“Microsoft already embarrassed itself by being five years late with Windows Vista. In a properly run organization, those responsible would have been fired by now. Bill Gates would be gone, Steve Ballmer, his high-school buddy and longtime Microsoft pal, would be gone, and a half-dozen others would be fired, too,” Al Fasoldt writes for Technofile. “A company like Apple wouldn’t let incompetents stay on like that. Is this ringing a bell? Steve Jobs would know how to turn Microsoft around. Microsoft’s stockholders don’t want failure and delays. They want results. Right?”
Fasoldt writes, “So they ask Steve to take over as CEO. He retains his position at Apple. He ceases development of Windows Vista and instead unveils a version of Windows his own engineering team has designed, based, as is OS X, on Unix. It’s compatible with all previous versions of Windows from Windows 95 to Windows XP, yet the compatibility is achieved through Rosetta Stone emulation. Rosetta, you might already know, is the emulation layer built into Apple’s version of OS X for Intel Macs. Rosetta Stone will be its emulation layer for Windows Unix. (And, no, the name would not have been chosen for the condition you’d have to be in to run an operating system with 210,000 active viruses.)”
“Oh well. You think I’m just dreaming, don’t you. Nothing like that could ever happen,” Fasoldt writes. “But consider this. If I told you in early spring of 2006 that Apple would soon come up with a way to turn Intel Macs into Windows PCs, you would have thought I was dreaming. Let’s hear it for dreams.”
More in the full article here.
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Keep on dreamin’
Please, not while I’m eating.
Sell the company and return the money to the shareholders?
This is the only scenario that actually has a chance of bringing innovation to Microsoft.
It’s still never gonna happen, but it’s a thought…
Uhhh… Or Microsoft could die.
Was an interesting article until the author suggested that the new Unix-based Windows would use Rosetta to run old Windows applications.
Rosetta is a CPU emulator, not a software API/OS emulator. Wouldn’t it make more sense to maintain compatibility with Windows 95/98/XP via a “Classic” mode like Apple already did for OS 9 when they switched to OS X?
This guy doesn’t know too much.
Absolute drivel.
What is a slow news day this must be!
Not even steve could fix that trainwreck
It will be interesting to revisit Microsucks economic health in 5-10 years.
“I get paid to make shit up, the more worthless the more I get paid. Next i predict Bill Gates will replace Jonathan Ive and Bush will actually do something to help people who make less than us$1M/year.”
I don’t know… a move like that might cause minds all over the world to fuse in a mass systems failure. Would Apple fans suddenly have to like MS because of the Steve factor? Would MS fans have to stop bashing Apple? Arghhh.. urghh… can’t reconcile paradoxes….
maczealot – right on! Nice dig at Mr. Dell & Co….
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Seriously, though, we wouldn’t want M$ to “die” – just who would we set our sights on to bash, ridicule, deride, snort and just throw general darts of nastiness at, then?
“Seriously, though, we wouldn’t want M$ to “die” – just who would we set our sights on to bash, ridicule, deride, snort and just throw general darts of nastiness at, then?”
Michael Dell
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Rosetta Stone is Language Training Software. Rosetta is Apple’s version of Transitive’s Dynamic Binary Translation. Obviously, the author either doesn’t know what they are talking about or does not have an editor that knows what they are talking about.
Enough said.
Unless you’re a Microsoft shareholder, this article wasn’t written for you.
It doesn’t have anything to do with Steve Jobs really. No, really.
Someone needs to ask why Microsoft shareholders have been so complacent about the company’s continued failure. To a certain degree shareholders have punished Microsoft, which is reflected in the declining share price. But there have been no management changes. The same team that has failed for over 5 years to release the flagship product is still in charge. And that flagship product is increasingly looking as if it will only reach half mast when it is released. The XP service pack 3 joke is only funny because it’s true.
Microsoft needs to clean house. Not just the management team, but the disastrous Windows code base as well. I’ve said before that Microsoft should buy a Linux distribution and emulate the Apple model. Shareholders and customers should demand radical change or they should severely punish Microsoft in the markets and marketplace.
Now, I know this is MacRumors. Let’s not kid ourselves. A strong Microsoft is GOOD for Apple. Competition spurs innovation. Without Microsoft the incentive for creating the wonderful Apple products we enjoy daily would be diminished.
I think it would be much more funny to give the MS CEO position to Scott McNealy.
I can tell you what would happen….
half or 2/3 of microsoft employees would be fired…or “let go” or “downsized” or whatever you want to call it. He would be looking for cream of the crop employees, simplify the place from the gigantic burocracy that it is.
