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Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

paulgraham.com

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Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#221

Post by theragra »

wink wrote: post #68
ninetyninenine wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That quote is so out of touch. It was never that complete. Gamers used pcs. Paul grahams surprise missed an entire segment of the market. Additionally Mac usage statistically never exceeded windows. Paul lived a bit in a rich persons world and he’s around a lot web developers who like osx because it’s unixy without the issues of old Linux.

And don't forget location. In 2007 not even the majority of developers in Europe had adopted the 'default developer mac', that only came a couple years later than in the US (afaik) and it never even reached that adoption rate (that is now in general, not only developers). If I look at my non-tech friends in Germany there is still just a tiny percentage using macs, and even iPhones are way outnumbered by Android.

I think I even saw Mac for the first time around 2004. Eastern europe.

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#222

Post by theragra »

globalnode wrote: post #107
carlosjobim wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about being rich or not. People who can choose what kind of computer they have will choose Apple over PC. People who cannot choose will use work computers in their office with Windows installed, that corporate chose for them. People who do not want a computer at all will have neither PC or Mac. The majority of people do not want to have a computer – they see enough of them at work, and they are happy with th…

I think Apple is a very American thing. Outside the US, which you may not care about, only the most aspirationally Americanised people I've known have gone for apple products. Im not sure what the reasons are.

100%

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#223

Post by theragra »

carlosjobim wrote: post #119
globalnode wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apple is a very American thing. Outside the US, which you may not care about, only the most aspirationally Americanised people I've known have gone for apple products. Im not sure what the reasons are.

Europeans generally don't purchase the things they want, they purchase the things they are supposed to be wanting, after having long deliberations together with relatives and friends. So then they'll only look at specs and price and not how useful a product is or how pleasant it is to use. Europeans are in general very weird about money. They are as greedy as anybody, but what do they do then with that money? They th…

This is pretty dumb generalization. In baltics, where I live, nobody counts cents or limits appliance use, despite low overall income.

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#224

Post by theragra »

carlosjobim wrote: post #200
caspper69 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plenty of people either don't care, or gasp prefer Windows.

Your statement could have been interpreted a different way ;) > Your intuition is anecdotal. Absolutely. I'm talking about what I've seen around the world in the past decade or so. When I have visitors who have never used a MacBook, they want to touch it and try it, they comment on how nice it is. And this is a design that hasn't changed much in 10 years. In airports and cafés, I see more people using MacBooks than P…

Where I live, people buy apple because you can show it off. That's why you see these in cafes and airports.

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#225

Post by DonnyV »

robertlagrant wrote: post #196
DonnyV wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, nepo kid "...father worked for Westinghouse, modelling nuclear reactors, then was named the Director of Nuclear Safety for Atomic Energy of Canada" https://hsm.stackexchange.com/a/16002

I don't understand. Are you saying Paul Graham got a job at Westinghouse due to nepotism?

"Nepotism is the act of granting an advantage, privilege, or position to relatives in an occupation or field."

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#226

Post by nunez »

DanielHB wrote: post #120
nunez wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

very big companies use Workspace and the full suite of Google Docs products within.

Examples? I right now work in one, but I wouldn't call my company big ( From my (limited) experience google workspace doesn't really offer the level of control over employee computers that microsoft solutions do (like limiting what you can install or tuning settings). So it is a non-starter for any big company.

Broadcom uses Google Workspace; 20k+ employees

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#227

Post by carlosjobim »

theragra wrote: post #224
carlosjobim wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your statement could have been interpreted a different way ;) > Your intuition is anecdotal. Absolutely. I'm talking about what I've seen around the world in the past decade or so. When I have visitors who have never used a MacBook, they want to touch it and try it, they comment on how nice it is. And this is a design that hasn't changed much in 10 years. In airports and cafés, I see more people using MacBooks than P…

Where I live, people buy apple because you can show it off. That's why you see these in cafes and airports.

Of course it's just for showing off, just like carpenters and plumbers buy expensive professional tools to show off. The worst I saw was an office worker who had a comfortable chair, when everybody knows you can work just as well sitting on a cheap stool. Show offs...

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#228

Post by aprilthird2021 »

incrudible wrote: post #202
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Azure always had a very large and devoted following of corps who were all in on Windows, even in the early days when everything Azure ran on Windows. They had a very deep fanbase which caused them to not see things from the Silicon Valley perspective

Yes, the same nerds who would balk at using Windows would have balked at using Azure, but when it was time to choose clouds, that foot that Microsoft had in the door with corporate paid off big time. Many people have the privilege of working detached from the corporate world, but that also leads to warped perceptions like that of Paul in 2007.

Yep, I do think Paul was presciently observing a powerful class of people who would end up making the decisions in big companies that would not end up being all in MS customers, but I also remember being shocked seeing the demand for Azure when it first released (we wrote add-on software for cloud deployments for the big 3 clouds, and some smaller ones)

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#229

Post by etempleton »

This was certainly near peak Microsoft malaise. The only interesting thing they were doing with the Xbox 360 and that was only interesting because the grown ups weren’t paying attention. (When they did start to pay attention we got the Xbox One).

It is interesting perspective on how fast things can change in tech. Right now Intel seems doomed and Nvidia unbeatable, but it could all change in a few years time.

Re: Microsoft Is Dead (2007)

#230

Post by [deleted] »

dang wrote: post #152
badgersnake wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s completely isolated from the real world.

" Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. " It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[deleted]
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