Voice of the Masses: what would you say to Microsoft’s new CEO?
So, there’s a new head honcho at Microsoft. Most of us have mixed feelings about the company, especially given the previous CEO’s inflammatory remarks about Linux, and many of us avoid Microsoft programs altogether.
Still, it’s big news for the computer industry as a whole, so we want to hear from you: what advice would you give Satya Nadella, the new CEO? How would you encourage him to open up the company and improve relations with the Free Software community? What can he do to repair Microsoft’s tarnished reputation amongst Linux users?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll read out a selection in our next podcast recording. NOTE! The podcast will be delayed by a week, because we’re approaching the deadline for Linux Voice issue 1, and we want to concentrate fully on the mag. But next week we’ll be free to gather round the mics. (And thanks to LV listener Ernest Hirose for suggesting this question!)
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About The Author
Mike Saunders
Mike stores his data by printing out hex dumps and laminating the sheets. He's the author of The Haynes Linux Manual and the creator of MikeOS, an operating system hand-built from assembly language.
I would take him out for a pint.
If I may quote the sublime "Blackadder Goes Forth":
"Well, his resignation and suicide would seem the obvious choice."
Being slightly less glib, if I can manage to wrest my overloaded sarcasometer back down to neutral for a moment, I'm genuinely not sure there's much that can be done. My feelings about Microsoft are not, as Mike so diplomatically put it, "Mixed". Virtually every corporate decision they've ever taken and virtually every product they've ever released stand in complete opposition to what I believe about software and freedom. In order for Microsoft to become a company that I would consider an asset to the FOSS world rather than a cancer (do you see what I did there?), they'd have to take the mother of all U-turns. Basically, take Microsoft and push it through a NOT gate.
Okay, enough bitching. Let me try and come up with some actual practical actions that could be taken:
– Encourage and reward people who find exploits in Windows, especially if they notify Microsoft before making the exploit public. Do not hush up the bug and threaten the whitehat with litigation.
– Make Internet Explorer standards-compliant (and that's actual W3C standards, not the special extended Microsoft version). Don't ship IE bundled alongside Windows.
– Kill secure boot.
– Apologise for OpenXML, and promise never to do it again. Actually, in this case, a written apology to me personally would not be totally out of line.
– That stupid Windows FTP protocol that doesn't talk to anything else. Why? For the love of Zeus, WHY?
– Stop trying to redefine the phrase "PC" to mean "a personal computer running Microsoft Windows"
– Maybe open-source the code to, y'know, anything.
There's plenty more, but I'm actually starting to sweat now. I'm going to lie down in a dark room and take my dried frog pills.
I really have to stop issuing death threats every time I reply to one of these posts. It's becoming a worrying habit.
Michael Gove, is that you?
Something to start:
– Stop ALL co-operating with NSA / FBI / CIA.
– Remove ALL current backdoors.
– Stop spying your paying customers.
– Add more security.
– Bonus: open-source all drivers.
I would tell him that OneNote is a great application and ask him if it might be ported to Linux.
Speaking as a Linux user keen on open source world domination, I would say "keep it up". Current strategies seem to successfully alienate users and are driving people to other systems.
If I were a Microsoft consumer I would suggest stop breaking things that work well, just to force users to upgrade. Embrace, Enhance and Extinguish used to work to establish a monopoly, but now we live in more diverse ecosystems.
If I were a Microsoft shareholder, I would give the basic version of the OS away for free to hospitals, schools and students. No one would think of using pirated software or other OSes there if they could have free OS with free software titles; keeping the youth and healthcare chained in early is the key to sustain inertia.
As a human being I would suggest firstly stop being a patent troll and declare the patent fights you have by announcing which patents are being violated openly, and secondly embrace standards set by experts in the field (e.g. in web browsers, the Cloud, Document formats etc)
Wow.
I've gotta say… this is probably the best thought-out response here!
I don't have very high expectations but here is my wish list anyway:
– Improve secure boot by letting the users have full controll over it making it not to be a restricted boot system
– release all hardware drivers and firmware as Free Software
– release full documentation about MS office file formats so LibreOffice developers can make them work properly
– release full documentation about skype protocol so Free Software VOIP applications can work with skype
– compete with other fairly with quality and security not monopoly-like restrictions
– change your lobbying tactics to not to encourage software patents
Okay. Ignore what I said. [Connie New's comment](#comment-4378) is empirically better than mine, and I wholeheartedly endorse it.
