Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#411

Post by xradionut » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 12:25 PM UTC

petit_robert wrote: post #340

EdwardDiego wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was trying to get into the developer game (I'm self-taught with no degree so couldn't follow the normal progression) the biggest market in my hometown was (and still is) for .NET developers. So, I joined a .NET user group, I installed VS, I started learning. Problem was, MS was churning out the "next great thing" faster than I could learn the last great thing. While I was getting my head around WinForms, WPF c…

>Problem was, MS was churning out the "next great thing" >faster than I could learn the last great thing. Same here. I design databases, and MS kept bringing new data access methods every three years; I never could wrap my head around the ADO/DAO difference, but that did not matter for long because both were replaced by .Net I sincerely wondered if this was not a deliberate tactic by Microsoft : while developpers are…

"I sincerely wondered if this was not a deliberate tactic by Microsoft : while developers are busy learning their newest "next great thing", they can't invest time in anything else."

Bingo!

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#412

Post by acheron » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 12:31 PM UTC

_pferreir_ wrote: post #393

girvo wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find people that "like" companies quite amusing. I think Microsoft has potential, but currently there is a reason I don't use any of their products nor plan to personally. Doesn't mean they don't have their place, like any product. Also, an argument could easily be made that OP's post, which I found really interesting, is just another way of saying "Microsoft sucks", as it is merely anecdotes without sources again.…

> I find people that "like" companies quite amusing. I think they pretty much account for most of the hate you see on HN. Brand identity is the new opiate of the masses.

"Endorsing products is the American way to express individuality." -- Calvin and Hobbes

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/08/27

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#413

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 12:35 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#414

Post by freehunter » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 12:36 PM UTC

magicalist wrote: post #99

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article definitely had enough upvotes to stay on the front page; it was definitely knocked two pages back for some reason, and someone admitted to flagging. My account is more than a year old, I have 3000+ karma, and I have a low number on Slashdot as well (and made the front page in 1998). The bias is real and documented. I posted my own original comment with no expectation but to express my pleasure, most peopl…

> The bias is real and documented as I mentioned above, this is not the case. While some Microsoft stories may be knocked down the page, you would have to measure what happens to every other kind of story to know if Microsoft stories are in any way special.

Compare the front page yesterday. Nokia news being moved off the front page, versus Mac Pro, iPad Mini, iPad Air, and Mavericks stories gaining the top spots.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#415

Post by im3w1l » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 12:44 PM UTC

notaddicted wrote: post #133

jesserosenthal wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pleasingly ambiguous phrasing. The first two times I read it, I got that this was the smartest anyone had ever looked (no one has ever looked smarter). Apologies for going off-topic, but I hadn't come across this particular cramp in the language before.

I doubt anyone would disagree that triple negatives aren't easy to parse.

If that sentence hadn't mentioned triple negatives, I don't think I would have noticed anything abnormal about it.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#416

Post by imsofuture » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 12:55 PM UTC

4hthth4 wrote: post #103

imsofuture wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. With the caveat that C# + F# are crazy awesome, not that I'm jumping at the bit to work with them again...

You could just use OCaml, of which it is an obvious copy. You wouldn't get the whole MS stack, for better or worse.

Absolutely, I have much love for OCaml.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#417

Post by im3w1l » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 12:56 PM UTC

xradionut wrote: post #411

petit_robert wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Problem was, MS was churning out the "next great thing" >faster than I could learn the last great thing. Same here. I design databases, and MS kept bringing new data access methods every three years; I never could wrap my head around the ADO/DAO difference, but that did not matter for long because both were replaced by .Net I sincerely wondered if this was not a deliberate tactic by Microsoft : while developpers are…

"I sincerely wondered if this was not a deliberate tactic by Microsoft : while developers are busy learning their newest "next great thing", they can't invest time in anything else." Bingo!

On what grounds do you confirm his speculation?

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#418

Post by oddshocks » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 1:05 PM UTC

I'd say the causes of hate range from their participation with the NSA surveillance programs to just plain making faulty software.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#419

Post by jasonwocky » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 1:09 PM UTC

xerophtye wrote: post #256

georgemcbay wrote: post #142

I (speaking for myself, obviously, not anyone else on HN) don't hate Microsoft. I use Windows! Windows 8 in fact! For context because I'm sure some people (I do think there is an anti-MS bias here on HN, though not as pronounced as OP thinks it is) may think I'm some stereotypical Microsoft-using rube. I grew up in the 80s, programming first on the C64 (BASIC, 6510 Assembler), then Amiga, then various UNIX systems (S…

Agreed. The power of the VS debugger is unparalleled!! You can actually look into everything and figure out exactly what is happening. Though you should try IntelliJ IDEA for Java. I love the "Evaluate expression" feature in their debugger

IDEA's development environments are only ones, in my experience, that outdo MS's. Way better refactoring support (any VS user who doesn't also have a copy of IDEA's Resharper plugin installed is crazy), better debugger. Better all around.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#420

Post by api » Wed, Oct 23, 2013, 1:09 PM UTC

Other than past things, like their attempts to thwart open standards in the 90s and their bankrolling of the SCO lawsuits against Linux, I can speak to one reason that's contemporary:

As a software developer, everything is harder on Windows. I have three choices:

1) Ignore Windows and ignore >50% of desktop market share.

2) Ignore non-Windows OSes, because things get easy if you do everything the Microsoft way.

3) Endure the pain of porting to Windows, which is greater by orders of magnitude than the pain of porting to Android, iOS, or small-market-share OSS OSes like OpenBSD. It's like task one is "support the entire universe except Microsoft," and task two is "support Microsoft."