You don't think the board brought in a Microsoft guy for just this purpose? The board brought him in for change. Why the heck would the board fire Elop and then bring in someone to do exactly what they were doing when they got rid of someone else and brought in Elop in the first place? Do you think they intentionally found someone outside Finland to continue business as usual? Do you think they went with a Microsoft guy because they didn't want a deal with Microsoft or they did want a deal with Microsoft?

Did you read Elop's memo (or did you doubt it was real)? Nokia had no working high-end solution that would be ready in a realistic timeframe. Pressures like Android filtering down into the lower-end range of phones was starting to put a pressure on Symbian as well. Symbian = about to be crushed by Android. MeeGo = not ready. You want them to stay the course?

The Qt strategy yielded nothing. MeeGo doesn't exist. Market share is falling. The board wants to do something now. Relying on a product that doesn't exist and making it compatible with one that is losing ground and woefully behind in high-end features isn't going to help. What should Elop do? Remember: waiting for MeeGo isn't an option.

Put yourself in that situation and then see if you still feel there's been some disastrous decision made. All this angst is because things aren't the way people wish they could be, not because it isn't what it had no choice but to be. It's no different than people being mad because a country with a massive budget deficit reduces services or raises taxes. You wish it were different, but realistically there's no other option. Being sad makes sense, but being angry is unfair.