Igor Delovski Board

[delovski]

Bill Gates to Step Down from Microsoft, referencing: Bill Gates will be leaving his role at Microsoft

"According to Microsoft PressPass, Bill Gates will be leaving his role at
Microsoft in July 2008. He'll be staying with the company, but is also
moving to a more fulltime position with the Gates Foundation. 'Microsoft
Corp. today announced that effective July 2008 Bill Gates, chairman, will
transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on
his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The company announced a two-year transition process to ensure that there
is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates' daily responsibilities, and said
that after July 2008 Gates would continue to serve as the company's
chairman and an adviser on key development projects.' CTO Ray Ozzie will
assume Gates' role of Chief Software Architect, and CTO Craig Mundie will
also take on more leadership responsibility."

[delovski]

Philip Su's blog: Why Vista Release Date Really Slipped, and comment from Slashdot:

"A team manager for Windows for 5 years has decided to write a
blog-essay about what caused Windows Vista project to miss the due date.
Philip tells us in the blog, that Windows developers are writing an average
of 5000 lines of code (which is *only* 1200 lines less than the national
average of 6200 lines of code per year). He addresses issues like the Vista
code being too complicated, the processes the developers have to follow
too complex and a lot more. All in all it gives a nice insight into why Vista
will be late, from a different perspective. Oh, and Slashdot gets mentioned
too ."

And comment from Rick Schaut:

A couple of weeks ago, Phillip posted a very insightful discussion of the reasons why Windows Vista slipped. Of course, if you follow that link now, you'll only get to see a very redacted version of the original. That's because the original caused such a firestorm of flamage, that reasoned discussion of some very salient issues germane to the industry became well nigh impossible. Phillip's post wasn't just slashdotted. It, and the comments that ensued, became slashdot in microcosm.

[XNote]

"In the wake of the announcement of Bill Gates' departure from the top
spot at Microsoft, CNN Money is carrying an article arguing that Steve
Ballmer should step down as well."

CNN Money: Steve Ballmer should step down.

[delovski]

The Ballmer grief - what's the cause?

"Maybe it's because since he took over as CEO in 2000 his company has
shipped, basically, nothing. XP/2000 don't really count, as they were well
into their development before he took over. "

[XNote]

"This article in The Australian newspaper describes the background and
the agenda of Ray Ozzie, Bill Gates' replacement as chief architect at
Microsoft. The creator of Lotus Notes, he's a high-calibre technologist.
From the article: 'Ray's a programmer's programmer .. He's much closer
to an uber-engineer, whereas Bill hasn't been a programmer for a
number of years.' Ozzie is also driving Microsoft to simplify its
software: 'Complexity kills .. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes
products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges,
and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.' He's not the only
brilliant programmer in the world, but he does have Microsoft's resources
behind him."

Slashdot: Gates' Replacement says Microsoft Must Simplify

[XNote]

On JoS: Ballmer is not a programmer, is that Microsoft's problem?

"In Joel's great billg story, he reminds us again of his belief than non-
technical CEOs do not belong at the helm of software
companies. "Watching non-programmers trying to run software
companies is like watching someone who doesn't know how to surf trying
to surf," Joel writes."

[Ben]

Explosive article by MiniMsft: Vista 2007. Fire the leadership now!

[Marko]

"The tragedy wasn't that so many poor decisions got made -- as a
functional monopoly, Microsoft had the cash flow to insulate itself from the
most severe consequences -- but that no one cared to track and codify past
failures as a way to help managers create guidelines of paths to follow and
avoid."

Fine, you say, but that was Microsoft more than 20 years ago. How about
today?

Nothing has changed except that the company is 10 times bigger, which
means it is 10 times more screwed-up."

Robert X. Cringely: Taking One for the Team

[delovski]

Daniel Lyons at Forbes.com: Microsoft Vista: Not 'People Ready'

"Microsoft execs also talked about "Impacting People," then they
dragged out fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who seemed very
'impacted' as he sang praise for Microsoft programs. Actually, he was
reading meaningless statements from a TelePrompTer. Here is one of his
quotes, verbatim: 'When you combine people and technology, you have a
very powerful combination.' Think about that. Just let it sink in for a
minute."

[Ike]

On MSNC via Slashdot: Microsoft Hoping for Vista in January

"Bill Gates said Tuesday there was an 80 percent chance the company's
next-generation operating system, Vista, would be ready in January. He is
also hopeful that the next version of Office will ship in December. The
holdup, he says, is due to constant revisions due to beta tester feedback."

[XNote]

With Vista release in sight, a key Windows exec exits

"Brian Valentine, a Microsoft veteran known for rallying the troops to
finish big projects, is due to start work at Amazon as a senior vice
president in mid-September."

[Ike]

Wired: Rebuilding Microsoft, By Fred Vogelstein

"Bill Gates is on his way out. Now it's up to Ray Ozzie to revive the
flagging giant – and get it ready for the post-desktop era.

As the inventor and principal executive behind Lotus Notes in the '80s
and '90s, the 50-year-old Ozzie is considered one of the best software
minds on the planet. In its day, Lotus Notes was among the most popular
applications in corporate America. In 1997, Ozzie started Groove
Networks, a company – like the one behind Lotus – created to help office
workers collaborate electronically. Microsoft bought Groove in April 2005
for $120 million, and Ozzie signed on as a top executive in Redmond."

[delovski]

And a folow-up at JoS: Nice Artile on Microsoft under Ozzie

"No disrespect to Ozzie, I'm sure he's a really clever guy, but I've gotta
wonder if he ever used lotus notes."

[delovski]

Some more from Joel: How many Microsofties does it take to implement the Off menu?

"Every piece of evidence I've heard from developers inside Microsoft
supports my theory that the company has become completely tangled up in
bureaucracy, layers of management, meetings ad infinitum, and overstaffing."

[Ike]

Jeff Atwood: Giving Up on Microsoft

"Microsoft has always been a developer-centric company to their
very core. From Steve Ballmer's developers, developers, developers,
to Bill Gates' centerfold shot, it's always been abundantly clear that
Microsoft is a company which prides itself on taking care of its core
constituency: developers."

[delovski]

Slashdot: How Infighting Hampers Innovation at Microsoft

"Dick Brass, former vice-president at Microsoft, published an op-ed in The
New York Times, where he states that 'Microsoft has become a clumsy,
uncompetitive innovator' and how 'it has lost share in Web browsers, high-
end laptops and smartphones.'

He attributes this situation to the lack of a true system for innovation at
Microsoft. Some former employees argue that Microsoft has a system to
thwart innovation. He tells how promising and innovative technologies like
ClearType and the original TabletPC concept become crippled and sabota-
ged internally, by groups and divisions that feel threated by them."

... and more at reddit: Microsoft’s Creative Destruction

[Ike]

reddit - Why did Microsoft mess up Windows 8 so badly? I have
it installed and I simply cannot use it. This article sums up a lot
of the problems.