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Microsoft is Dead

paulgraham.com

361–370 of 454 posts

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In summary, my problem is not with capitalism, and I am not a socialist. I merely fear that the inevitable end of capitalism is the type of corporate society that has been steadily evolving in the U.S. and elsewhere, one in which paper and numbers are more important than people." You contradict yourself. Obviously you have a problem with capitalism because you beleive people should be forced at gunpoint to live the…

Wow, I can clearly see that it was a mistake to reply to your comment. This is pointless...

Yeah, the matrix has you.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#362
I've never understood the fear and loathing of Microsoft, now or in the past. Microsoft isn't perfect but they've done more than any other company (including Apple) to raise the level of software. They've been the benchmark to which all other software companies compare themselves. Microsoft may not have startup cachet or support of the "fanboys" (of Mac, linux, google, or whatever the latest anti-Microsoft parade is rallying around) but let's hope it sticks around for a long time to come.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#363
Would've been good read on April First ... reading it now, its not even funny, the blogger is complete idiot.

"We didn't invite Microsoft and they didn't bother contacting us" LOL, because they don't give a shit about you =)

Microsoft FTW.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#365
I don't think its valid, saying, that all applications will be deployed off the web; that would be very wrong. The fact that Google docs hasn't really clicked just points to the fact that certain software makes sense to be offline. One reason why; user sometimes wants to be very close to his data.

The key to the future i believe is the right mix of offline and online capabilities in applications. Microsoft has been kind of late in putting offline capabilities to many of its products. But that doesn't mean they are dead; they have the resources and ability to create paradigm shifts in this business. The fact that a person like Ray Ozzie (who is more or less associated with network computing and collaboration) is now overlooking the software giant's product teams also sends indications that Microsoft will start looking into the online/offline match. Infact the concept of "internet services disrupted", term coined by Ray Ozzie in a recent talk, precisely shows the direction in which Microsoft is headed.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#367

Paul, I think Apple's resurgence required that Jobs be pushed out. I feel that his time in the wilderness helped him grow in ways that would not have been possible if he had stayed safely ensconced at Apple. Instead of being at a hugely successful company like Apple, he spent 12 years focused on the challenges at NeXT and Pixar. And the challenges at NeXT were significant. Both companies brought him into contact with…

jonhendry is right that Apple is only where it is today because of the wisdom that Jobs gained after being pushed out of Apple.

From the commencement speech he gave to the Stanford graduating class of 2005:

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

I think this pretty much disputes Paul's notion that Jobs' being fired from Apple was somehow a bad thing. It was bad in the sense that the people who took over nearly destroyed Apple, but it also set-up the conditions for a reborn Jobs to return and make the company into what it is today.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#368
As a younger (20's) half reader who also happens to be a pro photographer, I think the hyperbole of "all apps on the web!" is silly. Tell me, when will my upload speed equal the speed of my 10,000 RPM Raptor HD's? My Core 2 Duo? Man, I can't sit around and wait while 75MB RAW files are uploaded to someone else's computer (that's all a server is, after all). This is the day and age of the personal super computer. Outsourcing apps to the web and cheering their stripped down interfaces isn't progress to me. It's like watching your neighbor's HD TV through the window with binoculars.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#369
I just don't understand why everyone is so concerned about MS vs Google vs Apple. MS sells software, Google sells ads, and Apple sells hardware. Anything else they do is just to sell their core business.

Each company is extremely successful, and in no danger of going away anytime soon.

Paul saying that he's surprised to see someone running Windows is proof that this is a very big planet, and there's lots of room for all kinds of love.

Re: Microsoft is Dead

#370

I think the death of the desktop is much exaggerated. AJAX is better than the last generation of web-apps, but the browser still basically sucks as a platform. Latency is a bitch. :-)

Latency is fine, I think, and gets better all the time. The browser is a fantastic platform. You never have to install web apps. You never have to patch web apps. And you are automatically connected through the client-server paragidm that proved to be so wonderful before desktops ever came about. Remember, dumb terminals were around long before PCs.

"The browser is a fantastic platform. You never have to install web apps. You never have to patch web apps."

Fantastic for the developer maybe - not so for the user.

"Remember, dumb terminals were around long before PCs."

Right. How was that for the user ?

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