Microsoft Signs Letter Of Intent To Acquire Xobni • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Signs Letter Of Intent To Acquire Xobni

#61

Post by ajju » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 8:42 PM UTC

tokipin wrote: post #5

steveblgh wrote: post #2

I'm not sure how this makes any sense for Microsoft. If they assigned a few engineers to work on this, they could replicate the functionality within few months, especially since they know the internals of Outlook.

and if they did replicate it, everyone would call them assholes. maybe they're trying not to paint a bad image of themselves

Microsoft not doing something that could make them money and is in all likelihood perfectly legal (not that that has stopped them in the past) just to "not be called assholes"? Really?

Re: Microsoft Signs Letter Of Intent To Acquire Xobni

#62

Post by ajju » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 8:47 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #43

wright wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My next YC idea: A plugin for Vista that makes it work.

You know, that might be just on the right side of crazy. Could one build some kind of layer on top of Vista that would make it tolerable to users?

There have been noises from Microsoft going right up to Gates to the effect that they themselves are abandoning Vista. This would make the life of this product pretty short if it only targets Vista's flaws.

Also, only people forced to use Vista are using it at this point which boils down to employees of corporations with not-so-wise IT departments - not the prime audience for a startup product IMO.

I do think there is potential for money in the idea of building a layer on top of Windows that makes it more usable. Xobni seems to be doing exactly that starting with email. (I'm sure they are looking beyond email by this point).

Re: Microsoft Signs Letter Of Intent To Acquire Xobni

#63

Post by allenbrunson » Wed, Apr 23, 2008, 11:45 PM UTC

ajju wrote: post #62

pg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, that might be just on the right side of crazy. Could one build some kind of layer on top of Vista that would make it tolerable to users?

There have been noises from Microsoft going right up to Gates to the effect that they themselves are abandoning Vista. This would make the life of this product pretty short if it only targets Vista's flaws. Also, only people forced to use Vista are using it at this point which boils down to employees of corporations with not-so-wise IT departments - not the prime audience for a startup product IMO. I do think there i…

got a link or cite for the "microsoft abandoning vista" thing?

if that happens, my evil glee my well burst out of my gut like a baby alien.