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Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

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Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#63
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you personally tried the Hololens? They appear to have oversold the qualities of at least the first version.

Yes and I recognize that there is a lot of room for improvement, but it's a really cool idea and I think it's the best Augmented Reality product on the market right now. If there is another one then let me know, because I'd love to see it. The biggest issue with Hololens is it's field of view.

I guess it all comes down to how expensive they'll be (at least for consumer applications). The $3000 cost for the new developer edition doesn't bode well, IMO.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#64

I was going to rag on this article for touting the the same non-specific garbage we've seen the past couple days like, "more mac users switching to surface than ever!" without any hard numbers, did is go from 20 to 25? But this article is actually pretty interesting. It focuses on how Satya Nadella has respected the leaders of Companies he's bought out and invited them to key meetings. Using their insight not only fo…

Some can't choose.

A friend of mine worked in a startup that was bought by MS.

Somehow MS didn't want a few of the devs, but the CEO made a deal and they all got "included" into MS.

So if he weren't lucky, he probably wouldn't got a big corp job in the first place.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#65
post #50
post #14

I dont understand the new Microsoft business model. I've stopped using office, Windows is now free(?), but most stuff is in the browser anyway. We used to pay a lot of money for SQL server but now there are lots of free open source alternatives. Sure Azure might make some money but its a commodity business, I can't see how it will replace the old cash cows.

- Windows is not free, they just offered a free update for a limited time, which is already over. - Basically, every non-apple consumer computer comes with Windows preinstalled, and they charge a licence (I think around 50$). That's a solid business model right there. - Most of the people around me who are not programmers, prefer MS Office to do their work, and they swear by Excel. Google Apps still doesn't cut it fo…

> they charge a licence (I think around 300€)

Pretty interesting if Microsoft can charge €300 for an operating system that ships on €150 (£150/$199 or less) laptops ;-)

The Windows installation fee used to be around $42-$44 and some versions cost around $11-15 (Windows XP Ultra Low Cost PC version). IBM used to pay $27 (which we know because it complained bitterly about Microsoft tripling the price).

The tablet version of Windows 8.1 cost $10 but OEMs got a $10 kickback for making Bing the default search engine. (Microsoft did not describe this as free, it said it was "zero paid".)

Be nice to have a current figure if anyone wants to break the non-disclosure clause, but the fee for Windows is a lot closer to €30 than it is to €300.

OEMs also charge software houses to distribute software (ie crapware). This can reduce the cost of Windows to the user almost to zero. In fact, when users subscribe to a pre-installed AV product, the OEM gets recurring fees which means the pre-installed Windows has actually generated a profit.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#66
I just can't agree with this conclusion.

Microsoft has taken some great steps since Nadella took over. Doing more projects aimed at regular developers and taking baby steps towards open source, but that is not enough to be a leader.

In fact, I think in 2016, we are in a much worse place when it comes to tech leadership than we were in the late 90s and early 00s. The tech world has been poisoned by money and everything is focused on maximizing profit. Almost nothing is being created because it's innovative or really life changing. The new products that are coming out like Google Home or Microsoft Office 365 which claim to be innovative, really aren't. They are repackaging an existing product in a new context. That's called marketing. That's not tech leadership.

In the 90s we had the launch of Linux, the web and home internet access.

In the 2000s all we've really had is smart phones. Everything else has just been building on what was done in the 90s because the people in charge are all marketers and profit seekers.

Do something truly innovative with all your billions Microsoft, and then I will buy that you are a tech leader. No amount of press releases or fluff articles will convince me.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#67
post #5

Microsoft continues to try to convince us that they are great with press releases and non-organic stories such as this. I, my peers, and my co-workers just don't see it. With billions in reserve it's no surprise they are trying to buy popularity.

I like VSCode, TypeScript and RxJS. But I didn't buy any MS product since Win7.

Seems like the teams behind the JS/TS stuff are pretty cool. Don't know about the rest.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#68
post #31

Microsoft has done some very good things and some very bad things. I'll let everyone else point out the bad things because there seems to be plenty of that. I personally like the: Surface products, Typescript, C#/F#, .NET Core, Visual Studio Code, and the Hololens. These are all recently new developments for Microsoft that are really awesome. The fact that a lot of this has become open source is even better. You have…

Microsoft has a huge, huge intellectual capital in Microsoft Research. They have very interesting results and experimental ideas in programming languages and interaction design, and I'm sure they'll have most of it patented.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#69
post #5

Microsoft continues to try to convince us that they are great with press releases and non-organic stories such as this. I, my peers, and my co-workers just don't see it. With billions in reserve it's no surprise they are trying to buy popularity.

I find these kind of comments depressing mostly because they scream "group think". (my inner circle says this, so I repeat it) The new MS is much different than the MS I grew up with in the 90s. It's time for the community to recognize this and just let people bask in positive news that is worthy the bask in. I love my Surface Pro 4, I love the fact .net is cross platform, I love that Azure is fast and easy to use, I…

I've hated MS a decade ago, because of their position against linux and because of IE6. I've watched them doing big efforts the last few years, and I welcome them - I can't wait to feel good about them. That being, this article indeed sounds too emphasized to not be fishy. Maybe it's a PR article, maybe it's just that the author from this financial publication bought MS shares lately, maybe it's something else, I don't know.

But yeah, I don't see either any major change in mobile MS usage around me.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#70
This article loses credibility with the opening line...

FTA: After years of missteps, the software giant is among the few titans of the 1990s to figure out the new world of mobile technology and cloud computing.

Saying MSFT have figured out mobile is a little too much of a stretch. They have tried many things in the space, they have figured out more of what doesn't work than what does. Unfortunately the market doesn't reward learnings alone.

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