Microsoft's 2015 reminds me of Sun's 2004 - open sourcing software in a desperate attempt to remain relevant as Linux grows. In truth Microsoft hasn't open sourced Office, Windows, SQL Server etc. which they make money from, but only bits which they think might save them from irrelevance amongst developers in the era of Linux and the cloud. As much as MS made a song and dance about open source the vast majority of MS profits are still from proprietary software.
2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
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Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#22The problem with Microsoft hasn't been that they've never been able to inspire excitement with a product (remember currier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Courier, or Kinect) but rather their execution on those products.
Only half of Apple's genius is their design, the other half is their incredible execution machine, in large part thanks to the work that Tim Cook did. Microsoft used to have an incredible execution machine, with mediocre design. Now they are struggling with both.
Microsoft has gotten a lot better in design, particularly in the hardware space, but the questions is:
Does Microsoft have the needed DNA to align their incredible resources/brain power around a small set of products that will really make a difference for them?
Despite hololens and the surface products, this remains very unproven for me.
Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#23Benefit of the doubt is nice, but delivery has been poor to nonexistent. Microsoft is barely taking back its own declining market of non-phones -- while making a wild bet on augmented reality. I feel like the media wants to paint a comeback story a la Apple a lot more than one actually exists.
>I feel like the media wants to paint a comeback story a la Apple a lot more than one actually exists. In terms of an Apple come back story that's blatantly false. Microsoft was never in dire financial straights since practically the mid-80's. The Benefit of the Doubt is more because of their attitude to the OSS community. For nearly its entire life Micro$oft has been seen as the prime enemy of the OSS community, a r…
I would not happily return to them. In fact, I see no reason why. To me, they are still in their same embrace, extend, extinguish mode only that now their cycle is a lot longer. It could even be that nadella really thinks that he will always be in the embrace and extend phase. My gut feeling is that as soon as it becomes hugely beneficial to them somebody within the company will advocate for the extinguish phase. Don't trust Microsoft. It is in their DNA to screw you.
Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#24They've done some brilliant things for developers this year, but sadly shipped a giant spyware operating system at the same time. From what I've read people are still trying to determine everything it's calling home.
which remains for me the main reason why regardless of it is now being cool again I still avoid it like the plague. another funny thing is that they have improved their OS security so much that it is now considered harder than Linux, and Apple
Do you have a source for Windows 10 being considered more secure than OS X or Linux? Didn't expect that designation to fall on a spyware-as-OS product.
Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#25They've done some brilliant things for developers this year, but sadly shipped a giant spyware operating system at the same time. From what I've read people are still trying to determine everything it's calling home.
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Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#26My recollection might be failing me. But I do not remember the level of excitement described in the article for the Original iPhone. I remember it for the next iPhone (3G/2), but not the initial.
Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#272015: the year Microsoft built Windows completely around law enforcement's wishlist.
https://theintercept.com/2015/12/28/recently-bought-a-window...
You can use the most encrypted and anonymous apps you want, but if Microsoft can silently send you updates to your OS, can see what you're typing and send it to its servers (to "improve your experience", of course), and gives the US government access to its discovered zero-days months before it starts fixing them, then it's all kind of pointless.
Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#28Benefit of the doubt is nice, but delivery has been poor to nonexistent. Microsoft is barely taking back its own declining market of non-phones -- while making a wild bet on augmented reality. I feel like the media wants to paint a comeback story a la Apple a lot more than one actually exists.
My observation as well. Bought a Surface Book earlier this year and it was crashy as hell. Took it back to the store. Good luck competing with Apple in the premium segment with this level of QA.
Same here with a Surface Pro 4. Lots of little bugs that I'd never expect in an Apple device. Weird keyboard issues, random screen shutoff, DPI issues, etc. Luckily, Windows Updates have been fixing the issues a handful at a time, but this means that initial impressions will suffer. Hopefully they get their QA issues sorted out.
Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#29They've done some brilliant things for developers this year, but sadly shipped a giant spyware operating system at the same time. From what I've read people are still trying to determine everything it's calling home.
There are some things I love about Windows 10, like virtual desktops (welcome to the 90s Microsoft!) but there are some things that irk me: * Pretty login screen photos, with a link at the top-right saying "Like what you see?". I click the link expecting to get the source for the image, instead I get "Cool, we'll show you more like that." So much for that nice new desktop background I was hoping for. * Automatic upda…
I've had many of these same problems, with the addition of automatic driver updates breaking my display and forcing me to spend an hour fixing their (M$, lenovo, I don't care. read: Not My) mistake.
I've searched, but have you found a list of those login screen pictures? I want them.
Re: 2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
#30They've done some brilliant things for developers this year, but sadly shipped a giant spyware operating system at the same time. From what I've read people are still trying to determine everything it's calling home.
I was hoping someone would be updating a list of IPs and domains which you could simply block at the router level
Edit: better link https://github.com/10se1ucgo/DisableWinTracking/blob/master/...