Windows ships. Exec walks.

[SteveRiley]

Remember the one of the aftermaths (can you pluralize that noun?) of Vista? Jim Allchin bails / gets fired the day that OS shipped. Guess what? It's happening again.

* Windows President Steven Sinofsky leaves company
* Perhaps because he's combative, territorial, had a bad performance review, and missed revenue targets
* Was this planned? Dunno, but he won't be missed, much
* Ballmer explains when: immediately
* Ballmer doesn't explain why: called yer bluff, sucker
* Sinofsky is "super excited" to say buh-bye
* Who? The Ribbon person, yep
* Employees weigh in (you'll want to keep an eye on this, good red meat)

[HalationEffect]

In some of the comments on articles about this news, I keep reading people asking "if this means Ozzie is coming back", (with the implication that Ozzie was well liked and respected) and that Sinofsky was the one who pushed him out. Could someone edumacate me as to who this Ozzie guy is?

[SteveRiley]

See Wikipedia for a brief bio about Ray Ozzie.

Ozzie didn't live up to expectations when he assumed the role of Chief Software Architect after Gates's departure. (To be fair, I doubt anyone could; it isn't so much that Ozzie failed as that people assumed whoever succeeded Gates would be a clone of Gates.) Although appreciated much more by the technical folks than Ballmer, Ozzie had little interest in the cutthroat top-level executive jockeying and, as a result, got marginalized. He somewhat faded into the background and eventually departed. His personal web site appears abandoned, his new firm's "site" is a ghost town, and his Twitter feed shows little purpose.

Personally, I disagreed with the speculation that Sinofsky was being groomed for the top spot. Instead, keep your eye on Satya Natella.

[HalationEffect]

Although appreciated much more by the technical folks than Ballmer, Ozzie had little interest in the cutthroat top-level executive jockeying and, as a result, got marginalized.

OK, I now know who he is, thanks I'm guessing he must be what I refer to as a 'tech-nerd' as that would explain both of those points.

I've worked with a few very good tech-nerd types (which was pretty much my preferred working environment - birds of a feather and all that jazz), and not one of them had anything other than disdain for office politics; it seems to be one of the defining criteria of a true tech-nerd

[Shimapan]

Considering what an abysmal failure Windows 8 is, with that braindead Metro and all that, it would've really surprised me if we wouldn't see someone's head roll, most notably Sinofsky's head, as he's the chef of the Windows division.

[benny_fletch]

I think it is a bit early to call Windows 8 an abysmal failure, but I definitely don't think it will be as popular as Windows 7 or Windows XP. The sad thing is Microsoft is using Windows 8 as an excuse to stop supporting Windows 7 (no more Service Packs or DirectX updates). Now that is bullcrap! Luckily I don't really care what Windows does anymore, since I don't use it often as well as I feel its better days are behind it.

[SteveRiley]

These days, service packs are simply large bundled roll-ups of updates. So while it's unlikely we'll see a Service Pack 2 for Windows 7, updates (including of DirectX) aren't going away anytime soon. According to the Windows lifecycle list, mainstream support ends 12 January 2015, while extended support ends 14 January 2020. The differences between the two kinds of support boil down to the availability of non-security patches, no-charge incident support, warranty claims, and design changes/feature requests. When mainstream support ends, these four items cease. Security patches, paid support, and updates to the knowledge base continue until the end of extended support. So you can remain on Windows 7 (which I recommend) until January 2020.

[benny_fletch]

I understand Service Packs now days are only rolled up updates, but they are a more preferred update process than installing hundreds of individual updates (especially for IT Professionals). It is just sad Microsoft didn't decide to release one more, considering Windows 7 saved its bacon from the Vista debacle. Also, I can't think of any other NT based Windows that only received one Service Pack. But I digress

As for DirectX, this is what has me worried:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/11...ws-8-exclusive
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/12/3...11-1-windows-8

[SteveRiley]

IE 10 got backported to Windows 7. If Valve and the other gaming companies can successfully make a revenue-based argument for backporting DX 11.1 to Windows 7, Microsoft is likely to relent.