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Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

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Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#51

Post by jaggederest »

imsofuture wrote: post #46
nikatwork wrote: post #16

I started my career working on VB apps, and ASP then ASP.NET websites, using a Windows dev box. After learning several OSS stacks, I have nothing but contempt for Microsoft technologies. I wouldn't say I hate MS - they are what they are - but I am certainly conditioned to be very suspicious of their offerings. I would never take a job working on a MS stack again, ever. I currently work for a large enterprise that use…

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

I've done some fun stuff with Mono and C# but it's significantly more clunky than just apt-get install

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#52

Post by jbigelow76 »

tptacek wrote: post #34

Are you sure about this? If I go to HNSearch, look for Nokia stories, and sort by date, I can't find a comment saying that any of them aren't relevant to HN... which doesn't surprise me because there's no argument under which Nokia wouldn't be relevant to HN. Can you link to one of these stories that got flagged off the site?

I noticed this morning there was a link to the Engadget story about the new Nokia tablet on the front page. The first commenter was called out as a Msft PR flack. Another comment pointed out that since it's not an iPad it's not innovative enough to be on HN (I'm paraphrasing but not exagerating). When I made it to the office and checked to see what other sorts of comments had been posted I couldn't find the story anywhere on the first three pages. I figured it was flagged into oblivion for reasons the OP mentions.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#53

Post by Pitarou »

Of course there's prejudice, but the main reason is that the HN crowd doesn't believe that MS has what it takes to make a dent in the smartphone market. And I'm with the crowd on this one.

Given the strength of the incumbents, Microsoft is going to have to pull off something pretty special to make a dent in the smartphone market. Microsoft played to its strengths by buying Nokia, but that's the only strength Microsoft has in this brave new world of lightweight, portable always-on devices, and its nowhere near enough. The organisation just isn't capable of producing a smartphone consumers will want to own and use.

Take my wife: she's no computer lover, and certainly not a Linux nerd or Mac fanboy. She has to use computers in her day-to-day life, and she finds it stressful and confusing. But she loves her Android Nexus 7. In her mind, the Nexus 7 tablet and her Windows laptop belong in different categories. If I told her someone was trying to merge those categories ("The guys who make Windows and Excel are going to make smartphones. Do you want one?") I know she'd run a mile.

I can understand why we have very different takes on Microsoft. I'm also well aware that Microsoft have solved a whole lot of problems so well that people don't even think about them any more. And I LOVE the awesome work you guys do in MSR. But I don't see enough of that awesome in the products people have to work with every day, and in the smartphone market that's going to hurt!

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#54

Post by quaffapint »

mikeash wrote: post #27
quaffapint wrote: post #14

I'm almost afraid to reply to this. It's like the hunt for Communists in the US during the cold war - ah another MS sympathizer. MS made a lot of mistakes - so did Apple. I was an Apple tech support - it really sucked not having multitasking and dealing with so many OS issues. Now I make a living off the MS stack. I think MS sticking with RT is a bad move - go with full Windows support. I would still say a Nexus devi…

And much like the Communist thing, there are some good underlying reasons even if the end result is not necessarily good. For the Communists, it's because they were horrible oppressors. For Microsoft, it's because they nearly destroyed the industry back in the day, and to many of us it seems like they set back computing about a decade with their monopolistic tactics. That doesn't mean that the Microsoft of today, muc…

Then why such crazy love for Apple when Jobs was trying to do the same thing with the iphone suing companies left and right and patenting a button?

They both have bad sides, it just seems one is ignored.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#55

Post by tptacek »

iamshs wrote: post #44
tptacek wrote: post #34

Are you sure about this? If I go to HNSearch, look for Nokia stories, and sort by date, I can't find a comment saying that any of them aren't relevant to HN... which doesn't surprise me because there's no argument under which Nokia wouldn't be relevant to HN. Can you link to one of these stories that got flagged off the site?

Thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6590378

I see one guy saying he flagged the story ('JanezStupar). That person abused the flag button and needs to stop doing that. I don't see a lot of people saying the story wasn't relevant, or saying they flagged the story.

I'm asking because there is more than one reason why a story might drop off the front page; flagging is one of them, but so is the voting ring detector.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#56

Post by martey »

You have not provided any evidence that flagging is the reason that articles about the Nokia Lumia 2520 fell off of the front page. It is entirely possible that they disappeared because not enough people were interested in upvoting marketing information about a tablet running Windows RT.

So is HN basically becoming Slashdot where Microsoft hate occurs by default?

The guidelines for this site suggest that it is bad form to compare HN to other sites, especially when your account is under a year old. They also suggest that users should not complain about downmodding (which you are doing).

I think this would have been a reasonable post if you had found evidence that articles involving Microsoft consumer electronics received more negative comments or flags that articles from other companies. Instead, the post and its comments are just a bunch of unfounded accusations of anti-Microsoft bias.

I would argue that the facts that you assumed that articles about the Lumia disappeared because people were maliciously flagging them, that you posted an extremely positive comment about it [1] without disclosing your Microsoft affiliation, and that you reposted an Engadget article about it [2] just 6 hours after it was originally submitted, and at the same time you were insulting people in the original submission's comments [3] just as troubling.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6590538

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6591911

[3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6591575

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#57

Post by fleitz »

imsofuture wrote: post #46
nikatwork wrote: post #16

I started my career working on VB apps, and ASP then ASP.NET websites, using a Windows dev box. After learning several OSS stacks, I have nothing but contempt for Microsoft technologies. I wouldn't say I hate MS - they are what they are - but I am certainly conditioned to be very suspicious of their offerings. I would never take a job working on a MS stack again, ever. I currently work for a large enterprise that use…

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

F# is the bomb. Once in a while I even consider running ASP on mono so I can use F#, then I realize I'd need a windows box with Visual Studio and decide against it.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#59

Post by tejaswiy »

nikatwork wrote: post #16

I started my career working on VB apps, and ASP then ASP.NET websites, using a Windows dev box. After learning several OSS stacks, I have nothing but contempt for Microsoft technologies. I wouldn't say I hate MS - they are what they are - but I am certainly conditioned to be very suspicious of their offerings. I would never take a job working on a MS stack again, ever. I currently work for a large enterprise that use…

Hmm, any specific examples? I really like c# as a language. ASP.NET whilst not as new and shiny as Rails etc., it's still moving in the right direction with new additions like WebAPI.

And VS is I think one of the best IDEs out there.

Re: Ask HN: Why the Microsoft hate?

#60

Post by madmax96 »

It's because Microsoft used to be such a horrible company. It's debatable whether or not they still are, but that's not the point. I still haven't forgiven them for their tactics that destroyed competitors who often had superior products, and I probably never will. Not only that, but typically speaking, it sucks hacking on Microsoft products. All of Microsoft is also anti-hacker; I can't hack my OS, I can't hack the programs they make, etc. That was probably the mentality of HN when they claimed it wasn't relevant. Since iOS and OS X work well together and OS X is somewhat hackable, it gets more love.
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