4 ms·

Microsoft deserves to go gentle into that good night because of all the damage they’ve done to the computing industry over the years, for example killing Be and

by gnu8 8y ago

Microsoft deserves to go gentle into that good night because of all the damage they’ve done to the computing industry over the years, for example killing Be and Netscape with monopolist tactics and creating a terminally insecure software monoculture of the lowest common denominator of Windows and IE, that we’re still recovering from today. (Google is repeating the lesson today - Android is the Windows 98 of mobile). I’m glad to see them disappear and it drives me crazy to talk to all of these people who think Office 365 and Azure are sex on a stick. They’ve either forgotten the past or they don’t care. Microsoft deserves to die.

yaseer 8y ago
I am not a big Microsoft fan, having not used Windows or any MS products in about 16 years, until VS Code came along. But this kind of black and white thinking is just at odds with reality. Nothing is wholly good or bad, and so to with Microsoft. They were part of a small group of companies that pioneered Desktop computing. They did so with forceful business tactics, but they changed the world nonetheless, and really did help place a computer in every home. Ths history books will remember their contributions as well as their sins.
ggambetta 8y ago
> They’ve either forgotten the past or they don’t care. Or they're too young to know or remember! Working with recent grads, I've discovered that for most of them Bill Gates has always been this grey-haired, well-natured philanthropist. They can't believe it when I tell them of how universally reviled Microsoft was, and I feel like Grandpa Simpson talking about onions in his belt :(
- kazinator 8y ago
  I speak here perhaps not only for myself but others: although Microsoft had been reviled, and still is, somehow Gates escaped that personally. I've never felt that I dislike Bill Gates. There had been a smaller Microsoft before the rise of MS-DOS and Windows. Microsoft was a vendor of BASIC interpreters that were integrated into some 8 bit microcomputers, which I used. The Apple II's "Applesoft" basic was derived from Microsoft's work. Its name is a portmanteau of Apple and Microsoft, a kind of touchstone that highlights a complex history of cooperation and rivalry between the two.
  - sifoobar 8y ago
    Here, let me fix that for you: https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=43014&stc=1 https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmenti... Bu xie, my pleasure.
    - kazinator 8y ago
      I actually had that in an earlier edit of my comment! I got rid of it for lack of stability in the URL. There doesn't appear to be a nice semi-permanent home on the web for these photos.
dugluak 8y ago
> Android is the Windows 98 of mobile IMO Android UX is way better than iOS when used on a right device. I switched from iPhone to Pixel and it's a delight to use. I am not going back to iPhone soon ...
chiefalchemist 8y ago
Then certainly Google deserves the same (i.e. gentle into the night) and then some. Not only have they done plenty of damage to the computing industry but they've normalized a lack of privacy in doing so. That is, Google has done social, if not sociopolitical damage (that makes MS looks like the tooth fairy). Your disgust is fitting. But let's be sure the context is appropriate as well.
- gerash 8y ago
  > damage to the computing industry What are you talking about? Citation needed.
loudmax 8y ago
Seeing Microsoft die would give me great schadenfreude, but all big companies do some good things and some bad things, so it's worth focusing on their specific sins. I see two of them: their desktop monopoly and their Office monopoly. Their desktop monopoly isn't what it once was, especially considering that most people get online today using mobile devices. But it never really went away. Windows is the only commercially successful desktop operating system. Everything else is a niche product without access to the enormous ecosystem of Windows-only desktop software. Desktop Linux exists, but it isn't any kind of commercial success. The Mac desktop exists to sell Apple hardware, it isn't a product on its own. And part of the reason it exists at all is that Microsoft publishes a version of their office suite for Macs. MS Office is absolutely entrenched in corporate computing. Many of us here on HN can get by on non MS Office products, but if you're exchanging Office documents with customers you absolutely need to use MS Office to get a decent level of compatibility. For a huge number of businesses, there simply isn't any choice. Microsoft isn't about to go out of business and a lot of people enjoy using their software and feel productive. People should have a choice. Microsoft could go a long way to repent for their sins if they open up both Windows and Office to the point where there are significant viable alternatives to both. Microsoft should be able to compete on quality, not on possessing the keys to their proprietary kingdom. I'm not holding my breath.

