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

Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 303 posts

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#111

Post by digler999 »

supernovae wrote: post #44
anon987 wrote: post #5

Microsoft continues to try to convince us that they are great with press releases and non-organic stories such as this. I, my peers, and my co-workers just don't see it. With billions in reserve it's no surprise they are trying to buy popularity.

I find these kind of comments depressing mostly because they scream "group think". (my inner circle says this, so I repeat it) The new MS is much different than the MS I grew up with in the 90s. It's time for the community to recognize this and just let people bask in positive news that is worthy the bask in. I love my Surface Pro 4, I love the fact .net is cross platform, I love that Azure is fast and easy to use, I…

> I love my Surface Pro 4,

I'd love one if I could put linux on it. or if I could buy an OEM pc without an OS (and yes I know there are some vendors that "allow" (just that word makes me cringe) you to do it, but it should be a right). If, by their own definition, it's "intellectual" (and not material) property, then if I dont use it I shouldn't have to pay for it.

If they want to sell Surface because it's an awesome product, why do they need to go out of their way to lock their software on it ? If it's so awesome, surely people would want to use it, right ? If the proverbial destination is so great, why do they need to lock their guests inside ?

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#112

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

Aldo_MX wrote: post #107
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if Microsoft's leadership is being honest or not these days. But they're also far from transparent, and definitely working against my interests: (1) AFAIK, Microsoft continues to assert patents against Linux without giving the broader community enough information to resolve the supposed violations. (I'm not positive about this one.) (2) AFAIK, Microsoft continues to apply for more software patents, witho…

In case you hadn't noticed, "Embrace, extend and extinguish" is from 1995, 21 years ago.

That's a good point. I guess the question is, in a case like this, what are the odds that the company's executive-level culture has changed? I don't know.

The manner in which Microsoft pushed Windows 10 may be a data point.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#113

Post by MichaelGG »

justinlaster wrote: post #25
morgante wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've played with Azure and it's terrible. If a client wants me to use Azure instead of Google or Amazon, I literally charge a premium because it's so much more painful.

I don't see how anyone could possible claim GAE or similar offerings from Google compete anywhere close to what Microsoft or Amazon is providing. My take on it between Amazon and Microsoft: Microsoft has less functionality but with an easier UI. Amazon is light years ahead of anyone but their UI scheme (from naming things to where they position features and options) is pretty lack luster.

GCP has enough to handle a lot of cases. Just because it doesn't have some hacked-up version of Elasticsearch-as-a-Service doesn't hurt its value.

Azure has tons of stuff thrown all over it. The UI is absolutely terrible. It's some weird tablet-esque thing that flies out to the side and requires so much clicking around. It's slow. And it's overpriced. AWS's UI, while involved, at least isn't someone's let's-resurrect-Windows-8-UI project.

I know two companies that get tons of free Azure credits, yet still pay for GCP in production just to avoid dealing with Azure. If GCP slowly keeps adding features while keeping simplicity and speed, they're going to make huge strides against AWS and Azure.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#114

Post by mynameisvlad »

dpark wrote: post #56
UK-AL wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've gotten rid off the office per developer thing now. So not surprised. A large part is probably demographics of developers is now changing.

It's not entirely gone but it's dying. I'm still in a private office. Lots of devs on my team are doubled up, though. Many teams have already moved to open spaces. Demographics are a factor. Lots of devs, especially younger devs, and especially devs who've worked at other younger companies are asking for open floor plans. Not all of them, but a sizable chunk. That plus reduced cost for providing office space to devs…

There's been plenty of renovations without removing private offices, but it's mainly paint and carpeting with redone common spaces (kitchen, copy/mail rooms and bathrooms). See 8/9/10/26/27/28 which all were done fairly recently.

