9 ms·

Microsoft continues to try to convince us that they are great with press releases and non-organic stories such as this. I, my peers, and my co-workers just don

by anon987 10y ago

Microsoft continues to try to convince us that they are great with press releases and non-organic stories such as this. I, my peers, and my co-workers just don't see it. With billions in reserve it's no surprise they are trying to buy popularity.

cmdrfred 10y ago
I've been saying the same thing. My coworkers bring up the surface when I mention it, but I don't see it. Tech in general has felt low innovation lately. Its time for silicon valley 2.
- ferentchak 10y ago
  Well old Silicon Valley is not done marketing billion dollar web versions of 30 line Unix utilities. Maybe we can make all these things again in VIRTUAL REALITY!!!!
  - ep103 10y ago
    And here I thought I was being original, making a series of microservices for linux commandline utilities why grep, when you can grep over the network?
- scholia 10y ago
  Powerful 2-in-1 that works as a laptop and a tablet; runs sandboxed apps from a web store as well as traditional Windows apps; built in AI assistant; excellent pen operation; built in accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer; cloud integration with OneDrive, Office programs, email etc with the ability to continue work from different devices; face-recognition or fingerprint log-on; increased security features.... Yeah, it's hard to see any innovation compared to your granddad's laptop ;-)
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    Microsoft wasn't the first to do a single one of those things. Copying Apple and Google isn't innovative in my opinion nor Websters.
    - untog 10y ago
      And Apple wasn't the first to make a touch screen smartphone. They were just the first to do it well.
      - cmdrfred 10y ago
        Lets say their implementations are marginally better. * runs sandboxed apps from a web store - Android(2008), IOS(2007) * as well as traditional Windows apps - Only Windows obviously * built in AI assistant - Apple(2011) * excellent pen operation - Wacom(1992) * built in accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer - Every flagship phone since 2005 * cloud integration with OneDrive, Office programs, email etc with the ability to continue work from different devices - Google drive, Google docs, Gmail (2007) * face-recognition or fingerprint log-on - Available on circa 2000 Fujitsu laptops * increased security features - SELinux(1998) I'm not impressed. Most of this stuff has been done for over a decade if the version from 8 years ago is worse that isn't saying much.
        hashhar 10y ago
        It's really amazing how the list you created includes different products for each bullet but Microsoft (or M$ if you prefer) combined all of them into a single product which actually functions.
        cmdrfred 10y ago
        So if Apple threw a stylus and a word processor on the iPhone they would be innovators too?
        scholia 10y ago
  - lisivka 10y ago
    Yeah, ten year ago it was very innovative.
ferentchak 10y ago
Have you played with Azure or .Net Core? People tend to enjoy the Surface products too. In this regard I would not say they are "back" but better than Microsoft has ever been. Are they the best at everything... nah but heck the fact that I am saying many of their products are compelling is a big improvement
- morgante 10y ago
  I've played with Azure and it's terrible. If a client wants me to use Azure instead of Google or Amazon, I literally charge a premium because it's so much more painful.
  - bengale 10y ago
    Yeah, every experience I've had with Azure outside of the demonstrated samples tends to be a complete headache.
  - daxfohl 10y ago
    I may be taking a job with the Azure team soon. What are the biggest pain points for you?
  - justinlaster 10y ago
    I don't see how anyone could possible claim GAE or similar offerings from Google compete anywhere close to what Microsoft or Amazon is providing. My take on it between Amazon and Microsoft: Microsoft has less functionality but with an easier UI. Amazon is light years ahead of anyone but their UI scheme (from naming things to where they position features and options) is pretty lack luster.
    - morgante 10y ago
      > I don't see how anyone could possible claim GAE or similar offerings from Google compete anywhere close to what Microsoft or Amazon is providing. I think your information is quite out of date. GCP is competitive with AWS for many use cases and certainly is better than Azure. The days of GAE even being the primary offering are long gone. There's a reason that if you look at DevOps tools they all support AWS, most also support GCP, but very few support Azure.
meddlepal 10y ago
I haven't used Azure but I know people that have and they all say it's a pleasure to work with most of the time. As a JVM developer the .NET Core stuff is really interesting to me and I'd love to figure out a way to start using it. I'd pretty much written MS off several years ago as a fading giant but they're cranking out products and services I want to use now and that I just need to figure out how to get them into my life.
gdulli 10y ago
Without being ideological about baggage from a decade and more in Microsoft's past, it's easy to see that the company it is today has a large and diverse set of products. Many are good, I'd still say some are bad. But it would be simplistic to remain suspicious and attached to an expired narrative.
supernovae 10y ago
I find these kind of comments depressing mostly because they scream "group think". (my inner circle says this, so I repeat it) The new MS is much different than the MS I grew up with in the 90s. It's time for the community to recognize this and just let people bask in positive news that is worthy the bask in. I love my Surface Pro 4, I love the fact .net is cross platform, I love that Azure is fast and easy to use, I love that Office on my mac is current and that Microsoft's mobile strategy is 100% cross platform unlike that of Apple and Google.. I love that MS is honest these days and its disappointing the community is largely dishonest in return.. often snarky.
- oelmekki 10y ago
  I've hated MS a decade ago, because of their position against linux and because of IE6. I've watched them doing big efforts the last few years, and I welcome them - I can't wait to feel good about them. That being, this article indeed sounds too emphasized to not be fishy. Maybe it's a PR article, maybe it's just that the author from this financial publication bought MS shares lately, maybe it's something else, I don't know. But yeah, I don't see either any major change in mobile MS usage around me.
- DoofusOfDeath 10y ago
  I don't know if Microsoft's leadership is being honest or not these days. But they're also far from transparent, and definitely working against my interests: (1) AFAIK, Microsoft continues to assert patents against Linux without giving the broader community enough information to resolve the supposed violations. (I'm not positive about this one.) (2) AFAIK, Microsoft continues to apply for more software patents, without joining the Patent Commons. (3) Microsoft seems to intentionally subvert its OS's users' attempts to disable snooping. AFAIK, Microsoft not only refuses to say what data are gathered, but also phone home to so many different IP names/numbers that it looks like they're trying to hide the activity from the OS user. (4) Microsoft is now "embracing" Linux. Microsoft became famous for "embrace, extend, extinguish". People outside of the CEO's inner circle can't know if that's the plan here as well.
  - Aldo_MX 10y ago
k__ 10y ago
I like VSCode, TypeScript and RxJS. But I didn't buy any MS product since Win7. Seems like the teams behind the JS/TS stuff are pretty cool. Don't know about the rest.
seanmcdirmid 10y ago
WSJ doesn't accept press releases.

