9 ms·

Microsoft: Join Developer Design

136 points by reimertz 8y ago

schappim 8y ago
Be sure to checkout the cute message in your browser's console :)
- Bahamut 8y ago
  Interestingly, it doesn't work in Safari
  - wolfspider 8y ago
    Works in my Safari desktop and iOS. Maybe it's because Microsoft fixed it in ~14 minutes or it's because I have a traditional art degree and my Safari just loads things differently ;)
  - jmspring 8y ago
    Works fine if you have developer tools enabled (advanced tab) and open java-script console window. End up with a multi-colored block (orange, green, and black for me) with the link in the middle.
    - wolfspider 8y ago
      Yes, thank you I love getting to the bottom of things. I tried disabling mine though and it still works. I think that's it for me though right now- could be a number of different things but I'm working on something else at the moment heh.
    - tzs 8y ago
      That's not what it is supposed to end up with. It's supposed to end up with a big Windows logo on a black background, with a message below that, and the link at the bottom. Here is a screenshot showing what it looks like in Chrome on the left and Safari on the right: https://imgur.com/gpSMx44 https://imgur.com/gpSMx44 Firefox 62.0b9 is similar to Safari, except the blocks are all black instead of colored, and the relative dimensions are different.
  - shaunpersad 8y ago
    It might have something to do with the fact that their script tag that encompasses the console.log is outside of the body tag.
  - mintplant 8y ago
    It's also broken in Firefox Nightly (on Windows), and on Microsoft's own Edge.
    - letientai299 8y ago
      It only works on Chrome-basedr browsers (Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave). AFAIK
    - WorldMaker 8y ago
      IIRC, Edge Dev Tools is supposed to support more of it on Insider Builds. I'm not on an Insider build at work to verify, though.
- duxup 8y ago
  I didn't know you could do that in the console...
  - andrewstellman 8y ago
    Yep. Here's the line that prints it – open a new Chrome tab (ymmv w/ other browsers, definitely looks weird in Safari), open developer tools, and paste it into the console: console.log("%c\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Hi there! \n\nIt seems you like to poke around as much as we do.\n\nhttps://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design" https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design", "color: white; background-color: #080808; background-image: url(https://microsoft.github.io/join-dev-design/msft-square.svg); https://microsoft.github.io/join-dev-design/msft-square.svg)... background-size: 70%; background-position: 50% 25%; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 3em; text-align: center;font-size: 1.25em;");
    - yread 8y ago
      wow I had no idea you can style console.log. You could add url()'s and track if people opened dev tools!
      - mcny 8y ago
        I knew I can style console but never put two and two together. For example, I’ve had to do this with google contacts just to read the actual error because the error on the website is too vague. I know they can also track my every keystroke and cursor in their window but I somehow thought of right click -> inspect as not subject to tracking. I’m so much to learn.
- markatkinson 8y ago
  Well spotted, I also didn't realise you could print such complex things in the console till I checked Discords out. That gave me a fright! Took me a while to realise that I was actually looking at the console.
- reimertz 8y ago
  Funny you found this! I was quite amazed what you could do with the styling, especially the support for background-image. As soon as this got merged, I realized, just as yread points about below; the complication of tracking due to the ability to include url() tags. Would be fun exploring the complications of that. Blame is on me for not testing it in multiple browsers but I kind of assumed it would break somewhere due to this relying on fairly experimental features. :)
  - letientai299 8y ago
    So, that's you who add that console message. I've submitted a PR to remove the styling it breaks on many browsers (actually, it only works on Chrome-based browser). I know that we can style console text (try open console in facebook when using Chrome), but only until today, I learn that we can also add image background. Thank you.
m52go 8y ago
Fresh. Love how this 1 short simple page brings together so much of what defines modern Microsoft. Got me interested! I'm a designer who codes, a coder who writes, and a writer who designs. Will send something soon...
- some_account 8y ago
  Modern Microsoft... God you guys are falling so much for PR it's not even funny. It's the same company with another coat of paint, designed to get you to react exactly how you are reacting now. And you don't even realize.
  - Qworg 8y ago
    "Let the past die. Kill it if you have to." Why can't people be excited by something from Microsoft?
    - merinowool 8y ago
      Because they have not changed.
      - chrisco255 8y ago
        Uhhh, they've changed a lot. They actively support competing platforms, releasing products for Android, iOS, Mac OS and Linux. They support Ubuntu on Windows in terminal, they regularly contribute to open source from React Native to Electron. Edge is a huge improvement over IE and it fully embraces web standards. Microsoft has even merged their web docs with Mozilla. They support .NET on all platforms.
        executesorder66 8y ago
        Let me know if they ever release Windows, Office or NTFS(drivers) for Linux. Only then will I admit that they have actually changed. The rest is just a trap to get developers back on their platform.
seanmcdirmid 8y ago
I wonder if they are hiring dev tool designers for devdiv in general, or is this a new project?
discordance 8y ago
