It's Not a New Ballmer Microsoft Needs; It's a New Gates 211
theodp writes "Over at GeekWire, Todd Bishop posits that Microsoft doesn't need to replace Steve Ballmer as much as it needs to replace Bill Gates. 'The perennial push to oust Ballmer is back,' Bishop says. 'But as long as we're all going down this path again, there's actually a larger issue to address: Microsoft no longer has an overarching technology leader next to the CEO at the top of the company – someone with a strong engineering background and technical vision, surveying the field and calling the plays. There will never be another Bill Gates. But there should be someone in his former role as chief software architect, if not in title, then at least in effect.' Ray Ozzie was supposed to be The One, but for some reason that never really worked out (Dave Winer warns BigCo politics can crush even the most innovative). Any thoughts on who might 'fill the bill'?"
It's time for MS to Split (Score:5, Insightful)
Ironically, the best thing for Microsoft would be what could have been the result of its anti-trust problems, a company split. It's doing too much, in too many different directions, with too much rigidity. It needs to spin off its divisions and break away from the mother ship. The OS division and the mobile division should be one unit, the business productivity apps another unit, and the gaming division the third unit. Thinking that one CEO can do all that right for all those divisions is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. It's not too big to fail, its too big to succeed.
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...is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle.
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The gaming and OS (do we put .net here as well?) divisions depend heavily on each other: MS can say no DirectX11 for XP, and people flock to Windows 7. And the gaming division heavily benefits from the high level of compatibility between XBox360 and Windows OS-es (easier gameports, less money and time spent on training developers ).
Innovator's Dilemma (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem when divisions depend on each other like you mention is that innovating [wikipedia.org] becomes very hard to do.
If Microsoft were split in several independent companies they would have to abandon their traditional "embrace and extend" strategy and learn to work together with others in following standards. That would be good for them.
"Embrace and extend" only works when you have an undisputed monopoly, which Microsoft now has only in desktop systems, and nobody knows for how long even that monopoly will last.
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I don't say the current setup is good, I'm saying that Microsoft won't split up unless it's forced to do so.
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Newegg is awesome for us build-it-yourself geeks, but it isn't where most people get their PCs.
Dell has very few XP options, HP sells exactly zero at Best Buy. And once you have a computer with Win7 on it, it's a rare bird that upgrades to XP. Even my company doesn't wipe 7 off new PCs anymore.
Also remember that most PCs sold are laptops... laptops often suck when you load an older OS on them.
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Ah, I thought you were pointing it out as a place to get XP. That is, responding to his first paragraph rather than his second.
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It rather depends on your goals, doesn't it?
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Because often you can't.
The models of laptops you can buy without MSFT OS are really very, very restricted.
Especially as some countries don't let you reclaim the microsoft tax.
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Linux.
I can't buy a laptop from nearly all vendors in the UK if I don't pay the microsoft tax.
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I don't think that is necessarily the solution but having a bigger disconnect from the CEO wouldn't be bad. Microsoft is trying to homogenize the experience across their platforms which completely splitting the company could make more difficult.
The biggest problem here is that the person with the vision to make all of that happen should be the CEO or at least equivalent in power. Ballmer is a business guy and it shows. He doesn't need to be replaced on the operations side but he does need to be replaced
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I agree. Much like AT&T, only in this case it will be the baby Bills (followed naturally by the regional Bills, the consolidated Bills, the reconstituted Bills, and finally the re-integrated Bills with nameless nobodies running ponderous oligopolies unresponsive to users' real needs. Oh, wait, nevermind, just leave it alone)
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Doing too much needn't be an issue. You can see large Japanese corporations doing that successfully all the time. If there is an issue, then it is in the way the company is managing this.
Somewhere along the line the company needs to act as an assembly of smaller companies, but with a single flag. Each focuses on their strengths and manages their own budget, but maintain the image and leadership of the bigger entity. They should all be helping each other and not trying to fight esch other.