by anon987 10y ago

cmdrfred 10y ago

I've been saying the same thing. My coworkers bring up the surface when I mention it, but I don't see it. Tech in general has felt low innovation lately. Its time for silicon valley 2.

ferentchak 10y ago
Well old Silicon Valley is not done marketing billion dollar web versions of 30 line Unix utilities. Maybe we can make all these things again in VIRTUAL REALITY!!!!
- ep103 10y ago
  And here I thought I was being original, making a series of microservices for linux commandline utilities why grep, when you can grep over the network?
scholia 10y ago
Powerful 2-in-1 that works as a laptop and a tablet; runs sandboxed apps from a web store as well as traditional Windows apps; built in AI assistant; excellent pen operation; built in accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer; cloud integration with OneDrive, Office programs, email etc with the ability to continue work from different devices; face-recognition or fingerprint log-on; increased security features.... Yeah, it's hard to see any innovation compared to your granddad's laptop ;-)
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  Microsoft wasn't the first to do a single one of those things. Copying Apple and Google isn't innovative in my opinion nor Websters.
  - untog 10y ago
    And Apple wasn't the first to make a touch screen smartphone. They were just the first to do it well.
    - cmdrfred 10y ago
      Lets say their implementations are marginally better. * runs sandboxed apps from a web store - Android(2008), IOS(2007) * as well as traditional Windows apps - Only Windows obviously * built in AI assistant - Apple(2011) * excellent pen operation - Wacom(1992) * built in accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer - Every flagship phone since 2005 * cloud integration with OneDrive, Office programs, email etc with the ability to continue work from different devices - Google drive, Google docs, Gmail (2007) * face-recognition or fingerprint log-on - Available on circa 2000 Fujitsu laptops * increased security features - SELinux(1998) I'm not impressed. Most of this stuff has been done for over a decade if the version from 8 years ago is worse that isn't saying much.
      - hashhar 10y ago
        It's really amazing how the list you created includes different products for each bullet but Microsoft (or M$ if you prefer) combined all of them into a single product which actually functions.
        cmdrfred 10y ago
        So if Apple threw a stylus and a word processor on the iPhone they would be innovators too?
        scholia 10y ago
- lisivka 10y ago
  Yeah, ten year ago it was very innovative.