This team at Microsoft say they use Zeit. That's weird? - isn't Zeit a direct competitor with Azure?
- maroonblazer 8y ago
  They use Macs too.
- merinowool 8y ago
  That's probably to copy someone else ideas without doing their own research?
  - vezycash 8y ago
    Everyone copies. Heck, you're probably part of those who mocked Microsoft for its abysmal returns on its $10+ billion per year research expenditure. They contrasted this with Apple who spent less than $3B (at the time) on research with crazy returns on investment. Immediate profit from research isn't guaranteed. The rule is copy where necessary or die.
- andyfleming 8y ago
  I don't think it's a very direct competitor. They probably use zeit for publishing design prototypes (or a similar use case).
- deltron3030 8y ago
  If I remeber correctly, their Now service uses several cloud vendors, they let you choose where you want to deploy, including Azure. Now, Up, Netflify and other services like that are basically providing a better UX for a special audience on top of those clouds, that better UX is what you pay for.
hitekker 8y ago
Not sure if it's just me, but I can scroll down by 5 pixels on my device. Is there content below the Call-To-Action or is it suppose to fit the entire screen?
adityapurwa 8y ago
Wow, Designed in Figma. Built in Code. Open sourced on GitHub. Code and GitHub is now Microsoft's, I wonder Figma would be acquired too, Figma is a great software and really useful for me who doesn't have a Mac.
- plorntus 8y ago
  Code was always Microsoft's.
  - andyfleming 8y ago
    Maybe they were thinking of Atom?
- anticensor 8y ago
  Why not ASP.NET and VisualStudio?
- deltron3030 8y ago
  Figma should aim for their own Linux or BSD distro focused on full stack webdev (designers who code, coders who design), and maybe even tailored hardware in the future. There's so much potential in this space, I wouldn't sell to MS. They could become an Apple alternative that is respected by designers!
- ukyrgf 8y ago
  It harkens back to the "Best Viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4" days, for me.
jhare 8y ago
I guess buying LinkedIn didn't give them enough connections to convince people to work at that shitfactory
merinowool 8y ago
No love for Linux? Good luck finding devs that actually work instead of hanging around Starbucks boasting their leased £6000 Macs.
- anonytrary 8y ago
  Don't most devs prefer writing code on Macs? I haven't met many developers who use linux as their main development machine, and it makes sense. If you are productive on Linux, you will most likely be immediately productive on a Mac.
  - hashhar 8y ago
    I used to think the same before my work company issued us macs. The fact that you have to purchase and install third party software for things which are either inbuilt in modern Linux DEs or come as simple small plug ins is crazy. The lack of a frecency based app launcher, fuzzy findable window switcher, auto hide and scrolling of menu bar items when an apps menu is too long are all things that can be done in a pinch on GNOME or on something like bspwm, i3 etc. but need me to shell out around ₹2000 to buy third party software on the Mac is appalling. Finder is shit compared to Nautilus, their spaces implementation leaves a lot to be desired etc.
    - matt4077 8y ago
      If you're spending 2000 <what currency?> for "scrolling of menu bar items when an apps menu is too long" you should maybe reconsider priorities. You could possibly feed a few families in <what currency?-country> with that. Plus spotlight works well as a "frecency based app launcher".
- Double_a_92 8y ago
  Because if you don't use Linux you are automatically some lazy hipster?
- dvdsgl 8y ago
  We use Linux! Submit a PR.
anonytrary 8y ago
> We use PCs, Macs, Figma, Sketch, GitHub, JavaScript, ZEIT, and other modern tools to design, prototype, and build the future of software development. This is some incredible self-awareness. I've encountered more than a few people who casually brush off applying to Microsoft because they prefer developing on unix machines.
- hrktb 8y ago
  Perhaps you have more insight into this ? For the outside it still feels like unix is seen as a necessary evil. It will be used extensively, devs are welcome and MS platform need to be compatible at the lowest level. But at every term ther is this tingling feeling of “you know we would have preferes if everyone was on windows and coded on VisualCode for .Net” I think MS changed a lot in the last decades, but it still doesn’t feel like the best place to work in for people who fundamentally don’t care about windows ecosystem. Is this undue prejudice nowadays ?
  - carlmr 8y ago
    >“you know we would have preferes if everyone was on windows and coded on VisualCode for .Net” If you mean VisualStudioCode it's cross platform and you can program .NET in it with .NET Core on Linux. If you mean Visual Studio then that's only good on Windows.
    - james-skemp 8y ago
      Technically there's Visual Studio for Mac as well, but that's still limited to .NET Core instead of full .NET.
      - carlmr 8y ago
        True, not a Mac user, but I've seen it and it isn't the real thing.
  - matt4077 8y ago
    The Mac vs PC wars seems to have mostly passed. If not back when Gates actually invested in Apple when Jobs came back as CEO, then certainly when desktops lost their primacy among devices and growth stagnated. It also became clear that market shares would remain roughly stable. MS earns its money selling 7-digit support contracts for databases and other enterprisy products. More and more, they will go the way of IBM and shift to services. To remain invested in some sort of petty tribalism proscribing individual choices in tools would just be embarrassing at this point. It may also be harmful, causing its workforce not to notice good ideas first appearing on other platforms, scaring away people not willing to work with (in their view) inferior tools, and risking to end up with a shortage of expertise when they decide to expand on non-windows platforms.
