微软终于要“统一”操作系统了

    日前，在微软（Microsoft）的季度收益电话会议上，公司首席执行官萨蒂亚•纳德拉讲话中9次提到了“一”这个字。

    另外，你或许难以相信，纳德拉19次提到“云”，这还是除去提到云产品名称的时候。相比之下，他仅三次提到微软”，两次提到“创新”。（上帝保佑。）

    纳德拉于今年2月就任微软掌门人，从那时起，他一直努力试图为这家涉猎甚广的科技公司设定一条路线。7月，纳德拉给公司128,000多名员工发了一份备忘录，概述自己的愿景；一周后，他又发了一份备忘录，解释为何决定裁掉18,000名员工。在这期间，纳德拉参加了《财富》科技头脑风暴技术大会（Brainstorm Tech conference），并在会上重申，要振兴微软，必须变革公司文化。这是用比较文雅的方式表述一条老生常谈的格言，即：墨守成规，一遍遍做同样的事情，期望借此获得不一样的结果，绝对是痴人说梦。

    纳德拉的行动相当迅速。在季度收益电话会议上，他透露下一版Windows将把“三个操作系统合为一体”，将“适用所有尺寸的屏幕”。Windows仍是微软的摇钱树，但近年来也越来越令该公司尴尬。（这三个操作系统是指Windows、Windows Phone以及Xbox游戏机的系统软件。）纳德拉似乎是说，微软的开发人员应当致力于开发一款能应用于多类设备的应用程序或服务，而不是针对不同环境开发不同的应用程序或服务。

    这合乎情理。操作系统的融合已经进行了一段时间，许多微软用户可能没意识到，2012年正式发布的Windows8以及Windows Phone8有着相同的基础核心架构。（之前的版本可不是这样。）这样一来，就只剩下微软推出的客厅设备——Xbox游戏机。Xbox本身有三个不同的操作系统：一个用于启动设备、创建虚拟机；另一个用于运行游戏；最后一个用于运行应用程序。最后一个操作系统的基础架构与Windows和Windows Phone一致，纳德拉下注的正是这个操作系统。

    任何曾在大公司任职的人都知道，平台化和标准化是高管们最爱用的两个法宝；其它解决方案都有低效之嫌。在互联互通的多设备时代，这可谓是当务之急。微软从前任首席执行官史蒂夫•鲍尔默时期开始，努力统一操作系统，其起步就已经太晚。如今，这个问题的财务影响终于被认识到：微软对开发者渐渐失去吸引力，而开发者正是互联时代的经济引擎。

    就纳德拉上任以来的表现看，他任期的特点将是清晰、推动和效率，而非企业家精神或革命。他在电话会议上说道：“我们将不懈的突出重点。”他会重复“重点”一词多达八次。（财富中文网）

    译者：项航

    On Microsoft’s quarterly earnings conference call yesterday, the company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, said the word “one” nine times in his prepared remarks.

    “Cloud”? Nineteen, if you can believe it, not including product names. “Microsoft”? Just three times. “Innovation”? Two. (Bless his heart.)

    Nadella, who took Microsoft’s top post in February, has been trying mightily to set a single course for his sprawling technology company . In July, he issued a memo to more than 128,000 employees outlining his vision; a week later, he issued another explaining why he decided to cut 18,000 of them. In between, he dropped by Fortune‘s Brainstorm Tech conference, where he reiterated that cultural change was necessary to revitalize the company—a more elegant way of repeating the well-worn maxim that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

    Nadella is certainly moving swiftly. In his remarks yesterday, he revealed that the next version of Microsoft’s Windows, still a cash cow for the company but in recent years more of an embarrassment, would meld “three operating systems into one,” a single piece of software “for screens of all sizes.” (For those keeping track at home, that would be Windows, Windows Phone, and the system software for the Xbox gaming console.) Microsoft’s developers should spend their time working on a single application or service that works across devices, Nadella seemed to say, rather than versioning each of them out for different environments.

    This makes sense. The convergence of operating systems has been underway for some time, and many Microsoft customers may not realize that Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, each formally released in 2012, share the same underlying core architecture. (This was not the case for previous versions.) That leaves the Xbox gaming console, Microsoft’s anchor in the living room, which runs three different operating systems of its own: one to boot the device and create virtual machines, another to run games, another to run applications. It’s the third in this series that shares underlying architecture with Windows and Windows Phone, and the one on which Nadella is placing his bets.

    Anyone who has worked at a large company knows that platforming and standardization are two tools that executives love to trot out; anything less reeks of inefficiency. In a connected, multi-device world, it’s nothing short of imperative. Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to reunite its disparate parts—which began, arguably too late, under former CEO Steve Ballmer—have finally begun to be seen in a monetary light as the company loses traction with developers, the economic engines of the Connected Age.

    So far, Nadella has framed his tenure as one that will be marked by clarity, drive, and efficiency rather than entrepreneurialism or revolution. “We will be relentless in our focus,” he said at one point during the call. He’d go on to repeat the “f” word eight more times.