Business management
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WHich is why a serious amount of cleaning house at the top is necessary. The way a lot of the execs seem to act at Microsoft, I wouldn't be surprised if the calendar sitting on their desk is one from 1998. The top microsoft execs where at the top during the glory days, back in the day where Microsoft really was it's own biggest competitor. The thing is, it's not 1998 anym
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Just to be devils advocate, but just because you don't see something doesn't mean it's not being successful. The sales numbers of the iPad are huge, even more so when you compare the competition, and it doesn't seem to be stopping. It may be overhyped, but it has succeeded in creating a market that Microsoft spent years trying to create. Where we go with this is only limited by our imagination and cost.
As to not seeing them, well I see quite a few people around me with them.
My only gripe with tablets, in g
Starring Bill Gates as Himself (Score:4, Interesting)
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Sure it'd have a jump up in price by a fair bit..
Then Gates himself doing the spiel for Windows 8, that'd get a bump too. The amount of press headlines would give a surge, but he'd have to be back and actually involved to maintain it I think. That'd take a few years so he can get back upto speed on what's there now and direct going forward for a couple of product releases.
Apart from that joke about bumping into Bill in the Airport, if it ever did happen, I'd love to have a good chat with him over a cof
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Increase in share price would be a reflection on MS's ability to grow.
There's is no where for MS to grow anymore.
Imagine them being a power company, that has already extended everywhere. Short of banning birth control, you can't make more customers.
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it worked for Apple, you can find existing examples for every possible outcome (rule 34 of business-leadership :))
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What would a Gates do for them? (Score:2, Funny)
What, exactly, did Gates do for MS as a technology leader?
MS Bob
Ignore the internet
ActiveX
Illegal practices
They HAVE a Bill Gates there. Ballmer is doing what Gates managed to do to them in the past.
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Why WON'T he come back? (Score:2)
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He wasn't the same after the antitrust trial.
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What will the world look like when Wal-Mart hires Bill Gates? *shudder*
Mark Russinovich (Score:2)
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Well, not just Sysinternals - that was the freeware - there was also the entire product line of Winternals to consider - Recovery Manager, Defrag Manager, Protection Manager, Administrator's Pak,,,,
Not to mention he is a Fellow working on the Azure platform.
I don't know whether he would be a good CEO or not, but it is more than just Systinternals.
Slap in the face. (Score:2)
"...There will never be another Bill Gates
Er, a comment like that...uh, isn't that quite the slap in the face of all the aspiring and probably just as brilliant engineers at Microsoft? I would tend to think so. People probably thought the same thing years ago when the "other" Steve left Apple, and yet they certainly aren't suffering these days.
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People probably thought the same thing years ago when the "other" Steve left Apple, and yet they certainly aren't suffering these days.
Uh, that's because Jobs returned to Apple.
:)
Oh. You mean the OTHER other Steve. Too many Steve's working in the tech industry!
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Steve Wozniak running Microsoft would certainly be a sight to see. This is the new Windows tablet. It has USB and I soldered the connectors on myself"
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In the NFL, they had Johnny Unitas and Roger Staubach, but even for them they didn't have to wait long to find their replacement of superstar QBs, but none of
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I don't think so. I think it's an entirely different thing.
MS hires a lot of great developers. But the fact that they (presumably) finished college and looked for a job shows they are walking down an entirely different path than Bill Gates ever did. There is a big difference in skills/mindsets between someone who starts a company doing X and being someone who does X full-time.
History's Greatest Monster! (Score:3)
Some reason? The guy created the Lotus Notes. Compared to that Windows 3.1 should be hanging in The Louvre.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/feb/09/guardianweeklytechnologysection [guardian.co.uk]
http://damienkatz.net/2005/02/70-reasons-lotus-notes-sucks.html [damienkatz.net]
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Someone who understands the purpose of an OS (Score:3, Interesting)
What Microsoft needs is someone who understands what an Operating System is and what it is not. A genuine geek who understands that a 40 GB operating system is wasteful and unnecessary and a sign of incompetence and stupidity. Someone who understands that when your software grows to 10 times the size of your competitors (Linux and OSX) something is badly wrong and needs to be fixed. When you don't know the first thing about coding you have no business managing coders. It will all just turn into one giant predictable mess. As we have seen with post-Gates Microsoft.
