Windows president Sinofsky leaves Microsoft
Julie Larson-Green now heading Windows engineering
Microsoft has announced that Windows president Steven Sinofsky has resigned from the company effective immediately. Corporate vice president of program management Julie Larson-Green will be heading up all Windows software and hardware engineer, having previously been responsible for Windows 7 and 8 user interface design and research. Chief financial officer and chief marketing officer Tami Reller will take over Windows business practices. Both executives will report directly to chief executive officer Steve Ballmer.
“I am grateful for the many years of work that Steven has contributed to the company,” said Ballmer. “The products and services we have delivered to the market in the past few months mark the launch of a new era at Microsoft. To continue this success it is imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings.”
“It was clear to me that Julie is the best possible person for this job, and I'm excited to have her in this role,” Ballmer said.
Many expected that Sinofsky would take over the CEO's chair when Ballmer decided to retire. An anonymous source told Business Insider that Sinofsky's departure was over the position of CEO, with Ballmer indicating that he wouldn't retire until 2017/2018. Other sources inside Microsoft told the Verge Sinofsky was ousted due to clashes with other executives. Microsoft and Sinofsky are portraying the split as amicable.
“After more than 23 years working on a wide range of Microsoft products, I have decided to leave the company to seek new opportunities that build on these experiences. My passion for building products is as strong as ever and I look forward focusing my energy and creativity along similar lines,” wrote Sinofsky in an email sent to employees obtained by CNET.
Ok not a bad thing as the person responsible for the Modern UI is taking over and by the looks of things dragging the Windows interface screaming into the new millennium.
I love Modern UI and especially live tiles, which have the potential to really make windows something special. It's like watching 30 personal channels when you have then set-up right. The next step is to replace the desktop as this barren and cold screen that pops up if you hit a legacy app. There's no reason for it anymore. I find and I've seen with my friends, that once you understand the start screen you rarely go back to the old boring desktop. In fact when you do it's a jarring experience. You start looking for active elements and then shortly after realising they aren't there you start looking for the "Escape from desktop mode" button!
Edit: I should add one important caveat
Windows Modern UI is a touch environment and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. My friend upgraded to a touch screen shortly after upgrading to Windows 8 and I myself am upgrading to a strapping dell xps one 27 touch. It's not weird and in fact becomes second nature to swipe on your monitor while sitting in front of the screen. I've heard some people say that they wouldn't do it and indeed that was my friends original attitude. It too all of five minutes and a game of plants vs zombies using the touch screen to completely change that around (I'm talking political U turn kind of speed here). Suddenly it was like he'd been advocating touch for generations! Navigating Modern UI like a pro using the touch screen and then seamlessly switching to the keyboard and mouse once in a program. O_o
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Peter Dwyer on 13th November 2012 8:48am
Posted:7 months ago