3 ms·

So I work at Microsoft. Specifically on the Windows team. I honestly can't say I've ever had any issues using my iPhone or MacBook Pro there. During my intervi

by sgk284 17y ago

So I work at Microsoft. Specifically on the Windows team. I honestly can't say I've ever had any issues using my iPhone or MacBook Pro there. During my interview we joked about how I had not used Windows (or any Microsoft product) in a serious capacity for over a decade. I run Apple on the desktop and Linux on servers. They seemed to like this diversity coming in on the team. I joined a few months before Win7 shipped, and have to say... from day one I was pretty impressed with Win7. It's actually a really nice OS, I just wish the hardware it usually came on was as nice (I've yet to find a PC laptop as well designed as my MBP). The new Windows 7 phones though... wow they are amazing. Actually makes me consider replacing my iPhone, which Android just couldn't do.

jf 17y ago
I had the exact same experience joining Microsoft - I hadn't used Windows (or any Microsoft product) for 5 years.
Retric 17y ago
MS is so huge that different areas of the company can be vary different. Still, the basic problem IMO is an upper management culture focused on appearance. From an eat your own dog food concept a team should use their own products, but not to the exclusion of all others. The goal is to understand what users want and how the product is broken, not just to make people look good. I work with MS products on a regular basis and like them, yet basic problems can continue for way to long. EX: Most people in our office want to add Excel Graphs and then edit them and on average PowerPoint crashes around 4-5 times a day. This is fairly basic functionality that most poeple using PowerPoint in the workplace actually want and it just fails randomly way to often. But, I am not talking about a new issue this is several years old and it's not getting any better. I really like Visual Studio + C# but anything past the most basic windows features and you get into voodoo land where you just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. I know I am looking for the happy path and I know I can find it but sometimes it's in a vary strange place. This is the type of things eat your own dog food is supposed to fix, yet for some reason that's not happening. PS: I still think many MS products are the best option for a lot of things. But, often it's the surface that's great, it's easy to install, it does the basics just fine, and the deeper you go the worse things look.

by sgk284 17y ago

jf 17y ago

I had the exact same experience joining Microsoft - I hadn't used Windows (or any Microsoft product) for 5 years.

Retric 17y ago

MS is so huge that different areas of the company can be vary different. Still, the basic problem IMO is an upper management culture focused on appearance. From an eat your own dog food concept a team should use their own products, but not to the exclusion of all others. The goal is to understand what users want and how the product is broken, not just to make people look good. I work with MS products on a regular basis and like them, yet basic problems can continue for way to long. EX: Most people in our office want to add Excel Graphs and then edit them and on average PowerPoint crashes around 4-5 times a day. This is fairly basic functionality that most poeple using PowerPoint in the workplace actually want and it just fails randomly way to often. But, I am not talking about a new issue this is several years old and it's not getting any better. I really like Visual Studio + C# but anything past the most basic windows features and you get into voodoo land where you just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. I know I am looking for the happy path and I know I can find it but sometimes it's in a vary strange place. This is the type of things eat your own dog food is supposed to fix, yet for some reason that's not happening. PS: I still think many MS products are the best option for a lot of things. But, often it's the surface that's great, it's easy to install, it does the basics just fine, and the deeper you go the worse things look.