chairs, sweaty armpits, and competing directly against their hardware partners.




    All rivals will slow down , hope to get a similar kind of person who will continue the performance n beat the iPhones , also introduce the stuff like Android's Play Store downtown raleigh commercial real estate for sale.

     

  • Reply 314 of 330
    gctwnlgctwnl Posts: 278member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by PhilBoogie View Post







    This quote says it all. Instead of trying to brainwash people into using products he might have been better off finding out why his children wanted to use an iPod or Google (apparently brainwashing was needed to prevent that).


     


    But maybe brainwashing (of the general public) had been such a successful strategy in the 90's that he could not envision anything else.

  • Reply 315 of 330


    Farewell Monkey Boy!!! You'll be solely missed!!! Oh wait... image


     


    image

  • Reply 316 of 330


    accidental double post... please delete thisimage

  • Reply 318 of 330
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    gatorguy wrote: »
    The downside, compared to Google Docs, is that you must have an Apple ID to access this service, which means you must own at least one Apple device. Also, you can only share editable documents with other Apple ID accounts. Therefore, iWork in the cloud is not really "free." In contrast, you don't have to purchase anything to use Google Docs.

    'Downside, compared to Google...'? The Apple ID is free of charge to create, no device needed. And with Google, I most certainly need to sign up, even giving them my gender. Fortunately, they added a 3rd choice: 'other' which is a nice touch ¡

    700

    It even asks for my phone number, whassup wid dat?

    700
  • Reply 319 of 330
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    You keep plugging away on his behalf. Hats off to you sir, I imagine you take in stray cats and dogs too. ;)

    LOL, he is estimated to $11.563 billion, and made extra $769 million with MS stock jump on his announced departure... I certainly wouldn't mind taking this stray under my roof ;)
  • Reply 320 of 330
    zozmanzozman Posts: 393member


    There is a crazy amount of posts on here, not sure if someone linked this blog or not.


    i read it off an Australian news site.


     


    its about how Apple could make more money if Steve Ballmer ran apple.


    http://stratechery.com/2013/if-steve-ballmer-ran-apple/

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