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Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

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Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#181

Post by dvdgsng »

bemusedthrow75 wrote: post #165
irusensei wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t force myself to like vscode. I need to code right? So I need 1-to be able to write text, 2-syntax highlighting. VSCode is an absolute mess of unnecessary plugins and popup that reminds me of an internet explorer 6 with too many web bars and a bonzi buddy dancing at the bottom of the screen. I also dislike Chrome and any chrome based reskin. I appreciate Firefox and even Safari. Specially Safari for the same r…

You can turn off a load of stuff. You don't have to install any plugins. VS Code has one as far as I am aware uniquely-implemented feature -- remote editing -- which is absolutely invaluable to me as a freelancer with many long-term, infrequently-updated projects. Lots of separate VM dev environments with different editor configuration and tool requirements, and more or less only SSH config and keys to connect me to…

Jetbrains Gateway offers remote editing as well. It's still Beta and certainly has some rough edges, but it works ok-ish as a daily driver and is actively developed. The last update few weeks ago even added Dev Containers support (to an extend).

https://www.jetbrains.com/remote-development/gateway/

Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#182

Post by flamwenco »

bemusedthrow75 wrote: post #165
irusensei wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t force myself to like vscode. I need to code right? So I need 1-to be able to write text, 2-syntax highlighting. VSCode is an absolute mess of unnecessary plugins and popup that reminds me of an internet explorer 6 with too many web bars and a bonzi buddy dancing at the bottom of the screen. I also dislike Chrome and any chrome based reskin. I appreciate Firefox and even Safari. Specially Safari for the same r…

You can turn off a load of stuff. You don't have to install any plugins. VS Code has one as far as I am aware uniquely-implemented feature -- remote editing -- which is absolutely invaluable to me as a freelancer with many long-term, infrequently-updated projects. Lots of separate VM dev environments with different editor configuration and tool requirements, and more or less only SSH config and keys to connect me to…

> VS Code has one as far as I am aware uniquely-implemented feature -- remote editing -- which is absolutely invaluable to me as a freelancer with many long-term, infrequently-updated projects.

To be that one guy, Emacs has had remote editing (without even needing to install anything on the remote server, unlike vscode) for forever with tramp mode. But other, more accessible/modern editors having it is definitely nice because it's such a handy feature

Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#183

Post by [deleted] »

samch wrote: post #155
candiddevmike wrote: post #8

This is a dumb take. They're both equally untrustworthy. VSCode has an insane amount of telemetry turned on, ChatGPT is monitoring everything you type, and GitHub was abused to train a LLM. Microsoft and Google have both shown they would sell your data in a heartbeat to make a quick buck.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft offers enterprise/business variants of most solutions that are (more) private by design. This includes GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI GPT services, Bing Chat, M365 Copilot, etc. It’s really a consumer’s decision when it comes to Microsoft. Either you use the basic/free version in exchange for your privacy, or you pay for a business account. I’m not sure Google really offers that as equi…

[deleted]

Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#184

Post by crabbone »

I use GMail and Android. My job makes me use MSTeams, but I would've never used it if I had a choice. I probably use random bits of code contributed by both big companies to various programs on Linux... but this is about it.

Also, the reason for me to use GMail is that I want to stick with the same email address, and migrating from GMail would've made it very painful. I use Android because the alternative is to use iPhone, which is even worse. If a free alternative becomes more realistic to use, I'll switch in a heartbeat.

I worked for Google (through acquisition), and I know people who worked for Microsoft. I'd never apply to work for Microsoft. At least based on the impression I've received from people who work there. Of course, there are plenty of businesses Microsoft owns but doesn't actually "run", and things are probably very uneven across the board. Same is true for Google.

So, when it comes to trust... It's obviously a very complicated subject. Different divisions in different organizations will have very different ability to generate trust. In my own experience, and when it comes to things that mattered to me throughout my career, I developed a strong distaste for anything branded with Microsoft's name just based on technical merits alone. Everything Microsoft was making for developers was designed to impress the rich people in the management who probably don't as much as own a computer. Since forever and to this day, Microsoft's products seem like idiotic ideas implemented by legions of slaves, who don't care about the outcome, but the complicated system of equally unmotivated slave drivers ensures the minimum acceptable quality.

Google, on the other hand, gives out a very different vibe: there are a lot of motivated and competent people working for the company, and on an odd day once every few years they get to make a decent product. And then they move on and the product dies.