dosy 8y ago
This is a cool way to do/start hiring. "collaborative" hiring process.
lloydde 8y ago
Looks to requires signing CLA to participate, though email was the other option. Ex https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/pull/40 https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/pull/40
w-m 8y ago
Are they going to immediately hire whoever submits the loveliest bike-shed?
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
tomc1985 8y ago
Is having 21 contributors for a single static page something worth bragging about?
- saagarjha 8y ago
  One of them appears to be a bot: https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/graphs/contributors https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/graphs/contribu...
- cncrnd 8y ago
  Go collaboration!
- tehlike 8y ago
  Replace all with a simple text file or even more basic html, and win simplicity award. Number of commits so far is an example of why things need to be simple.
- reimertz 8y ago
  For a fun, artistic experiment, yes, it’s worth showing off the amount of people involved. I assume there will be hundreds in a week or two and the site will be something completely different. For example, a PR just came in, containing a time-travel functionality so that you can travel between commits, on the fly! If that isn’t cool and something worth celebrating, I don’t know what is.
- dalemyers 8y ago
  It seems that the point of the site is that other people contribute? Looking at a few contributors, it seems that most aren't Microsoft employees.
- dvdsgl 8y ago
  In the first 24 hours? Yes!
bespoken 8y ago
> We use PCs, Macs, Huh, Mac is not a PC? > We believe in diversity, openness, We know, with Windows 10 openness of your private data is a core feature > Send a PR with any improvement to microsoft/join-dev-design Short of ideas and creative people? Or just want it for free?
- Double_a_92 8y ago
  > Huh, Mac is not a PC? Only if you do uncertified repairs on it :^)
- ewiewi 8y ago
  > Short of ideas and creative people? Or just want it for free? As I see it, it's at worst a fun experiment on the design of a single page. I think it's also a very nice way to get a conversation going with people who might be good fit for their team. All in all, I don't think there's any need to be that negative about it =)
cncrnd 8y ago
Sort of unrelated, but I feel like Microsoft's behavior lately has been kind of fishy. I don't understand all the self-promotion, and I don't see it nearly as much for other tech companies. Is repeating 'intelligent cloud' over and over again helpful in getting customers? Or is this all just a big stock pump?
dingo_bat 8y ago
Did not know you could put emojis in git commit messages: https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/commit/db8133c7d8c7d6e1ba77e21d09b345c383c920b1 https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/commit/db8133c7...
- WorldMaker 8y ago
  Full Unicode is supported nearly everywhere but HN these days. ;P Also GitHub has long supported :emoji-name: expansions for those that want to limit UTF-8 in their git commits, and for those on operating systems without dedicated emoji soft keyboards. (In recent Windows 10, Windows+. and Windows+; bring up the emoji keyboard. It's great.) I've seen projects require emoji as prefixed commit type descriptors: a bug emoji like ant is more interesting than FIX:, a wrench more interesting than TOOLING/SUPPORT:, etc. A neat benefit of that is it leaves the commit types as one character width lining things up nicely and leaving more room for meaningful text in the commit header. I tend to do something similar with my personal repositories though not nearly as systematic.
royjacobs 8y ago
It sucks that the reactions to this are so close-minded and negative. It definitely makes me feel that the HN community is becoming a toxic and insular echo chamber.
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  Software developers get religious about their OS like they do their choice of a text editor. :)
  - shapiro92 8y ago
    young developers and really senior do that. Young are just naive, really senior are no longer interested in new technologies. You have to aim for the middle, when the developer is interested to learn. Thats where you find agnostic developers
    - giancarlostoro 8y ago
      Funny I consider myself agnostic but I'm usually seen as a "young developer" despite having been doing programming as a hobby for at least 10 years now. I guess professional experience is worth more to be fair. I'm in the camp that uses Windows, Linux and Mac. Whatever laptop is nearest to me and gets whatever task done the quickest is the one I'll use, and these days it's my Surface Book 2 which has replaced even my iPad from being my media consumption device.
    - Secretmapper 8y ago
      Plus, I also imagine it's a self selecting process as only those with vitriol are the ones bothering to comment, while most people simply view it for what it is.
yedawg 8y ago
eat your competition cough i mean beat your competition
Rjevski 8y ago
I wish they'd look at fixing the UI of their core product - Windows 10 - first before anything else. It's a huge downgrade from Windows 7 and they still haven't picked up the ball. Quite shocking really.
- thiscatis 8y ago
  If you still think that Windows is their core product you should fast-forward to 2018.
  - Rjevski 8y ago
    I don’t see why it would not be their core product. It’s still huge in the enterprise, it’s the one thing that can’t be easily replicated by a competitor and so guarantees them a long term revenue stream. Everything else has successful competition (PS4 for the Xbox, Google Docs & G-Suite for Office 365, AWS & Google Cloud for Azure, etc).