Re:Someone who understands the purpose of an OS (Score:4, Funny)
A genuine geek who understands that a 40 GB operating system is wasteful and unnecessary...
You're only supposed to install one copy of it you know...
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A genuine geek who understands that a 40 GB operating system is wasteful and unnecessary and a sign of incompetence and stupidity.
What OS are you referring to?
I recently installed windows 7 professional on my netbook that only has an 8 GB hard drive. I think it took 7 of those 8 gigs? Either way, that's a little high, but fairly reasonable -- If I recall correctly, a default ubuntu install is somewhere around 3GB and Snow Leapord supposedly takes about 5 gigs.
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What reality are you in? All modern operating systems are bloated and big. It's a fact. Most Linux distros install a bunch of crap the user will never use. Even KDE and Gnome (especially gnome) are rather large. The QT4 push helped, but when the SOURCE CODE to qt4 is over 100MB, what do you think the compiled result is going to be. Gnome is now using a lot of python scripts and changing their minds all the time, that's even worse.
This is just the state of computing.. people have heard disk and ram are
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Seriously? 40GB? People actually +mod grand exaggerations like that?
There is no new Bill Gates (Score:2)
As demonstrated by Apple, where the new Steve Jobs is... Steve Jobs. Gates isn't coming back.
At this point Ballmer has too much tenure and is too deeply entrenched; the only way to overrule him is to kick him out of the room. MS needs to rid themselves of Ballmer and replace him with someone that has technical vision. Ray Ozzie should have Ballmer's Job. But that will never happen, because Ray's employee number at MS was more than 200.
Why not Randy Ubillos? (Score:2)
Hey, he just finished completely fucking up FCP with the release of FCPX. Why not let him do for Microsoft like he's done for Apple?
Tech leader yes, but still need to oust Ballmer (Score:2)
A tech leader and visionary is needed. I agree. They also need to oust Ballmer...and not replace him. A person talented enough to be a tech leader wouldn't want to work for the kind of company a "Ballmer" makes Microsoft into....where enthusiasm for innovative IT is thwarted by a "windows tax" and a culture of protecting existing technology from yesterday.
Ballmer needs to be replaced. (Score:2)
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Any discussion about replacing Gates is premature so long as Ballmer is allowed to continue mismanaging the company.
A split, and some leadership (Score:2)
I think the dual Consumer / Entreprise personnality can't work: the reliability, compatibility, steadfastness that entreprise clients want is mostly incompatible with the glitter, constant change, and nimbleness to the lastest buzz that consumers want. MS clung to Windows' desktop UI way to long on their smartphones, certainly in the name of synergy... What synergy does a 1% marketshare bring ?
Also, MS seems to lack courage. The recent successes (kinect, xbox...) all were in brand new fields where no feathe
Dear Steve Ballmer, (Score:2)
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I get the joke but I have no mod points.
Faulty Premise (Score:2)
The push to get rid of Steve Ballmer isn't because they need a "new" Steve Ballmer. It was because Steve Ballmer isn't able to fill Bill Gates' shoes and provide the vision Microsoft needs.
It isn't about a "new" Ballmer as much as it is you'll need to remove Ballmer himself to successfully get a new visionary in there. Unless he is totally gone, he'll have too much say in the way things are run and he just doesn't have what it takes.
Linus (Score:2)
someone with a strong engineering background and technical vision, surveying the field and calling the plays.
The should hire Linux Torvalds!
Wrong on every account. (Score:2)
One thing Bill Gates never ever had is "strong engineering background and technical vision". He is an excellent strategist without even the smallest hint of a conscience.
