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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

(danluu.com)
371 points greggyb | 8 comments | 28 Oct 24 21:48 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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addicted ◴[29 Oct 24 02:19 UTC] No.41978723[source]▶
This article doesn’t understand what was fundamentally wrong with Ballmer’s leadership and what Nadella actually changed.

The specific technologies that were successful is irrelevant. Microsoft has and continues to invest in nearly every computer related technology that may come around the corner or they got late on.

The problem with Microsoft was everything went through Windows. The entire company was designed to promote Windows.

This was the fundamental flaw with Microsoft that Nadella changed. He quickly not just made Windows just another part of Microsoft’s business, to a great extent he actively devalued it.

The fact that Ballmer invested in Azure, etc before Nadella would all be irrelevant because under Ballmer Azure would have remained a red headed step child to Windows, so it’s unlikely to have seen much success under him anyways. Same goes for pretty much everything else Microsoft is doing right now.

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archerx ◴[29 Oct 24 05:23 UTC] No.41979633[source]▶
Well since Nadella I have been using less Microsoft products and probably won’t be using Windows anymore once my Windows 10 LTSC stops working.

I keep hearing praise for Nadella but all he is doing is alienating a lot of customers with his terrible decisions.

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1. rowanG077 ◴[29 Oct 24 11:01 UTC] No.41982519[source]▶
This is true for me as well. I do have a VR gaming machine which I don't think will linuxify soon but I would if I could. Nadella has grown Microsoft no doubt. But in the process has trashed Windows. One of the most valuable pieces of software. I wouldn't be surprised this will bite them in the long run a lot.
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2. globalise83 ◴[29 Oct 24 11:54 UTC] No.41982942[source]▶
Our company is absolutely full of Microsoft products (all the Office 365 stuff, PowerBI, Azure, Microsoft SSO etc. etc.), yet most of our teams use Macbooks. Windows is no longer a necessity to work in a mostly-Microsoft environment, and that strategy is making Microsoft fabulous amounts of money.
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3. raxxorraxor ◴[29 Oct 24 12:06 UTC] No.41983029[source]▶
Tools like PowerBI are quite good, the data pipelines are amazing, but at the end of the chain Microsoft always makes mistakes so that something good like PowerBI will only remain an advanced Power Point version. If you go a bit deeper the platform is fairly locked down behind artificial restraints.

Azure has good parts, auth with Microsoft is perfect for software in the office world and goes beyond the usual LDAP Active Directory. But on the other hand it is quite slow to a degree that it really affects productivity. The damage is probably in the billions/trillions for their many customers. That is the real price of office cloud versions.

4. gtirloni ◴[29 Oct 24 13:10 UTC] No.41983493[source]▶
> yet most of our teams use Macbooks.

Exactly this. Today I can switch from Linux to macOS to Windows and 99% of what the average users does can be done in the browser. Worse, in a smartphone.

So it was very smart of Microsoft to realize Windows was going to stop being a hard requirement for most use cases.

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5. cameronh90 ◴[29 Oct 24 13:51 UTC] No.41983840[source]▶
Indeed. Conversely, Apple are the ones now forcing you to buy into their walled garden if you want to support users on their devices.

We are a mostly Windows+Linux shop, but we need Macs to build and test iPhone apps, investigate issues with Safari on iOS, do certain iPhone support tasks, etc.

6. fluoridation ◴[29 Oct 24 15:40 UTC] No.41985186[source]▶
Sorry, but how is that a response to what the GP said? It was not necessary to keep making Windows worse and worse to decouple it from other MS products.
7. rowanG077 ◴[29 Oct 24 16:19 UTC] No.41985902[source]▶
So you agree or disagree with me? I'm not sure how this is a response to my comment?
8. red-iron-pine ◴[29 Oct 24 19:27 UTC] No.41988391{3}[source]▶
honestly that was the case about a decade ago. small / boutique MSP I was at cut costs by buying everyone white-label laptops, since one of the manufacturers was a client in LA and SF.

anyone who really wanted a windows license could get one, but most of the staff used Unbutu, with some AD and other stuff on the backend