Win8 and Sinofsky’s departure

Again about Microsoft – this is a company about which I always have to write some thing or the other. Today it’s going to be about Windows 8 and Sinofsky’s departure.

First, about Windows 8: I installed Win8 on my laptop a month ago and, although it still has some problems, all in all, I’m happy to use it.

A few problems:

• Many programs stopped working after upgrade: OpenVPN, most security programs. The printers no longer work after update and that’s not cool (that is, they work in desktop, but they don’t work in metro apps);
• There are very (but very!) few applications for Win8 and they are not very interesting. You won’t find good apps, like on the iPad. Even Skype, in Win8 version, doesn’t use one of its important features – the search function. I mean you cannot search for a contact in Skype! And I would like to remind you that Skype is now a Microsoft product.
• The login system (Hotmail/msn/live/bing/outlook.com …wtf?) is completely disconcerting. It’s not clear what you should use to log in and where. There is no control panel that collects the accounts and your actions on Microsoft products and that’s unpleasant.
• Otherwise, the philosophy behind changing the interface is a bit complicated but, once you manage to understand, you’re OK.

Good things:

• The fact that the three currently used types of hardware – laptop/tablet/phone – are integrated in the same philosophy and interface is just amazing. The same products (including office) – on all systems is really cool.
• The fact that they managed to do this without copying from Apple is again worth praising.

So there’s not much else to comment, except that it’s worth trying. Let’s see the Win8 Office, the tablet (I hope to get one next week) and the phone (when it’s available). I look forward to a good laptop with touchscreen. Later edit: man, what a flop is Surface 🙁 .

The discussion about Sinofsky’s departure is more interesting. He is the man who changed Microsoft radically in recent years. He was in the company for 23 years (a lifetime 🙂 ), as Bill’s technical assistant – a very important job, don’t think that’s a kind of secretary… He took over Win7’s launch, then Win8’s launch. He changed the development system in Microsoft and he flattened the company very much (the expression Sinofsky-fied company was invented for him 🙂 ). He was seen by many (and by me, I confess) as the future CEO. On the other hand, he was extremely arrogant and authoritarian, making a lot of enemies around him. Now he is gone – let us see what Steve puts in his place. I can’t help but notice that very recently (two weeks ago) one of Steve Jobs’s key persons – Scott Forstall was “departed” from Apple. Several extremely important questions about how the 2013 market will look like still remain:

• Who will take Sinofsky’s place at MSFT?
• If Scott, who is very “mobile oriented”, comes, what changes will he make in the company?
• If not, how will the company react after the departure of an authoritarian leader?
• What is Sinofsky’s next project?

And, in this context, keeping in mind that for the last year Microsoft has begun to open retail stores following Apple’s model, I can’t help but notice that the Head of Retail at Apple (John Browett) was fired.
Could he be the next head of Microsoft’s stores? I was saying in an older post that Microsoft realized it is no longer the leader, but a follower – and that’s good, if this is really how things are. Could bringing these two people be related somehow? Or not…

(English version by Teodora Popescu)