He came. He saw. He conquered. That’s what Steven Sinofsky did during BUILD. Steven has been, of late, one of the most influential figures from Microsoft, especially when the talk corners to Windows 8. Never in the history did a Windows Operating System go through such a well-structured and smooth release process (This process has just started with the Windows 8 Developer Preview).
Usually before a particular release, it would be all rumors doing the rounds. But the genius in Steven Sinofsky did lead to a pre-release Windows 8 blog, where the new features were discussed in open with the future users of the to-be launched OS. Daring!
This was a good step in many ways. All incoming Windows 8 rumors were just trashed, thanks to this official blog by Steven. It also gave a very brief view of what is going to happen in the near future, which Microsoft claims will be the re-imagination of Windows. With more than 2000+ comments on almost every blog-post, Steven had found a winner!
The BUILD keynote started with a smile from Steven. And it continued from then. All the audience could do was applause! Apart from Windows 8, a major chunk of the viewers were very much impressed and happy with Steven.
“Bring your bald head near so that I can plant a kiss, Steven” – said one attendee; “The best and most impressive Microsoft keynote in recent times” – said another!
While on stage, Steven was calm and composed. The ‘Chromeless‘ joke was in very god humor. He even saved Julie when IE 10 failed to show up on a particular system, by switching to another one and avoiding the embarrassment, smiling all the way. And the audience loved it.
In the past month, Sinofsky’s Windows 8 conversation has made him the most active contributor on MSDN. The Windows boss now accounts for 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze achievements, and managed to amass no less than 65,902 recognition points according to the information available via MSDN for his profile, making him the TOP MSDN Blogger.
All the while, there was a talk of a few important shareholders harboring a dislike for Steve Ballmer, the present CEO. And while Steve cannot be the CEO forever, it was widely conceived that Microsoft’s COO, Kevin Turner will someday replace Steve Ballmer as the right candidate. But after the BUILD story, the balance may have shifted a bit towards Steven Sinofsky.
Steven Sinofsky is presently the President of the Windows Division at Microsoft.
Don’t be surprised if he becomes the Microsoft CEO, one day!
And no, neither will he dance on the stage like Steve Ballmer nor ever talk harshly to fellow workers inside the office walls like Bill Gates (early days), should he ever become!