From the moment he bought QDos from Seattle Technologies and onwards its been a technological disaster with all decisions taken with the aim of crushing competition. The tech has always been behind anything else in priority. Internet Explorer is an excellent example where the desire to kill Netscape lead to its integration into Windows, a d
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One thing Bill Gates never ever had is "strong engineering background and technical vision". He is an excellent strategist without even the smallest hint of a conscience.
From the moment he bought QDos from Seattle Technologies and onwards its been a technological disaster with all decisions taken with the aim of crushing competition. The tech has always been behind anything else in priority. Internet Explorer is an excellent example where the desire to kill Netscape lead to its integration into Windows, a decision people thought would only lead to problems at the time, something that still plagues Windows from a security standpoint.
I suggest reading up on third party accounts on what really happened since the Dos trials with Digital and onwards.
And why a plane was unable to land when someone's son was making an offer that changed everything? (sigh)
Well, I'm Not THAT Busy ... (Score:2)
So if they call, I suppose I could consider an offer.
Perhaps.
Damn, I'll have to move though, won't I? That's never good. And it's awfully rainy up there in MicroTown.
Still, to get to replace that damned paperclip character (or the search dog) with something cute, something toad-ish perhaps ...
Toad-san
Bill Gates was the right person at the time. (Score:2)
I'm not convinced that he'd be the right person at this time, though. He was visionary enough to see that a software company was a good idea; he saw the good idea of other people and either plagiarized or bought them; he was a ruthless businessman who resorted to unethical methods to claw his way up from the bottom, reach the top, and stay at the top. When you think about it, are those the qualities that Microsoft needs today? Post-investigation, Microsoft needs a softer, gentler hand. Ironically, Ballm
The only problem with Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
Is that they have no taste. They have absolutely no taste, and... I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way... (Steve Jobs, commenting on Microsoft in PBS's Triumph of the Nerds documentary).
Even John Dvorack thinks that MS is brain-dead. He correctly pointed out YEARS AGO (more than a decade) that if Microsoft *really* employs the best and the brightest, as their PR claims, why is their software so backwards? He took an example of using the "copy" function.
When you drag a bunch of icons to copy stuff from one drive to another, it blindly starts the copy, it doesn't check if there's enough space, it doesn't check if there's a file already at the destination with the same name, so, if this copy is going to take hours, you have to monitor it for any pop-up alerts. Because any of these issues will stop the copy dead. It's 2011 guys, why is "copy" still a function like it's 1950? Is this *really* what the best and brightest can achieve?
MS needs a top to bottom overhaul. They are too mired in management, and even brilliant engineers can't rise to the top in such an environment. MS's greatest innovations came from stealing other people's ideas.
These days, people are smart enough to NOT approach Microsoft to give a demo of new technology, so MS has less and less people to steal from, hence their perceived lack of innovation.
If MS wants to innovate, they are better off separating into two companies -- one that serves their corporate interests, making "Enterprise" software, reliable and dull, that gets updated every 7 years, while the other creates glitzy consumer stuff that can crash, but at least it's cutting-edge, and churns out new OS releases yearly.
And while I've got your attention; what's with the crap in the summary? Bill Gates doesn't have an engineering background, he's a college drop-out. He's not even visionary -- every idea he's ever had was stolen from someone else. Don't get me wrong, I admire his tenacity and drive to dominate the software industry, but that's been his ONLY vision - to be bigger than every other company. Well, he did that, until Google came along.
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"When you drag a bunch of icons to copy stuff from one drive to another, it blindly starts the copy, it doesn't check if there's enough space, it doesn't check if there's a file already at the destination with the same name, so, if this copy is going to take hours, you have to monitor it for any pop-up alerts. Because any of these issues will stop the copy dead. It's 2011 guys, why is "copy" still a function like it's 1950? Is this *really* what the best and brightest can achieve?"
THANK YOU.
And I'm a pretty
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You get a gold star for your observation.
Thank You for your Thank You...
