06.07.11
Microsoft Has Internal Problems as Developers and Executives Rebel
Summary: Microsoft’s CEO is being pressured to leave after many executives headed for the door; developers who fell for Microsoft’s promises are left hanging
AS explained earlier, the digital market grows increasingly unfit for Microsoft’s cash cows and antiquated business model. “The fear of .NET developers is that Microsoft’s Windows team now regards not only Silverlight but also .NET as a legacy technology,” explains this author who is a Microsoft booster, noting that:
There is a long discussion over on the official Silverlight forum about Microsoft’s Windows 8 demo at D9 and what was said, and not said; and another over on Channel 9, Microsoft’s video-centric community site for developers.
At D9 Microsoft showed that Windows 8 has a dual personality. In one mode it has a touch-centric user interface which is an evolved version of what is on Windows Phone 7. In another mode, just a swipe away, it is the old Windows 7, plus whatever incremental improvements Microsoft may add. Let’s call it the Tiled mode and the Classic mode.
Pretty much everything that runs on Windows today will likely still run on Windows 8, in its Classic mode. However, the Tiled mode has a new development platform based on HTML and JavaScript, exploiting the rich features of HTML 5, and the fast JavaScript engine and hardware acceleration in the latest Internet Explorer.
People who swallowed Microsoft’s medicine (or poison) and went with the Microsoft APIs are now wrecked. Ask Miguel de Icaza and his team, which was recently laid off, how it worked out for them. One of our readers summarised the above as: “Developers fear .NET along with Silverlight will be abandoned with Windows 8, Microsoft’s new vaporware. Microsoft has always jerked around the developers who depend on them most.”
If the stack is not free as in freedom, then the developers is at the mercy of shareholders’ interests in another company. It’s too risky.
But the problems run deeper than that. Thanks to some pointers from Malroy we now see yet more pressure for Microsoft’s CEO to step down or be fired. To quote:
Does Microsoft’s (MSFT) Steve Ballmer ever feel bad? It was almost a year ago that we published “Microsoft’s Future Is Hopeless With Steve Ballmer” and we felt bad about having to do it. But the truth had to be said. At the time we used terms like “ham-handed antics, head-in-the-sand-stubborn and beyond repair or reform as a technology company CEO” to describe him.
It turns out that even a “Microsoft board member refuses to back Ballmer”, not just people from the outside.
Here is some more information about that. To quote: “Steve is under attack again, but this time by someone with a bigger soapbox — namely David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital.”
Chips B. Malroy dropped some good links about it — ones that help show how Microsoft’s bad state of health is being passed to Nokia too (more on that later on).
“There are nine people on the MS board,” explains Malroy, “Gates and Ballmer both have a chair, that leaves seven others.” For the time being he is likely to stay, which is probably good for GNU/Linux because he is a terrible leader. The problem is, with him at the helm we can expect more lawsuits, extortion, and FUD. Yesterday’s brief FUD roundup was incomplete. As one of our readers immediately pointed out, there are insinuations of the GPL declining from Microsoft’s buddy Black Duck (which uses secret methods and proprietary data, some of which was picked from others who gave it for free). There is also IBM FUD which is related to alleged Microsoft proxy, Neon. Will Neon use that FUD to issue antitrust complaints against IBM? █
twitter said,
June 7, 2011 at 8:17 am
An interesting development is that Microsoft’s PR people publicly slapped Ballmer about Windows 8 by saying he “misspoke” about a 2012 release date. Fake demos and a two year time frame are consistent parts of Microsoft’s strategy to freeze the market, but I don’t remember the company rebuking Ballmer like that.
Needs Sunlight said,
June 7, 2011 at 11:02 am
“So you can’t let them feel like pawns, no matter
how much they really are.”
Needs Sunlight said,
June 7, 2011 at 11:31 am
Didn’t the wreck happen before when fools went with COM first?
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 7th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Miguel could copy Java back in the days (prior to GPL announcement) rather than run around Microsoft.