This comment also serves as a test of whether linuxvoice.com allows markdown in comments.
It doesn't.
-Watch out for other operating systems during the installation of Windows.
-Support a bit more file systems than only NTFS and FAT
-make MS Office file formats open standards.
-make the licencing easier. I updated my BIOS to UEFI afterwards Windows thought it was on a new PC. Luckily the internet verification didn't work so I had to reactivate it with the phone. Not really nice for an honest customer.
-Stop being dicks in your advertisings (e.g. the scroogled campain) it just makes you very unsympathetic. Show what you think makes your products good and makes you excited about them.
* Isn't Satya a girl's name?
* Are you going to make fun of yourself like the other stupid guy did?
It mean "truth"or "honesty" in Hindi…which technically is not gender specific. I I suppose it is a change from "Bull"mer.
Either
– make open formats the default in all MS Office software or
– release MS Office for Linux
I would advise him to release all MS software under the GPL v3. That would have him open up the company and improve relations with the Free Software community. It is the only way he could repair Microsoft’s tarnished reputation amongst Linux users who care about software freedom.
I wish him the best of luck, he's going to need it!
1. Disclose the Linux patent violations or drop the silly idea altogether.
2. Get shut of the Android license fee.
3. Stop patent trolling.
4. Give up on the Scroogled campaign already.
5. Play nice with other platforms – release Linux versions of MS apps & open the file formats up, secureboot etc.
6. Stick to RFCs (RPC over SSL anyone?)
7. Ditch the bloody useless interface on Win 8 and server 2012
I'd ask him to invest resources in reducing the amount of disk space a default Windows install takes. It's around 20GB now isn't it? Every other OS on the planet seems to manage around the 5GB mark.
Simple…. new CEO same question:
Show us the code!
I would ask the CEO to do some market research before releasing a new interface. I haven’t used windows since XP and I tried to use windows 8 and couldn’t figure out how to switch between apps or view the files on the hard drive. I know I’m not the first to complain about the interface, but it just doesn’t seem that intuitive.
I believe everybody should use what works for them. But if your system doesn’t work and I’m the “tech guy” all my friends ask to help them with things I should be able to use your system pretty easily.
I don’t expect a lot from Microsoft and that’s why I use linux, but the least they could do is make the system user friendly.
It looks pretty grim for MS. Two things he could do:
-Never release Microsoft Office for Linux.
-Pay Adobe&Autodesk to never support Linux.
That way he will have a sustained desktop market for the next ten years or so, until Linux software will catch up with those.
This guy has been head of the Cloud department, he understands that for Microsoft to succeed they need to release the FUD chains that have surrounded the company and become a different kind of company.
With a refresh throughout the company, along with some landmark PR stunts (open sourcing a lot of the drivers etc), we could see a rejuventated Microsoft.
I don't think they can win, or even gain a meaningful foothold in the mobile market, but I think that they could come up with something different given the amount of talent that they have.
They are still a remarkably profitable company, but I would like to see this CEO make some radical changes across the board.
Windows should be split into two very separate sections:
Windows for enterprise.
Windows for mobile.
Windows for enterprise would be a rolling release copy of windows 7 where upgrades are published for a fixed yearly rate, and are released on a bi-annually (if not more regularly) period. This is a very conservative release (no one is going to rob their start button).
Windows for phone is where they can go mad. There may be a split amongst that to facillitate running x86 on tablets etc, but I think they need to review whether this is an area they really want to attack.
Their software department (read office and a lot of other very valuable pieces of software real estate) should be targeted not only at Windows. They need to look at cloud appliances, cross-platform, mobile and anywhere that makes sense.
I would be interested to ask him a few questions:
"What would you see as Microsofts key area in the next 5 years"
"Will microsoft become a software provider first and foremost? Will we see office available across all major platforms (android, iOS included)?"
"How will microsoft Mobile change with a new CEO at the healm"
They could free XP instead of killing it. Microsoft wants shut of it and are no longer offering security patches so why not? Lots of brownie points on offer.
He is getting $1.2million a year and is worth $45million. I don't think he will be listening to my advice.
The OS wars are history. Microsoft's future does not lie in it's past. There is so much to be gained, for all concerned, by working with the Free Software community.