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This has been fixed 5 years ago... on Vista and Windows 7. Please, get with the times.
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or handle it the way it is handled on the Mac. Overwrites and lack of space are addressed immediately - then the copy proceeds.
I thought this was fixed in 7?
How? (Score:2)
When so many people at Microsoft all conform to a similar corporate vision and the ones who think outside the box, such as Ozzie, didn't last and are no longer with the company, who could take the reigns without either continuing down the path of Gates/Balmer or conflicting with the vast majority of employees? I'm willing to bet if Microsoft found a guy like Steve Jobs to take the CEO position it would cause so much internal strife that it would hurt the company. There would be too many disagreements and pe
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Completely agree. The last thing you would want to do is introduce quality and ethics into Microsoft. It'll never fly!
The answer is ME! (Score:2)
I'm ready to start any time. I can work an extra hour here and there, and I'll only ask for a few million in "golden parachute" money if and when I drive the company in the ground. Thereby saving the board and the investors hundreds of millions of dollars.
And really could I be any worse than Balmer?
I think not. I could send out teams of legal minions to defeat any upstart enterprise just as easily as he does. Hell I might even innovate something just for fun. Wouldn't that be hoot!
Bill never was... (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft is not thinking in this way because they know Bill Gates. He is not a great technologist. He is not a great programmer. He is an excellent salesman and executive.
This has always been why Microsoft succeeded despite having products in most ways inferior to their competition. Go read the story of Gates and the first BASIC rom.
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Go read the story of Gates and the first BASIC rom.
Yes, go read it [vanityfair.com]. He was one of the key programmers to implement BASIC in 4k. They beat everybody to the punch with a good business idea and a solid technical achievement.
This whole idea that Gates was just a ruthless businessman is ridiculous. He was a ruthless businessman, but that's only half the story.
Rule number one in software management (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft is way past the stage where techies are in control or driving the vision. Yeah, it would benefit Microsoft to have a very smart person in a top position, but current management, who probably have never held technical roles, would never allow that to happen. Rule number one in management is, if you are dumb, make sure everyone around you is dumber.
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Mod parent up.
Innovative people tend to be independent. Idiots protect their power base with sheer numbers.
Not a new Gates (Score:4)
Color me surprised (Score:4, Insightful)
"Ray Ozzie was supposed to be The One, but for some reason that never really worked out "
Gee, I wonder why...
MS hired the most nerd, bland, responsible for the most boring piece of software person ever, AND IT DIDN'T WORK OUT
All that talk Steve Jobs gives, about passion, liberal arts, etc, may seem BS, but it is needed sometimes.
Bill Gates of course is a geek, but he can 'kick ass'.
Ray Ozzie seems the kind of idiot that at first chance would put everybody and all products in a strict 'waterfall process'/'design by committee'.
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Geez, I hadn't read the letter... until now
You're right, the letter is boring, reaching painful levels.
Management (Score:2)
Steve Ballmer is emblematic of the problem with American corporations. He's a business man, not an engineer or a designer; his background is in economics. This means he lacks a fundamental understanding of what his company does. He's never been in the trenches so he doesn't really have an innate understanding of the technology. And these kinds of guys, far too often, lack real passion. That lack of passion means they wont really be able to commit to what may be a good idea because it wont pay off in the sho
Jon S. von Tetzchner (Score:2)
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There is a new Bill Gates... (Score:2)
The trouble is (Score:2)
It's not like they couldn't compete that way: Microsoft Research hire a lot of very smart people. It's just that currently, the Windows and
New Gates? (Score:2)
You mean new gates at the entrance to keep people like Ballmer out?
It's not a new Gates MS needs, it's a new Office (Score:2)
The key to Microsoft's success had nothing to do with any of the people there, aside from their willingness to do anything in the name of profit. What made MS the powerhouse it used to be was MS Office, and the stranglehold it had over businesses. At one time, the inability to create or use Word or Excel documents was a huge detriment to any company who dared defy convention. This gave MS the monopoly power they abused to crush competition and force people to buy their products. Now, after numerous anti
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I wouldn't say fill the gap, but if MS happens to fall down I can see Apple buying them out.