It doesn't make sense to gut the interior just to make a slightly different private office configuration, so it probably isn't considered a "significant" renovation.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#115

Post by ChuckMcM »

riazrizvi wrote: post #104

To me, there is no doubt that Windows laptops are seeing a resurgence around Silicon Valley compared to MacbookPro's. Personally I think it is due to their overall superior compatibility with new technologies/hardware (graphics cards for VR and CUDA developers, FPGAs, Arduino, Intel RealSense3D) and better workflows for virtualization/cloud-computing vs MacOS which has become harder to virtualize because of closer bi…

The idea of having their own "brand" of laptop I think was really important for recognition. It was always easy to tell the Apple users with the glowing Apple logo but the other laptops could be all shapes and sizes and that didn't say there was one competitor or 15. Having the branded laptops making an appearance really helped solidify in people's minds that it was a Microsoft product these other people were using.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#116

Post by MichaelGG »

stcredzero wrote: post #71

So the pendulum has swung yet again! http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html

MS has gone up 131% since that essay. I love the silly suggestions in it, too, about putting shielding around a hypothetical new MS to prevent Redmond ideas from getting in. And it'll be fun to see how their $25BN investment in a SV company, LinkedIn, actually pays off.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#117

Post by Zaheer »

digler999 wrote: post #111
supernovae wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find these kind of comments depressing mostly because they scream "group think". (my inner circle says this, so I repeat it) The new MS is much different than the MS I grew up with in the 90s. It's time for the community to recognize this and just let people bask in positive news that is worthy the bask in. I love my Surface Pro 4, I love the fact .net is cross platform, I love that Azure is fast and easy to use, I…

> I love my Surface Pro 4, I'd love one if I could put linux on it. or if I could buy an OEM pc without an OS (and yes I know there are some vendors that "allow" (just that word makes me cringe) you to do it, but it should be a right). If, by their own definition, it's "intellectual" (and not material) property, then if I dont use it I shouldn't have to pay for it. If they want to sell Surface because it's an awesome…

You're not their target demographic. 99% of people don't want to put linux on it.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#118

Post by riazrizvi »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #115
riazrizvi wrote: post #104

To me, there is no doubt that Windows laptops are seeing a resurgence around Silicon Valley compared to MacbookPro's. Personally I think it is due to their overall superior compatibility with new technologies/hardware (graphics cards for VR and CUDA developers, FPGAs, Arduino, Intel RealSense3D) and better workflows for virtualization/cloud-computing vs MacOS which has become harder to virtualize because of closer bi…

The idea of having their own "brand" of laptop I think was really important for recognition. It was always easy to tell the Apple users with the glowing Apple logo but the other laptops could be all shapes and sizes and that didn't say there was one competitor or 15. Having the branded laptops making an appearance really helped solidify in people's minds that it was a Microsoft product these other people were using.

I don't see that as the factor, I don't see people using Microsoft branded laptops especially.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#119

Post by shmerl »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #115
riazrizvi wrote: post #104

To me, there is no doubt that Windows laptops are seeing a resurgence around Silicon Valley compared to MacbookPro's. Personally I think it is due to their overall superior compatibility with new technologies/hardware (graphics cards for VR and CUDA developers, FPGAs, Arduino, Intel RealSense3D) and better workflows for virtualization/cloud-computing vs MacOS which has become harder to virtualize because of closer bi…

The idea of having their own "brand" of laptop I think was really important for recognition. It was always easy to tell the Apple users with the glowing Apple logo but the other laptops could be all shapes and sizes and that didn't say there was one competitor or 15. Having the branded laptops making an appearance really helped solidify in people's minds that it was a Microsoft product these other people were using.

That's why I like to put Debian sticker on my laptop. Otherwise people assume I'm using Windows. Kind of silly, but years of Windows domination brainwashed people.

Re: Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader

#120

Post by mynameisvlad »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #112
Aldo_MX wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you hadn't noticed, "Embrace, extend and extinguish" is from 1995, 21 years ago.

That's a good point. I guess the question is, in a case like this, what are the odds that the company's executive-level culture has changed? I don't know. The manner in which Microsoft pushed Windows 10 may be a data point.

A big part of the current senior leadership wasn't even at the company in 1995.
Post reply on HN