Microsoft is Dead • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#131

Post by rickt287 » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:24 PM UTC

MS isn't dead. People aren't afraid, but have accepted the reality of them being who they are. Just like oppressive governments; eventually they beat you down so much that you stop caring and just accept it.The fact that articles still bash them proves who is top dog. To quote a famous line, "...we're better than you" "...it doesn't matter..."

RT

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#132

Post by poopstech » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:25 PM UTC

Nice "Essay". I also bet that you dream in complete Eastman Color as well, right? MS is to big - too powerful and has it's hands in too many things to simply "die"! I read somewhere that if MS decided to pay off all the share holders and close its doors tomorrow, may western governments have to scramble to hire all the MS staff just to maintain the status quoi! As I guessed - you do dream in color...

PooPsTech Sr. Software Eng.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#133

Post by MikeLevin » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:33 PM UTC

Yeah, the reason this is going to take so long to shake out is that there can be only one dominant platform. And Microsoft is it. The Web interface even with Ajax is still kludgey in comparison. And things like Apollo from Adobe will take a long time to reach critical mass. The only thing I see chaniging the platform are endeavors like Nick Negroponte's one laptop per child (OLPC), which will force down hardware costs until it's eventually completely off-set by advertising. When PCs are free, a major platform shift can occur. Steve tried to get OSX on OLPC and was rebuffed by Nick, from what I hear.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#134

Post by blabla » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:39 PM UTC

Hahahahaha.

What are you trying to do? Apply the John Dvorak method to Microsoft?

I can't seem to find any other way to account for that accumulation of the absurdest possible statements that this "essay" essentially is.

BTW: I suppose I am in the younger half.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#135

Post by blabla » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:40 PM UTC

blabla wrote: post #134

Hahahahaha. What are you trying to do? Apply the John Dvorak method to Microsoft? I can't seem to find any other way to account for that accumulation of the absurdest possible statements that this "essay" essentially is. BTW: I suppose I am in the younger half.

http://tinyurl.com/2kwrbo

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#136

Post by wanderson » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:41 PM UTC

Your story maybe correct, but I would not bet on majority of Americans supporting the theory, simply because Microsoft "remains" the largest, independent software company. I will laugh beforehand at all the comments from Microsoft supporters, shills and apologists. They will inevitably content that because Microsoft products - Windows and Office have the "most market share" by far, they (automatically) are the best and bravest. Pretty sic thinking, but that which proliferates.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#137

Post by wanderson » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:46 PM UTC

Your story maybe true, but probably unacceptable by most all the Microsoft supporters, shills and apologists, who content quite proudly that because Microsoft products, primarily Windows and Office have the "largest market share by far", the company is therefore the best, with the greatest products. Quite sick thinking really, but pervasive and illogical. I wonder if these same group think GM is the greatest car company compared to Honda, simply because of the disparate market share. Never mind the issues of quality, reliability, creativity or other important criteria.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#138

Post by leoderja » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:48 PM UTC

Bill Gates a bigger hero that Alexander Magnus. HE is the way...

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#139

Post by mikev » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 4:50 PM UTC

You say: "Ironically, Microsoft unintentionally helped create Ajax. The x in Ajax is from the XMLHttpRequest object, which lets the browser communicate with the server in the background while displaying a page. (Originally the only way to communicate with the server was to ask for a new page.) XMLHttpRequest was created by Microsoft in the late 90s because they needed it for Outlook. What they didn't realize was that it would be useful to a lot of other people tooÂin fact, to anyone who wanted to make web apps work like desktop ones."

I think that's slightly off -- I think the folks who designed XMLHttpRequest fully understood its general utility. I think they're thrilled that lots of really interesting apps are being built on top of it. I think the problem was that the people writing apps at Microsoft didn't realize you could now use this to write compelling web-based apps.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#140

Post by jetforme » Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 5:18 PM UTC

I think there's one more cause of death, tangentially related to "everyone can see the desktop is over." It is the reason Microsoft did so well in the first place: people will use seemingly arbitrarily bad software. Even with Ajax, the best web applications still fall far short of the best desktop applications. I guess even Microsoft underestimated users' ability (and willingness) to adapt to constrained or poorly-designed software, and thus use (relatively great) web software.

As a born-and-raised Mac user, I still think web apps suck, and for that matter, most Mac apps suck. But the few gems out there are phenomenal (or at least, approach the standard I hold). I wish more apps worked as well.