Obviously this is a piece of fluff fantasy, but it’s an interesting idea. Personally, I’d prefer it if Microsoft reformed themselves into a decent company instead of going out of business. If they would put their resources into achieving technical good instead of evil, the world would be a much better place. Unfortunately they seem to be driven by dominance and the almighty dollar as opposed to the desire for being “a yardstick of quality”. Jobs as the head of MS would be fascinating.
Rosetta Stone is software that helps you learn other languages not Apple’s emulation layer.
What would happen? Not much, which is why Jobs would never take the position. A corporation (by definition) is much, much more than just one individual, even when that individual is the CEO. There is a unique corporate culture that is built up over many years of doing business a certain way. Microsoft’s corporate culture is a big part of its problem, and that culture won’t go away just by replacing one guy at the top. Jobs would have to fire half the management or more, essentially gutting the company and rebuilding it in his image. Even then, the new company probably wouldn’t be up to snuff.
When Jobs took over at Apple, he was taking over a company that already had a corporate culture of innovation and technologic trail-blazing. The company had just lost its way.
We keep hearing about how Micro$oft should buy Apple — I think it far more likely that Apple would buy Micro$oft. They could phase out the Windows development team, keeping the best and brightest to work on OS X for Windows (which would include Boot Camp to run all the legacy Windows software), and allow Micro$oft to concentrate on Office, Access, and other software. Perhaps even move OS X Server development over to the new AppleSoft division…
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Bill would have more time to devote to his foundation — maybe have him be a co-presenter of OS X for Windows to show how to break it…
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MW=Deal, as in, “Hey, Bill, let’s make a deal…”
What if…
George Bush bought the moon?
Osama bin Laden gets elected president of the US?
please, stop asking what if… questions. This leads to nothing.
And Apple is not turning Macs into Windows machines, it just adds a feature to OS X.
He wouldn’t.
Stupid story of the month award.
Jeff – you wrote the same thing I was thinking as I read the article! So I will have to get creative.
At the first Microsoft Developers Conference held by Steve Jobs, Microsoft’s new CEO and current board member of Disney, Pixar and Apple, the developers watched in awe as Steve did the unthinkable. He danced a cross the stage, pumping his fist in the air, and nearly had a heart attack on stage. Some said it was eery, and hoped that that it was not the spawn of a second-Balmer-generation-of-loserdom at Microsoft.
-What if Porsche made Chevy´s?
-What if the head of Coke went to the head of Pepsi?
-What if McDonalds started making Burger King Whoppers?
-What if the leader of Iran became the leader of England?
-What if the Pope was the head of the Muslim religion?
-What if Americans spoke French and French spoke German?
-What if cars had bicycle tires and bicycles had car tires?
-What if Kate Moss had big boobs and Pamela Anderson had tiny boobs?
-What if MDN could actually find some Apple-related news to post?
Some many what ifs, so little time….
Jobs is Superman, Ballmer is Bizarro
What if monkeys flew out of my butt?
How this numpty has managed to extrapolate that this may happen because Apple have switched to Intel I don’t know. Perhaps he should try writing the next plot line for Lost?
Cheers,
Tim.
Jobs is a “Hardware Guy”.. microcrap would be too boring.
Despite Microsoft being a “trainwreck” and Vista being “5 years late” (it was supposed to ship 12 months after XP apparently) the fact is that Microsoft continue to make money hand over fist, and no matter what a debacle Vista is, the company is hugely sucessful.
I wouldn’t expect to see any firings until well after Microsoft’s profits start to show a down turn.
Boot to Winhose-xp on a Mac is a stratigic move that will be remembered by the whole computer industry. Apple is the winner even with “only” 10% marketshare soon.
pog:
one word for you – shareholders
If Microsoft is stale and their numbers are dropping, shareholders will want someone’s butt in a sling. Does Vegas have a line on this by the way?
Ballmer wasn’t Gates’ high school pal, Paul Allen was Gates’ pal at Seattle’s exclusive Lakeside School. Ballmer was Gates’ pal at Harvard.
No way
You won’t find Bill or Paul here:
http://www.lakesideschool.org/alumni/AlumniBasketballTournament.htm
What if Steve Jobs became Microsoft CEO?
What if three equaled zero?
What if if meant what?
What if mayonnaise cured cancer and we didn’t know it?
What if Ballmer was actually a giant, talking boil?
What if Kermit the Frog was God
and pissed at Gates for mocking his voice?
What if butts flew out of my pet monkey?
What if you could make time stand still and pants everyone in Congress?
In breaking news this morning, Steve Jobs became CEO of Microsoft based in Redmond WA.
In other news, lines at the unemployment office were miles long, Starbucks filed for reorganization because their business fell off 80% in the Greater Seattle area and the moving companies in Redmond are booked up for the next 18 months because of the mass exodus of former Microsoft employees.
