Fire Bill Gates? 10 Reasons Microsoft Investors Dare Not Do It
So, some investors want to oust Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates because he supported Steve Ballmer while the company missed the tablet and smartphone revolutions? The VAR Guy gave this story a few days of thought. Instead of pushing Gates out the door, geeks and businesses should thank him and keep him in Microsoft’s board room. Here are 10 reasons why.
1. Freedom from RISC Unix: Anybody else remember expensive Unix offerings running on RISC hardware from HP, IBM, Sun, Digital and many others? Under Gates’ leadership, Windows NT Server freed corporate IT departments from the costly RISC-Unix combo.
2. Freedom from NetWare: Anybody else remember file and print servers? Sure, NetWare never crashed. But Novell got arrogant and never really pushed beyond file, print and directory services. Here again, Windows NT Server gave us freedom.
3. Freedom from Apple: Anybody else remember how bad Apple hardware and software became in the mid to late 1990s? Mac OS System 7 — ouch. Apple offered customers the “wonderful” combination of bad software running on expensive hardware. Under Gates’ leadership, Windows 95 combined with Intel’s Pentium changed all that.
4. Freedom from Groupware: Lotus Notes was pretty darn awesome in its day. So was Novell GroupWise. But Exchange Server, first built while Gates was CEO, changed the email game. And for critics who dismiss Exchange Server consider this: As the world shifts from client-server to cloud computing, how come so many CSPs offer hosted Exchange?
5. Shift to the Cloud: IBM, HP, Dell and other long-time IT giants are struggling to compete in cloud markets. What about Microsoft? The Windows Azure and Office 365 businesses are off to really, really, really strong starts. In fact, Microsoft ranks among the world’s Top 10 Cloud Services Providers, according to Talkin’ Cloud research.
6. New $1 Billion Businesses: Microsoft Lync? Hot.
7. Competition for VMware: Sure, Microsoft was late to the virtualization game vs VMware. But Microsoft’s Hyper-V is now the most credible alternative to VMware’s vSphere. And let’s not forget, the Windows Server 2012/Hyper-V combo was very well received by partners and customers.
8. Bing, Bing, Bing: Google remains the leader, but who is keeping Google honest in the search game? Only Microsoft. Poke around and listen to channel leaders like LabTech Software CEO Matt Nachtrab, and you’ll hear how a growing number of IT companies use Bing for pay-per-click marketing.
9. Xbox Live: The VAR Guy isn’t a fan. But his kids sure are.
10. That’s the Stupidest Thing I’ve Ever Heard: Bill Gates’ own phrase is the perfect way to end this list. Kicking Bill Gates out of Microsoft is the stupidest thing The VAR Guy has ever heard.
Well, other than the rumor that Bill Gates will succeed Steve Ballmer as CEO. But that’s a blog for another day.
Items 1 to 4 are ancient
Items 1 to 4 are ancient history. And, let’s face it. Windows NT was a nice recovery from LAN Manager thanks to the team that came from Digital.
Microsoft missed multiple great opportunities (and has notable failures), including MP3 players and smart phones, because of the “windows OS only” mantra. They could have/should have beat Apple’s iPod and iTunes service. Mistakes almost as large as Xerox squashing it’s own digital camera technology 10 years ahead of the market because of the fear of what it could do to film.
With the exception of Xbox and Kinnect, Microsoft is copied and trailing the industry — and not really innovating. And, Microsoft has failed to exploit Xbox and Kinnect outside of the gaming market.
Granted, Ballmer has disappointed as CEO, but Gates is the Chairman.
It has become apparent that
It has become apparent that the VarGuy has become a shill for Microsoft. How can I make such a claim?
First his intimation that the “investors” should not try to fire Bill Gates. This is a false and misleading gimmick statement, since the investors in Microsoft have no say what-so-ever as to the hiring and firing practices of members of the company board of directors.
Item1. RISC is a hardware architecture, not software, so VarGuy should have referenced the very expensive ‘proprietary’ UNIX operating systems for comparison with NT, which by the way could never run enterprise applications, particularly the critical ones even if Bill Gates spent 30 $billion on attempting this superNT feat. SCO UNIX which “is” comparable to Windows NT ran on X86 hardware, but Microsoft made sure that any of their clients adopting this foreign software would not get perks or co-operation from Redmond.
Item2. Please explain and qualify exactly what you are referring to in statement “Netware got arrogant and never really pushed beyond file, print and directory services.” Dubious and unsupportable accusations against a competitor does not mean that Windows File & Print is therefore any good. The Varguy sounds more like some crass politicians.
Item3. Apple products in the “mid 1990s” were not that great, but no worse than Windows 95/98 and God-help-us Windows ME. Apple saw the light and with return of Steve Jobs switched to FreeBSD based Darwin, bringing the company into the twenty first century in scalability, much better reliability and potential performance. Security in all iterations of Microsoft Windows has always been sub-par to every other OS software. What did Bill Gates do, bring out Windows NT, which could not even run 2 applications simultaneously before crashing constantly and horrifically. Note to techno-ignorant Windows users, Windows 8 is still based on Windows NT.
