Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#161

Post by LordLandon » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:31 PM UTC

Please stop it with installers that download other installers. If I want to download Live Messenger, I don't want to download a program that'll download Live Messenger.

"Alright! Download finished! Wait, downloading messenger? What did I just spend 5 minutes downloading?"

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#162

Post by acqq » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:31 PM UTC

MS should be smart enough to make the best RDP client (the app to connect to Windows machine) for iPhone with the best encryption. And to work with XP too.

Also forget the "effects" that are not good over the wire. The goal is the best possible experience when the desktop is accessed remotely.

Rationale: There are enough people that need the power of the Windows based computer (power means the software developed in all these years) but who want to access their desktops from iPhone. Even if iPhone is the competitor, if you allow users to use your system from it the users will be more committed to the desktop Windows platform then if they have to look for the new solutions for everything.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#163

Post by rakkhi » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:31 PM UTC

NickPollard wrote: post #131

sspencer wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same setup here (a very small shop) - everyone usually just plugs in a 24" monitor to their MBP. Can't remember the last time I used a desktop tower. Notebooks, monitors, and servers are the offices of the future.

I'm not so sure, who needs a powerful laptop when you can get a desktop machine much more cheaply and a phone/tablet for mobile?

You don't need a powerfull laptop for most offices you need a thin or zero client like a Sunray and virtual desktop. If your staff to need to move again low power tablet and laptops and connect to virtual desktops for that processing power when it is needed.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#164

Post by GBond » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:31 PM UTC

Stop being bi-polar.

Make a decision on who you are making products for. Either create products that fully cater to MegaCorp Executives or for Consumer/Developers. You will almost always have competing needs and risk serving neither if you build a product that tries to cater to both.

If the choice is the later, tell Balmer he should personally make an effort to listen to the demographics. I bet the benefits of doing so outweigh those of commissioning a research company to post on HN and create a report.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#165

Post by elmindreda » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:31 PM UTC

Now that it's clear that OpenGL isn't going away, fix WGL. It takes twice the amount of effort to use compared to other such APIs, and fixing it shows you care about standards.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#166

Post by lotusleaf1987 » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:32 PM UTC

Make your software more intuitive, I hate digging through sub-menu after sub-menu to find something, then it's not there and having to back track, repeat. Make software for the end user.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#167

Post by njharman » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:35 PM UTC

Thanks for DOS and WinNT. But, since then you haven't been relevant to anything I do or want to do. Oh, and you made the best mouse ever.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#168

Post by VladimirGolovin » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:36 PM UTC

1. Make sure that new versions of IE are standards-compliant.

2. Implement a more aggressive IE update policy to quickly remove older versions of IE from the browser market.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#169

Post by dageshi » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:37 PM UTC

I really wish Microsoft would stop making half assed versions of stuff that other people have done better just because they somehow think they should.

Each time I see something like Bing or Zune I just wonder why MS does it, they're pissing away their credibility by desperately trying to be google or apple when patently they're not.

I'm an app developer for iPhone and I would love Microsoft to up it's game in Mobile. Apple are a bunch of elitist control freaks that piss me off every time they open their mouthes, google just want to sell more advertising and are desperate for the chance to do that in your pocket as well as on your laptop. Build me a platform I can port my app to with a minimum of fuss and I will jump at the chance.

Now if I were them I think I'd try and build on the one area they've been a success in the consumer arena. xBox. Build xbox mobile, do a deal with one of the other major carriers (who isn't at&t) for the exclusive ability to do multiplayer gaming over their 3g network for a flat rate. Get your existing game developers to build for it, but make sure it's possible for independent developers to build for it as well. Doing that would be something seriously exciting and would offer a choice that doesn't currently exist.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#170

Post by jjs_ » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 2:42 PM UTC

JunkDNA wrote: post #121

Some points: - It's annoying in this day and age to be forced into using the entire MS Stack when I need to work with one specific technology. For example: if I want to test a web app on various versions of IE, I have to run Windows. OK fine, even though IE is the only browser that is tied to one OS, I'll let that go. However, if I want to use the Microsoft-provided free MS Virtual Machine images, I have to run them…

Have you tried the free VMWare vCenter Converter? http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/features.html

I do not know whether or not they have overcome issues preparing Virtual PC images to run on the Mac yet...