tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post113203443913459229..comments2024-03-18T12:52:48.117-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: A Disruptive Defrag for MicrosoftWho da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1136218404194432082006-01-02T08:13:00.000-08:002006-01-02T08:13:00.000-08:00The Newest Pied Piper of MicrosoftNow, first and f...The Newest Pied Piper of Microsoft<BR/><BR/>Now, first and foremost, I believe that Ray Ozzie is technically brilliant. He is the only guy on the planet that can stand in front of a crowd consisting of Gates, Raikes, Sinosfky, Allchin and Rudder and beat them down technically – quite a feat. But, before we raise him to exalted savior status we should take a look at the little lie about that Pied Piper. <BR/><BR/>The well publicized history of Ozzie led him down a path to build early releases of Lotus Notes under the sponsorship of Mitch Kapor, then CEO of Lotus. Lotus bought cc:Mail. Kapor said to Ozzie, “Integrate this email thing with Notes.” Ozzie responded with, “Over my dead body – it will never happen!” Kapor eventually wore him down and grudgingly the integration was done. Then came the email wars where every major corporation was standardizing on an email solution. The war came down to Exchange vs. Notes. The Lotus, then IBM pitch was, “We have everything that Exchange has plus all this neat collaboration software.” Customers would ask, “What would I use that stuff for?” The sales guy would respond, “I’m not sure but it’s really neat stuff and it costs the same as Exchange – you get this extra stuff for free.” <BR/><BR/>So, do you know what the little lie is? Yes, Notes was greatly successful. Estimates are it sold 100m seats. Do you know how many of those users are actively using the collaboration software? Most estimates are that there are/were less than 2m users. The big lie Part II – do you know how many Groove users there are? Most estimates are that there are/were less than 2m users. See any patterns here?<BR/><BR/>Now, who can argue his financial success and widespread fame? And, yes, he is technically brilliant. But, do we want to entrust the future of our company to a guy who now, twice, sold less than 2m copies of his brilliant innovations over the last 20+ years? The Notes success was email not collaboration. Notes and Groove fascinate sophisticated technical minds. The software is extraordinary. One minor problem – nobody wants it. Beware of too much collaborative nonsense in MSLIVE … technically fascinating – nobody buys it …Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132680021445555692005-11-22T09:20:00.000-08:002005-11-22T09:20:00.000-08:00One of things that fascinated me during my 8 years...One of things that fascinated me during my 8 years at Microsoft was how they handled buy vs build decisions. While willing to spend millions to buy a competitor (they admit they'll mostly have to rewrite), they aren't willing to spend 10s of thousands to train the team they have on processes to ensure they can deliver the in-house built solution. The phrase penny wise, pound foolish comes to mind.<BR/><BR/>Really though, until you get rid of the Kingdom building as the main way to get promotions, I don't seem Microsoft become more agile and less bureaucratic. It was sad to see all of the people passionate about solving customer problems stifled by the lack of imagination and brass-ones in middle management (especially at the director level).<BR/><BR/>I loved the idea of Microsoft being a meritocracy, too bad I never saw it. <BR/><BR/>If Microsoft becomes the place you describe, lean, customer focused, and driven to deliver quality solutions, I would LOVE to come back and work there again. However, in the environment when I am asked to speak on Unit Testing to the Windows division because that makes our team look good, but then discouraged from measuring team progress by the results of the Unit Tests (and told to cut Unit Testing when the deadline looked at risk), I don’t see the Company you envision. Good look making it that company. After 5 years of trying to help move the company that way, I just got worn out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132318173564852232005-11-18T04:49:00.000-08:002005-11-18T04:49:00.000-08:00RE: shared/private workspaces - (perhaps not the b...RE: shared/private workspaces - (perhaps not the best example wrt to actual team success/impact but here goes..) <BR/>Does anyone remember where the Three Degrees team used to be situated over in the downtown offices? I loved their shared workspace - it didn't have the typical drone-cube feel to it (no dividers) , it had a nice view of the city and I just liked the general layout of the room. They also had a quiet/meditation room (can't remember the actual term they used to call it). <BR/>Shared workspaces may very well be a good solution but for that to work at Microsoft would require a major paradigm shift in our corporate culture - as long as having your own office is accepted as a a symbol of respect/seniority/power/whatever, IMO most veterans wouldn't pick a shared workspace option (if their peers would remain in personal offices) even if you gave them a written guarantee of higher productivityAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132317997915252622005-11-18T04:46:00.000-08:002005-11-18T04:46:00.000-08:00Hey Kalif, fair’s got nothing to do with it. Neith...