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Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

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Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#31

Post by allerratio »

DanBlake wrote: post #22

"In fact, so many people I work with don’t use Windows as their host OS." Then the people you work with are a edge case minority. Windows absolutely and completely dominates the desktop computer landscape in both enterprise and home. Most estimates have it at 90-95% penetration worldwide vs mac/nix. For anyone who may say macs are now selling more than ever before and that MS is losing market share fast, remember tha…

What also people seem to ignore is the current surge of workstation users switching from mac pros to cheaper and more powerful workstations with windows

Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#32

Post by dagw »

jewel wrote: post #7

In 2006 I helped put in an OpenLDAP server in a medium-sized company (150 users). Once we'd gotten past the initial hump of configuring everything to work with it, it was really nice to have single sign-on and a list of users and permissions accessible from any computer on the network. Since we could access the directory from perl it was easy to make a simple UI for the support team to make changes. Maybe I'm missing…

For 150 users (which is a pretty small company in the grand scale of things) in one location and without too complicated authentication/authorization needs OpenLDAP is fine. Active Directory really comes into its own when you have lots of users, lots of locations, lots of admins (each responsible for a different area) and a more complex authentication/authorization structures (assuming you are running a fairly pure Microsoft stack).

Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#33

Post by Toshio »

rizzom5000 wrote: post #29
epistasis wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this reasoning, programmers and software developers are an edge case minority. Yes, they are only a small chunk of the people who buy computers, but they have tremendous influence over the future direction of the field. Which is to say, paying attention to the mass of office workers does not tell you something about the direction of the software world, it tells you about what dogfood is being forced onto the worke…

I largely agree with what you're saying, but at some point some of the workers eating the dogfood become the managers buying the dogfood. Sometimes (hell, maybe the majority of the time) their decisions are self-serving and uninformed; but sometimes their decisions really are based on making the organization as successful as possible under their current circumstances. It's at this point that we look at what the major…

This being HN, here's the obligatory disruption remark.

> "IBM, Oracle, SAP, CSK, MSFT, Intuit, Autdesk"

Ripe for disruption.

Go, HN, go - disrupt the dinosaurs.

Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#34

Post by skrebbel »

At the risk of intentionally misunderstanding the OP's definition of the word 'asset', aren't their developers supposed to be their most valuable asset? I'm not saying they are, just that if they aren't (anymore), I'd worry about that instead.

Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#35

Post by Toshio »

joss82 wrote: post #30

Please someone create a cool, cheaper alternative to AD that runs on Linux and does not suck! Insert below mandatory answer about how great existing open-source solutions are.

I happen to know of two CIOs of very large enterprises who went with LDAP instead of AD with a very clearly stated goal of not being locked into a single vendor.

So it's happening, even if it's just a trickle at the moment.

Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#36

Post by joss82 »

Toshio wrote: post #35
joss82 wrote: post #30

Please someone create a cool, cheaper alternative to AD that runs on Linux and does not suck! Insert below mandatory answer about how great existing open-source solutions are.

I happen to know of two CIOs of very large enterprises who went with LDAP instead of AD with a very clearly stated goal of not being locked into a single vendor. So it's happening, even if it's just a trickle at the moment.

But to me, comparing LDAP to AD is like comparing an engine to a car, isn't it?

LDAP is a protocol, it is not a standalone service. Don't you also need a client-side authentication mechanism and server-side sharing system that is seemlessly compatible with LDAP?

Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#37

Post by dagw »

Toshio wrote: post #33
rizzom5000 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I largely agree with what you're saying, but at some point some of the workers eating the dogfood become the managers buying the dogfood. Sometimes (hell, maybe the majority of the time) their decisions are self-serving and uninformed; but sometimes their decisions really are based on making the organization as successful as possible under their current circumstances. It's at this point that we look at what the major…

This being HN, here's the obligatory disruption remark. > "IBM, Oracle, SAP, CSK, MSFT, Intuit, Autdesk" Ripe for disruption. Go, HN, go - disrupt the dinosaurs.

I'd like to add ESRI to that list if I may.

Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#38

Post by hapuka »

sjtrny wrote: post #19

I stopped reading at "I could care less".

Yes, me too. This is so irritating. The proper usage surely must be "I couldn't care less."

"I could care less." - There is room for you to care less than you care now. This phrase is meaningless as a way to describe how much you care about something.

Re: Microsoft's Most Valuable Asset

#40

Post by kayoone »

joenathan wrote: post #13

In the corporate space I'd agree, but the Xbox brand isn't to be discounted. The Halo series is a money printing machine. "All in all, the Halo franchise has made nearly $3 billion from sales." "Halo: Reach, Halo creator Bungie's last Halo game, made more than $200 million in sales in the US and Europe in the first 24 hours of release. This figure eclipsed all previous 2010 US entertainment launches, including the th…

That is $3bn in revenue for the whole series. The first of 5 (?) titles has been released 10 years ago. While this revenue for a game series is impressive, its insignificant given MSFT makes >$70bn in revenue per year.
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