Thanks, that was a very informative answer.

It also suggests that GMail is pretty close to being a complete replacement - the only thing missing is the DRM-style features. And obviously if you're an AD-centric shop then AD integration has some value.

Cheers,
Ami.

I'm actually really interested in this. I've worked at a lot of places that insist on using Exchange, but I've never figured out the attraction. It's not even a lock-in issue, really, since replacing your email server is dead-simple.

What is this secret sauce that keeps people using Exchange?

(And yes, I see it as an email and calendaring solution in the same league as GMail - if it does more than that, can you point me to summary or something?)

I find younger programmers don't know how computers actually work. They've never used assembler or C for anything. They can't use SQL properly. They don't have the range of experience that lets you attack a problem from all angles and find the best solution.

That's not to say that I use assembler or C for anything nowadays, but the understanding I gained way-back-when gives me a feel for what's actually happening behind the scenes when write in Javascript, Python, etc. And the addiction to application frameworks among young programmers seems to have inhibited their ability to come up with creative solutions to unique problems. They just apply their favourite framework to everything, regardless of how well it actually fits the problem.

Sorry for the rant, but the lack of technical breadth in younger developers is a real pet peeve of mine. I guess part of the reason I get annoyed by it is that experience isn't given that much weight in hiring decisions, so you have inexperienced people in roles of responsibility that they're not ready for. Us old farts who do know better end up having to deal with with the mess afterwards.

They need to make a clean break from Microsoft. That means get rid of Elop and the board that hired him. Beg some of the respected execs who fled, like Anssi Vanjokio, to come back. If they're not willing to come back to manage day-to-day operations, at least put them on the board to give a sane strategic direction.

Then buy up Jolla as a long-term investment, while producing Android phones to pay the bills.

The Kindle hardware is just a channel to sell e-books. If Kindle hardware sales dry up due to competition from other tables, it's not a problem as long as the other devices that people buy support the Kindle App.

Well, there's always Chrome-OS if Google ever really gets serious about it.

But I don't really expect casual home users to flee Metro. They spend 80% of their time in IE/Firefox/Chrome, 15% playing games, and 4% in Word, and 1% in misc other stuff (Excel, Turbo-tax, whatever). (Yeah, I just made those statistics up, but I bet they're not far off the mark.) Having six or so big tiles that they click on to get to those apps isn't really that different from having six icons on the desktop that you have to double-click on.

Really? I know Apple has done amazingly well in recent years, but 50% of the home market? Do you have a link for that?

Agreed that nobody every really liked Windows. But most of the regular (non-techie) people I know don't hate it either - they just use it because it's there and don't put much thought into alternatives.

The MS strategy (which will probably have some success), is pretty clear...

They figure they've got a few years of desktop monopoly left, and they want leverage this to protect their core business from iOS and Android. The plan is to get home users used to the Metro UI so that they'll be more likely to buy Windows-powered phones and tablets. Home users are far less conservative than enterprise users, and most of them will just go with whatever is loaded on their machines.

Within a three years the vast majority will be comfortable with Metro. That's about the time enterprise customers will be looking to upgrade from Windows 7, and in the meantime, everybody will be familiar enough with Metro to be immediately comfortable when they pick up a Windows Phone/Tablet.

It's really not a bad strategy. I don't think it will crush iOS and Android by a long shot, but it might just prevent MS from becoming totally irrelevant.

Ah, true enough. Though I think the case for default opt-in for organ donation is very strong and clear-cut (this should be done everywhere), while I'm not really sure about do-not-track. In the case of organ donation 1) there's a clear public interest, 2) the people who refuse to donate are essentially free-loading off of the those who opt-in.

Actually I'm Canadian, but in any case I don't see your point. How did I equate DNT to donating organs? And is this a good thing or a bad thing?

The argument is that most users don't really mind being tracked, but certainly aren't going to go out of their way to enable it. The majority just doesn't care enough to actively turn DNT on, even if it's easy to find in the settings.

That's very different from pop-ups, which are immediately obnoxious and swear-inducing.

From my own experience, I suspect this is in fact true. Regular people just aren't up in arms about tracking, even though everybody knows it happens.

Hear hear!

It's sad to see clueless MBAs come into tech companies and try to cut their way to profitability. It never works, but they keep trying it again and again (cue famous quote about the definition of insanity...).

About time somebody tried a different approach: take care of your people, and build great products. And remember that nobody does great work with an axe hanging over their head.

Time to buy some Yahoo! stock - they've found themselves a CEO with a clue.

No arguments about the Qt and Meltemi guys. That was my point about Elop killing off the last bits of talent that remained. I was also hoping that the Meltemi and Qt guys would outlive Elop's reign and help the company recover from that idiot. I've never worked for Nokia, but I've worked for a supplier, and spent a lot of time in Espoo. I was rooting for you guys.

I can't really prove that the best people left when the Windows announcement came, but a lot of people did (and I kow they were good). Ok, they didn't quit that day - they started brushing up their CVs and shopping around, and were gone within a few weeks or months. At the top there's obviously Vanjoki, but the people I knew were much lower level and more technical.

I've seen the same pattern at other companies. The employees see where the the company is headed, and the ones who will have the easiest time finding new work start disappearing quickly. When people around you whom you respect start leaving voluntarily and on mass, you know the company is in trouble.

There's no longer any point in buying Nokia except for the patents. Eventually they'll be bought by Apple or Google, and everything except the legal department will be shut down.

It's very sad to see this happen to Nokia - I've worked with them a lot and they used to have some top-notch engineers (and a lot of incompetant management too, which is how they got into this mess). The most talented engineers fled as soon as the Windows announcement was made, and the Elop has been systematically stamping out the remaining pockets of talent since then. Qt and Meltemi were the last hope for turning the company around.

Worst thing is that it was totally predictable, and was predicted by everybody close to Nokia as soon as the Microsoft alliance was announced.