You have been “Steved” on a massive scale.
“Does Vegas have a line on this by the way?”
Silly question! Vegas has a line on everything. What are the odds that aliens will invade from one of Saturn’s moons on the same day that Gates reveals he’s actaully a women carrying the child of their leader? Someone in Vegas knows those odds.
Think about it. Every empire (Rome, The Third Reich etc) reached the point where it died, long before it actually began to contract. The signs were there and, usually, it took years to recognise the fact. Micro$oft reached that point a while ago. The signs are there. Putting a salesman in charge, the failure to delive XP properly and now Vista, the growth of firefox etc – these are signs writ large on the firnament.
Steve Jobs has no need to take over a failing organisation. Nor would he anyway. In the long run, his task is to prevent Apple growing greatly and then failing a la redmond: he has to build something much more worthwhile.
While I personally won’t put any money down on this happening, I also won’t be too quick to dismiss EVERY ‘what if’.
Wilbur and Orville Wright
Thomas Edison
Neil Armstrong
Alexander Bell
Henry Ford
Gordon E. Moore and Robert Noyce
Steve Wozniak
Dan Bricklin
Tim Berners Lee
Just a few folks, that have asked, ‘what if’? And remember, most folks thought they were nuts to even suggest their “what if’s”.
Jeez, even this guy…
Alex, I’ll take ‘What if’ for a billion dollars.
He said, “‘What if’ I could steal or buy others ideas, then become the most powerful nerd in history?”
Alex, who is …
If Steve was in charge of Microsoft he would get rid of Windows and buy OS X.
Even though Microsoft hasn’t released a new desktop OS since Windows XP or a new office suite since 2003, it really hasn’t hurt them much. Back in 2001/2002 they pushed all of their large Fortune 500 clients onto subscriptions called “Enterprise Agreements” where you get the privelage of paying almost full price for Windows, Office, SQL Server and Exchange again and again and again year after year after year. The upside of this is that you supposedly automatically get the right to upgrade to the latest versions as soon as they are released.
In reality, though, Fortune 500s never use the latest as soon as it’s released, and Microsoft hasn’t released anything new in years anyway, and all of our leased Lenovo & Dell PCs already come with Windows licenses, so WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE PAYING FOR?
We just finished our Microsoft seat counts for 2006 last week. Something like 10 million dollars will be handed over to MS, for NOTHING. And my company is only too happy to do it because they have no idea there’s any alternative. Every desktop in our entire enterprise will be counted on Microsoft’s books as a “Windows sale” and an “Office sale”, just as they are every year.
It won’t be until this changes that MS actually starts to slow its profitability.
(Note: One big reason you can’t get off the EA once you’re on it is that if you do, you lose the license to all MS software you’ve been paying for all those years and MS will instantly send the BSA stormtroopers in to audit/confiscate your systems and cause you a world of headaches. So basically you have like one year to completely evict MS from your global Fortune 500 enterprise if you’re going to go that route.)
Can Crane II wrote:
<i>He would be looking for cream of the crop employees, simplify the place from the gigantic burocracy that it is.<>
I’d venture to say the really top-notch people, the ones good enough for Steve J, saw the wreck coming and bailed years ago.
What’s absolutely amazing is how MS’s shareholders can’t see what’s happening, and aren’t screaming for blood.
Or do the MS billionaires hold enough stock to prevent a revolt?
And pigs fly and Dubya resigns from office and asks the world’s forgiveness.
What’s absolutely amazing to me is that Jim Alchin wasn’t asked to resign in 2003. The insider rumor is that the big screwup/delay came from Bill Gates’s decree that the new OS be written in .NET. That fool’s errand completely wasted 2001-2004, so maybe they figured that wasn’t Alchin’s fault and let him stay.
.NET is fine for making ASP.NET web pages (they even work in Firefox and Safari), but to write an operating system out of it? You have got to be kidding. It would be like Steve Jobs issuing a decree that Leopard has to be written in Applescript Studio.
We have only dream.
That is: Apple rule the world.
And Bill continues to be the philanthropist. We still need his money.
And Steve Ballmer be the zoo keeper.
And birds don’t fly and Bill Clinton learns the meaning of the word “is”
imax evil twin:
Luckily birds DO fly, unless you’re an emu.
I’ll take Bill Clinton’s “is” over Iraq lies ANY day…
On topic… sort of… ;^)
Interesting idea. Clearly Microsoft is slowly declining. If only it were a faster decline. Microsoft should hire George W. Bush to REALLY drive the company into the ground… I mean… he’s SO GOOD at that kind of thing.
Dubya is the anti Christ. He’s taking us all to hell.