back to article Murdoch says Microsoft needs 'big clean out'

Rupert Murdoch has issued another in his occasional series of tweets about technology companies. This time the target is Microsoft. Here's the tweet: Microsoft moves and options for future fascinate. Need for big clean out of bureaucracy and focus on next big tech wave. Metadata? — Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) April 10, …

COMMENTS

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  1. southpacificpom
    IT Angle

    WTF!

    "And while Redmond hauls plenty of cash through the door it has not created a major new technology market for decades."

    Has it ever really "created" major technologies in the past?

    Even Windows wasn't original.

    1. Chris Miller

      Re: WTF!

      Very few successful companies 'create' the technologies that drive the market with which they're associated. Google didn't 'create' the search engine; Amazon didn't 'create' mail order; IBM didn't 'create' the computer; Ford didn't 'create' the motor car. Can you give us an example of a company that has become successful through creating from scratch a new technology sector? Please don't say Apple.

      1. b0hem1us

        Re: WTF!

        U right, rare but I think General Electric is one. Its not like Mercedes is leaking cash either and they made the first car so we would probably find more.

        1. hammarbtyp

          Re: WTF!

          As a GE Employee I would be interested to know what original technologies GE invented? (Not counting the inventions Thomas Edison claimed to make but were in fact derivative)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: WTF!

            Yeah. No-one ever invented anything!

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: WTF!

        Do you respond to all criticism with "others are just as bad" for everything, or just your beloved Microsoft?

    2. Tom 13

      Re: WTF!

      They may not have invented Windows or even DOS, but they certainly were key to the creation of the relevant technology market. Yes, they leverage IBM's clout to do so, but if it had been solely IBM I don't think we'd have the IT market that we do today. Remember, this whole market is the result of one very important accident: IBM didn't think PCs would ever rival mainframes or minicomputers, so their original PC was done on a shoe string budget that meant no patents and lots of off the shelf tech from other vendors. But if IBM had written and owned the OS? Not so much.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: WTF!

        That whooshing sound, Tom, was the point flying by.The "nobody invented anything ever" comment was levied at those that constantly point out either "what have they ever done, if you don't include..." or "that not innovative/original" after the fact.

        1. Tom 13

          Re: WTF!

          Assuming you are the same AC above my comment, my first words of advice to you are to learn about El Reg threading. I was responding to the first post on the thread.

          I didn't regard your post as worthy of comment.

  2. DerekCurrie
    Holmes

    In the mold (mould?) of Bill Gates...

    ... Rupert Murdoch states the old and obvious as prophesy.

    Maybe you should retire Rupert. You've done enough dire damage for one lifetime, don't you think?

    1. SundogUK Silver badge

      Re: In the mold (mould?) of Bill Gates...

      What "dire damage" would this be then?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: In the mold (mould?) of Bill Gates...

        Mudraking, sleaze, lies, shit stiring, ruining peoples lives and general peddling of hatred.....shall I go on.

        I'd rather less he retired, more dropped dead.

  3. Someone Else Silver badge
    Unhappy

    But a Microsoft in partnership with News, providing a nicely-curated content distribution system that lines both companies' pockets, perhaps using metadata about users' online behaviour to target content and advertising, sounds interesting.

    Interesting to whom?

    Maybe some fat-ass prospective 'shareholders' like Carl Ichan-fuck-up-any-company-on-the-face-of-the-planet, or even Rupert himself. But here, in what remains of the middle class, the concept of Rupert's spew, with Microsoft's reach, is a chilling (and rather depressing) prospect, indeed.

    Can I vote 'no', yet?

  4. McHack

    Next big tech wave?

    That's bloody obvious, for the consumer market. It's already started. They want a tablet for kitchen table to sofa, to Skype and surf. For heavier stuff, they'll grab the wireless keyboard with trackpad from wherever they laid it. They want to see it bigger, like with a show or movie, they'll throw the image on the TV with a Google Chromecast-type thingie. It'll still be showing on the tablet, as that'll be the touch-enabled controller, a fancy remote.

    But people don't want a large lump of a PC occupying floor or table space. And users can barely be arsed to reach all the way up to a function key and use a trackpad or mouse for a command instead. Why would anyone think they'd want to lift their arms and reach over the keyboard to touch a monitor?

