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Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#71

Post by rubypay »

1) Change the name of Microsoft Security Essentials so people will have an easier time finding it and knowing what it does. Market it better, while keeping it free.

2) Have more free options available for small businesses and teams running the .NET stack. BizSpark is a step in the right direction, but for cash-strapped startups who want to test ideas out in a production setting, it still doesn't compete with the free open-source alternatives.

3) Focus more on getting program installations done right. For example, SQL Server 2008 has taken a step backwards in terms of installation. Errors happen quite frequently during the install/upgrade process--it shouldn't take several hours of fighting one installer to get it working properly.

4) For popular third-party programs that work correctly with Windows, it would be nice if Microsoft had an online database of checksums that Windows can transparently check the program against. If everything looks good, don't present the user with "Confirm/Deny" choices, just install it. Otherwise users become jaded and used to clicking on "Confirm" even for popups that require more thorough inspection.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#72

Post by znt »

For all these years I kept on installing windows on my laptops and desktops not because I'm a MS fan, but all the cool games run on windows and I'm a frequent gamer. MS probably will have a good advantage if they released a handheld gaming platform.

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/210279/rumor-microsoft-d...

MS will probably have a good comeback with that, I hope it wouldn't be a closed environment like XBOX or Sony PSP. I would love to play flash/html canvas games using a handheld gaming platform. If they could add touchscreen functionality along with web browsing and installable games from MS Games/Steam etc. then it will be game over for other handheld platforms.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#74

Post by roadnottaken »

rakkhi wrote: post #5

Interesting if real. Ok lets go for benefit of the doubt, starting with the highest priority items: Mobile technology - The Windows phone 7 will not succeed. Sure you will sell a few phones but for the marketing and sheer executive brainspend on this you will not get a profitable return within 5 years. I had a good debate on Quora about what sucess looks like for Microsoft and I don't think this is realistically achi…

The desktop is NOT DEAD. All those other devices are primarily for consuming media -- which is great. But I'm still using a desktop with a keyboard if I want to do any, y'know, work. I spend ~8-12 hours a day on a desktop and everyone else I know with any kind of office-job does too. And that's a lot of people. Tablets/console-games aren't going to change this any time soon.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#75

Post by DeusExMachina »

epochwolf wrote: post #62
Tichy wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OS X: can't deal with the Finder. I frequently don't know how to navigate to an upper directory, for example. I have troubles with the task bar, too (sometimes somehow I can't drag stuff into applications). I miss the show desktop button. I don't like that Apps stay open when I press "X" and I have to close them all with CMD+Q instead. Cut+Paste does not exist. It's all little things, but they add up. Windows 7: now…

> OS X: can't deal with the Finder. I frequently don't know how to navigate to an upper directory, for example. Four ways I know of. 1. Use the column view so you can see every folder you've navigated through. (My preference) 2. Right click on the title bar's label. 3. Use the path button on the toolbar. 4. Use the back button (Yeah, it's not always up) If the toolbar is missing, click the white button at the top rig…

One more: press alt+cmd+up arrow on the keyboard.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#77

Post by roadnottaken »

narag wrote: post #68

A modest request: please, with each version don't make it more and more difficult to make the Windows explorer behave as in Windows 95. I mean having a folder tree and detailed view. Some people still work a lot with files and folders "the old way". Bonus points for not moving the configuration screens around. Things that have changed with explorer: less space for content, caused by adding not-so-useful toolbars, fol…

GREAT point. On a fresh Win7 install it takes like 5 clicks to get to 'My Documents', with all the favorites and libraries etc. Do I really need to click past "My Music" folder every time I want to open a file? SIMPLIFY.

In case you missed it: SIMPLIFY.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#78

Post by cryptoz »

unexpected wrote: post #30
listic wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Care to explain how come Chrome OS is dead?

I'm sure it's not "dead", but it doesn't have any "e-buzz" right now. It was designed to be a tabletOS - how come all the upcoming tablets are all going to be based on Android? Are Android and ChromeOS going to interact with each other? It seems silly to have two free products that compete with each other doing very similar things - especially when both of them are supposed to offer the same thing experience-wise. An…

Chrome OS was not designed to be a tablet OS. It can be used on a tablet, but if you read the launch blog post it's very clear they are targeting netbooks, not tablets. Since that day they have of course expanded to include tablets, but suggesting that was the original idea is misleading at best.

Also, Chrome OS hasn't been released to the public yet and so it's absurd to call it "dead". The planned release date is in October.

Imagine walking in to Best Buy or Futureshop and seeing a line of laptops, some labelled "Microsoft" and some labelled "Google". People are less afraid to move away from MS if they're moving to a company they know and trust, like Google.

Calling Chrome OS dead, at least right now, is a very very silly mistake to make.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#79

Post by rsbrown »

buro9 wrote: post #16
unexpected wrote: post #12

Personally, I think Microsoft needs to make the strategic "pivot" to selling experiences - not necessarily operating systems. They've done a great job of this with Xbox and Windows 7. I was incredibly sad when the Courier got cancelled. This was a big head pound moment for me. At it's core, MS sells software, but increasingly, it seems apparent that consumers are going to spend their dollars on hardware/software comb…

+1 for that last paragraph. Just thinking that you need a billion dollar product or it's not worth it, will mean that no potentially game-changing ideas that start as a seed and will grow can come through the system. You're left with only the options to buy (but now the other companies will not sell as they have wisened up to their value) or partner (and you'll not get the real benefit or possibilities from it, and y…

Totally agree. Many have criticized Google's culture of "try lots of things", but it has clearly worked well for them. Microsoft should be encouraging their young, hungry tech talent to be creating tomorrow's killer apps today. Bureaucracy and top-down direction will kill this type of innovation every time.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#80

Post by cryptoz »

unexpected wrote: post #43
rakkhi wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is ridiculous why wouldn't Chrome OS run perfectly on a Tablet? e.g. HTC: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/203564/htc_pla... Also why not try Chrome OS first before you say it is dead: http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/ Combined with office.live.com I have everything I need for 95% of my needs.

I agree with you, ChromeOS certainly doesn't look bad. I just have a hard time figuring out - what's the difference between the two? What use case does ChromeOS solve that Android doesn't solve? I consider myself web-savvy and fairly technical. If I have trouble answering this question, what is the average user going to think? People are turning towards experiences - which is a combination of hardware and software. W…

> What use case does ChromeOS solve that Android doesn't solve?

Printing. Browsing the web and writing long emails like a normal user, rather than like a tablet user: no weird issues with mouseover, fully-functional built-in Flash, etc, etc. There are lots of differences between the web experience offered by Android and the web experience offered by Chrome OS.

Also, normal people won't have to make a decision in a store about picking "Android" vs "Chrome OS". It's more and more likely that people will pick from the limited few options in the store, and maybe try it out before buying it. If a store sells laptops and some run Windows, some Mac OS X and some Chrome OS, then Chrome OS will be a serious competitor at least in the netbook form-factor.

Tablets are often sold in different parts of a store, or at least together in a different display. You'll see people picking between iPads and Andriod tablets. I doubt that normal stores would display Chrome OS tablets in the same area (but I could be wrong).

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