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We don't cover a lot of Microsoft technology in this magazine (except in our "Interoperability" and "Living with Windows" issues), but sometimes the moving and shaking of Microsoft really does affect the rest of the high-tech industry. Redmond announced that they were laying off 18,000 people recently; big layoffs are always big news, and Microsoft's bold swipe dominated the high-tech headlines, but another important update from the empire received a lesser share of attention. New Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's manifesto to his employees, dated July 10, 2014, set out a new direction for the company.
Dear Linux Pro Reader,
We don't cover a lot of Microsoft technology in this magazine (except in our "Interoperability" and "Living with Windows" issues), but sometimes the moving and shaking of Microsoft really does affect the rest of the high-tech industry. Redmond announced that they were laying off 18,000 people recently; big layoffs are always big news, and Microsoft's bold swipe dominated the high-tech headlines, but another important update from the empire received a lesser share of attention. New Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's manifesto to his employees, dated July 10, 2014, set out a new direction for the company.
The massive memo, which has the subject line "Starting FY15 – Bold Ambition & Our Core," is not intended as a detailed plan with concrete goals but is more of a vision statement – with big, broad general hopes for the company. Only two years ago, previous CEO Steve Ballmer declared Microsoft was a "devices and services" company. Nadella now says the "devices and services" description was useful, but the company will "hone in" on a more refined vision of itself as a "productivity and platform" company. This kind of ethereal market-speak can drive engineers crazy, and it probably will before Microsoft finishes its transition. For now, all we can do is sift through Nadella's remarks to see if we can figure out what he might mean.
[...]
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