Join us. We will make you special. 🙂
"lol"
Honestly I feel that Microsoft is a sinking ship, it has more or less totaly failed in its attempt at getting into the mobile and server market. The only market they manage to keep their dominance is on the desktop, and that market seems to be failing as a hole.
If I were to give a sincere advise to the new CEO in terms of buisness, I would advise him to give away the desktop for free (like the competitors are doning) and focus on highly expensice busness software. That way they can keep their dominant foothold, and still collect money from the big wigs.
However I personaly hope that Microsoft will shrivel and die, and that the death of this company will shock the masses and the goverments into recodnising the limitations of proprietary software. And if I could give a personal advice to the CEO on a human level it would be this: Quit your job!
Maybe they bought Pear OS.
😉 unlikey of course….. Open Source OSes don't need to be bought…It has to be a hardware manufacturer with no OS expertise, needing the Pear OS developers. I bet it is for a SteamBox clone.
He should stop encouraging schools to deploy windows in the classroom by providing them reduced prices and instead encourage freedom of choice and allow the students to become true innovators without being tainted by the values of the Microsoft founder.
The new CEO should promote free software values to protect the the very IT market they were so happy to be major part of.
Agreed!
Micosoft needs to embrace two things:
1. Take a hint from Valve Windows is a dying OS. Go back to supporting windows 7 and stop trying to create a new OS
2. Open sourcing code has massive benefits. After all, most consumers believe that IPR is the cancer that kills your product and not the GPL.
I would suggest he organises a consultation process to define the basic requirements of the OS people will want to be using at some point in the future (2020, say). The aim would be to bridge the digital divide and produce an OS which is suitable for the world.
The consulation process could be conferences, on-line etc. Some key requirements of the OS I can think of are: multi-platform support, built in complete virus protection, no NSA backdoors, a plugin method so that the core functionality is free software but proprietary plugins can be added (so commercial companies like Microsoft, Apple, RedHat etc. can add plugins for specific markets e.g. Business).
Along with many other spin off advantages this could provide a way for Microsoft to remain in the s/w business for decades to come
It is clear that Microsoft's goals are commercial and profit rather than goodwill is their prime directive. So I would not expect them to do anything that eases another platform's co-existance, indeed the opposite is more likely. Anything that favours the Linux community harms them. So what do say to someone whose very ambition is the extinction of your community? I say "If there is one single TRUTH about the human spirit, it is that in the fight for freedom even the weak will find the strength to break the chains made by greedy and powerful. In the end, the greedy consume themselves."
I'd by him a pint as well but more in sympathy.
He should consider doing a Dell and take the company private. In general it seems that there is a new breed of activist stockholder. Unfortunately all a lot of them seem to care about is the short term stock price, bigger dividends and stock buy backs.
As far as the FOSS community is concerned, look for ways to genuinely partner with the community. Not marketing noises, not trying to gain advantage but really partner, find ways to be symbiotic. It needs more than just a few enlightened people, the organization needs to change the way it thinks. It needs to know it needs to change the way it thinks.
Microsoft needs to repair its image with everybody, period. I think for reasons too numerous to mention they alienate everybody, FOSS people, their business partners and customers, its just what they do.
If any listeners have a reason to be in Silicon Valley with some time to kill, go to Valley Fair Mall and look at the typically nearly empty Microsoft store. It is almost directly across from the Apple store. It's both amusing and sad. To me it illustrates Microsoft's position. It is such a public fail, yet they persist with it, then throw in the fact that they are so rich and that the organization must have some talent in it somewhere, my brain just can't quite get around it.
I would suggest they start by killing thier mobile offering. It's just plain awful it's quite a distant third place in the market. They do quite well on Xbox they could port it's api to Linux and start going about becoming a mobile gaming techology company.
As for the windows platform if they realised they are nolonger such a big fish and that playing nice with the Linux community they could help reverse some of thier decline. Using some of thier influence to sort the problems with uefi would be a good start. Playing nice with open standards, getting windows to interoperate with other platforms well so users can choose to use windows in a mixed environment.
Or they could just keeping going the same way making thier core offering worse with each release until nobody cares what they release and they just get sold off and broken up. If they don't think it can happen I would suggest the pickup a book on the history computing and turn to the section marked dec, and see what happens to a big computer tech firm when it becomes irellivent.
Enjoy your last few years running a popular company.