by gnu8 8y ago

yaseer 8y ago

I am not a big Microsoft fan, having not used Windows or any MS products in about 16 years, until VS Code came along. But this kind of black and white thinking is just at odds with reality. Nothing is wholly good or bad, and so to with Microsoft. They were part of a small group of companies that pioneered Desktop computing. They did so with forceful business tactics, but they changed the world nonetheless, and really did help place a computer in every home. Ths history books will remember their contributions as well as their sins.

ggambetta 8y ago

> They’ve either forgotten the past or they don’t care. Or they're too young to know or remember! Working with recent grads, I've discovered that for most of them Bill Gates has always been this grey-haired, well-natured philanthropist. They can't believe it when I tell them of how universally reviled Microsoft was, and I feel like Grandpa Simpson talking about onions in his belt :(

kazinator 8y ago
I speak here perhaps not only for myself but others: although Microsoft had been reviled, and still is, somehow Gates escaped that personally. I've never felt that I dislike Bill Gates. There had been a smaller Microsoft before the rise of MS-DOS and Windows. Microsoft was a vendor of BASIC interpreters that were integrated into some 8 bit microcomputers, which I used. The Apple II's "Applesoft" basic was derived from Microsoft's work. Its name is a portmanteau of Apple and Microsoft, a kind of touchstone that highlights a complex history of cooperation and rivalry between the two.
- sifoobar 8y ago
  Here, let me fix that for you: https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=43014&stc=1 https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmenti... Bu xie, my pleasure.
  - kazinator 8y ago
    I actually had that in an earlier edit of my comment! I got rid of it for lack of stability in the URL. There doesn't appear to be a nice semi-permanent home on the web for these photos.

dugluak 8y ago

> Android is the Windows 98 of mobile IMO Android UX is way better than iOS when used on a right device. I switched from iPhone to Pixel and it's a delight to use. I am not going back to iPhone soon ...

chiefalchemist 8y ago

Then certainly Google deserves the same (i.e. gentle into the night) and then some. Not only have they done plenty of damage to the computing industry but they've normalized a lack of privacy in doing so. That is, Google has done social, if not sociopolitical damage (that makes MS looks like the tooth fairy). Your disgust is fitting. But let's be sure the context is appropriate as well.

gerash 8y ago
> damage to the computing industry What are you talking about? Citation needed.

loudmax 8y ago

Seeing Microsoft die would give me great schadenfreude, but all big companies do some good things and some bad things, so it's worth focusing on their specific sins. I see two of them: their desktop monopoly and their Office monopoly. Their desktop monopoly isn't what it once was, especially considering that most people get online today using mobile devices. But it never really went away. Windows is the only commercially successful desktop operating system. Everything else is a niche product without access to the enormous ecosystem of Windows-only desktop software. Desktop Linux exists, but it isn't any kind of commercial success. The Mac desktop exists to sell Apple hardware, it isn't a product on its own. And part of the reason it exists at all is that Microsoft publishes a version of their office suite for Macs. MS Office is absolutely entrenched in corporate computing. Many of us here on HN can get by on non MS Office products, but if you're exchanging Office documents with customers you absolutely need to use MS Office to get a decent level of compatibility. For a huge number of businesses, there simply isn't any choice. Microsoft isn't about to go out of business and a lot of people enjoy using their software and feel productive. People should have a choice. Microsoft could go a long way to repent for their sins if they open up both Windows and Office to the point where there are significant viable alternatives to both. Microsoft should be able to compete on quality, not on possessing the keys to their proprietary kingdom. I'm not holding my breath.