    Thus MS bureaucracy can't see the obvious and still expects users to follow MS blindly. Users didn't follow them across the XP to Vista divide, yet MS didn't get the message. With Win 8 and Surface 1 (RT!), we saw management sit back and wait for the world to follow their piper's tune.

    Good clean out urgently needed, indeed.

    1. Robert Grant

      Re: Next big tech wave?

      I think the idea is that Windows 8 runs on tablets, not necessarily so that you can touch your monitor, although you can do that as well.

  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    FAIL

    Meh

    This from a guy who is still trying to sell "news" printed on dead-trees.

    Content that is out of date before it is even distributed.

    I use the term "news" very lightly.

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Meh

      His words carry weight; he's certainly very experienced with corporations that need a thorough top-to-bottom clean-out.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh

        He doesn't clean out, just renames and carries on.

    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Meh

      To use the name of a TV show where RM gets lampooned regularly

      "Have I got OLD News for You".

      Once upon a time newspapers were as close to the boundary of NEW and OLD as you could get.

      Now unless you are showing the event live (no 3hr delays for the US West cost please) in the background then it is already OLD NEWS.

      A tweet posted 2 minutes ago about something happening? Old news.

      There is a still a place for dead tree news distribution.

      Anyway, Rupert (Bear) Murdock is hardly speaking something we here don't already know.

      Namely that MS is a management cesspit and needs urgent action before it overflows and comtaminates the rest of the company. It may alredy be too late.

      The sad fact is that Google/Apple/etc need MS to be around. Those who wish for its demise are really short term thinkers (IMHO)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh

        "There is a still a place for dead tree news distribution"

        Yes you can look at an 18 year olds tits without being frowned on to much.

        Being semi-serious, pull up a picture of a 18 year old topless and put it full screen on your tablet and look at it in a public place. Odd how it's "acceptable" in print, but not on a tablet.

        What a odd world we live in....yes officer I'll turn it off now.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Clueless

    I wouldn't attribute any deep meaning to his enigmatic use of the word "metadata"); far more likely is that the old codger has heard this trendy tech word somewhere and is just reusing it without a clue what it actually means. Isn't that how all Business Bullshit originates?

    1. DJV Silver badge
  7. Camilla Smythe

    Metadata..

    "But a Microsoft in partnership with News, providing a nicely-curated content distribution system that lines both companies' pockets, perhaps using metadata about users' online behaviour to target content and advertising, sounds interesting."

    http://urlquery.net/report.php?id=1392866689348

    http://urlquery.net/domain_graph.php?id=1392866689348

    Ptreklam and Gezinti are Phorm in Turkey. Not that Mr Murdoch has form when it comes to interception of communications.. cough.

  8. Crisp

    It's quite sad really...

    Rupert Murdoch thinks he's relevant and has something to contribute. Yet the man continually demonstrates his ignorance every time he utters his opinion.

    1. Vociferous

      Re: It's quite sad really...

      He owns large parts of the Western press, has the ear of all leading Western governments, and is a multi-billionaire. He's relevant, regardless of how ignorant he is.

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: It's quite sad really...

        "He owns large parts of the Western press, has the ear of all leading Western governments, and is a multi-billionaire."

        O.k. then - he's a rich parasite

      2. Crisp
        Alert

        Re: He's relevant, regardless of how ignorant he is.

        That's even worse!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SKY

    tell you what Rupert why not spend some energy getting your clowns at Sky to produce a SkyGo app for WP8 and Windows 8, instead of just a app for IOS and a shi*e one for android

  10. Chewy

    Great advice

    Coming from a man who bought Myspace

  11. MJI Silver badge

    Shut up walnut head

    I make a point of avoiding your businesses.

    You are irrelevant and give walnuts a bad name

  12. Vociferous

    Even the Prince of Lies may be right some times.

    But he's a bit behind the curve -- there HAS been a major shake-up at Microsoft, and AFAIK it's still ongoing.

  13. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

    Unfortunately The Sun really does shine out of Rupert Murdoch's arse.

    I was going to go on to talk about "old chestnuts", but it's too early in the morning to go full frontal.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "old chestnuts"

      Thanks for that, I just had to choke back a bit of mouth vomit.

      Think I'll skip breakfast.

  14. BlueGreen

    "[MS] was early to understand and realise the potential of XML"

    That pretty much overrates a simple markup language. And incidentally MS's early implementations of XML (MSXML) were non-conforming (e.g. did not normalise whitespace in attributes & more). That was no accident.

