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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

(danluu.com)
371 points greggyb | 7 comments | 28 Oct 24 21:48 UTC | HN request time: 0.018s | source | bottom
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exabrial ◴[28 Oct 24 22:11 UTC] No.41976993[source]▶
No he wasn’t haha. The only thing he did was slide the company sideways via pre existing illegal monopoly. In fact, they lost most of their monopoly under his supervision . At no point did the quality of their products improve, and that’s evidenced with this year’s massive massive Windows outage, or Garmins mega ransomware, out a hundred other people who’ve been hacked via Windows.

If you’re running Windows for anything, it’s only a matter of when, not if.

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1. Sakos ◴[28 Oct 24 22:33 UTC] No.41977222[source]▶
Ballmer's tenure started with XP and eventually gave us Windows 7. Nadella gave us 10 and 11. Though 10 was largely developed under Ballmer before its initial launch, it's been under Nadella's stewardship ever since. I'll take Ballmer, thanks.
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2. SoothingSorbet ◴[28 Oct 24 23:17 UTC] No.41977603[source]▶
Ballmer also gave us the maligned Windows Vista and Windows 8. Microsoft has also been way more open source friendly during Nadella's tenure, whereas Ballmer was openly hostile to FOSS. I'll take Nadella, thanks (although he should fix his user-hostile spyware).
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3. Krssst ◴[28 Oct 24 23:48 UTC] No.41977823[source]▶
Windows 8 was misguided but not user-hostile. I miss not being repeatedly asked by my OS to create an account or share my data. If it was a human doing it rather than software I am not sure it would be legal.
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4. ◴[29 Oct 24 00:53 UTC] No.41978252[source]▶
5. cyberax ◴[29 Oct 24 01:36 UTC] No.41978502[source]▶
WinXP was developed mostly during Gates' tenure. Ballmer is responsible for the disastrous Windows Vista, Microsoft phone operating systems, and Windows 8.
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6. Brian_K_White ◴[29 Oct 24 02:17 UTC] No.41978715{3}[source]▶
These are both valid takes really. I'll take neither Ballmer nor Nadella thanks.
7. Sakos ◴[29 Oct 24 08:14 UTC] No.41980784[source]▶
You mean the best mobile phone OS that we ever had? Unfortunately disastrously managed and then squandered, but still.

Also, Vista was a mess, but it was ambitious and it laid the foundation for 7 and it was only around for a few years before being replaced. Unlike 10, where Nadella has doubled down on the worst choices and even worse ones were made going into 11 (HOW THE FUCK DO YOU SET DEFAULT APPLICATIONS NOW, THIS IS FUCKING NONSENSE).