<I>Hey Kalif, fair’s got nothing to do with it. Neither does trust. It’s all about being on the same page from a design perspective. Software is a virtual world and no matter how hard you try, everyone has a different picture in their head even though we all hear the same words and “think” we have the same meaning. I have been codin for 15 years and I can tell you that people go off the rez in about 5 minutes flat without some cohesive and collaborative team work – and when I mean team, I mean we are on the same playing field – just like football or basketball or hockey or… Like I said, software development is a team sport – you don’t see football players playing in offices… It seems to me that the software industry in general is just a bit daft when it comes to this idea of a team. </I><BR/><BR/><BR/>By fair I meant to truly make an informed decision as to the "better" methodology. The fact that you can "hollar out an answer," is why I said that there are tasks that should be completed as a group. The idea is to budget dev time with "collaboration time."Christian H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16847810167041864292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132292629208596092005-11-17T21:43:00.000-08:002005-11-17T21:43:00.000-08:00Re” In order to be fair you would actually need to...Re” <I>In order to be fair you would actually need to take two different teams working at the same time on the same project. One team has offices near each other and the other team is in a "pod" environment. <BR/><BR/>I and most people (read:DEVS) feel that quiet non-volatile environments work best though that's not to say you are making things up. Of course it is possible to be productive but office doors are not like vault doors. If you can't TRUST your team to work well alone or in pairs, then the problem isn't the offices, it's the DEVS.</I><BR/>--------------<BR/>Hey Kalif, fair’s got nothing to do with it. Neither does trust. It’s all about being on the same page from a design perspective. Software is a virtual world and no matter how hard you try, everyone has a different picture in their head even though we all hear the same words and “think” we have the same meaning. I have been codin for 15 years and I can tell you that people go off the rez in about 5 minutes flat without some cohesive and collaborative team work – and when I mean team, I mean we are on the same playing field – just like football or basketball or hockey or… Like I said, software development is a team sport – you don’t see football players playing in offices… It seems to me that the software industry in general is just a bit daft when it comes to this idea of a team sport.<BR/><BR/>Being an old fart, I like the quiet too – but I would rather have a conversation when I overhear my team going, I need to code this algorithm and I can say we coded that 2 years ago, its’ in the library, REUSE it! In an office, I can’t hear that and it ain’t about control either in case you want to try that path. Btw, if you think I am making things up, I can send you a picture of our ultra cool code pit :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132291856866116352005-11-17T21:30:00.000-08:002005-11-17T21:30:00.000-08:00It is easy to give MSFT, a company with 100% domin...<I>It is easy to give MSFT, a company with 100% dominance in almost every facet of software, no credit for anything.</I><BR/><BR/>100% dominance in almost every facet? How you lookin' on web server stats there, bub? How about clusters or scientific computing? Checked the content and publishing industry lately (it's all Mac and always has been)?<BR/><BR/>As for the general consumer market, yeah, you've got that. Monopolies dominate their markets, hence the term. Good luck getting Vista Beta 2 out the door late. :(Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132291651526155812005-11-17T21:27:00.000-08:002005-11-17T21:27:00.000-08:00"Steve Jobs has had 10 years at Apple and has not ..."Steve Jobs has had 10 years at Apple and has not raised Apple's market share by 1 full percent."<BR/><BR/>Uh, he hasn't? Hasn't their share doubled since he's been there? Granted, it's still peanuts compared to Windows, but Microsoft was also found guilty as an abusive monopoly. Kind of hard to fight that.<BR/><BR/><I>He ran the company to the ground in the first place and was fired.</I><BR/><BR/>The history isn't that simple. He hardly ran the company to the ground--the subsequent CEOs were more than happy to do that.<BR/><BR/><I>He botched NeXT.</I><BR/><BR/>Actually, OpenStep (now Cocoa) and WebObjects did pretty darned well. The first web browser was developed in a few weeks on a NeXT box, you know.<BR/><BR/><I>Now that he's cleaned up his own shit a little bit, he is now a darling? Give me a freaking break.</I><BR/><BR/>Okay, you've got to be kidding. Apple is now the darling brand, everyone has iPods, and everyone is raving about iMacs and OS X Tiger. Meanwhile, his little animation company has cleaned up with every single picture they put out, actually rivaling former powerhouse Disney, who had to kiss up and offer their TV shows on iTunes just to make Jobs happy again. Hell yeah he's a darling.<BR/><BR/><I>Now you are giving him 5 more years to move OSX to Intel and "maybe" with God on his side Apple may inch a full percent in market share?"</I><BR/><BR/>Actually, with Intel Macs being able to run Windows, hardware sales will increase (more than they are already), along with curiosity over trying the "OS X" thing that comes pre-installed on it...