136 points by reimertz 8y ago

schappim 8y ago

Be sure to checkout the cute message in your browser's console :)

Bahamut 8y ago
Interestingly, it doesn't work in Safari
- wolfspider 8y ago
  Works in my Safari desktop and iOS. Maybe it's because Microsoft fixed it in ~14 minutes or it's because I have a traditional art degree and my Safari just loads things differently ;)
- jmspring 8y ago
  Works fine if you have developer tools enabled (advanced tab) and open java-script console window. End up with a multi-colored block (orange, green, and black for me) with the link in the middle.
  - wolfspider 8y ago
    Yes, thank you I love getting to the bottom of things. I tried disabling mine though and it still works. I think that's it for me though right now- could be a number of different things but I'm working on something else at the moment heh.
  - tzs 8y ago
    That's not what it is supposed to end up with. It's supposed to end up with a big Windows logo on a black background, with a message below that, and the link at the bottom. Here is a screenshot showing what it looks like in Chrome on the left and Safari on the right: https://imgur.com/gpSMx44 https://imgur.com/gpSMx44 Firefox 62.0b9 is similar to Safari, except the blocks are all black instead of colored, and the relative dimensions are different.
- shaunpersad 8y ago
  It might have something to do with the fact that their script tag that encompasses the console.log is outside of the body tag.
- mintplant 8y ago
  It's also broken in Firefox Nightly (on Windows), and on Microsoft's own Edge.
  - letientai299 8y ago
    It only works on Chrome-basedr browsers (Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave). AFAIK
  - WorldMaker 8y ago
    IIRC, Edge Dev Tools is supposed to support more of it on Insider Builds. I'm not on an Insider build at work to verify, though.
duxup 8y ago
I didn't know you could do that in the console...
- andrewstellman 8y ago
  Yep. Here's the line that prints it – open a new Chrome tab (ymmv w/ other browsers, definitely looks weird in Safari), open developer tools, and paste it into the console: console.log("%c\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Hi there! \n\nIt seems you like to poke around as much as we do.\n\nhttps://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design" https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design", "color: white; background-color: #080808; background-image: url(https://microsoft.github.io/join-dev-design/msft-square.svg); https://microsoft.github.io/join-dev-design/msft-square.svg)... background-size: 70%; background-position: 50% 25%; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 3em; text-align: center;font-size: 1.25em;");
  - yread 8y ago
    wow I had no idea you can style console.log. You could add url()'s and track if people opened dev tools!
    - mcny 8y ago
      I knew I can style console but never put two and two together. For example, I’ve had to do this with google contacts just to read the actual error because the error on the website is too vague. I know they can also track my every keystroke and cursor in their window but I somehow thought of right click -> inspect as not subject to tracking. I’m so much to learn.
markatkinson 8y ago
Well spotted, I also didn't realise you could print such complex things in the console till I checked Discords out. That gave me a fright! Took me a while to realise that I was actually looking at the console.
reimertz 8y ago
Funny you found this! I was quite amazed what you could do with the styling, especially the support for background-image. As soon as this got merged, I realized, just as yread points about below; the complication of tracking due to the ability to include url() tags. Would be fun exploring the complications of that. Blame is on me for not testing it in multiple browsers but I kind of assumed it would break somewhere due to this relying on fairly experimental features. :)
- letientai299 8y ago
  So, that's you who add that console message. I've submitted a PR to remove the styling it breaks on many browsers (actually, it only works on Chrome-based browser). I know that we can style console text (try open console in facebook when using Chrome), but only until today, I learn that we can also add image background. Thank you.