Based on this completely personal and based on no thorough research feeling, I'd trust the first to make the worst but functional programs and the second to make programs of very uneven quality -- more of a gamble, but with much higher payoffs, if you win.

Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#185

Post by bemusedthrow75 »

dvdgsng wrote: post #181
bemusedthrow75 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can turn off a load of stuff. You don't have to install any plugins. VS Code has one as far as I am aware uniquely-implemented feature -- remote editing -- which is absolutely invaluable to me as a freelancer with many long-term, infrequently-updated projects. Lots of separate VM dev environments with different editor configuration and tool requirements, and more or less only SSH config and keys to connect me to…

Jetbrains Gateway offers remote editing as well. It's still Beta and certainly has some rough edges, but it works ok-ish as a daily driver and is actively developed. The last update few weeks ago even added Dev Containers support (to an extend). https://www.jetbrains.com/remote-development/gateway/

Ooh, that's interesting, thank you.

Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#186

Post by rodolphoarruda »

Is the concept of trust related to privacy somehow? Do I trust X because it won't share my data with Y? Well, that concept has been blurred to me. I live in a country where prosecutors can demand me to give them all my digital devices and the credentials to all my self-hosted and online accounts. So this fact by itself makes my trust on MS, Google or alike irrelevant from a data privacy perspective.

Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#187

Post by jzymbaluk »

You can tell a lot about a company's priorities by how they make most of their money, and if you do that you see that Google is an Advertising/surveillance company disguised as a tech company, while Microsoft is a professional/enterprise services company disguised as a tech company.

Obviously this isn't perfect because both Google and Microsoft are giant diversified companies with lots of revenue streams, but I think you can roughly understand the way they will behave by looking at them through this lens.

This is why Google sinks resources into Android, but retires projects like their domain registrar: because android is an excellent advertising/surveillance platform: they can not only serve ads using Android, they can collect surveillance info on users to sell better ads.

Conversely, Microsoft invests resources where they do because they want to make the Windows/Office useful for professionals at work. They are sinking billions into OpenAI so that they can develop their Office Copilot to make their Office/Windows platform more appealing to C-Suites writing emails and memos in Outlook and Word

Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#189

Post by bemusedthrow75 »

flamwenco wrote: post #182
bemusedthrow75 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can turn off a load of stuff. You don't have to install any plugins. VS Code has one as far as I am aware uniquely-implemented feature -- remote editing -- which is absolutely invaluable to me as a freelancer with many long-term, infrequently-updated projects. Lots of separate VM dev environments with different editor configuration and tool requirements, and more or less only SSH config and keys to connect me to…

> VS Code has one as far as I am aware uniquely-implemented feature -- remote editing -- which is absolutely invaluable to me as a freelancer with many long-term, infrequently-updated projects. To be that one guy, Emacs has had remote editing (without even needing to install anything on the remote server, unlike vscode) for forever with tramp mode. But other, more accessible/modern editors having it is definitely nic…

I guess Tramp mode must be the inspiration, to some extent.

But the VSC approach allows me to customise the tool environment within the remote extension, including going as far as using different SCSS processors and language servers, but is managed through essentially exactly the same interface as the local.

(It's also inherently multi-user; changes are reflected in each machine connected to the remote, which makes it really easy to move from a work to a home machine, or a desktop to a coffee-shop laptop.)

This is what I meant by uniquely-implemented. I often find that the most visceral critics of VSC or adherents of "natively implemented" code editors haven't the slightest awareness of this feature.

Still -- thank you for your comment, it gives me one more thing to investigate for those times when tools fail me.

Re: Today I realized I now trust Microsoft more than Google. What is happening?

#190

Post by breakfastduck »

throw__away7391 wrote: post #5

I generally avoid Google products, but I do not understand the animosity towards YouTube, nor why anyone would not just pay the very small fee for YouTube Premium and do away with all the ads. The content being created for YouTube is fantastic, you can easily watch news from all over the world, conference talks, lectures, interviews, in-depth documentaries and deep dive analysis that blows away anything you'll ever s…

Youtube, when compared to any other streaming / video on demand / film tv services etc, has by far the most insane value proposition.

The sheer amount of content on there for the price is well worth paying. I use adblocks everywhere, I use pihole, I am really strong on that. But I do use Youtube a lot, and it is only fair that I pay the price. It is very reasonably priced.

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