<BR/><BR/>Even worse is that Intel's virtualization features and Apple's recent patent for running multiple operating systems means Windows apps may just end up being little sandboxed windows on an OS X desktop. And just maybe 12 months later, Vista might come out on time despite its Beta 2 delay...however I'm still guessing a delay to early 2007 or expect a ton of bugs in all these new, gigantic APIs.<BR/><BR/>When a company focuses on thinking it's the biggest because it's the best, you stop making the best. Windows only dominates because it's a monopoly--a standard. People don't choose to use Windows, they have to use it because it comes with their computers and their apps use Win32. Apple is quickly showing them there's another way that doesn't involve antivirus, antispyware, firewall, registry cleaner, etc. etc. etc. software running in their system trays all day long.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132287667072905722005-11-17T20:21:00.000-08:002005-11-17T20:21:00.000-08:00I've been with Microsoft for over ten years now an...I've been with Microsoft for over ten years now and I liked the company a lot better when Billg ran it. Collaborative, creative, motivating, energizing. Working here was like downing a 6 pack of Jolt cola. When Steve took over, that's when the backstabbing, stack ranking, dog eat dog ladder climbing, bring in the dork process execs started. Totally kills creativity and collaboration. We have become the evil empire that the DOJ described back in the late 90's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132281466135425682005-11-17T18:37:00.000-08:002005-11-17T18:37:00.000-08:00Re: Apple is moving OSX to Intel so developers ca...Re: <I> Apple is moving OSX to Intel so developers can port Windows apps to an opposing platform. Mac can ship with Firefox and OpenOffice pre-loaded. Steve Jobs was kicked out of his own company and came back to lead it from the dregs of despair. Our CEO rants about killing other CEOs and throws chairs. Who do you think will win? </I><BR/><BR/>Steve Jobs has had 10 years at Apple and has not raised Apple's market share by 1 full percent. And he is your hero? With this level of perception, I wonder what you do for a living?<BR/><BR/>He ran the company to the ground in the first place and was fired. He botched NeXT. Now that he's cleaned up his own shit a little bit, he is now a darling? Give me a freaking break. Now you are giving him 5 more years to move OSX to Intel and "maybe" with God on his side Apple may inch a full percent in market share?<BR/><BR/>See why we MS folks appear arrogant? Stop sinking the level of discourse around this blog pleaseAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132280838476033152005-11-17T18:27:00.000-08:002005-11-17T18:27:00.000-08:00Not that Apple making some POS computers and spend...<I> Not that Apple making some POS computers and spending 5 years dicking around on an OS (gee, that sounds familiar, don't it?) didn't have something to do with their losing market share, but I bet Microsoft might not do so well against a competitor when they don't have the advantage of using tactics get them hauled into a US District Court as a monopolist. </I><BR/><BR/>I agree with you. Just like the Chicago Bulls wouldn't have won those six championships if not for Michael Jordan's domineering play and monopolistic out-of-this-world skills. That's why I don't recognize any of their championshipsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132269227803730302005-11-17T15:13:00.000-08:002005-11-17T15:13:00.000-08:00Apple owns how much % of the computer market?Not t...<I>Apple owns how much % of the computer market?</I><BR/><BR/>Not that Apple making some POS computers and spending 5 years dicking around on an OS (gee, that sounds familiar, don't it?) didn't have something to do with their losing market share, but I bet Microsoft might not do so well against a competitor when they don't have the advantage of using tactics get them hauled into a US District Court as a monopolist. Which we all know is what happened through the 1990's, right?<BR/><BR/>(I imagine a few employees here probably drank the BillG/SteveB Koolaid and migtht think otherwise about the 1990's. Of course, you probably think 5 years between XP and Vista is just fine too...)<BR/><BR/>Note that on several fronts (web servers, online music) where Microsoft hasn't been able to "knife the baby" or cut off a company's "air supply", they haven't quite been able to own the world, despite their best efforts.<BR/><BR/>I can also tell you that anyone who picked up Apple stock a few years ago (as an employee or shareholder) is a LOT happier than someone who would have picked up MS stock at the same time. Apple doesn't own the world the way Microsoft does, but here's a dirty little secret- you don't HAVE to in order to do some interesting things. Microsoft would probably be a better company if they realized expanding into every possible niche of the software industry is not only not realistic, it's part of the problem Mini's talking about. Apple is more than happy to say "No" to a lot of things, like providing white box computer solutions to enterprise ala Dell- it's not something they are good at, so why do it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132268991384371812005-11-17T15:09:00.000-08:002005-11-17T15:09:00.000-08:00Linux has been used in clusters for how long? And ...<I>Linux has been used in clusters for how long? And it costs how much per processor?