m52go 8y ago

Fresh. Love how this 1 short simple page brings together so much of what defines modern Microsoft. Got me interested! I'm a designer who codes, a coder who writes, and a writer who designs. Will send something soon...

some_account 8y ago
Modern Microsoft... God you guys are falling so much for PR it's not even funny. It's the same company with another coat of paint, designed to get you to react exactly how you are reacting now. And you don't even realize.
- Qworg 8y ago
  "Let the past die. Kill it if you have to." Why can't people be excited by something from Microsoft?
  - merinowool 8y ago
    Because they have not changed.
    - chrisco255 8y ago
      Uhhh, they've changed a lot. They actively support competing platforms, releasing products for Android, iOS, Mac OS and Linux. They support Ubuntu on Windows in terminal, they regularly contribute to open source from React Native to Electron. Edge is a huge improvement over IE and it fully embraces web standards. Microsoft has even merged their web docs with Mozilla. They support .NET on all platforms.
      - executesorder66 8y ago
        Let me know if they ever release Windows, Office or NTFS(drivers) for Linux. Only then will I admit that they have actually changed. The rest is just a trap to get developers back on their platform.

seanmcdirmid 8y ago

I wonder if they are hiring dev tool designers for devdiv in general, or is this a new project?

discordance 8y ago

This team at Microsoft say they use Zeit. That's weird? - isn't Zeit a direct competitor with Azure?

maroonblazer 8y ago
They use Macs too.
merinowool 8y ago
That's probably to copy someone else ideas without doing their own research?
- vezycash 8y ago
  Everyone copies. Heck, you're probably part of those who mocked Microsoft for its abysmal returns on its $10+ billion per year research expenditure. They contrasted this with Apple who spent less than $3B (at the time) on research with crazy returns on investment. Immediate profit from research isn't guaranteed. The rule is copy where necessary or die.
andyfleming 8y ago
I don't think it's a very direct competitor. They probably use zeit for publishing design prototypes (or a similar use case).
deltron3030 8y ago
If I remeber correctly, their Now service uses several cloud vendors, they let you choose where you want to deploy, including Azure. Now, Up, Netflify and other services like that are basically providing a better UX for a special audience on top of those clouds, that better UX is what you pay for.

hitekker 8y ago

Not sure if it's just me, but I can scroll down by 5 pixels on my device. Is there content below the Call-To-Action or is it suppose to fit the entire screen?

adityapurwa 8y ago

Wow, Designed in Figma. Built in Code. Open sourced on GitHub. Code and GitHub is now Microsoft's, I wonder Figma would be acquired too, Figma is a great software and really useful for me who doesn't have a Mac.