ferentchak 10y ago

Have you played with Azure or .Net Core? People tend to enjoy the Surface products too. In this regard I would not say they are "back" but better than Microsoft has ever been. Are they the best at everything... nah but heck the fact that I am saying many of their products are compelling is a big improvement

morgante 10y ago
I've played with Azure and it's terrible. If a client wants me to use Azure instead of Google or Amazon, I literally charge a premium because it's so much more painful.
- bengale 10y ago
  Yeah, every experience I've had with Azure outside of the demonstrated samples tends to be a complete headache.
- daxfohl 10y ago
  I may be taking a job with the Azure team soon. What are the biggest pain points for you?
- justinlaster 10y ago
  I don't see how anyone could possible claim GAE or similar offerings from Google compete anywhere close to what Microsoft or Amazon is providing. My take on it between Amazon and Microsoft: Microsoft has less functionality but with an easier UI. Amazon is light years ahead of anyone but their UI scheme (from naming things to where they position features and options) is pretty lack luster.
  - morgante 10y ago
    > I don't see how anyone could possible claim GAE or similar offerings from Google compete anywhere close to what Microsoft or Amazon is providing. I think your information is quite out of date. GCP is competitive with AWS for many use cases and certainly is better than Azure. The days of GAE even being the primary offering are long gone. There's a reason that if you look at DevOps tools they all support AWS, most also support GCP, but very few support Azure.

meddlepal 10y ago

I haven't used Azure but I know people that have and they all say it's a pleasure to work with most of the time. As a JVM developer the .NET Core stuff is really interesting to me and I'd love to figure out a way to start using it. I'd pretty much written MS off several years ago as a fading giant but they're cranking out products and services I want to use now and that I just need to figure out how to get them into my life.

gdulli 10y ago

Without being ideological about baggage from a decade and more in Microsoft's past, it's easy to see that the company it is today has a large and diverse set of products. Many are good, I'd still say some are bad. But it would be simplistic to remain suspicious and attached to an expired narrative.

supernovae 10y ago

I find these kind of comments depressing mostly because they scream "group think". (my inner circle says this, so I repeat it) The new MS is much different than the MS I grew up with in the 90s. It's time for the community to recognize this and just let people bask in positive news that is worthy the bask in. I love my Surface Pro 4, I love the fact .net is cross platform, I love that Azure is fast and easy to use, I love that Office on my mac is current and that Microsoft's mobile strategy is 100% cross platform unlike that of Apple and Google.. I love that MS is honest these days and its disappointing the community is largely dishonest in return.. often snarky.

oelmekki 10y ago
I've hated MS a decade ago, because of their position against linux and because of IE6. I've watched them doing big efforts the last few years, and I welcome them - I can't wait to feel good about them. That being, this article indeed sounds too emphasized to not be fishy. Maybe it's a PR article, maybe it's just that the author from this financial publication bought MS shares lately, maybe it's something else, I don't know. But yeah, I don't see either any major change in mobile MS usage around me.
DoofusOfDeath 10y ago
I don't know if Microsoft's leadership is being honest or not these days. But they're also far from transparent, and definitely working against my interests: (1) AFAIK, Microsoft continues to assert patents against Linux without giving the broader community enough information to resolve the supposed violations. (I'm not positive about this one.) (2) AFAIK, Microsoft continues to apply for more software patents, without joining the Patent Commons. (3) Microsoft seems to intentionally subvert its OS's users' attempts to disable snooping. AFAIK, Microsoft not only refuses to say what data are gathered, but also phone home to so many different IP names/numbers that it looks like they're trying to hide the activity from the OS user. (4) Microsoft is now "embracing" Linux. Microsoft became famous for "embrace, extend, extinguish". People outside of the CEO's inner circle can't know if that's the plan here as well.
- Aldo_MX 10y ago

k__ 10y ago

I like VSCode, TypeScript and RxJS. But I didn't buy any MS product since Win7. Seems like the teams behind the JS/TS stuff are pretty cool. Don't know about the rest.

seanmcdirmid 10y ago

WSJ doesn't accept press releases.