3 ms·
HN in general has an info bubble problem, where it looks to them like Microsoft is dying because trendy Bay Area startups all use Slack and Google Docs. But in
by Analemma_ 8y ago
HN in general has an info bubble problem, where it looks to them like Microsoft is dying because trendy Bay Area startups all use Slack and Google Docs. But in the rest of the industry, Microsoft is huge and, if anything, getting stronger over time and not weaker. Microsoft products that HN has never even heard of, like Dynamics and Host Integration Server, still make billions in revenue.
- blakes 8y agoExactly. Honestly I've been telling people for the last year to buy MS stock. They are going for recurring revenue with all their business facing products, and it's working. The business world, outside of SV apparently, runs on MS products.
- kokey 8y agoI think the most important thing is that the recurring revenue products actually doesn't suck. I think it's because it's operating in a competitive market, where switching is easier so it has to work well and also integrate well with other software. This is different from just leveraging lock in and just bringing out updates with less tangible benefits to force people to upgrade.
- partycoder 8y agoIf you want a software monopoly trolling everyone with patents, by all means invest in Microsoft.
- s3r3nity 8y agoAs a die-hard Excel lover ("you can pry it from my dead hands!") and recent convert to Msft Teams, I agree with you 100%.
- frandroid 8y ago> Teams You don't miss Slack?
- Proziam 8y agoI can't speak for anyone but myself, but I can say I prefer teams to slack. The real-world use of both leads me to see little to no difference in my day to day use. But one has the advantage of being tied natively tied to my entire software suite.
- hi41 8y agoCould you please elaborate the features in Excel you have come to love.
- maxxxxx 8y agoYeah. Uncool companies like MS, Intel and Oracle have shown repeatedly that they can survive and thrive in times of complete paradigm changes. This is something Google and Facebook still have to demonstrate.
- Grazester 8y agoFunny enough both Google and Facebook made the shift to Mobile successfully. Intel and Microsoft did not.
- maxxxxx 8y agoIntel and MS are consistently making a lot of money. Maybe they have missed a few trends but they are doing enough things right to be very profitable and have done this for a very long time.
- partycoder 8y agoAnd I really hope it stays that way. I have rejected jobs because they use Microsoft tools. I dislike the Soviet-like brutalism of Windows and all the bloated software built on top of it. Interoperability is mostly non-existent and if it exists, is limited. Sames goes for configurability. That limits the amount of automation you can achieve. You have absurd nonsense like software taking 1 hour to install (Visual Studio). That is unheard of in any other OS unless you are recompiling everything on your machine, which is optional. Since everything is proprietary and closed source, if some dependency is discontinued you are on your own. And this happens often with Microsoft's own APIs. On top of that, now you have all the telemetry fiasco, ads and nagware integrated directly in the OS. Good job acting in your own self interest. Here's another great idea as good as investing on Microsoft: invest in a patent troll, or tobacco products for kids.
- meuk 8y agoJust wanted to add this. My perspective is skewed because my consultancy firm focusses on Microsoft, but most of the companies I've seen use TFS, C#, VS Enterprise, SQL Server, Skype for Business, and Azure (and usually git and Angular as well, as non-Microsoft technologies). .NET Core has a lot of momentum, and a lot of people like the new approach, which seems to be to move faster and to break backwards compatibility. Ironically, I'm not a big fan of Microsoft, but I can see how using almost exclusively Microsoft products helps integration.