Again?
Microsoft Basic on C64 was cool
Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
21–30 of 53 posts
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#22No fucking way.
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#23I think they're cool. The Surface Pro and Surface Book are the only computers since the iPad first came out that I actually wanted to buy.
They also put Linux in Windows, released visual studio for free, created one of the most popular text editors ever, and created 3 programming languages that are generally well liked (C#, F#, and typescript).
I'm not sure how cool they are compared to Google, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and Facebook but I personally tend to compare them to enterprise companies like IBM and Oracle. Microsoft wins that coolness contest easily.
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#24Again or for the 1st time? They're focusing on the entreprise business and moved away from the consumer business. So my guess is that it's pretty hard to be "cool" in the entreprise world... Look at salesforce has been trying so hard, it doesn't change the fact that their products don't mean anything to the majority of people. So my answer would be... maybe?
Microsoft does plenty for the consumer or the non-enterprise ddeveloper. Visual studio for free, VS Code, Typescript, Surface Pro, Surface Book, Windows subsystem for Linux, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#25Sure, as soon as they open-source Windows, Office, and Sharepoint and make the XBox platform Open Hardware.
So only open source software can be cool? I don't really get that perspective.
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#26I think they're cool. The Surface Pro and Surface Book are the only computers since the iPad first came out that I actually wanted to buy. They also put Linux in Windows, released visual studio for free, created one of the most popular text editors ever, and created 3 programming languages that are generally well liked (C#, F#, and typescript). I'm not sure how cool they are compared to Google, Amazon, Netflix, Apple…
You left out that .NET Core is just as fast as Node.js [1] and .Net runs on linux. Its pretty cool that I can write Linux programs now even though I am terrible at c (to my neverending shame).
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#27They're doing a hell of a lot more cool things than Apple, these days. Windows is moving. macOS is terrible. (Says the guy who's been a Mac user for >15 years and bought every new product Apple has come out with.) Apple is doing this to themselves. As a dev platform, their appeal is waning. (Stop making shit laptops, and make your macOS stable again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) Microsoft, under Nadella, is making the right moves, li…
I agree that they are moving, but they seem to be innovating without focusing on the user. It's like a bunch of enginerds working on cool projects that they are coming up with. Yeah they might be cool, but will people buy/use them? Maybe it's still too early to tell, and all of these moonshot concepts will result in useable devices, but so far I feel like the device ecosystem and interoperability of devices just isn'…
Ummm... YES. Lots of folks who have been unsatisfied with the current Mac lineup, and High Sierra, have switched. I did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you need a UNIX-y workflow the Windows Subsystem for Linux makes all the difference.
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#28VSCode and the whole open source organization around it is super cool in my opinion.
TypeScript and C# are great tools too.
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree that they are moving, but they seem to be innovating without focusing on the user. It's like a bunch of enginerds working on cool projects that they are coming up with. Yeah they might be cool, but will people buy/use them? Maybe it's still too early to tell, and all of these moonshot concepts will result in useable devices, but so far I feel like the device ecosystem and interoperability of devices just isn'…
Ummm... YES. Lots of folks who have been unsatisfied with the current Mac lineup, and High Sierra, have switched. I did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If you need a UNIX-y workflow the Windows Subsystem for Linux makes all the difference.
That subsystem is too slow. It just feels kludgy. I want my things in my home directory, I don't want 2 or more locations to have files. That is why I will always run Linux.
Re: Ask HN: Will Microsoft ever become cool again?
#30Sure, as soon as they open-source Windows, Office, and Sharepoint and make the XBox platform Open Hardware.
So only open source software can be cool? I don't really get that perspective.
I want to be able to know what my machine is actually running. It gives me some nice warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I have that option. I probably won't but still, I like having that option.