News Satya Nadella named as new Microsoft CEO

Microsoft has announced its third CEO following Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2014/02/04/satya-nadella-named-as-new-microsoft-ceo/1

 

He seems like a nice enough bloke from the interview he done, just not sure i like the idea of Windows becoming a cloud based OS

 

I hope this guy is more in touch with what the customers want than Ballmer, otherwise he's going to preside over the decline of Microsoft.

 

At first glance it seems Microsoft have looked at the changing market of computing devices and thought, lets design an OS to take on iPhone & iPad so they made Windows 8, and now they see the rise of Chromebooks and appointed a CEO with a background in the cloud.

IRC they have said Windows 10 is set to be their first cloud operating system, although I'm not sure that is what people really want, Windows 8 hasn't exactly set the world alight and i cant see moving it to the cloud is going to improve things.

 

People keep heralding the Chromebook as the dawn of a new age...

 

Correction:- "Google keep heralding the Chromebook as the dawn of a new age" No one else seems to care other than google followers.

 

Tech sites do too. They are positively sycophantic about it. Which gives the impression that it is a really popular device, even though it has sold significantly fewer units than the Surface RT (let alone the Surface 2).

I really wish Microsoft would stop giving it free publicity though. It reeks of insecurity.

 

I'm not wanting to vouch for the Chromebook as i think the whole idea of a cloud based OS the height of folly, what with privacy, security and ownership rights problems.

But I am guessing the reason people keep going on about the "Chromebooks account for 21% of all commercial US laptop sales so far this year, and 10% of all computers and tablets sold in the US. In 2012, Chromebooks accounted for just 0.2% of all computer and tablet sales."

 

From the same link though:

In fact, other articles suggest that it continues to struggle.

Disclaimer: my wife once owned a Chromebook (one of the early Samsung models), and we really wanted to like it. As a concept I think it is great. In reality it had just too many obvious, annoying, grating flaws and in the end she sold it again. She now has a Lenovo Yoga 11 (Windows RT) and she loves it. Chrome OS makes Windows 8.0 look polished.

 

Small correction: he's 46, not 44.

It's good that Microsoft is now being led by an engineer rather than a salesman. It's all about the product after all.

 

It'll never happen for consumers. It will be constantly attacked, it will be too slow, there would be massive relgulatory issues in many countries and unless there is incentive for OEMs to do it they would reject it as well.

Good luck to Satya! Look forward to seeing the change.

Chromebooks are the ideal example of why a cloud-based OS doesn't work. It's controlled entirely by Google, so no OEM will shout about it as 'their' product, they'll just sell it, and even if you have offline modes you still need the internet sometimes.

 

Yea I'm guessing its like politicians, they look at study's, stats and analyst result then start drawing up conclusions that fit their own agenda.

Well i know rumors should be taken with a large pinch of salt, but rumors are saying Windows is heading to a cloud based OS. Even a press release by Microsoft sings the praises of the cloud OS.

And with less and less people needing to buy new hardware because its good enough, unlike in the past. Microsoft need some way to monetize their existing business model of selling licenses with new devices, and getting people to pay monthly subscription costs (Xbox Live, Office 365) is the direction they seem to be heading.

Especially as they have appointed a new CEO with a strong background in cloud computing.

 

I suspect that it is not going to be Google's "all your **** happens in the cloud; your device is just a terminal" cloud, but a "all your **** is safely backed up in, and purchased through the cloud" kinda cloud.

 

As i haven't tried a Chromebook as i have to much disdain for them to read up on how they do the cloud thing. But i have had time to read up on Microsoft cloud OS articles and from what i can tell the plan is to have three types of cloud, a local cloud, Service provider cloud and a Microsoft (azure) cloud.

How far they go with data sharing and acquisition remains to be seen. No doubt there will be people that don't like the risks of sharing so much personal data even if that means having the same OS, software, files and settings on every device they use, and then others just wont want to pay monthly subscriptions.

 

Not that I'm a fan of MS but critics can go suck a big one regarding Nadella not having experience running a company. Like seriously, that has got to be the most ignorant statement I ever heard regarding the company - pretty much all of the wealthiest people in the world never ran a business before they acquired their empire, and it wouldn't surprise me if none of them even had a customer service job either.

 

I know it has been said Microsoft want one OS to rule them all, but are they taking it a bit to far by appointing Nadella ? Seeing as he has more than a passing resemblance to this guy



And we all know how poor Gollum ended up

 

Say what you want about Gollum, but he was a focused kind of guy. And remember, in the end he was holding the ring.


While sinking into a lake of hot lava, granted, but that's not the point...

 

^^ He will take on Amazon EC2 and OneDrive will take on Dropbox.

 

I think it goes a little deeper that taking on Amazon EC2 and Dropbox.

IMHO the plan is to have a common user experience across all devices, PC, Tablets, Phones, XBox, etc, etc. So the customer can be sitting at their desk working on something and if need be pick up their tablet that has the same common settings, files and apps due to them being stored on the local cloud.

And then when traveling home he can use his phone with the same interface, settings, apps and files, due to them all being available on the Microsoft cloud. And again when he gets home he can relax on the Xbox as it to shares the same layout as all his other devices.

 

^^^ Cigar: I give it to you.