4 ms·

I've had similar experiences on HN, and funnily enough the last time was for a comment that was fairly supportive of Microsoft. I got absolutely roasted in the

I've had similar experiences on HN, and funnily enough the last time was for a comment that was fairly supportive of Microsoft. I got absolutely roasted in the comments, but received a ton of upvotes from the silent majority. There are three areas I'd disagree with you though. The first is Microsoft's Surface line of tablets and laptops. I literally cannot find a kind word to say about the (very expensive) Surface Book devices we bought en masse about 18 months ago. They are awful[1] and we are already starting to phase them out as a result. It makes no sense because Microsoft can clearly do hardware well: for example, I have no complaints about my Xbox One X - it's all round great. The second may substantially be connected to the first, and that's Windows 10. I increasingly hate using it because I find it slow, finicky, and unresponsive/a serious resource hog. So much of the time my laptop is running hot and draining its battery because Windows is doing something or other not related to what I'm working on. The third is Microsoft Teams. The functionality it offers is good and, for VOIP and video calls, it's probably second only to Zoom so does get a thumbs up from me there. However, it's painfully slow to switch views, doesn't support multiple windows (so you can't sensibly look at chat and wiki at the same time), takes an age to start up, and behaves like an absolute moron when it comes to switching networks or losing and regaining network connectivity (usually requires a restart of the app). [1] Underpowered, overpriced, poor battery life, run very hot, ropey WiFi, poor speakers that are insufficiently loud, crappy trackpad, only a single display port built in, poorly designed/laid out ports, unreliable (and often weirdly slow) charging, drains battery within 12 - 18 hours whilst asleep, I could go on (and on). In short: DO NOT BUY UNLESS YOU HATE YOURSELF!

flyinglizard 8y ago
I wholeheartedly agree that the Surface (4 Pro for me) is an absolute garbage, but not for the lack of trying. It’s a good product in concept but requires a level of polish and software/hardware integration that - IMHO - only Apple has.
kyriakos 8y ago
Microsoft teams is featured packed. But some ui decisions and bugs won't let it be great. And the problems are not only on the desktop version. On android I receive a notification only to open the app and the message hasn't loaded yet, and doesn't load for at least 20 more seconds.
- tracker1 8y ago
  I have a morning meeting in teams that I often wind up calling into on my phone + bluetooth in my car... it often borks out and won't stay connected without force stopping the app. That's about my biggest complaint with teams... I also think the desktop version should use the material/android interface for starting a new thread... it's to easy to think you are replying but actually starting a new thread. Looking/finding old messages is pretty nasty/hard too...
singingboyo 8y ago
Interesting. I've never really had any of those issues with my surface book. I might not recommend it if the tablet mode won't see use, though. I do have the original, so I suppose if you got the newer ones things may have changed, but... heat is high but not problematically so, wifi works without noticeable issues, trackpad works fine. I really can't figure out what you're talking about with the ports - 2 usb + sd card reader on one side, charger + mini display port on the other, all bog standard. Not a spectacular selection, but not poor design/layout from my experience. Charging... the cable can have issues, especially with bending near the connection, but charging itself has always been fine (assuming no cable issues). Battery life is spectacular when you set it to focus on that, and performance is good when you aim for that. I've never really liked 'balanced' settings, because then it's either not powerful enough (usually games, I think I've needed it in perf mode for data processing once or twice) or chewing through too much battery for what I'm doing (programming while on the go is not particularly demanding, but I want time, so I set it up for battery life). I do rarely use it without the base, because the battery life then is poor - being able to connect it backwards is very nice for managing that in some cases, but makes it quite heavy for handheld use. Possibly connected, my experience with Windows 10 is great on my Surface Book, but it takes forever to boot on my desktop (with an admittedly rather old processor/hdd). Windows defender, on the other hand, is definitely bloated and can be a pain to keep under control if I haven't used the Book for a while.
yellowapple 8y ago
Re: Windows 10, I've found the LTSC (formerly LTSB) version to be much more tolerable. Still bloated compared to, say, Windows 2000/XP, but much better than even Windows 7, let alone 8/8.1 or non-LTSC 10.

flyinglizard 8y ago

I wholeheartedly agree that the Surface (4 Pro for me) is an absolute garbage, but not for the lack of trying. It’s a good product in concept but requires a level of polish and software/hardware integration that - IMHO - only Apple has.

kyriakos 8y ago

Microsoft teams is featured packed. But some ui decisions and bugs won't let it be great. And the problems are not only on the desktop version. On android I receive a notification only to open the app and the message hasn't loaded yet, and doesn't load for at least 20 more seconds.

tracker1 8y ago
I have a morning meeting in teams that I often wind up calling into on my phone + bluetooth in my car... it often borks out and won't stay connected without force stopping the app. That's about my biggest complaint with teams... I also think the desktop version should use the material/android interface for starting a new thread... it's to easy to think you are replying but actually starting a new thread. Looking/finding old messages is pretty nasty/hard too...

singingboyo 8y ago

Interesting. I've never really had any of those issues with my surface book. I might not recommend it if the tablet mode won't see use, though. I do have the original, so I suppose if you got the newer ones things may have changed, but... heat is high but not problematically so, wifi works without noticeable issues, trackpad works fine. I really can't figure out what you're talking about with the ports - 2 usb + sd card reader on one side, charger + mini display port on the other, all bog standard. Not a spectacular selection, but not poor design/layout from my experience. Charging... the cable can have issues, especially with bending near the connection, but charging itself has always been fine (assuming no cable issues). Battery life is spectacular when you set it to focus on that, and performance is good when you aim for that. I've never really liked 'balanced' settings, because then it's either not powerful enough (usually games, I think I've needed it in perf mode for data processing once or twice) or chewing through too much battery for what I'm doing (programming while on the go is not particularly demanding, but I want time, so I set it up for battery life). I do rarely use it without the base, because the battery life then is poor - being able to connect it backwards is very nice for managing that in some cases, but makes it quite heavy for handheld use. Possibly connected, my experience with Windows 10 is great on my Surface Book, but it takes forever to boot on my desktop (with an admittedly rather old processor/hdd). Windows defender, on the other hand, is definitely bloated and can be a pain to keep under control if I haven't used the Book for a while.

yellowapple 8y ago

Re: Windows 10, I've found the LTSC (formerly LTSB) version to be much more tolerable. Still bloated compared to, say, Windows 2000/XP, but much better than even Windows 7, let alone 8/8.1 or non-LTSC 10.