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Ask HN: Anyone else planning to head back to Microsoft?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone else planning to head back to Microsoft?

#81

Post by spdustin »

asnyder wrote: post #30
lsiunsuex wrote: post #3

When Windows 10 comes out I'll probably pull the trigger and get a Microsoft Surface for testing, but I don't think I'll ever leave OS X for Windows. (to name a few) 1: Recently helped a friend install a new hard drive in a Lenovo Edge 15 only to find out the laptop has problems with Crucial SSDs (it brought back to many driver / hardware compatibility issues from my past jobs) 2: Features like Dashboard, Expose, Not…

#2:I feel that Windows 8.1, and the coming 10 has much much better workflow savers. One such example is having grouped apps in the task bar where I can hover and select is wonderful, whereas in mac I have to go to another screen with some hidden finger incantation to see the current windows in an app. Perhaps I'm too windows focused, but as someone that spends about 25% of their time in Mac, I feel trapped and frustr…

Regarding your response to #2: Hyperdock [0] gives dock icons the same kinds of superpowers that Windows' Aero Peek gives.

[0]: http://hyperdock.bahoom.com/

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else planning to head back to Microsoft?

#82

Post by shortstuffsushi »

ck425 wrote: post #41
shortstuffsushi wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you mean #5, and while I've had good (limited) experience with Sublime, but one of my other favorite tools (SourceTree) is absolutely horrendous on Windows. Just a single data point.

I had the opposite experience with SourceTree going from Windows to OSx. The lack of tabs on the OSx version is horrible.

I don't really care for the tabs actually, haha. I was surprised they made that choice when I first used it on there, after getting used to OSX.

But the UI aside, the problem I was having is that it would just entirely hang the app if you had a large number of changed files or large diffs. This was about three months ago, so it's possible the performance problems have been fixed.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else planning to head back to Microsoft?

#83

Post by thawkins »

gambiting wrote: post #29
stratigos wrote: post #9

nope, cant say ill ever trust a corporation like Microsoft to do my thinking for me, i doubt theyll ever outlive their legacy for being the mcdonalds of software, and i really cant ever imagine software development being better in any Microsoft environment that it is in a linux environment.

Well, I haven't found anything as good as Visual Studio on either Mac or Linux. I work at a games studio and everyone works on Windows. Back when I was a CS student I would swear by Linux for development,but nowadays I would rather not bother - everything just works for us on Windows.

Anything by Jetbrains, i use phpstorm and clion.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else planning to head back to Microsoft?

#84

Post by shortstuffsushi »

contergan wrote: post #54
shortstuffsushi wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually a really good point, and perhaps one against OSX. I'm not really a Windows guy, but I can keep a partition with Windows super easily for the things I do need Windows for. I can't do that from Windows to OSX. That's not Windows fault, because Apple prevents you from doing so, but if you're on Windows, you can't (concurrently) run OSX.

Well not officially. There are easy workarounds though and I'm running a OSX VM right now on my Windows box for example.

Fair enough, I guess I was only referring to "official" channels.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else planning to head back to Microsoft?

#85

Post by thawkins »

phatbyte wrote: post #44

Not really, if any I would migrate to Linux (Ubuntu). But OSX apps really spoiled me. I only use Windows for Steam. Boot, play, logout, hand sanitizer, back to OSX. I just hate Windows UI, that metro thingy. The explorer and button layout is just a mess. Buttons with icons, difference sizes. eg: http://media.askvg.com/articles/images3/Windows_8_Explorer_R... vs http://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/mac-o…

Yep, i have one windows partition on one machine to run steam. My macbook runs linux, not in a vm, wiped osx off the drive and installed linux in is place.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else planning to head back to Microsoft?

#86

Post by stoolio »

rgacote wrote: post #51
a2tech wrote: post #17

Nope. The Unix underpinnings of OS X are way too valuable for me. Powershell is (imho) a verbose mess and is the current best attempt at making a working scripting language for Windows. I use Powershell all the time but its..inelegant. Give me bash scripting any time. MS is always flirting with new technologies and sexy R&D, but at their heart they're never going to change.

Not only the base Unix underpinnings, but the sheer lack of support tools on Windows vs. Mac is frustrating. - network problems? just try a quick curl (not on Windows) - did a file transfer properly? do a quick md5 hash (not on Windows) - need to do some quick data manipulation? write a quick Perl, Python, or Ruby script (not on Windows) - connect to one of our remote servers? bring up terminal and ssh (not on Window…

I have pretty much all of those tools on windows and all I needed to do was install Git for Windows, which is super easy.

It was a bit more work to set ansicon + Console2/ConsoleZ (although cmder might be an easier option), but now I can use standard bash scripts and do most of what I need easy.

In addition, this process was a one time deal. It's not like you have to set it up each time you want to ssh somewhere.

Why do I really use windows (vs some linux, I have no interest in Mac)?

Play most games (not on Mac or Linux)

Anything else that cygwin can't get me, I have Vagrant and VirtualBox.

Windows isn't that bad.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone else planning to head back to Microsoft?

#88

Post by evilduck »

midnitewarrior wrote: post #68
evilduck wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides products that get killed, Microsoft has a decades long history of documented bad behavior in every arena they operate in. I'm not about to reverse my distrust of them this quickly. I'm open to changing my opinion, but as of today , this feels like an abused spouse asking their friends to forgive their abuser because of an empty promise and a relatively short term change of behavior. No. If they can keep up th…

There's a really good chance this is a "new" Microsoft. Gates and Ballmer were the "old school" Microsoft that only thought that obstructing the competition was the best path to success. The new CEO Satya Nadela built the Azure platform, the most "open" technology that Microsoft has. His mantra is "mobile first, cloud first". This outlook is the opposite of Ballmer's, which was to drive everybody back to Windows. Mic…

Ok... but we've seen this new, better Microsoft behavior for like 2 or 3 years while they've been in a pretty down or leveled position after a history of bad behavior dating back to basically their inception. Have they genuinely changed or are they just being forced by their new market positions to behave better? None of your examples point to a MS doing things for the right reasons and trying to regain trust, they point to a MS that ran out of options. I don't trust a dog to not run away while he's locked in a kennel, I trust him to not run away because he has no choice.

What happens if they gain a dominant or monopoly position in something again, are we just supposed to trust that they won't behave badly once their market pressure is gone? A new CEO and a company the size of MS won't magically change their company culture overnight (especially with a CEO who was previously a longstanding MS employee who participated in past wrongdoings). Rebuilding trust takes more time than this.

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