</I><BR/><BR/>Linux is free if you want it free, but the big HPC customers have big budgets: after floorspace, cooling, power, support staff, tools and buying the machines the cost of volume licensing from the likes of Red Hat is small, so people pay it for a supported OS.<BR/><BR/>In the small/midsize academic market where labor is cheap and money is tight, MS won't compete unless they do a very good academic price and the sysadmin isn't hostile, but for mission critical clusters in industry it could work, as long as the performance is good and the infrastructure and tool chain are right.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132268103757140422005-11-17T14:55:00.000-08:002005-11-17T14:55:00.000-08:00"Speaking of $20m/year VPs, looks like one of this..."Speaking of $20m/year VPs, looks like one of this board's favorite whipping boys has been sent out to pasture:<BR/>http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/nov05/11-17Burgum.mspx"<BR/><BR/>He's a favorite whipping boy because the perfomance of the division under his leadership has been abysmal. And considering that he gets to be Chairman now versus [deservedly] being fired, I'd call that being put out to stud vs pasture. Here was a golden opp for Gates/Ballmer to show that accountability was going to be demanded at the top not just the bottom. Instead, they send exactly the opposite message - business as usual. The guys at Salesforce.com, Rightnow, etc. must be laughing their asses off...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132267683032186212005-11-17T14:48:00.000-08:002005-11-17T14:48:00.000-08:00Can someone explain to me why Microsoft is acting ...Can someone explain to me why Microsoft is acting like http://www.start.com is new than http://www.google.com/ig when Google's version has been around for a long time and it's 100% better?<BR/><BR/>Nice try MS, F for effort.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132266632790562702005-11-17T14:30:00.000-08:002005-11-17T14:30:00.000-08:00I am not suggesting offices are better or worse th...<I>I am not suggesting offices are better or worse than open spaces, all I can tell you from direct experience with both, we were the most successful using the open office concept and really being a “team”.</I><BR/><BR/><BR/>In order to be fair you would actually need to take two different teams working at the same time on the same project. One team has offices near each other and the other team is in a "pod" environment. <BR/>I and most people (read:DEVS) feel that quiet non-volatile environments work best though that's not to say you are making things up. Of course it is possible to be productive but office doors are not like vault doors. If you can't TRUST your team to work well alone or in pairs, then the problem isn't the offices, it's the DEVS.Christian H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16847810167041864292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132263754689737752005-11-17T13:42:00.000-08:002005-11-17T13:42:00.000-08:00Re: offices or open space...Having worked in both ...Re: offices or open space...<BR/><BR/>Having worked in both over the last 15 years - all have pros and cons that has already been discussed. However, I view software development as a team sport. At least any project of any size I have worked on requires a team. As with any team sport, there are rules. One of the rules is to play like you are on a team.<BR/><BR/>When I opened up my own s/w dev shop, I opted for open office – no cubes at all – just for the development teams. We arranged our desks so that each desk was at a right angle to the next, with each “pod” containing 4 desks. Our team was 16 so we had 4 pods. We called it the code pit – our software development playing field. In the code pit we played like a team. We had huddles (impromptu meetings when required) and designed plays and … coded! <BR/><BR/>We were extremely productive cause we were all on the same page – right now and all the time, which in the software development world, is probably the hardest thing to do. Osmosis really does work. With offices, might as well be on a different planet, with respect to everyone being on the same page.<BR/><BR/>We ran our shop for 4 years like this and everyone got the hang of playing on the team. If they didn’t, well, you know the answer. This was the most productive and cohesive team I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Headphones, phones, farts and all.<BR/><BR/>I am not suggesting offices are better or worse than open spaces, all I can tell you from direct experience with both, we were the most successful using the open office concept and really being a “team”.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132257193998592092005-11-17T11:53:00.000-08:002005-11-17T11:53:00.000-08:00Speaking of $20m/year VPs, looks like one of this ...Speaking of $20m/year VPs, looks like one of this board's favorite whipping boys has been sent out to pasture:<BR/>http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/nov05/11-17Burgum.mspxAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132256740997094992005-11-17T11:45:00.000-08:002005-11-17T11:45:00.000-08:00Keep anonymous comments turned on. This blog and S...Keep anonymous comments turned on. This blog and Scoble's site are the best things to happen to Microsoft in 5 years. This site is a new reality while Microsoft, the official corporation, bumbles around in the background.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132255639786383882005-11-17T11:27:00.000-08:002005-11-17T11:27:00.000-08:00Re: Apple owns how much % of the computer market?A...Re: Apple owns how much % of the computer market?