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Microsoft’s Very Good Day

newyorker.com

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Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#231

Post by listic »

pmelendez wrote: post #90
listic wrote: post #84

Microsoft's offerings still seem under-designed to me, on a second look. I still can't order Surface Pro (or Surface Book) with cellular modem; only Surface 3, an older and supposedly lower end device. I can't order Surface Book with 1TB drive, only a Surface Pro 4; despite the former being a more expensive and supposedly higher end device. Why so? As far as I understand, Microsoft still goes with the templates their…

" I still can't order Surface Pro (or Surface Book) with cellular modem; only Surface 3", Can you order a Macbook Air with cellular modem? because that has always been the range they designed the SP for.

1. No you can't, but I have always wondered why.

2. They might, but they say it's a tablet, and it looks like a tablet, and it has touch screen. Tablets (often) have cellular.

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#232

Post by zmonkeyz »

listic wrote: post #84

Microsoft's offerings still seem under-designed to me, on a second look. I still can't order Surface Pro (or Surface Book) with cellular modem; only Surface 3, an older and supposedly lower end device. I can't order Surface Book with 1TB drive, only a Surface Pro 4; despite the former being a more expensive and supposedly higher end device. Why so? As far as I understand, Microsoft still goes with the templates their…

I read the other day that the new LG watch will have a built-in LTE modem. There really is no excuse for them not having one in the laptop.

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#233

Post by serge2k »

delish wrote: post #14

I struggle with changing my perception of Microsoft. I still characterize them by their Halloween documents and efforts to destroy Netscape. I would recommend the Surface to friends or family, which is a recent change. But I would never use Microsoft products. And not just because I'd be giving up years of Linux folk-knowledge. Childishly, when I watch a youtube video of someone far more skilled than me programming i…

> I strive to avoid bias

do you? Doesn't really sound like it.

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#234

Post by aagha »

delish wrote: post #14

I struggle with changing my perception of Microsoft. I still characterize them by their Halloween documents and efforts to destroy Netscape. I would recommend the Surface to friends or family, which is a recent change. But I would never use Microsoft products. And not just because I'd be giving up years of Linux folk-knowledge. Childishly, when I watch a youtube video of someone far more skilled than me programming i…

I hated Windows 9x-anything. Win 7 was OK. Win 10 is great.

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#235

Post by shermanyo »

delish wrote: post #14

I struggle with changing my perception of Microsoft. I still characterize them by their Halloween documents and efforts to destroy Netscape. I would recommend the Surface to friends or family, which is a recent change. But I would never use Microsoft products. And not just because I'd be giving up years of Linux folk-knowledge. Childishly, when I watch a youtube video of someone far more skilled than me programming i…

Link for those who are unfamiliar / CBF googling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#236

Post by hvidgaard »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #144
hvidgaard wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen stories, however, I haven't seen my own Win10 machines being chatty with MS outside of what I ask it to. With that in mind, I have no reason not to trust MS when they say they're not collecting data unless it's enabled.

Here's one example of a feature I dislike (description from http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/window... )... "Windows 10, however, shakes this up. Instead of two separate systems—one for error reporting, a second for collecting usage data—both have been rolled into one combined setting. This setting has four positions: off; basic error reporting and simple device capability reporting; enhanced dia…

I was not aware that the off option was only possible on enterprise. That said I, the developer, can completely understand why. That information is integral to successfully determine future work with the system.

But in any case, if that is the only thing one cannot turn completely off for average user, I'd say it's a pretty good compromise between features and still giving power to the powerusers. Still it's odd the off option isn't possible for everyone.

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#237

Post by anon4 »

delish wrote: post #14

I struggle with changing my perception of Microsoft. I still characterize them by their Halloween documents and efforts to destroy Netscape. I would recommend the Surface to friends or family, which is a recent change. But I would never use Microsoft products. And not just because I'd be giving up years of Linux folk-knowledge. Childishly, when I watch a youtube video of someone far more skilled than me programming i…

You forgot the Direct3D vs OpenGL shenanigans that they were still trying as early as Vista. The fact that no open technology is ever good enough for Microsoft, the fact that whenever they took anything that could be remotely interoperable with anybody else, they applied embrace-extend-extinguish. The name "Office Open XML" which is just so close to sounding like "Open Office XML" and fool people into thinking it will have some interoperability with Open Office. The way they start new APIs and technologies and then abandon them when they stop being the latest and greatest (MFC, Silverlight). The way they push their own proprietary solution to everything.

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#238

Post by anon4 »

harkyns_castle wrote: post #64
togusa wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an MSDN subscriber, write C# all day and am sitting in front of Win8.1, writing this in IE11 with a Lumia 640 next to me. They are still utter bastards and I sleep with one eye open. Currently the tally of bad stuff is pretty high: Patent wars against competitors, forced bundling agreements, lock in despite the open specification stuff which is mostly just wrong, being fucked over on audits and licensing agreemen…

Personally, I'll never forgive them for their practices. They deliberately stifled competition, shafted developers, abused their position, and rubbed it in our faces. There's no coming back from that, and I'll gladly educate newcomers to IT on their ways. Let them die. The new CEO could be the second coming, you can't fix that cancerous attitude that is entrenched. They deserve to become obsolete, at the very least.

You can't forgive a corporation. Corporations aren't people, they have no conscience, no morals and no ethics. The entire concept of forgiving them, or being angry at them or whatever doesn't make sense. It's like forgiving a lion for eating your brother and thinking it won't eat you. It's a lion. It will eat you when it gets hungry. That is its nature.

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#239

Post by anon4 »

greggman wrote: post #180
delish wrote: post #14

I struggle with changing my perception of Microsoft. I still characterize them by their Halloween documents and efforts to destroy Netscape. I would recommend the Surface to friends or family, which is a recent change. But I would never use Microsoft products. And not just because I'd be giving up years of Linux folk-knowledge. Childishly, when I watch a youtube video of someone far more skilled than me programming i…

I guess you must think less of most game devs as pretty much all of them are on Windows? I suppose it's possible they feel the same way when they see someone on a platform with 2nd or 3rd class gpu support.

That's a lot of supposing for a class of developers who write for platforms without an OS, where you must set up your VM tables yourself and program the GPU manually.

Re: Microsoft’s Very Good Day

#240

Post by anon4 »

loudmax wrote: post #53
delish wrote: post #14

I struggle with changing my perception of Microsoft. I still characterize them by their Halloween documents and efforts to destroy Netscape. I would recommend the Surface to friends or family, which is a recent change. But I would never use Microsoft products. And not just because I'd be giving up years of Linux folk-knowledge. Childishly, when I watch a youtube video of someone far more skilled than me programming i…

I just transitioned to a new job that uses Exchange for email, and it feels like the old Microsoft. The only way I've found to get Thunderbird to connect to Exchange's IMAP is by using a proprietary add-on. A lot of .doc and .xls files get passed around that I can't modify in LibreOffice without screwing up the formatting. The hardest part of getting work done on a Linux desktop isn't the drivers, it's interoperabili…

Why not just run Windows in a VM (or Linux in a VM) and be happy?
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