plorntus 8y ago
Code was always Microsoft's.
- andyfleming 8y ago
  Maybe they were thinking of Atom?
anticensor 8y ago
Why not ASP.NET and VisualStudio?
deltron3030 8y ago
Figma should aim for their own Linux or BSD distro focused on full stack webdev (designers who code, coders who design), and maybe even tailored hardware in the future. There's so much potential in this space, I wouldn't sell to MS. They could become an Apple alternative that is respected by designers!
ukyrgf 8y ago
It harkens back to the "Best Viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4" days, for me.

jhare 8y ago

I guess buying LinkedIn didn't give them enough connections to convince people to work at that shitfactory

merinowool 8y ago

No love for Linux? Good luck finding devs that actually work instead of hanging around Starbucks boasting their leased £6000 Macs.

anonytrary 8y ago
Don't most devs prefer writing code on Macs? I haven't met many developers who use linux as their main development machine, and it makes sense. If you are productive on Linux, you will most likely be immediately productive on a Mac.
- hashhar 8y ago
  I used to think the same before my work company issued us macs. The fact that you have to purchase and install third party software for things which are either inbuilt in modern Linux DEs or come as simple small plug ins is crazy. The lack of a frecency based app launcher, fuzzy findable window switcher, auto hide and scrolling of menu bar items when an apps menu is too long are all things that can be done in a pinch on GNOME or on something like bspwm, i3 etc. but need me to shell out around ₹2000 to buy third party software on the Mac is appalling. Finder is shit compared to Nautilus, their spaces implementation leaves a lot to be desired etc.
  - matt4077 8y ago
    If you're spending 2000 <what currency?> for "scrolling of menu bar items when an apps menu is too long" you should maybe reconsider priorities. You could possibly feed a few families in <what currency?-country> with that. Plus spotlight works well as a "frecency based app launcher".
Double_a_92 8y ago
Because if you don't use Linux you are automatically some lazy hipster?
dvdsgl 8y ago
We use Linux! Submit a PR.

anonytrary 8y ago

> We use PCs, Macs, Figma, Sketch, GitHub, JavaScript, ZEIT, and other modern tools to design, prototype, and build the future of software development. This is some incredible self-awareness. I've encountered more than a few people who casually brush off applying to Microsoft because they prefer developing on unix machines.

hrktb 8y ago
Perhaps you have more insight into this ? For the outside it still feels like unix is seen as a necessary evil. It will be used extensively, devs are welcome and MS platform need to be compatible at the lowest level. But at every term ther is this tingling feeling of “you know we would have preferes if everyone was on windows and coded on VisualCode for .Net” I think MS changed a lot in the last decades, but it still doesn’t feel like the best place to work in for people who fundamentally don’t care about windows ecosystem. Is this undue prejudice nowadays ?
- carlmr 8y ago
  >“you know we would have preferes if everyone was on windows and coded on VisualCode for .Net” If you mean VisualStudioCode it's cross platform and you can program .NET in it with .NET Core on Linux. If you mean Visual Studio then that's only good on Windows.
  - james-skemp 8y ago
    Technically there's Visual Studio for Mac as well, but that's still limited to .NET Core instead of full .NET.
    - carlmr 8y ago
      True, not a Mac user, but I've seen it and it isn't the real thing.
- matt4077 8y ago
  The Mac vs PC wars seems to have mostly passed. If not back when Gates actually invested in Apple when Jobs came back as CEO, then certainly when desktops lost their primacy among devices and growth stagnated. It also became clear that market shares would remain roughly stable. MS earns its money selling 7-digit support contracts for databases and other enterprisy products. More and more, they will go the way of IBM and shift to services. To remain invested in some sort of petty tribalism proscribing individual choices in tools would just be embarrassing at this point. It may also be harmful, causing its workforce not to notice good ideas first appearing on other platforms, scaring away people not willing to work with (in their view) inferior tools, and risking to end up with a shortage of expertise when they decide to expand on non-windows platforms.

dosy 8y ago

This is a cool way to do/start hiring. "collaborative" hiring process.

lloydde 8y ago

Looks to requires signing CLA to participate, though email was the other option. Ex https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/pull/40 https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/pull/40

w-m 8y ago

Are they going to immediately hire whoever submits the loveliest bike-shed?

