Microsoft Investors Want Bill Gates Out as Chairman

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back_by_demand

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So for over 20 years Ballmer worked for Microsoft without being CEO and his business knowledge drove it to being the biggest company in the world, then during 13 more years as CEO they had XP, Windows 7, Xbox and Xbox 360 and the servers business has skyrocketed - the only bad points were Vista, which wasn't that bad as long as you had more than 2Gb of ram and Windows 8, whose only real fault is no Start menu, which you can fix (without forum histrionics) with freeware. If backing him means that the founder of the company gets ousted because 3 out of 20 have itchy feet then I say push the 3 off the roof and stay with the guy that helped eradicate Polio in India.
 

back_by_demand

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By the way, if you think the shutdown process in the Start screen in convoluted, how about you go to the Marketplace and get one of the many free apps that stick a large red shut-down-in-one-click live tile slap bang where you can easily find it
 

marcolorenzo

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I think you'll find that many who are actively boycotting Windows 8 will say that you shouldn't have to use a third party application to add this feature. I would agree with that, especially when considering how Microsoft often seems to place items and features in illogical and hard to find places. I was a Mac user for about 3 years and think that MS certainly has a lot to learn from Apple in this regard. But nevertheless, I think this is a poor and overused excuse for hating Windows 8.
By the way, I use a nice little application called OblyTile to create custom tiles for just about anything including the Shut Down and Restart button :)
 

teh_chem

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The problem with windows 8 wasn't the no start menu issue. That's just something that people latched on to. The big problem with windows 8 is that MS did not properly differentiate windows 8, surface pro (which is windows 8), and surface RT. This is showcased by their poor managing of app "stores" for each platform--RT, despite being based on some bit of 8 kernel, is not 8 by a long shot. So service developers have to write windows 8 applications as well as windows RT applications if they want to address the entirety of MS's new device market. Deploying apps in this way is also not a very clear process. That's one of the fundamental problems with "Windows 8"--and again, it goes back to how the PR and marketing was (mis)handled. I think surface RT and surface pro were both good products, but they were horribly confusing for uneducated consumers, and MS didn't make it any better by making them all look the same.

And MS didn't even try to learn from the competition; Google has both Android and Chrome OS. Just like how RT cannot run surface pro/windows 8 desktop apps, ChromeOS cannot run android Apps. Google was careful to make a differentiation between their two operating systems. Now, it's more complicated than that, but it's an awful idea to make two completely different operating systems with different ecosystems, and not only make them look the same with the same UI, but complicate it further by not making it very clear that surface pro is not surface RT is not windows 8. OS-wise and device-wise, I think they've got some real winning factors. They just failed horribly with how they handled it.
 

back_by_demand

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The_chem, I have no problem differentiating, the only people that say there is a problem are people who already know the difference - I have yet to hear of anyone who bought the wrong product any different than the same brainless morons that took iPads back to Fry's because it wouldn't install Microsoft Office.

So the real problem you say is how they handled their message? For a start I never buy anything based on the sellers message, I research, study, understand and then buy. It's not my fault that the world is full of mindless people with huge wallets bursting with cash that are cramming it into the hands of whatever company makes something shiny and new but ultimately useless. If you are smart enough to know the difference you will know not to buy the wrong thing for your needs, if you aren't then you won't be informed enough to care about who has the most apps or if it takes 1 extra click to switch the thing off.

Surface RT for example is a bust for me, right from the get go, for one reason only - no XBMC app - I have a webserver for all my content at home, *real* unlimited data on the phone for tethering so all my movies, TV and music on the go. I could get XBMC on iPad and Android but then other things I want disappear too, so it has to be a Surface Pro 2 and i'll be able to play some of my Steam games on it too. Xmas present to myself and will keep using the netbook till then, sell the netbook and consolidate - 1 device for work and play on the go.

Oh, and as far as Chrome OS goes on Chromebooks, the Surface RT outsold it 5 to 1 in less than half the time - if RT is such a failure, what does that make Chromebooks? Maybe they would have sold more if they were able to run Android apps, because any hardware cost is justifiable against a stable of useful software to run on it. That's why Windows 8 will eventually succeed, the moaning about the Start Menu will fade and you will be left with a touch friendly OS that can still run 6.5 million Windows programs and games from a back catalogue going back decades.
 

teh_chem

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Alas, the world is not full of informed buyers. I'm not excusing it, but that's just the way it is, and people WERE confused between the Surfaces when they were released.



You misunderstood me entirely
 

spectrewind

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So buy out the investors?

Didn't some goons at Apple try this in the 90's, and it almost killed Apple. Not that I like Apple... But Jobs returned and saved the company. I can't help but see the same echo here.

But I don't have any facts, so, whatever...
 

marcolorenzo

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Unless I'm mistaken, you can run all Windows RT apps ("Modern" apps) on Windows 8. But I agree, their messaging could certainly have been better. You'd think that they would've fired their marketing team but it doesn't seem to be getting any better.
 
Im auite sure Bill dosent give a... He is old enought to know that the is no point in doing anything about it unless he really wants to, and by selling his shares by 2018, seems clear he wants out.

Im quite sure he will have a laugth if after selling his shares some jackass drowns microsoft for good.
 

invlem

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I agree he should be booted as chairman... They should put him back as CEO... MS hasn't exactly been trending upwards since he left.
 

knowom

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Microsoft has been in a downward spiral ever since Bill Gates stepped down as CEO these investors are absolutely numb nuts it's not as if he left the company in terrible shape.
 

EdgeT

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Haha, They can kiss their asses goodbye if Bill stops having a say in how MS is run. He's the only actually intelligent guy in a position of power in there.

C'mon, since he stepped down as a CEO, the company's made some pretty shitty decisions. If he steps down now, there'll be no more MS, it's that simple, these monkeys would run it into the ground in a couple of years
 
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