4 ms·
The problem isn't that they're not inventing stuff; that R&D money isn't just spent on paperclips, and a lot of interesting stuff comes out as a result. The pr
by i80and 16y ago
The problem isn't that they're not inventing stuff; that R&D money isn't just spent on paperclips, and a lot of interesting stuff comes out as a result. The problem is that the inventions get squished, not released.
- sukuriant 16y agoThat's not entirely true. In fact, there was an article on HackerNews just the other day about one of the developments that their research department came up with. It substantially reduced the number of blue screens that occurred. Other research that has come from Microsoft R&D is the new camera used in their newest xbox peripherals. Not everything is squished.
- hga 16y agoWell, there's F#, and they support the reference Haskell compiler. But the more we learn about how totally political the D part of the company is the more we're likely to believe your thesis that Microsoft Research's notable lack of impact on the greater company is due to the latter. And they don't have Xerox's excuse! Heck, they're so messed up they almost destroyed one of their foundational cash cows (Windows with the Vista debacle), which would have killed another (Office). A commentator to Mini-Microsoft's previous blog item claimed that the Windows group engineers are now required to fill out by the hour time sheets. The mind boggles ... even if that's not true, the fact that it's believable says enough.