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

tomc1985 8y ago

Is having 21 contributors for a single static page something worth bragging about?

saagarjha 8y ago
One of them appears to be a bot: https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/graphs/contributors https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/graphs/contribu...
cncrnd 8y ago
Go collaboration!
tehlike 8y ago
Replace all with a simple text file or even more basic html, and win simplicity award. Number of commits so far is an example of why things need to be simple.
reimertz 8y ago
For a fun, artistic experiment, yes, it’s worth showing off the amount of people involved. I assume there will be hundreds in a week or two and the site will be something completely different. For example, a PR just came in, containing a time-travel functionality so that you can travel between commits, on the fly! If that isn’t cool and something worth celebrating, I don’t know what is.
dalemyers 8y ago
It seems that the point of the site is that other people contribute? Looking at a few contributors, it seems that most aren't Microsoft employees.
dvdsgl 8y ago
In the first 24 hours? Yes!

bespoken 8y ago

> We use PCs, Macs, Huh, Mac is not a PC? > We believe in diversity, openness, We know, with Windows 10 openness of your private data is a core feature > Send a PR with any improvement to microsoft/join-dev-design Short of ideas and creative people? Or just want it for free?

Double_a_92 8y ago
> Huh, Mac is not a PC? Only if you do uncertified repairs on it :^)
ewiewi 8y ago
> Short of ideas and creative people? Or just want it for free? As I see it, it's at worst a fun experiment on the design of a single page. I think it's also a very nice way to get a conversation going with people who might be good fit for their team. All in all, I don't think there's any need to be that negative about it =)

cncrnd 8y ago

Sort of unrelated, but I feel like Microsoft's behavior lately has been kind of fishy. I don't understand all the self-promotion, and I don't see it nearly as much for other tech companies. Is repeating 'intelligent cloud' over and over again helpful in getting customers? Or is this all just a big stock pump?

dingo_bat 8y ago

Did not know you could put emojis in git commit messages: https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/commit/db8133c7d8c7d6e1ba77e21d09b345c383c920b1 https://github.com/Microsoft/join-dev-design/commit/db8133c7...

WorldMaker 8y ago
Full Unicode is supported nearly everywhere but HN these days. ;P Also GitHub has long supported :emoji-name: expansions for those that want to limit UTF-8 in their git commits, and for those on operating systems without dedicated emoji soft keyboards. (In recent Windows 10, Windows+. and Windows+; bring up the emoji keyboard. It's great.) I've seen projects require emoji as prefixed commit type descriptors: a bug emoji like ant is more interesting than FIX:, a wrench more interesting than TOOLING/SUPPORT:, etc. A neat benefit of that is it leaves the commit types as one character width lining things up nicely and leaving more room for meaningful text in the commit header. I tend to do something similar with my personal repositories though not nearly as systematic.

royjacobs 8y ago

It sucks that the reactions to this are so close-minded and negative. It definitely makes me feel that the HN community is becoming a toxic and insular echo chamber.

giancarlostoro 8y ago
Software developers get religious about their OS like they do their choice of a text editor. :)
- shapiro92 8y ago
  young developers and really senior do that. Young are just naive, really senior are no longer interested in new technologies. You have to aim for the middle, when the developer is interested to learn. Thats where you find agnostic developers
  - giancarlostoro 8y ago
    Funny I consider myself agnostic but I'm usually seen as a "young developer" despite having been doing programming as a hobby for at least 10 years now. I guess professional experience is worth more to be fair. I'm in the camp that uses Windows, Linux and Mac. Whatever laptop is nearest to me and gets whatever task done the quickest is the one I'll use, and these days it's my Surface Book 2 which has replaced even my iPad from being my media consumption device.
  - Secretmapper 8y ago
    Plus, I also imagine it's a self selecting process as only those with vitriol are the ones bothering to comment, while most people simply view it for what it is.

yedawg 8y ago

eat your competition cough i mean beat your competition

Rjevski 8y ago

I wish they'd look at fixing the UI of their core product - Windows 10 - first before anything else. It's a huge downgrade from Windows 7 and they still haven't picked up the ball. Quite shocking really.

thiscatis 8y ago
If you still think that Windows is their core product you should fast-forward to 2018.
- Rjevski 8y ago
  I don’t see why it would not be their core product. It’s still huge in the enterprise, it’s the one thing that can’t be easily replicated by a competitor and so guarantees them a long term revenue stream. Everything else has successful competition (PS4 for the Xbox, Google Docs & G-Suite for Office 365, AWS & Google Cloud for Azure, etc).