This was an interesting read. Ever since Satya Nadella took on the role of CEO, I’ve been consistently impressed by his leadership.
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Posting the direct link since I had trouble finding it by that title.
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If I read the charts correctly, prior to Satya Nadella becoming CEO the highest Microsoft stock had even been was around $59, in 1999. Currently it is $431.20.
I knew things had really changed at Microsoft when he announced Microsoft Office for iPad in his first press briefing.
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I have a lot of respect for Microsoft.
I just wish I understood their XBox Strategy. I think they are missing a real opportunity to make “XBox” their in on rebuilding their foothold in the consumer space.
I just ordered myself an Series S 512 GB entry model after years of no gaming (mostly to see if my young child would be interested in co-op family games … and perhaps to check out some of the more recent scifi blockbusters!). That xBox now ship without a drive and therefore force digital sales directly from Microsoft’s online marketplace, or indeed, their Gamespass subscription, seemed like a masterstroke of protecting their market. I couldn’t quite get myself to shell out for the Series X that would have allowed me to pick up second-hand games on disk for pennies, which how I used to do it back in the days. It seems that consoles are about the only market that are still clinging on to physical media. Anyway, I am about to become a Microsoft customer in a way that I hadn’t quite anticipated and send my pennies Mr Nadella’s way 
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Beng the dissenting voice again I am not convinced that a rise in share price a good enough reason to respect Microsoft. Stock market behaviour is not a metric by which to judge anything; it is merely a measure of how much richer rich people think they can get. The respect should come from good products (not product sales) and openness neither of which, I believe, Microsoft has ever achieved.
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It’s difficult to take comments like this seriously.
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Right back at ya son.
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I am not the one making sweeping generalizations based on my own feelings about one of the most successful companies in the world.
Even if you don’t like Windows and Office. Xbox.
I fear I have to dissent from the dissenter. VS Code is open and a good product. Same goes for Windows Terminal and MS PowerToys. I also think Edge has a nicer UI than Chrome and I find Windows 11 almost more aestethic than macOS. If given the choice, I would still choose a Mac of course (I do not want to be banned here).
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Even if you hate current MS products, to say they have made nothing good in 40 years is just silly.
Im a macOS lifer but when I decided to “de-Google” I pretty much leveraged Microsoft Services for things like extra cloud storage, emails and the likes. I have been pretty happy with them. We should want a healthy Microsoft cause I rue the day that ChromeOS/Android replaces Windows as the second great Desktop OS.
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I’m not sure how long MS can be judged by its “products”.
“As Microsoft’s fastest-growing business, intelligent cloud replaced the more personal computing segment in FY2020 to become the company’s largest business segment. In its 2024 financial year, Microsoft generated 77 billion U.S. dollars from its productivity and business processes segment and a further 105 billion through its intelligent cloud segment. Thanks in part to the rapid growth in these two areas, 2024 proved to be the company’s most successful year ever in terms of annual revenue, with the total figure reaching over 245 billion dollars.”
I wonder how long a desktop OS will be necessary?
AI Agents Have Officially Entered the Workplace, Flaws and All
Well we said the same about phones replacing the laptop but they have proved surprisingly resilient. I mean macOS has never had a better time on Cook’s reign. Windows 11 has been a hiccup but I am not counting desktops/laptops out yet.
Now as far as AI taking away the jobs. It will happen to many jobs but there will still need to be some level of human oversight.
This will be my final comment in this thread.
The discussion reminds me of the title sequence voice-over for the Babylon 5 sequel Crusade:
Who do you serve, and who do you trust?
It should be abundantly clear that I do not trust Microsoft. Way back when, I worked for one of Microsoft’s Gold Partners — the only one at the time in fact — and all support for Microsoft Products had to be gained from our internal support team and not from Microsoft who would not even talk to our multi-million dollar international customers either. Hence I do not trust them and will not serve them.
Muting this thread so any comebacks will likely go unnoticed.
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You didn’t like a business deal they did with a company you worked for, so you don’t trust them and all their products are bad. Makes sense.
I’m taking my ball and going home …
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While I’m not a big fan of Microsoft, this is not the same Windows everywhere company of the monopoly days. They still make curious decisions, Recall anyone? The ads in Windows 11 are quite annoying (as is the lack of attention to detail). The changes they just made to Teams made an ok product worse (don’t get me started on the new Outlook). And what exactly is LinkedIn trying to be?
But as mentioned, VS Code is pretty good and open. And that GitHub thing seems useful. Azure seems to be a success.
@Glimfeather , you rail against the openness of Microsoft, yet you have no problem with Apple’s walled gardens? The heavy handed way they wield the AppStore rules against developers? Given your distaste for capitalism, why is it you use Apple products at all? Why are you not all in on Linux?
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If I refused to do any business with companies that didnt fail to live up to my morality I would walk naked to Chick Fila. I look at it product by product so that they focus on the things that work and less on the things that do not.
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