Support.
Agreed.
Why is anyone up voting 'agreed'? If you agree, just vote for the comment surely?
Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
41–50 of 120 posts
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#42I'd be worried if I was Microsoft. I'd be worried too: Windows Mobile - Android IIS - Apache .NET - PHP, Java, Python, Ruby, etc SQL Server - MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc
While Windows Mobile is in a sorry state, I'm not really too convinced by the rest of your list.
IIS is believe it or not a very good webserver, fewer exploits than Apache and just as extensible. And you can extend it with .NET-code. No need for that icky C to do that.
.NET is a very good development platform with lots of stuff happening. PHP? Really? Of all things horrible, you mentioned PHP? Microsoft at least had the balls to kill their MS PHP (aka classic ASP). Java? Seems like Oracle intends to kill it utterly. Python and Ruby? You mean those languages which also runs on .NET?
SQL Server is unimaginable better featured and stable compared to MySQL, plus it has tooling support which makes using PostgreSQL seem like the dark ages. And unlike MySQL its performance wont drop dead once your databases surpasses the system's available memory. People using SQL Server aren't doing "clever" things like "sharding", because it breaks relational integrity, and frankly, it isn't needed. SQL Server just works.
Microsoft does really have a lot of good stuff on the table. Maybe the FOSS options are sufficient for your needs, but that doesn't automatically apply to everyone.
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#43Primarily, I'd say it's application software support on Windows. Games? You get a few working under Wine, sometimes, partly, but they're far more likely to work well under the version of Windows they were tested with. Photo editing? Photoshop, or even Corel PhotoPaint, leave Linux in the dust. Video editing software? Nothing on Linux comes close to Vegas Video in features and usability. 3d Graphics? A slew of high-en…
I would have said photo editing too, but I've been watching my wife use Photobucket's web based image editor and surprised at how content she seems with it. I've used Photoshop so long that using any other 2d graphic app feels awkward, but the coming "web generation" might feel more comfortable using HTML 5 apps in the future.
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#44Brand recognition.
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#45Can Open Office and/or Google Apps access OLAP datastores as well as Excel can SSAS? Do either versions of their word processor have programmability layers so we can develop workflows directly in our office documents? Across all departments we have probably close to a million lines of VBA, COM, and VSTO code that we use most in Word and Excel. And a little for Outlook. And I just recently, like last week, seen some i…
FYI, Google Docs got worse since you looked at it. It's now at about MacWrite (circa 1984) level. Oh, and it broke compatibility with old documents (something Microsoft knows not to do!).
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#46A desktop OS my mother can use. Sorry Ubuntu. You've sudo apt-got my-heart but, well, reality isn't coextensive with our aspirations.
My step daughter is studying law and history, and has run Ubuntu on her laptop for the last 3 years. She's not particularly technical, but she loves it and has even converted some fellow law students from what I've heard. I showed her how to use LyX (a WYSIWYG LaTeX editor) and many of her professors have commented on how professional her papers look :)
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#47Exchange - gmail I see this comparison so often, but it really is apples and oranges. I love gmail and use it daily, but it isn't a replacement for Exchange. First, gmail is just a client... you have no control over the server aspect with Google. That is fine for a lot of small businesses, but for most mid to large companies that isn't an option. Does Exchange cost a lot of money? Yes, but with that you get a first c…
I just don't get this insistance on control over utility servers. If we take sensitive businesses out of the equation there's really no argument for it. How many times has gmail been down for me? Never. What about exchange/lotus notes? At least once a month. And even when they work they're shit.
When you're using gmail, you also dependent on the internet connection. And my opinion, for business email, having abc@yourcompany.com looks better than abc@gmail.com
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#48They sell proprietary lock in? In terms of file formats, I mean.
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#49A desktop OS my mother can use. Sorry Ubuntu. You've sudo apt-got my-heart but, well, reality isn't coextensive with our aspirations.
My mother DOES use Ubuntu, and I've been called about problems 20% less in the past two years compared to previously, with her using Window XP. There's nothing difficult about it - her browser, email, camera and everything work fine. The interface is actually much more simple than Windows. What's the problem?
Re: Ask HN: what does Microsoft sell that you can't get for free?
#50Exchange - gmail I see this comparison so often, but it really is apples and oranges. I love gmail and use it daily, but it isn't a replacement for Exchange. First, gmail is just a client... you have no control over the server aspect with Google. That is fine for a lot of small businesses, but for most mid to large companies that isn't an option. Does Exchange cost a lot of money? Yes, but with that you get a first c…
The business (premium) version of Gmail on Google Apps provides an Exchange connector for Outlook and sync for mail, calendar and contacts, and is a direct competitor to Exchange Server itself.
Even Standard edition for small businesses is a real alternative to running an in-house exchange server, even if they still use an Outlook client.
So it's fair to say with Google Apps that Gmail is both a web-client and server-side offering.