Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What is Microsoft smoking?

irrlicht3d.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 253 posts

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#171

Post by venomsnake »

laumars wrote: post #162
venomsnake wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft had all the cards to win the device war. But they forgot what made them win the PC war. They tried to emulate apple while forgetting that people that bought into apple ideology already had apple. If the W8 arm was unlocked it would have been a big winner. WP7 just needed fast moving instead of stagnation and they almost got everything right with the original xbox and X360 in the beginning. But I am moving a…

Arch's fonts can be prettified a lot with Ubuntu patches from AUR: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration#Ubun... (I'm another Arch + KDE user - both at home and at work)

I used infiniality and the result is beautiful. From what I was able to deduce it was a mix of phpstorm bolding everything way too much, JDK refusing to use rendering and some dpi issues (a letter in storm is almost twice smaller than in kwrite)

But my experiences with arch are very positive so far.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#172

Post by Shorel »

arethuza wrote: post #100
jemeshsu wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They tried to emulate apple while forgetting that people that bought into apple ideology already had apple. Agreed. Their enterprise offering is strong. And one day they will realize it is IBM that is their destiny, and drop out of consumer market.

"IBM that is their destiny" Which means becoming a company built around professional services which will mean a lot of unhappy Microsoft partners.

I have always thought that being a Microsoft partner is already a corporate suicide note. They are ruthless when trying to earn more money from existing business lines.

Here we were customers of some company who sold Exchange hosting, now we login into outlook.com.

And all this without having into account the discontinued products because of internal politics. Think XNA Game Studio.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#173

Post by venomsnake »

tehwalrus wrote: post #31
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…

Sounds interesting, and a lot like Steam (which, like you, I've spent a fair bit of money on over the years now.)

On the PC you have easier time pirating so buying a game is proactive choice - I like the game that is why I buy it. So it give the user the feeling that he is in control of the situation and is not feeling ripped off.

They tacled the problem of piracy (the equivalent of second hand sales in consoles) not by going berserk control freaks but by just making steam giving so much value that even with the restricted licensing it just makes for better experience than the alternatives.

Also Valve are generally pushing gaming for the better. Every addition to steam was something that the community needed or wanted - big screen, linux ... the Greenlight is the only weird thing but there they just have the problem with tuning the execution and not the idea.

the current Microsoft don't get gaming. The first XBOX was brilliant. Cheap PC hardware with MS quality sdk. X360 was acceptable and the team in the beginning had good ideas XBLA. And then came GFWL and the later part of the 360 lifecycle.

So it is a lot like Steam doesn't matter because everything else is unlike steam.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#175

Post by Shorel »

elorant wrote: post #131

Back when Windows 8 was announced I used to wonder why didn’t they choose the path of Apple, thus making one operating system for the desktop and a different one for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). I think that they invested too much on the Surface tablet, hoping to produce a tablet that will have comparable capabilities with a desktop PC. In such a device the traditional Windows OS is not enough because we…

I think that they still did something too Apple-y.

Not a totally different operating system, but a totally different runtime called RT for new apps.

What I do think is the right approach? I recommend you to see the Ubuntu Phone videos.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#176

Post by astrodust »

venomsnake wrote: post #51
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…

Microsoft had all the cards to win the device war. But they forgot what made them win the PC war. They tried to emulate apple while forgetting that people that bought into apple ideology already had apple. If the W8 arm was unlocked it would have been a big winner. WP7 just needed fast moving instead of stagnation and they almost got everything right with the original xbox and X360 in the beginning. But I am moving a…

What made them win the PC war was what landed them in federal court.

By controlling the Windows ecosystem they could "disrupt" any competitors trying to produce applications, pushing Office while alternatives struggled, and they could use Office to push Windows.

Charging OEMs a flat "per-CPU" fee for licensing meant that Microsoft was getting paid regardless of the OS being shipped on the system. They eventually had to stop doing this, but came up with other ways of achieving the same effect.

There's no Office for game consoles. No matter how popular your title is, another platform will have an exclusive of their own that's just as compelling. They can't strong-arm OEMs because they are the one making and selling the hardware.

Linux has all the technology needed to overcome Windows, lacking only fit and finish.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#177

Post by astrodust »

jemeshsu wrote: post #83
venomsnake wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft had all the cards to win the device war. But they forgot what made them win the PC war. They tried to emulate apple while forgetting that people that bought into apple ideology already had apple. If the W8 arm was unlocked it would have been a big winner. WP7 just needed fast moving instead of stagnation and they almost got everything right with the original xbox and X360 in the beginning. But I am moving a…

> They tried to emulate apple while forgetting that people that bought into apple ideology already had apple. Agreed. Their enterprise offering is strong. And one day they will realize it is IBM that is their destiny, and drop out of consumer market.

Microsoft has no hope of becoming an IBM.

IBM manufactures lots of hardware, produces new technology it licenses, and has an enormous software consulting division. Microsoft does none of these things.

If anything, Microsoft will become like Computer Associates (CA Technologies), a company that milks products enterprise is hooked on and can't quit, squeezing money out of these things for decades to come.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#178

Post by serge2k »

Shorel wrote: post #172
arethuza wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"IBM that is their destiny" Which means becoming a company built around professional services which will mean a lot of unhappy Microsoft partners.

I have always thought that being a Microsoft partner is already a corporate suicide note. They are ruthless when trying to earn more money from existing business lines. Here we were customers of some company who sold Exchange hosting, now we login into outlook.com. And all this without having into account the discontinued products because of internal politics. Think XNA Game Studio.

Their setup works well with companies that are willing and able to pay tons for a setup that works well top to bottom.

Last job used MS for everything, but they got a setup which worked well and anyone they hired could use. Plus it's well supported (although they were stuck on XP still, that's going to be lots of money).

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#179

Post by baby »

daigoba66 wrote: post #136
baby wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the guy introducing "The Crew" at the E3 told one journalist : "you have an iPad? How does it feel whan you don't have WIFI or 3G for it? It feels empty and dead right? I believe consoles are becoming about online now and in a few years you'll understand what I meant here".

But even without WiFi or 3G I can still play most of my games and watch downloaded movies on my iPad!

Because it was made to be taken anywhere you go. As I see it, Microsoft is marketing their new console for online gaming. It worked for Diablo 3 and Sim City, don't see why they wouldn't try to pull this one.

Re: What is Microsoft smoking?

#180

Post by kryten »

inthewind wrote: post #48
mattchamb wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 requirem…

That's just annoying though. It's like not being able to move your music freely around your devices. Granted that you probably will probably only have one Xbox one, but it's still a pain. MS don't seem to have sorted the licensing model, to make it convenient with their OS, I have a copy of Windows 8, that I want to move from one machine to another at some point, and I'm sure it will be non-trivial. Not to mention th…

Moving windows 8 around is trivial. Most of the time it just activates. Occasionally it makes you phone them which takes about 3-4 mins.

However when you have a VLK and you don't notice that the KMS server has fallen over, shit hits the fan on an epic scale...

Post reply on HN