Item4. Lotus Notes and Novell Groupwise “were” far superior to Exchange until fairly recently. Why would not Many CSPs offer hosted Exchange since the product is so pervasive – which has nothing to do with quality, reliability, security or value – and they want to keep money flowing from all those in-house Exchange users who are crushed by on-premises costs. Furthermore products like Zimbra, Zafafar, Open X-change, while from smaller entities have proven in every objective and non-partisan evaluation to be far superior to Exchange and far more reasonable in costs. Why more Exchange hosting – simple. Microsoft paid several hosting companies- that confirmed such to me – for this service.
Item5. In regard Software-as-a-Service or Cloud Computing, IBM, HP and Dell that you quoted are “hardware” companies. You never mentioned Amazon EC2 the behemoth of Cloud Services, Google or OpenStack that are collectively knocking Azure in sales and viability, and especially reliability and security. Azure has had proportionally more severe outages since it’s start that all the other Cloud Services combined. Yes, Microsoft Azure maybe in Top 10, but what does that say about the 800lbs bully in the technology world that is worth over 250 $billion, more than many of those corporations mentioned combined, that it is not “No.1” or in Top 3.
Item6. What the hell is Microsoft Lync, and if it is so new, how can it be judged as “hot”, when unproven over any period of time? A purely promotional statement.
Item7. “Hyper-V is now the most credible alternative to VMware’s vSphere.” This statement is pure crap. Who says so and by what measurement? You did not mention Xen, or RedHat Linux KVM that is deployed with their Operating System and Services in thousands of enterprise operations – all the Financial Exchanges, most of the Financial Services industry, many IBM global Services thousands of clients and tons more.
Item8. What about Yahoo reviving it’s own search, and DuckDuck Go that are increasing their search business exponentially? In Europe, Asia and South America, Bing is even farther behind Google and sliding backwards fast. You referenced “one”, repeat “one” company gung-ho on Bing, not huundreds. Stop dreaming.
item9. What about Xbox live? The Valve and Blizzard gaming companies have stated unambiguously that Windows 8 is horrible for gaming – while praising Linux, even though they have no intentions of relinquishing such a Windows cash cow. Valve in fact are releasing a Linux based game console, and with Sony, Samsung and others implementing Android (Linux based), and Apple with iOS7 in their home entertainment equipment, thus giving Sony, Valve and Apple built-in advantages in this area.
Item10. This should not have even been in the list. However, just because Bill Gates says that firing him is “That’s the Stupidest Thing I’ve Ever Heard” does not mean that his words are from God or predict the future. I personally see no point in any entity with the requisite power to fire Bill Gates. That probably wont’s change the mentality or business practices that are in the company’s DNA, and contribute to many reasons Microsoft is struggling without great success.
VarGuy also made no mention of Microsoft unspectacular mobile operations, which is the impetus for uch discontent amoung the company’s share holders and millions of Microsoft fans. Quite interesting.
If Varguy can purposely omit many of the most formidable technology and business rivals or competitors and relevant technologies in these listings, then he has proven in my judgement to unfortunately be just another pathetic Microsoft propagandist.
Please judge The VAR Guy by
Please judge The VAR Guy by the entirety of his work. Does a Microsoft propagandist write blogs like this?:
1. Ballmer’s Successor must apologize to partners.
2. Gates 18, Ballmer 0
By the way, I suspect The VAR Guy really values the time you put into your comment. Passionate readers and constructive criticism are always welcome on this site.
-jp
Mr. Panettieri, I judge each
Mr. Panettieri, I judge each and every Varguy blog by it’s thoughtfulness and technical considerations on the relevant topic, and by the” truthfulness” contained therein. In this particular article and at least two others recently that were decidedly propagating Microsoft support and sympathy as against the actual circumstances – in my opinion, Varguy lost a lot of credibility by (purposely?) omitting critical facts and information, ans was not able to make s cogent and persuasive arguments for his position of Microsoft ‘great’ achievements in those ten points.
Most readers of popular technology media today have very little ‘in-depth’ historical knowledge or first hand experience in most of the technology fields covered, with possible exception of modern social media and newer mobile devices and services.
Therefore it is critical that Varguy and rest make every effort to lay out “relevant” facts and critical background information, else misinformation and false conceptions will abound.
It is bad enough that a major reports was released this week showing that American adults significantly lag their counterparts in most of the developed world in Math, basic Reading and understanding concepts and analytical/problem solving skills for uncomplicated issues. False and confusing information in technology media will only make things worse.
Wanderson: Thank you for
Wanderson: Thank you for taking the time to loop back and share more of your thoughts. I think you have a point re: some blog entries omitting critical facts. When readers like you jump into the conversation, it forces us to re-read our own coverage and market perceptions.
I still think Gates should stay. But no doubt, our coverage omitted many of the areas where he let down the company (and customers) over the past decade.
Thanks for your time and readership. I know The VAR Guy appreciates it, too. Oh, and please call me Joe.
-jp