Photo by timedebugger

Summary: The Bill Gates successor (not Ozzie) announces his plan of leaving amid serious issues inside the company

After Microsoft had announced losses and saw its common carrier failing [1, 2] the arguably #2 man at Microsoft called it quits (many others already left). Mundie is a key lobbyist for Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4]. Our reader iophk shared this report with us:

Craig Mundie, who inherited some of Bill Gates' duties when Gates left his full-time position at Microsoft, will take on the role of "senior adviser to CEO."

Major news. And as iophk added, another Microsoft product dies, adding itself to a long list we hardly update anymore (it's hard to keep track because Microsoft hides it):

Microsoft has announced that the Expression suite of design tools is no more. It has been removed from sale immediately and it has been placed on a maintenance only status until it reaches its end of life.

Microsoft is in deep mud. I tried Vista 8 this month and it's a joke even on very high-end hardware. It's the return of Microsoft Bob and it confuses even some Vista apologists like this good FFII member who writes:

I am confused. I don’t get the branding. Windows RT, or Windows Surface RT, the Operating System or Microsoft’s own tablet device (where Microsoft competes with OEMs)? We do know “Windows NT”, the server and enterprise operating environment from Microsoft, where I guess NT stood for the next/new technology kernel of the operating system. But what does RT mean? Dennis E. Hamilton says RT stands for “Retweet”, the legacy method of relaying twitter messages. I was aware of that of course, but… Wikipedia says there is no official explanaition! RT means RT.

OEMs are complaining too and big press covered it, not just individuals with their anecdotes. To give some examples:

• Summary of the Proprietary Stunt

  Then, I spent a few days on Windows 8. That experience was traumatizing.





• NYT: Windows 8 Is A Flop So Far

  Microsoft's attempt to regain relevance and defend its core franchise with Windows 8 is off to a "shaky," "tepid" start, says the New York Times.
  
  Emmanuel Fromont, president of the America's division of Acer, the number four PC maker, tells Nick Wingfield at the Times sales of Windows 8 PCs are coming in worse than expected. "It’s a slow start, there’s no question," says Fromont.

Watch this picture, accompanied by an explanation:

It wouldn't have been half as bad if Windows had included a 'Shut Down and Restart' button. But no, the only way to install these 'compulsory' updates is to hit 'Restart and Update'. Tell me, who would ever hit restart to wait for Windows to update it self (read: wait till the end of the world) instead of getting some work done.

The platform lacks polish and it is not secure. It shows. ⬆