I don't know how much of it has been Nadella, but I've been impressed by everything I've heard about Microsoft the last few months - open sourcing .NET, adopting new platforms, this holographic tech and the free Windows 10 upgrade. If this is anything to go by, Nadella is going to do great things at MS.
Everything I hear from friends at MS was positive (atleast until they shuttered the lab in Mountain View). More than anything else the rise in morale among Softies has been almost unbelievable.<p>Steve Ballmer hurt Microsoft in many insidious ways that may not be visible in the numbers - but hurt Microsoft he did. I once had the opportunity or misfortune to hear him speak about the cloud (~2011) and it was clear to everyone there that he had no-firckin idea what he was mouthing about - it was cringe-worthy. He was the epitome of Hubris & Cluelessness.<p>Satya seems to be making the right moves embracing open source, making MS office for tablets, Windows 10 for free upgrades, Substantial investments in Azure, A new Device focus - I heard the Microsoft Band team were given a Blank slate and told to go nuts (mostly).<p>There seem to be a number of other interesting things brewing...
Satya Nadella will complete his first anniversary as CEO next month. I am sure all these nice things Hololens, Windows 10 , Band etc did not got started and ready-to-be-released within a year.
<i>"The release of Microsoft’s Skype Translator, which translates multilingual conversations in real time, is an early success."</i><p>Is it just me who has seen loads on the updates to Google Translate but never heard about this?<p>If not, then that suggests that shifting media perception about Microsoft will be critical, and isn't there yet (this piece will help). Only when the media (bloggers and mainstream) filter Microsoft announcements through a context of 'they do innovative exciting things' will product and feature releases garner the publicity Microsoft needs to change the broader public perception.
One thing that surprised me is, how common it is having secret, confidential, access-restricted rooms/facilities at American technology companies, where new technology/products are developed. We read in the tech press, how much secretive Apple is. Even this article, mentions confidential room related thing in the beginning of the article itself. It seems, tech industry implicitly consider the presence of secret/confidential rooms/facilities/projects as a badge of honour.It is more surprising, given American political leaders speak of free or open society unlike closed ones like North Korea (perception-wise).<p>I get the impression that, as a society, you want to be open but in the industry, you want to be closed/highly secretive and in personal life, privacy is preferred. (i.e. not open/sharing all aspects). This appears contradicting each other and it suggests that, guiding principle is not openness/freedom itself but selecting profitable/suitable style and spreading forcibly across the globe.<p>Many countries/cultures cannot really comprehend these sharp edges/changes and this partly explains the tensions/conflicts in the world.
This statement had me thinking a bit:<p>>it’s the first major test of whether Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, can restore the company’s long-dormant reputation for innovation and creativity.
A little off topic, but after that puff piece about the new Microsoft headset/aug reality I'm not sure if I really trust wired :s<p>Although I do agree Microsoft is going a much better direction than with balmer.
Don't be confused, Win10 will be sold as a service: "free in the first year" will make it very difficult to re-win-d back to win7 or win8 once uncle Nadella starts threatening to brick your pc lest you start paying.<p>New vision: Two paid subscriptions (O365 + Win10), accessed from every desk and every home...and (unfortunately) 1 of every 10M phones
This "Microsoft Missed Mobile" meme should die in a fire. They didn't so much miss it as fail to deliver anything anyone wanted in the space, except for their most extreme fanboys, for about 15 years. Bill Gates famously went absolutely nuts about Symbian and considered them a giant threat to the company. It really didn't help.<p>On the strength of today Nadella hasn't reined in the Windows group anything like enough. Clearly too much of the same management as presided over Windows 8 remains. They would have been better off producing Windows 7.5 than this. A good start would be to accept that the Live Tiles might have been a nice design project, but have completely failed in the wild. The same goes for the ludicrous swipe on sidebars.<p>So I'm calling it now: Windows 10 is another turkey. Not as bad as 8, but Windows 7 has got a new lease of life.<p>This is a shame because the world could do with Windows 10 actually being good, and Azure and the Microsoft services are close to best in class (Office 365 has stopped Google in it's tracks) but today they demonstrated they still have that inability to score from an open goal.