    I remember a most entertaining conversation (prob still on the web somewhere) between some MS rep and one of the creators of the XML spec (might have been Tim Bray himself), where the rep just insistently bleated 'our implementation is conforming' only to be slapped down by the spec writer - again and again. Such fun!

    To put it more simply for the author of this article, MS tried to break XML because it wasn't theirs, like they try to break everything.

    And Murdoch, if you're reading this, I hope the coppas sniff their way up the chain of corruption right to the top. There's a noose waitin' for you, dog.

    1. Getriebe

      Re: "[MS] was early to understand and realise the potential of XML"

      @BlueGreen

      I was working with MSXML on one of our products early in its life. MSFT did have their own version of XML because in the early days the standard was not useful. Their 'extensions' made it so and we were able to develop our products using it. We constantly tried to use other browsers and change the specs of our programs to make them browser agnostic. It was impossible.

      Further more one of our very smart guys was on a ww3c committee looking at the XML spec trying to get it extended so it would carry more information. Eventually it did, we changed our software and we could use FF etc.

      We had Redmond people working with us and I do not remember any sense they were trying break XML, they just wanted push on.

      1. BlueGreen

        Re: "[MS] was early to understand and realise the potential of XML" @Getriebe

        MS did not follow the spec on whitespace normalisation. Whitespace normalisation was given from v 1.0 of the spec. That's a fact. I don't believe it was an accident it was borked either. I recall there were other problems but don't remember the details.

        > MSFT did have their own version of XML because in the early days the standard was not useful

        erm, in what way 'not useful' (except for being a bit opaque perhaps)

        > Their 'extensions'

        Curious, what extensions are these?

        > We constantly tried to use other browsers

        Ah, my point has zilch to do with browsers, just using MSXML for parsing. Browser irrelevant.

        > XML spec trying to get it extended so it would carry more information

        Eh, now I am interested. Except for binary data, where did xml fail originally? Note: am not trying to defend xml, just intrigued.

  15. hammarbtyp

    Maybe not the best source of advice

    So the destroyer of mySpace and the inventor of the worst paywall in history wants to give advice to a technical company

    Accepting advice from Rupert on technology is a bit like getting the wright brothers to give you design hints on your next passenger jet or Robert Stephenson on how to develop F1 cars.

    1. Stuart Castle Silver badge

      Re: Maybe not the best source of advice

      OK, I am no great fan of Murdoch (on the contrary, I think he is the worst thing to happen to the media), but he is a man that, in a little over 60 years, went from being the owner of one small, Adelaide based local paper to owning one of the largest media conglomerates on the planet. He has taken over many failing companies, cleaned out the deadwood and restored them to profit.

      OK, so he may not have technical knowledge, but the technical side of Microsoft isn't the side that's struggling (IMO). Like them or loathe them, they are still turning out products and updates much as they always were.

      Where Microsoft is buggering up is that the company itself continues to misjudge the various markets it is competing in. This is a business problem, not a technical one. This is also an area that Murdoch apparently excels at sorting out.

      Microsoft would be well served to listen to him.

      1. Someone Else Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Maybe not the best source of advice

        Great...a Carl Ichan wannabe. <sarcasm>the world needs more of these!</sarcasm>

  16. Elmer Phud

    Professional immigrant

    Murdoch is just a chancer.

    Oz, we're tired of him - can we give him back now?

    1. poopypants

      Re: Professional immigrant

      Murdoch is a US citizen. He is no longer our problem, so no.

      Also, didn't he buy MySpace at one stage? I'm not sure I'd be taking his advice.

    2. BlueGreen

      Re: Professional immigrant

      > Murdoch is just a chancer

      The 'h' is silent.

  17. TeeCee Gold badge

    Read all about it!

    Elderly bloke tries to understand modern tech, uses buzzword on tw@ter in attempt to sound "with it".

    Pictures at 11.

  18. Mark #255
    Trollface

    Skycrosoft? MicroNewsInt?

    I have to say, a mega-corp merger of Sky/NI and Microsoft would allow me to consolidate most of my daily moans of discontent into a single roar of unalloyed ire.

  19. Tim99 Silver badge
    Devil

    Fry and Laurie

    Cheer up It's a Soaraway Life - YouTube link. Try to avoid the Dirty Digger's organs. Can anybody think of anything that he has made better for the rest of us?

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