5 ms·
> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money to u
by didibus 7y ago
> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money to use.
Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for. Most of them I pay for with a strong feeling of resentment that I have simply no other choice, since there are no competitors to the market or the lock in is too strong.
- username90 7y agoGood point, I have never once felt "Wow, a new Microsoft product, can't wait to buy it!". Instead it is usually more like "Oh shit, a new Mirosoft product, I hope I wont be forced to buy it to stay compatible".
- nickpeterson 7y agoIt could be worse, you could be involved with Oracle and receive phone calls warning you that they could sue you.
- Baeocystin 7y agoI've felt this about Microsoft hardware, for what it's worth. I really like their mice, keyboards, and the Surface line.
- bcrosby95 7y agoYeah, the Surface line was the first time since the original iPhone that I was actually excited about a piece of hardware.
- singingboyo 7y agoSurface book was just the first time ever for me. (Original iPhone was before I cared) The original Surface Pro was decent, but generally slow and bulky. The first Surface Book, on the other hand, is still a great, versatile piece of hardware several years later. Of course, YMMV - a tablet alone doesn't cover everything for me, but for some people needing a keyboard/base for connections may not work out.
- shantly 7y agoI finally got to use one (I think it was a bottom-tier gen 2? Whatever was current at the time) about a year and a half ago when we got one for testing stuff in IE/Edge. When I first heard of the Surface, what I thought it'd be: a bad laptop and a worse tablet. After I read and heard people raving about how great it was for years, what I thought it'd be when I finally got to use one: a great laptop and a good-enough tablet. What it was when I finally got to use it, very much to my surprise at that point: a bad laptop and a worse tablet. I don't get it.
- jenscow 7y agoSame here. I got one from work for testing with. I was completely underwhelmed. I think it's a combination of astroturfing and owners trying to convince themselves they made the right decision.
- munchbunny 7y agoWhat did you find underwhelming?
- Baeocystin 7y agoI genuinely enjoy using mine. It has a great screen, and the kickstand + pen makes for a solid photoshop experience. I wish the battery life was better, and I think Microsoft is missing out by not having the detachable keyboard have a small battery onboard so that you could use the keyboard on the side while you're drawing. But it's my favorite mobile device, and I'm not joking, astroturfing, or anything like that.
- mynameisvlad 7y agoIt existed for Surface Pro 2 (https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-5VX-00001-Surface-Power-Keyboard/dp/B00IZMKM94 https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-5VX-00001-Surface-Power-Key...) but was thick and didn't sell as well as the regular so it was discontinued.
- 7y ago
- martin1b 7y agoApparently you've never used Visual Studio. It is amazing. Many of Microsoft's products are simple and boring at first glance. However, when you really want to flex it to do something powerful, the features are usually there. Their products have so many years of development in them and it shows because their products stand the test of time, particularly in the enterprise. I'm glad there are lot of other vendors entering the market though as it keeps companies like MSFT innovating.
- JohnFen 7y ago> Apparently you've never used Visual Studio. It is amazing. I've used it heavily for years, and I disagree with this assessment. I avoid it whenever I have the option.
- Mo3 7y agoI think he meant Visual Studio Code. It truly is fantastic.
- yarrel 7y agoIt's not based on Microsoft code, so that might have something to do with it.
- Nimitz14 7y agoSo you just accept using a 2nd rate C++ IDE? Because there isn't any debate, Visual Studio is the best.
- taurath 7y ago“There can be no criticism of Visual Studio” seems wrong on the face of it.
- kerng 7y agoThere are many arguments, but Visusl Studio is the best IDE for the last two decades. Same is true for the Office suite. In my current job we don't have either and its utterly frustrating how bad the alternatives are.
- munchbunny 7y agoThe Surface line (Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, and Surface Book) have hit that category lately, IMO. The specific value proposition is "it's a well designed device at a reasonable price and it doesn't come with a giant pile of OEM crapware." I've been using a dedicated GPU (switchable) model of the gen 1 Surface Book for four years, and (other than that gigantic hiccup where Intel screwed up the power management on their chips) I've loved it. Plays many of the fancier video games, battery life on the scale of 5-7 hours under web browsing workloads, great screen, and with WSL2 I get most of my Linux development needs covered as well. I can detach the screen and use it while I'm flying. I can break out the stylus when I need to draw diagrams in meetings (or... when I'm dungeon-mastering for D&D).
- hiei 7y agoI would agree on the consumer level, enterprise not so much. Making big moves in ERP space among other places.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago> Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for. I have met many, many people who gladly pay for Office (specifically, Excel) or Visual Studio, so much does it increase their productivity. I'm not one of them, but I'm not an accountant and the code bases I work with are small and don't require VS's incredible tooling. There are also adherents of the cult of Visio, but I honestly can't fathom what they see in it. Microsoft can be faulted for many things, but the reason it is so successful is that it made some really good products that still haven't been surpassed.
- Someone1234 7y agoI strongly agree on Office/Excel. Fantastic product suite (except maybe Outlook which is long in the tooth/essentially unimproved for the last ten years). Visual Studio I'll slightly disagree on. I resent it. When VSCode, an electron application, can run lag/stutter/micro-freeze free and Visual Studio an IDE written in C++ cannot you know the codebase has become unmaintainable. This isn't a recent phenomenon either. This has been a nuisance in VS 2015, 17, and now 19 (16.4 Preview). I'd love to switch to VSCode but the csprojec/C# support isn't there yet. I don't need a forms builder, server explorer, EDMX designer, test explorer, and all the other bells and whistles VS offers. I use VS strictly to write code (C# MVC/Web), run, and repeat. The refactoring tools/Intellisense/IntelliCode/QuickFixes are awesome but if I could trade them all for a lag free experience I would in a second. I'm using a i7 (6th gen)/16 GB of RAM/SSD. I have no extensions except the built-in ones and Web Compiler/Bundler & Minifier. It doesn't help.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]