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We knew that Microsoft's quarter was going to be a rough one after it announced a $7.6 billion write-down of the Devices and Services division it purchased from Nokia last year, and so it has come to pass: on revenue of $22.2 billion, the company had a gross margin of $14.7 billion, an operating loss of $2.05 billion, a net after-tax loss of $3.20 billion, and a $0.40 loss per share.
This was driven by a $7.5 billion goodwill and asset impairment charge from Nokia Devices and Services, coupled with a new $0.78 billion restructuring charge, and a further $0.16 billion cost for integration and previously announced restructuring. In total, the company booked $8.4 billion of losses in the quarter.
This loss eclipses the $0.49 billion loss in that fourth quarter of its 2012 fiscal year that was driven largely by the $6.2 billion write-down of the aQuantive advertising firm.
But even absent that massive hit, the quarter wasn't a good one. That $22.2 billion of revenue is down 5 percent on the same quarter last year, and excluding the one-off Nokia charges, operating income was $6.39 billion, down 3 percent year on year. The company's Device and Consumer segment was down sharply, as sales of non-volume-licensed Windows and Office continued their fall on the back of a weak PC market: Windows license revenue from OEM preinstalls was down 22 percent, and consumer sales of Office were down 42 percent. Windows Phone revenue was down an even sharper 68 percent, due to a decrease in royalty payments, though sales of Lumia hardware were up more than 10 percent to 8.4 million, compared to 7.5 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Microsoft (MS) Office has always been a main revenue engine for them, so the 42 percent drop in consumer sales may be the most sobering part of the report, not so much for total sales (corporate are what's important) but as a canary in the coal mine for Office.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday July 23 2015, @11:10AM
and STILL no thank you.
I know you support windows for a living, but you need to stop worshipping it: MS fed crap to its' users until they actually had challengers. Then they were forced to spend money and time on fixing up the 'blue balls of death', etc.
I bet you that if linux had the driver support windows has (and don't tell me MS doesn't use their monopoly to enforce that non-support), linux would have a better share of the market and you WOULD be able to do the HAIRYFEET challenge, and linux would STILL be more stable and secure than windows.
So say 'Thank you', or you would still be dealing with blue screens of death, etc.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Thursday July 23 2015, @01:57PM
Are you REALLY so dense? I WANT Linux to pass, I WANT Linux to get its collective shit together, you think I LIKE paying out the ass for OEM copies of Windows?
But the fact of the matter is that the Linux driver model is broken which the challenge proves beyond a shadow of a single doubt. Tell me friend, if his model is sooo great why does NOBODY, and I do mean NOBODY else use it? None at all? Even the other free OSes like BSD and Android have stable driver ABIs, why? The answer is simple without one the drivers get shit on because everything below the drivers are as stable as the shifting sand.
So again if you don't believe me? PROVE ME WRONG. The challenge is free, takes only a couple hours, and you can use any consumer Linux distro you want. Ubuntu, PCLOS, Mint, pick your poison. It won't matter because the drivers will be broken before you even get to the halfway point, which is less than a quarter of the Windows support cycle!
For fucks sake guys, you'd think I was asking Linux to solve the P VS NP problem when all I am asking is for it to update without shitting itself...has your expectations REALLY gotten so low you're willing to accept this as an impossible hurdle, and that is acceptable to you? Really? I had hopes when coming up with the challenge when the users saw how truly fucking BROKEN the driver model is they'd get mad, demand change! Instead they just accept their OS is a broken mess and actually defend that bullshit...how truly fucking sad.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday July 23 2015, @11:22PM
Now, I know where your coming from!! Now, I'll be willing to listen!
I can't claim I know about driver models, etc. Yes, there are pains sometimes... As I've said before, I won't be moving anyone to Linux unless they ask me to: I don't have the time to hold hands with anyone(but I also don't have time to handhold Windows users either).
But Linux is MY bud, whereas Windows used up its welcome for me. Someday, maybe BSD will get there for us all to use. Or HURD, lol!
Thanks for the enlightenment, Hairy. :-)
And I'd drop the challenge, if I were you... Windows has its challenges too.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Saturday July 25 2015, @06:46AM
Why would I when its brilliant in its simplicity and proves what I have been saying for a fricking decade? What is wonderful about the challenge is I stack the deck in Linux favor and it STILL loses, how is that for proof? I mean these FOSS fanatics act like I asked Linux to solve P VS NP when it is literally nothing but "Update a Linux distro to HALF a Windows support cycle"...that is it, that is ALL it has to do! It does NOT have to support the full 10 years, it does NOT have to support high end graphics cards, it does NOT have to support printers, it does NOT have to support anything more funky than a wireless card and those have been bog standard in laptops for over a fricking decade!