I would encourage him to consider supporting dual-booting , support for lagacy-bios ,and one-click disablement of secure-boot by default on all new P.C's and laptops.
The more conflict Microsoft has with open-source the more people will wonder why the Big Dog is afraid of the Puppy, so it doesn't make any business-sense.
To the contrary, as Oracle's bosses have found out to their cost, dissing Linux makes them look foolish.
The attempt to rename the RedHat kernel the" unbreakable-kernel" and suggest it wasn't Linux backfired big-time.So much so, that Oracle has now reinstated Oracle- Linux independantly of OracleOS.
I think, though don't quote me, you may have to pay for it.
The point that Microsoft should consider , though,is whether or not to make Windows an open-source commercial product ?.
Balmer's gripe with Linux wasn't just that it was free as in open-source but that it was free of cost to the user.
If consequently, via friendlier relations with the linux open-source community Microsoft can create an open-source product superior to Ubuntu would people object to buying it particularly with Canonicals increasing Commercial stance?
look around you, you're a dinosaur…… now bugger off and die quietly in a tar pit.
1.) Stop patent trolling both direct and indirect.
2.) Grow backbone and refuse big brother backdoors.
3.) Require Open Standards for Software.
4.) Become FLO to insure 1.), 2.) and 3.).
5.) The Planet Earth and inhabitants win.
I would strongly encourage him to push for a release of Windows 9 as soon as possible, go full bore on a mobile OS, ignore the desktop, and take every opportunity to make it even more touchscreen biased, make sure that the only software you can use is expensive, full of bugs, backdoors and spyware, expand on the feature where you are prevented from leaving the office while you wait for updates to complete, remove all the familiar layout and incorporate a brand new UI that makes it unfathomable to use. Win8 was a good step in the right direction, but I think he can do better. Then apply for a job at Apple and repeat.
Then, when everyone has moved to Mac, we can encourage that last small step to a better, open, quite similar but free, OS. Suggestions welcome.
It's really encouraging that he's already promoted Scott Guthrie as enterprise and cloud lead. Guthrie has been instrumental in open sourcing MS development frameworks and pushing platform support for open source tools such as Node. I'd really like to see them support the excellent .NET framework as a cross platform tool. C# has already seen niche adoption by Xamarin and Unity and it would be excellent if MS put their weight behind making it a first class citizen on Linux and Mac by supporting Mono.
As for Windows, they need to refocus on it's core role as a business desktop for keyboard and mouse interaction. Microsoft own the business desktop, but they risk alienating their cash cow if they continue to insist on trying to make Windows work on touch devices.
Mr. Nadella, everything is fine. Windows 8 is hands down the best operating system in the world, and will remain so for years to come. The Surface tablet will take the market by storm, just give it time. The Windows phone is a surefire hit in the making. I'm sure everyone is just waiting for their current cell contracts to run out – no worries here. Stay the course and it will all work out. After all, the previous Microsoft CEOs became some of the wealthiest men in the world, so they must have known what they were doing. When faced with a tough decision, just ask yourself "What would Ballmer do?", and let that wisdom guide you.
Personally I think the first thing that M$ need to do before they can do most of what people above commented.
Change their marketing strategy.
Currently they look at how they believe they can charge customers, gaining the most profit, and then build the product to follow that. It then seems the actual technical stuff comes second.
They seriously need to change their licensing, from my view of the industry it's the biggest turn off from their products. The FD has no idea what he will actually be paying let alone should, even M$ themselves find it hard enough to figure it out.
I'm not against paying for software, but as long as I know what I'm actually paying for and how much. The model of, well the license costs this, today, we're not sure what you'll be paying tomorrow, just doesn't work for most businesses. Especially those that are not big enough to negotiate their own contract.
C'mon, Windows XP isn't /that/ bad.
There is no such thing as a problem
without a gift for you in its hands.
You see problems because…
you need their gifts.
Will you buy me a cadillac?
How about an afternoon spin in a maserati.
I only need it for the weekend, and
I promise I'll try to bring it back in one
peace,
Look around you.
If all you see is madness
try understanding madness
before prescribing asylum.
That's what I'd say, Marty.
Or try selling shoes.
Look, here's a size 11.
Oh I don't think we have it your size.
I suggest he replaces the Windows kernel with Linux and uses WINE plus MS code to build a decent UI and API for users that want to keep on using Windows based apps.
Don’t be evil