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Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

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41–50 of 102 posts

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#41
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html Also, in Exposé it's possible to tab between applications and use the arrow keys to select windows. As for right click: on an Apple trackpad, two finger click works much better for me than right click (either tap with two fingers or click with the thumb while two other fingers are on the trackpad) ever did on a windows laptop. YMMV. FWIW, I also prefer the Mac ⌘⇥…

Hmm... Thank you. Honestly though, I was just generally curious about if apple devs are allowed to use non-apple computers.

Well given that there are several pieces of Apple software that run on Windows (Safari, iTunes, QuickTime, etc) it would be strange if at least some developers didn't have access to Windows boxes. Although it's entirely possible that these run mostly on Apple hardware, surely they need "generic" PCs as well for testing.

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#43
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know Microsoft had a problem, they seem to be doing pretty well. In the mobile market? How about anything next-generation web? Social media? Microsoft doesn't seem to be doing well anywhere except the increasingly unimportant desktop and Office suite space.

XBOX, .NET, Bing, Facebook (1.3% ownership + exclusive ad partnership). Enough said.

As I remember correctly, Office saves everything else at MS right now (by a large margin, followed by OSes). The gaming has recently been making more money than they are loosing (and will probably become their next important money maker). But the rest of the revenue makers are so low compared to those three that it's not even funny.

I suspect that they will probably announce service based offering (consulting) type in the long run (5-10 years maybe?) because they might not be able to sustain high margins of profit on Office and Windows sales due to competition and alternatives.

Right now they don't seem to have a great vision either, so we'll see were they are heading...

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#44

This article, like many others, seems to overestimate how large the actual numbers of developers is at Microsoft, as opposed to full teams with Test and mgmt and their associated marketing, sales, etc. organizations. The .NET GC was roughly 1 person (sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more). Most of the base class libraries were one person. Even larger things, like the text editor, were usually a senior pers…

I can honestly say that the Microsoft interview was the most difficult, draining 6 hours of my life. And that was for an internship -- basically interviewing to do a 3 month interview. I don't think anyone who's been on the inside would say Microsoft just "throws" developers at their problems.

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XBOX, .NET, Bing, Facebook (1.3% ownership + exclusive ad partnership). Enough said.

As I remember correctly, Office saves everything else at MS right now (by a large margin, followed by OSes). The gaming has recently been making more money than they are loosing (and will probably become their next important money maker). But the rest of the revenue makers are so low compared to those three that it's not even funny. I suspect that they will probably announce service based offering (consulting) type i…

http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Fina...

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#46
post #25

Maybe that's the problem at Microsoft: they think they can solve problems by throwing lots of people at them. They put together large teams to build products. And large teams require managers. I didn't know Microsoft had a problem, they seem to be doing pretty well. They have some good products. Apple being successful doesn't necessarily translate to Microsoft sucking. They are both damn good companies.

IBM was a damn good company for many years after the industry had effectively left their technology behind. Even today they make serious money; if that satisfies your criteria for doing well.

They just didn't grow in proportion to the industry. And they've had to cut and refocus on their core products to maintain profitability.

Microsoft is now in a very similar situation.

Fumbled opportunity might not drag down today's numbers, but it's still a problem.

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#47
post #15

downvoters: Sorry if this question was offensive; I'm asking about if the "apple is like a startup" trend continues into developers being able to choose what kind of tools they want to work with. My complaining about my MBP isn't meant as a critique of apple, I'm just saying that if it was me I would probably choose a linux machine, not a mac. I apologize for the off-topic question, but is anybody here a coder for ap…

To a certain extent you have to learn the "Apple" way of doing things. It does result in performance improvements (I think XCode's a pretty nice piece of software). That said, my preferred development environment is a UNIX terminal, vim, and a web browser, so I happen to see OS X as one of the best development platforms ("Get out of my way, don't make me worry about the system, and let me code!").

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#48
post #38
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know Microsoft had a problem, they seem to be doing pretty well. In the mobile market? How about anything next-generation web? Social media? Microsoft doesn't seem to be doing well anywhere except the increasingly unimportant desktop and Office suite space.

Windows Live, Bing, Xbox, Servers, Cloud Services... It's easy to bash on them, but they make quality products in a diverse range of markets. Sure they fail and fail big, but who the hell doesn't? If you have made anything successful, you've probably failed 100s of times. It comes with the territory.

Windows Live, Bing, Xbox, Servers, Cloud Services

Did you have any examples that contradicted me? All of the above are losing MS money in a BIG way.

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I remember correctly, Office saves everything else at MS right now (by a large margin, followed by OSes). The gaming has recently been making more money than they are loosing (and will probably become their next important money maker). But the rest of the revenue makers are so low compared to those three that it's not even funny. I suspect that they will probably announce service based offering (consulting) type i…

http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Fina...

So I guess that we can say for sure (2009-2010 numbers) that online stuff is now loosing money, windows is now doing better that office, and gaming is quite behind but stable and profitable (albeit a lot less that office or windows). Let's be frank too, were talking about billions here, so those segments are quite big.

Re: Apple is run like a huge startup (and the remote app was written by 1 guy)

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Fina...

So I guess that we can say for sure (2009-2010 numbers) that online stuff is now loosing money, windows is now doing better that office, and gaming is quite behind but stable and profitable (albeit a lot less that office or windows). Let's be frank too, were talking about billions here, so those segments are quite big.

I can't tell you specifics but I can tell you that Microsoft knows the cloud is losing money for now.
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