When I first hear of Linux back in 03 I thought it was a great idea, an OS I can install for free, with all these advocates saying it does MORE than Windows? Fucking great, it'll save me a mint!...But after testing it for a few years I came to one obvious conclusion, which is LINUX IS BROKEN and moreover its broken in a way that every.other.OS.on.the.planet. figured out how to fix a decade and a half ago! And you wanna know the worst part? What will make you either fucking sad or mad as hell? The reason they give for WHY its broken is not only complete bullshit, but shows the majority of Linux advocates to be fucking hypocrites! They say "Oh we can't have anything as sensible as an ABI so our drivers aren't constantly breaking, because then they might not give us our precious code!" then what do they fucking do, what comes out their mouth on every damned Linux article ever printed? "Oh you should use Nvidia graphics"...which is a fucking binary blob and don't give them anything but the fucking finger!
So the Linux nutbars, or FOSSies as I call 'em, can call me names ALL they want, I have come up with the most simple test in the world, asking only for nothing but the most basic of functionality, frankly shit that no OS should be considered acceptable if it cannot do and IT FAILS. It fails no matter what hardware you pick, no matter what OS, hell I had one declare he had managed to "pass the challenge and prove me wrong" yet when I asked for details and the pics? He had used SciLinux (because your average consumer is using an HPC distro designed to process CERN data, failing the first condition of the challenge) which he chose specifically because its rarely updated, then when I asked for the pics? he admitted that it ended up with only VGA video (strike 2) and no sound (strike 3, you're out!) but "those things aren't necessary for a functional PC!
So until the Linux community admits "Okay this IS a problem, an OS should be able to be updated without destroying itself" then I will keep posting the challenge in the hopes that as many people as possible get to see how fundamentally broken Linux is in its current state. Can you use it on servers? Sure, because the average server has AC97 and Rage II and has companies like HP paying money out the ass to constantly fix the drivers Torvalds and friends shit on, can you use it embedded? Sure because you only have to get it working once on a very limited subset of hardware and you are done, you could do the same with anything from BSD to FreeDOS no problem. But until this obviously broken mess of a subsystem gets replaced (which probably won't happen as long as Torvalds has a pulse, because it gives him and his cronies power and replacing it would involve him admitting it was a bad idea) it is simply unsuitable for purpose as a desktop OS. The FOSSIes can scream and gnash their teeth but the last Windows that Linux could compete with? Windows ME, as that OS also had problems updating the OS and having drivers break, every version since? I can take an RTM copy and update to current and the drivers that worked at the start will work at the finish and as the challenge proves beyond a shadow of a doubt this is NOT true of any Linux distro in 2015 and that is just fricking sad.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2015, @06:39PM
if linux had the driver support windows has
Linux supports more devices than any other OS.
It's a point of pride with gregkh and The Linux Driver Project.
Linux supports old gear that Windoze stopped supporting several versions back and Linux supports new stuff that old (obsolete, unsupported) versions of Windoze never did support.
you WOULD be able to do the HAIRYFEET challenge
The Hairyfeet Challenge is simply an anti-Linux crusader trolling by using rare edge cases.
He knows it's crap.
He knows that the only gear that meets his challenge is the stuff with closed-source-only drivers produced by crappy Write-once/Monetize-forever vendors that are typical in the Windoze realm.
To verify his challenge, you have to SPECIFICALLY go looking for those crap brands when you buy a peripheral.
He knows that too.
linux would have a better share of the market
That's not at all about technical proficiency.
It's about the clause M$ puts into its contracts with retailers:
**Mustn't harm the brand** or some such.
Displaying a Linux box beside a BSoD, reboot-reboot-reboot Windoze box will definitely make a box running M$'s junk look inferior.
Can't have that.
Bulk licensing with whitebox builders has long been the stranglehold M$ had.
Places like Brazil and Reunion (island off Madagascar) are examples of breaking the old paradigm.
Chromeboxes running a spin of Linux kicked pre-installed Windoze's ass last Christmas.
M$ also has a deal with hardware manufacturers that if you want your drivers included in the newest Windoze version, you have to hold back any Linux drivers for 6 months after a new Windoze version comes out.
This is all under NDA, of course, so those vendors can't discuss it with you.
...and, of course, with a LTS distro like a RedHat derivative or an Ubuntu LTS derivative you get years and years before his claim kicks in (again, with the purposely-selected crappy brands).
-- gewg_