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What is Microsoft smoking?

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Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#21

Post by kryten »

hboon wrote: post #8
zainny wrote: post #4

Interestingly enough there is a point at which I thought Microsoft was really going to hit some home runs not all that long ago. Since then though the trifecta of Windows Phone 8, Windows 8, and Xbox One has turned me away from their entire product line. Combined with my own movements over the years towards open source desktop software and web applications (Google Docs, etc.) and Microsoft barely rates a mention in m…

I'm not a fan of most of their products, but I've heard good things about Azure, even for Linux hosting. Disclosure: I was at Microsoft for a couple of months due to an acquisition.

I find the actual process of deploying stuff to Azure very costly and terribly slow. If something doesn't work as intended on Azure, your turnaround time is quite high. This is far too common a problem as well as the development services they offer for local dev aren't 100% the same as the target environment.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#23

Post by AlexanderDhoore »

Microsoft Is Spread Too Thin.

That's it. That is the reason most of their products are half-assed. They have database systems. Server, desktop, and tablet/phone operating systems. Web, desktop, mobile development environments, all in multiple languages. They have their IaaS and PaaS offerings. They have end user services like Skydrive and Outlook. Then there is everything Office. And games, both PC and Xbox. Also, Bing. And Skype. Edit: And hardware: Xbox, peripherals and the surface.

...

This is probably an incredibly incomplete list. Try making this list for Apple, and you'll get my point.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#24

Post by Azulsky »

sz4kerto wrote: post #5

Let's wait until both consoles arrive. It really seems that Sony is going to implement the same game lending restrictions what Microsoft - except they haven't told us explicitly. Recent news say that Sony will give the same opportunity for publishers to block lending.

Sony has been pretty explicit about it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kWSIF...

They are also encouraging developers to remove online passes

http://bit.ly/12EpOq8

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#25

Post by kryten »

mattchamb wrote: post #18

Im probably going to lose what little karma I have for saying this, but the XBox One's licensing model is more attractive to me than the PS4's model. I'm getting all of my information from here: http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/license These are the points I find interesting: - Access your entire games library from any Xbox One ... while you are logged in at your friend’s house, you can play your games. From this, i can…

I think that idea probably works well...

...until you have to drag an entire BluRay disc over the Internet before Halo 14 will start.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#26

Post by tenfingers »

> Developer registration renewal every 30 days? Mandatory internet connection while programming Windows Store apps? really?)

Hah. This has to be the most ridiculous thing ever. I always despised the windows platform for development (except maybe for DirectX), but damn, this is going to affect the number of native apps, making their platform obsolete much quicker.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#27

Post by joshka »

sn0v wrote: post #16
zainny wrote: post #4

Interestingly enough there is a point at which I thought Microsoft was really going to hit some home runs not all that long ago. Since then though the trifecta of Windows Phone 8, Windows 8, and Xbox One has turned me away from their entire product line. Combined with my own movements over the years towards open source desktop software and web applications (Google Docs, etc.) and Microsoft barely rates a mention in m…

Sure, WP8 has its quirks but I don't think it's all that bad? The interface is clean, the OS is smooth and the app store has quite a few useful apps (although a few major ones are still missing).

Many would disagree (about being bad) http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/ Most apps have significant issues and causes for regular frustration.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#28

Post by 6d0debc071 »

greyman wrote: post #7

He is exaggerating about the "big Windows 8 and Windows RT user interface failure". As a Windows user since version 3.1, I can say that Windows 8 is IMHO the best Windows version overall; they just made an arguably wrong decision to remove Start button from the Desktop mode. That will now be fixed in 8.1. I also happen to like the monochrome icons in the newest Visual Studio (where there are a lot of other improvemen…

They divided their interface into two halves, one of which is awful for productivity/multitasking, and built their adaptation of the start menu around that divide - while complete messing up its organisation and the search aspect.

Metro could have been so good, the idea of a full screen start menu is good, the idea of larger tiles that update as an obvious replacement for the current set of icons is excellent. But they went and messed it up in such a way that I can't really imagine using it being an advantage over current use of 7 - "Oh you can use it like 7. If you work around Metro." Is the most common response I've got on its various user-interface screwups, but you can do that with 7 too so.... yeah.

They even managed to mess up the explorer interface more than they already had.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#29

Post by mattchamb »

kryten wrote: post #25
mattchamb wrote: post #18

Im probably going to lose what little karma I have for saying this, but the XBox One's licensing model is more attractive to me than the PS4's model. I'm getting all of my information from here: http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/license These are the points I find interesting: - Access your entire games library from any Xbox One ... while you are logged in at your friend’s house, you can play your games. From this, i can…

I think that idea probably works well... ...until you have to drag an entire BluRay disc over the Internet before Halo 14 will start.

I agree, but that that is a problem with the distribution method, not the licencing model. The most reasonable answer to this would be that the game disc can be used to install on any console, but only allow that disc to confer a licence once.

I do not know how it will actually work, but I am actually excited to see what happens.

edit: actually, thinking about it now - I think this is where the always online requirement comes from. If i was implementing this feature, I would allow the console to install the game content and have it associated with a unique ID for that disc. But I would have to check with the servers to see if that specific disc ID was already used elsewhere. If this is correct, then I think the always-onlne "feature" could be relaxed in the case where there are no unchecked games installed. This is just pure speculation, however.

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