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The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

zdnet.com

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Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#321

Post by BoorishBears »

Fr0styMatt88 wrote: post #248
thelittleone wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only did the megacorp CEO's drop the ball on AI... we've got them gloating over widespread firing of engineers due to AI and then quotes like "I'm good for my $80B" like its his own personal money bag. And now they're force feeding crappy alpha AI products. The egos are well out of hand. And they give this group the name "The Magnificent Seven". WTF have we become. We trust these companies to be stewards of AGI/A…

So much this, when you see Zuck or even Jensen Huang saying "software engineers won't be needed anymore" and being excited about it you get pissed off as a software engineer lol. I feel like Microsoft's whole thing with Windows 11 has been "just force the users to do what we want them to do, we know better than they do" so it doesn't surprise me that 365 went the same way. I'm saying this and I'm a person that's usua…

> you get pissed off as a software engineer lol

I think this part depends on the person. I've personally been programming since I was a kid making games for my TI-83+, and in all that time and fatigue have been the limiting factors in how much of what I wanted to build that I actually could build.

So something able to write code rigorously enough to replace SWEs would be an absolute dream! I love programming with all my heart, and it's the thing I've spent most of my life doing... but I feel in love with it because it could make things.

A way to make even more things at a greater scale I'm individually capable off is such a joyous idea that if anything, I get annoyed at the idea they'd tease that without knowing it's possible (of course, they're trying to raise so...)

The aspect of wanting to replace SWEs is completely ok with me and I think there should be a rush to see it through. Imagine if every researcher could have an army of top tier SWEs at their beck and call for example. Or even imagine learning to program alongside a personal world-class expert from day 1, after all the fact AI could do it wouldn't mean we couldn't still do it ourselves if we wanted to.

-

Unlike the "AGI in 3 years crowd" I don't actually know that it's possible, but where I agree with them is that the route there is probably not going to be a slow burn. Most companies need to demonstrate some external value along the way or they won't be able to continue, hence the chasing down of usecases that they can ship today.

Unfortunately not all of us can raise $1B on a txt file and a promise not to release our product :)

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#322

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

caspper69 wrote: post #42
BobbyTables2 wrote: post #22

Worse than CoPilot is the new Notepad. Can close the program without saving the file, open it again and it is still there! WTF?

This is the default behavior of Notepad++, and is quite useful. There are times I want a scratch file to stick around without saving it to disk (I know it's still saved to disk somewhere, but that's not the point). The answer is to close the file you don't want to stick around.

> This is the default behavior

Also for MacOS TextEdit and Preview (can edit images a bit).

It's convenient, I just have to pre-save the original on case I'm experimenting and not versioning.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#323

Post by t-writescode »

TheRealSteel wrote: post #290
mrweasel wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Microsoft just pissed away their biggest brand after Windows and maybe Microsoft. Brand recognition holds value, a lot of value. Imagine Pepsi deciding that they are done with Pepsi Max, arguably their biggest brand, after Pepsi itself, and decides that it's now Pepsi Cake. Just kill of all references to their biggest brand. That wouldn't go down well and Microsoft is only getting away with it because pretty…

Yep. They obviously learned nothing from killing Xbox overnight. As an IT person I can guarantee this rebranding is going to cause confusion that will waste my time. That being said, Coke killed Coke Zero and seems to be doing okay I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Coke Zero still exists?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Zero_Sugar

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#324

Post by nitwit005 »

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #90
Toutouxc wrote: post #86

I understand people who love Apple (or the OSS world) unconditionally and I understand people who hate either, but I find it hard to feel any kind of strong emotion towards Microsoft. Feels like there isn’t a single product person left in the company, no vision, no direction, no soul, no plan, nothing.

It seems like you get a promo for changing names of things. The more convoluted, the higher you get.

It's probably easier to get ahead by saying you launched a "new product", than "Office release 974".

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#325

Post by bandrami »

kibwen wrote: post #135
Toutouxc wrote: post #86

I understand people who love Apple (or the OSS world) unconditionally and I understand people who hate either, but I find it hard to feel any kind of strong emotion towards Microsoft. Feels like there isn’t a single product person left in the company, no vision, no direction, no soul, no plan, nothing.

I just tried to use Excel for the first time in ages and somehow it has become completely unfit for purpose. Two series of data, one table of 300 cells containing one automatically extrapolated formula that multiplies the value of the cells in the series. A trivial spreadsheet use case that was solved 40 years ago. Changed the values in one series, and the table just... didn't update. Clicked into the cells and the f…

The irony is something like 99.999% of spreadsheets in use today have zero calculations. People think of Excel primarily as a way to lay out text on two axes. It's mind-blowing but I see people write out a series of expenditures down a single column and then pull out a desk calculator, add them up, and enter the sum at the bottom

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#326

Post by acomjean »

kyawzazaw wrote: post #99
rsolva wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is much better today, but still not perfect. For relatively simple word processing tasks, it is not a problem anymore. And saving as a pdf is a fine compromise when the receiver doesn't have a need to edit the document.

no office workers is gonna bother doing that

When I worked in an office with my linux machine, Libre office worked for me. No issues really. I didn't do anything super complex, but it was nice to be able to open those file formats.

Though to be fair, I didn't really have a choice in the matter. its was that or the web version of office.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#327

Post by mickael-kerjean »

whalesalad wrote: post #13

I don't think Microsoft has created a single novel or useful thing in the last 30 years, with the exception of vscode.

They've fixed their CMD app. 5 years ago, to enlarge the window, you had to tweak how many rows/columns you want to show, tweak with those until you have the desired window size. Now you can just resize like you would on any other app

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#328

Post by esafak »

sunaookami wrote: post #166
xyst wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a very old e-mail from bill gates to his direct reports about the poor usability of windows (xp?)

This one? https://www.techemails.com/p/bill-gates-tries-to-install-mov...

Rereading that makes me shake my head. Things didn't get that bad overnight. The fact that so many UX crimes were allowed to fester is proof that Microsoft doesn't care about or understand UX.

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#329

Post by [deleted] »

t-writescode wrote: post #323
TheRealSteel wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. They obviously learned nothing from killing Xbox overnight. As an IT person I can guarantee this rebranding is going to cause confusion that will waste my time. That being said, Coke killed Coke Zero and seems to be doing okay I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Coke Zero still exists? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Zero_Sugar

[deleted]

Re: The Microsoft 365 Copilot launch was a disaster

#330

Post by esafak »

rsynnott wrote: post #278
rUsHeYaFuBu wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think these things have potential to improve over time. If nothing else I do like being able to get a relative quick explanation for how to change some obscure or minute functionality in the Windows OS. Now, would it be better if the Win OS, by default wasn't obnoxiously in the way with the pretense of being "simpler"? Yes! At least there are some truly free OS's out there that keep the interface consistent through…

So release them when they work, if ever. Do not release a broken thing and then go “you must use this, in case it is one day non-shit”.

I see you are not familiar with Microsoft.
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