<BR/><BR/>Apple is moving OSX to Intel so developers can port Windows apps to an opposing platform. Mac can ship with Firefox and OpenOffice pre-loaded. Steve Jobs was kicked out of his own company and came back to lead it from the dregs of despair. Our CEO rants about killing other CEOs and throws chairs. Who do you think will win?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132255217427818512005-11-17T11:20:00.000-08:002005-11-17T11:20:00.000-08:00There was a study cited in... I think it was Code ...<I>There was a study cited in... I think it was Code Complete 2, talking about the effects of listening to music on coding. Folks were given a spec to implement - read some data, perform some complicated (and precisely specced) math on it, and write it back out. The catch was - the math turned out to always end up as a noop. Something like 85% of the folks not listening to music recognized this optimization, compared with like 15% of those who were listening to music. Each group was composed 50/50 of people who normally listened to music and people who didn't normally listen to music.</I><BR/><BR/><BR/>But these people are more well-respected than Steve McConnell. Why would they ned to listen to him?<BR/><BR/>But sarcasm aside everyone's mileage may vary when it comes to dev techniques. As I said in a previous post, when respected dev authors spend two years writing a book, they should be listened to.<BR/><BR/>I guess they wouldn't take security advice from LeBlanc and Howard either.Christian H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16847810167041864292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132251346335912172005-11-17T10:15:00.000-08:002005-11-17T10:15:00.000-08:00Mini,I have been reading this blog since I was ter...Mini,<BR/><BR/>I have been reading this blog since I was terminated in September from MBS. I think this blog is doing a great service to pressure management into making some serious efforts to rid the company of excessive management layers, non-performing business units like MBS and becoming entrepreneurial.<BR/><BR/>For those of you that still work at Microsoft, you must realize that a huge plan is in progress to downsize Microsoft, especially middle management. For example, does the company still need 7 CFOs for 3 business divisions? A major overhaul and purging is not out of the question.<BR/><BR/>If you want to prepare for what is coming down (i.e. especially if you are one of those General Managers reporting into another General Manager or anyone significant inside of MBS) you need to read a book called Corporate Confidential by Cynthia Shapiro. She does consulting with Microsoft management and employees. Her book can show you how to survive and what to look for as Microsoft begins the largest purging of management ever!<BR/><BR/>The silver lining in my firing is missing this re-org and downsizing that is just beginning. Just think about this: Wall Street always rewards the stock prices of companies that have large RIFs and you have a management team that is desparate for stock price movement. Looks like there will be a new TV show called "Desparate Microsoft Managers".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132248269104526382005-11-17T09:24:00.000-08:002005-11-17T09:24:00.000-08:00Another colleague who had opinions similar to your...<I>Another colleague who had opinions similar to yours wrote really terrible code.<BR/><BR/>Anecdotes mean nothing.</I><BR/><BR/><BR/>That may be true but I don't count myself with people who haven't been published on OFFICIAL MS Dev Support sites.<BR/><BR/>www.msd2d.comChristian H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16847810167041864292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132246576203790502005-11-17T08:56:00.000-08:002005-11-17T08:56:00.000-08:00I would bet that I have produced more flexible, ex...<I>I would bet that I have produced more flexible, extensible, bug-free code than anyone who disagrees with me.</I><BR/><BR/>Another colleague who had opinions similar to yours wrote really terrible code.<BR/><BR/>Anecdotes mean nothing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132245575903417202005-11-17T08:39:00.000-08:002005-11-17T08:39:00.000-08:00Stuff about "just put on your headphones"There was...<I>Stuff about "just put on your headphones"</I><BR/><BR/>There was a study cited in... I think it was Code Complete 2, talking about the effects of listening to music on coding. Folks were given a spec to implement - read some data, perform some complicated (and precisely specced) math on it, and write it back out. The catch was - the math turned out to always end up as a noop. Something like 85% of the folks not listening to music recognized this optimization, compared with like 15% of those who were listening to music. Each group was composed 50/50 of people who normally listened to music and people who didn't normally listen to music.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1132244769093478912005-11-17T08:26:00.000-08:002005-11-17T08:26:00.000-08:00People with A.D.D. don't do well with a lot of dis...<I>People with A.D.D. don't do well with a lot of distraction (e.g. phones, iPods, etc.).</I><BR/><BR/><BR/>I would bet that I have produced more flexible, extensible, bug-free code than anyone who disagrees with me.Christian H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16847810167041864292noreply@blogger.com