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Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

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

#331

Post by jmulho »

rakkhi wrote: post #87
edanm wrote: post #50

The biggest thing Microsoft should do is make the desktop king again. This is possible - users don't care whether they are using web applications or actual apps, but there are huge benefits (in terms of what you can do) to desktop applications. This is evident in the amazing rise of Apple's App Store. But there's a problem. Web programming, while allowing generally crummier applications, has some benefits that far ou…

I just really disagree with this: "Web programming, while allowing generally crummier applications" With HTML5 and AJAX technologies a web application these days can do everything a rich client application can with the added benefit of accessibility everywhere from any endpoint. "The biggest thing Microsoft should do is make the desktop king again" .... keep flogging that dead horse with your buggy whip

"With HTML5 and AJAX..." Show me a good web app and I might agree. Your point, for now, is theoretical.

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

#332

Post by ary »

allwein wrote: post #292
ary wrote: post #272

Two things really stand out for me. 1. Please, please, PLEASE take the App Store model that Apple has used and apply it to Xbox Live. There is already a process by which developers have to get their wares certified to run on the Xbox so the review process is pretty much already in place. The barrier to entry on the 360 needs to be significantly lowered (there have been half-baked efforts, but nothing terribly inspiri…

RE: #1 Have you checked out the XNA Creators Club and Xbox Live Indie Games? This seems to be exactly what you're looking for and has been around for a while. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Live_Indie_Games http://creators.xna.com/en-US/

Yes, I was aware those programs when I made the post ("there have been half-baked efforts, but nothing terribly inspiring").

They're limited in that they don't have the same abilities as professionally produced games. What I'd like to see is a leveling of the playing field when it comes to online digital game distribution for consoles. Restricting some of the system's abilities (ala iOS, etc) is naturally going to happen, but anything a professional title can do, my (hypothetical) game should be able to do as well.

There are also a lot of interesting possibilites for streaming video, etc like what you're starting to see on iOS devices. The situation for content might be a little sticky considering that MS does its own distribution deals. At the very least opening the field up to smaller shops and lowering the barriers and costs to entry would be a huge step in the right direction and MS would still get a cut as the apps/games would be bought with Microsoft points.

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

#333

Post by Lazlo_Nibble »

ttrashh wrote: post #287
seltzered wrote: post #92

I recently got a windows 7 machine. Some things that bug me as a programmer using it, and make me wish I just paid up and got a mac: 1) WPF - I am trying to use this in my work life. It scares me when I hear your ex-product manager twittering that it's dead. I now feel like I should've done my app's front-end in qt or swing. 2) Will microsoft create in-built, tested, virtual desktop support already? More people use l…

#1) I don't get this one. WPF/Xaml/Silverlight is the best thing to come out of Microsoft in years. I really can't imagine doing front end development in another tech. MossyBlog is full of shit. Who cares if Silverlight/WPF merge? Do you really think they would push Silverlight as the dev platform for their new phone OS if it was going to be replaced by html5?

Did any of their partners really think they'd push PlaysForSure as the DRM platform for Windows media if they were going to abandon it once they launched their own player hardware?

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

#334

Post by dmfdmf »

SQL Express Server 2005 does not come with SQL Server Agent so no schedule backups and many apps have manual backup only. (did they fix this in 2008?)

Put some resources behind the Event Log "more information" links that takes you to the Microsoft website and says "We're sorry" no additional information is available even for MS products. At the very least, configure the link to do an Event ID and Source google search instead of the worthless "I'm sorry" web page.

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

#335

Post by CamperBob »

points wrote: post #48
rakkhi wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he is probably drawing on sources like this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1698213 That has best buy saying tablets are cannibalizing their netbook revenue. This does not mean that netbooks or laptops are dead - personally for the current price I find something like an ACER1215N a lot better value for my usecases than an ipad. This is primarily due to the the HDMI out, USB input for storage, rich client…

Ridiculous. You can't even type on a tablet properly or angle the display. Again, I would say that in 99% of cases, people who buy a tablet are not buying it instead of a laptop, but as well as.

What's 'ridiculous' is how much dust seems to be settling on my laptop these days.

The history of computing is riddled with corpses with 'ridiculous'-looking exit wounds.

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

#337

Post by rbanffy »

sadiq wrote: post #213
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…

Very much the first point here. Microsoft needs to stop trying to lock me in to their stack at every point and turn. Currently, if I want to use some Microsoft technology i'm forced in to the rest of the ecosystem and that's a hurdle that i'll likely never jump unless there is simply no other option. In some respects, Microsoft is already at a disadvantage over Free and Open Source technology when starting new projec…

> Currently, if I want to use some Microsoft technology i'm forced in to the rest of the ecosystem

You are missing the point. While you won't be persuaded to lock yourself in, countless businesses are already locked in and won't be able to switch from Microsoft precisely because of the way the whole stack is dependent on all of its pieces.

> I want Microsoft to compete for my business with technology that I can deploy without the worry that i'm perennially locked in to one ecosystem and one vendor.

They want the exact opposite.

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

#338

Post by rbanffy »

lmkg wrote: post #310

Bill Gates had vision. He wanted to change the fucking world, and he did. He put a PC in every house. He also had vision for how to run a business, and he (rightly) gets a lot of flak for that vision (i.e. forced integration), but it was effective in making and securing Microsoft's dominance. Ballmer has not demonstrated vision in anywhere the same level. He seems more like a manager than the leader that Bill was. He…

> He wanted to change the fucking world, and he did.

No. That was Jobs.

> He put a PC in every house.

I believe that would be Jack Tramiel

> it was effective in making and securing Microsoft's dominance.

Sadly, it wasn't nearly as effective in helping people use computers.

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

#339

Post by superuser2 »

dmethvin wrote: post #228
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…

Even most casual developers can afford $200 for a Windows license to run on VMWare. Contrast that with testing Mac software in VMWare with a Linux or Windows host -- we can't legally do it because it's against Apple's license.

If you're writing desktop software for a platform, I think it's perfectly reasonable to demand you buy into that desktop OS.

Windows devs can test their web apps on Safari for free, from right inside Windows. Why should I have to drop $200 to make my web app work for most Windows users? That's the point he's making.

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

#340

Post by thebigshane »

There are few technologies that I think could be invested in to get much more support from the HN crowd (whether they are well known to the HN crowd yet or not)

* Singularity -- should be the basis of a new OS, maybe not to replace windows... but be the next windows. You're going to have to break backwards compatibility sometime, might as well start with a parallel OS

* Intellipad -- http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd861709%28VS.85%29.... I heard it would be something like emacs for .NET

* opening .NET -- mono is really close but isn't yet as polished as to attract the thousands of .NET developers. Buying into the whole MS stack is too expensive for founders and small businesses but if development could be done on or in conjunction with open source environments, I imagine lots of Ruby (IronRuby), Python (IronPython), Java/Clojure (ClojureCLR) folks would be more willing to consider the market.

* SharePoint is beloved by all enterprise companies but ALL developers laugh at it. Offer some kind of DLR API and I bet you could get lots of programmers more willing to support it.

* Command line -- go ahead and support unix commands and a more unix-like shell. How could it hurt?

* MSDN licenses are ridiculous and clearly only for big companies. Even startups that could start with BizSpark and ActionPack would rather use open source tools than be stuck in MSDN licensing hell.

* drop the price of Windows Server 08 Core to better compete with Linux servers

* start advertising better to non-enterprisey IT guys.

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