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Apple will fill the gap.
iClippy in a black turtleneck: I see you're trying to maximize a window. I'm sorry Dave, I can't allow that as it's not the "Apple Way"
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"Microsoft has a virtual monopoly."
There's the story in a nutshell. Microsoft doesn't need new CEO's or any other positions filled. Microsoft needed better judges to stomp their asses when they were in court for monopoly abuses. *sigh* That was just one of the minor sins of the Bush administration, though. Their DOJ let Microsoft off the hook way to soon.
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I bet Jobs would love to appear on a big screen to announce he's bailing MS out like Gates did at Macworld in '97. It'll never happen though, MS is still a powerhouse, a huge unglamorous and un-sexy powerhouse.
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Dunno... There was once a time when Apple was a powerhouse, but the Pepsi guy (forgot his name) became CEO and promptly began burning off all the cash on crap projects, crap advertising, etc. Novell once bragged that it had billions in the bank and would do just fine - they bragged on that in 2005, long after most folks stopped bothering with NetWare.
When you consider that the initial investment on XBox was $7-8 billion USD (not counting the lost money on the RROD thing), and it still hasn't hit ROI yet...
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As long as OpenOffice/LibreOffice isn't the business standard, Microsoft has nothing to worry about and can graciously spew projects that generate losses. The cash cow will pay for all.
And they like to create big projects that can create (some) loss but hog a huge market, just to keep that sectors of market occupied to prevent competitors from rising to power and becoming dangerous through these sectors. They do a lot of things that create losses, but -not- doing them would create greater losses in the long
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MS is still a powerhouse, a huge unglamorous and un-sexy powerhouse.
Like a sumo wrestler... there is an overzealous crowd who caters to their every need bathing them in rose petals while the majority of the world couldn't care less. When they move they push up against someone instead of working with them. It has to be done on their side of the ring. Ask them to run an agility course and they try to plow through the challenges knocking them all down or they include them in their meal rotation.
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Just being pedantic here, but Apple is more than just a software company, since it is very much a hardware company too. Without their hardware, the software is not worth as much.
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Steve Jobs (Score:3)
Yeah, maybe they'll steal Steve Jobs from Apple. Or might that violate their anti-compeditive behavior restrictions?
Afaik, all the clever youngsters, like Larry Page, Sergey Brin, etc., are wholly focussed upon the software-as-service mentality that's so hostile to Microsoft's interests.
I'd imagine the best move for stockholders would be de-facto breaking up the company, allowing each business component to go it's own way free from the politics & meddling of other components. Fire the board & Ball
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Well now you have mentioned Apple, is Tim Cook someone who can bolster innovation in the same way as Steve Jobs or will Apple need to find another visionary? Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs founded their respective companies and had a lot of passion running them. The people replacing them really need to have a feeling for technology and where it might go, as much as good business sense.
I have always seen the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft of that of two brothers. They want to beat each other, but they
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Aren't there enough problems in IT without adding an hereditary gentry to the list ?
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Read the portion in his early life. He was a hacker while in HS. Also, it looks like he also had a paying job finding bugs in code for CCC.
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This is an ontopic meta comment.
The preceeding part of your post was an on topic meta comment. The part I quoted was an off topic meta meta comment.
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Gates personally coded some of the BASIC interpretors on old-school 8 bit micros. Vic 20/ C64 and the like. I learnt to program on these machines, and in many ways I might not have become a developer earning loads, if it was not for cutting my teeth developing on these machines.
However, somewhere between then, and now, Microsoft lost their way. Innovation, gave way to trying to lock people into their platforms and rejecting anything non Microsoft. They have enough money to develop an operating system, tha
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Coding a version of basic doesn't really make one a developer or an engineer. Just about any CS grad can do that.
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