8 ms·

I'll admit this, I was wrong about Satya. I didn't think Microsoft was salvageable but he's been doing a stellar job. He's a great CEO and embracing open source

I'll admit this, I was wrong about Satya. I didn't think Microsoft was salvageable but he's been doing a stellar job. He's a great CEO and embracing open source was a really good move. I shifted to VSCode from atom (before they purchased github) due to atom's memory hogging issues a while back. Haven't regretted the choice. For my private repos, I used to only use the free version of bitbucket but Microsoft introduced free private repos to github so I've been trying that out lately. If I like it, I'll stick with it. Also, all my code is hosted on Azure now from AWS since late last year. I tried WSL but didn't like it to due problems with paths but at this rate with which they're moving, it too might improve and I might find myself using only Microsoft for my work. Would not have predicted that if you asked me a few years back when I couldn't run away from Ms/Windows environment fast enough.

kexx 7y ago
While the business software and development side seems to go to the right direction, the consumer product side is basically series of incompetent and/or anti-customer decision/catastrophes. IMO You were right about Satya, all the positive things happening, because there is someone who can hold against him. (because if he would be the origin of the positive changes, than everything would be improving)
nicoburns 7y ago
> due to electrons memory hogging issues a while back. You realise VSCode is also electron based, right?
- IGotThroughIt 7y ago
  Noticed it almost instantly and edited. You probably didn't see the edit due to hn's caching.
  - sillysaurusx 7y ago
    There’s no caching for logged-in users. Not that it takes away from your point, I just love how the codebase is designed.
    - IGotThroughIt 7y ago
      > There’s no caching for logged-in users. Was not aware of this. Very good to know.
      - Operyl 7y ago
        What you perceived as caching was just this particular user loading the page at the right time :).
CivBase 7y ago
> I shifted to VSCode from atom (before they purchased github) It just hit me that since GitHub was bought, both VSCode and Atom are owned by Microsoft. And somehow Windows still doesn't ship with a decent text editor out of the box...
- cltsang 7y ago
  Well it's getting less awful at least https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-insider/at-home/whats-new-wip-at-home-1903#notepad-updates https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-insider/at-home/wha...
- save_ferris 7y ago
  Installing atom or Vscode is ridiculously easy, what’s with this obsession that things need to be available out of the box? Perhaps it’s just my conditioning, but I automatically trust software that ships with a windows machine less than any binary I install myself.
  - macspoofing 7y ago
    >Installing atom or Vscode is ridiculously easy, what’s with this obsession that things need to be available out of the box? What if your enterprise customer staged a VM for you with no access to the internet and a highly restricted environment? You know what happens in that case? You're editing configuration files in notepad. You'll never run into it because you're just working on your home workstation but a good set of defaults will have an impact on these kinds of use-cases.
    - Someone1234 7y ago
      Seems like you're solving political problems with technical solutions. One could similarly argue a USB stick or shared drive with infinite vetted piece of software is superior to a single additional text editor pre-installed in the OS (which only solves a single, niche, use-case).
      - 7y ago
stiray 7y ago
My prediction since windows 8: - windows moving to metro, to get its users used to much simpler GUI elements - embracing open source and move nt kernel to linux kernel, reducing the costs of development - slowly move its on premise infrastructure to the cloud (office, exchange) - move windows to the cloud and leave only smaller part local, just to pick up network (and potentially some other devices like graphic card) - stop developing/selling locally installed windows and move to subscription based in cloud infrastructure We will see if Satya is stellar or just devil. I have moved after 20 years of system developmeny on Windows to Linux. We will see what will happen.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  > windows moving to metro, to get its users used to much simpler GUI elements Tried in 8, met with utter failure, reverted by 10. > embracing open source and move nt kernel to linux kernel, reducing the costs of development ...and throwing out pretty much everything that makes Windows better for a Desktop? Including their driver model, their backwards compatibility, etc? Unlikely. Replicating all of that to an appreciable standard would be significantly costly. > slowly move its on premise infrastructure to the cloud (office, exchange) This does seem to be happening, much to the chagrin of many, many smaller business that don't like to pay rent on their tools. > move windows to the cloud and leave only smaller part local, just to pick up network (and potentially some other devices like graphic card) Possible. Microsoft already has some kind of Windows Desktop as a Service, and RDP is damned good. > stop developing/selling locally installed windows and move to subscription based in cloud infrastructure They can try, but at best that just means that a whole lot of people will just stick with the last version of non-subscription-only Windows (as many did with 7 instead of moving to 8-10). I imagine it will be a large enough group that third parties pick up the slack and provide solutions to things MS is no longer fixing. At worst, there will be lynchings.
- kace91 7y ago
  I can see them stopping the sale of windows, but not really using an online OS. I think they've just given up on the OS war and will try to get users to subscribe to their walled environment (office, azure, onenote, etc). They're already doing that on mobile, they stopped fighting android and are now trying to be there in the form of apps and services for both android and ios. Personally I think it makes sense: An OS is becoming more and more a layer to access the web. Most people use just a web browser and a couple other apps. It makes sense for their focus to be not in that layer, but in being the app/web that the user searches for.
pluma 7y ago
> I tried WSL but didn't like it to due problems with paths but at this rate with which they're moving Docker Desktop for Windows seems to still be a bit iffy and WSL is sometimes painfully slow (especially when compiling native code) but overall I'm quite happy with it now thanks to the Remote VSCode extensions. I'm really looking forward to WSL2 though.
jakear 7y ago
Have you posted/upvoted issues regarding these path problems? If so can you link to some?
- IGotThroughIt 7y ago
  No I haven't due to time constraints. I was just disappointed and uninstalled to free up space. I will be getting some time off soon so I will reinstall and log the issues.
paulcarroty 7y ago
> couldn't run away from Ms/Windows environment fast enough. My condolences about living with * spending ~20% of traffic for telemetry * bloatware/low quality updates * unexpected reboots after system upgrade * non-removable Sugar Bob game in Windows Pro(!) edition Sorry, but all this crap doesn't makes MS "good" in any sense.
- jotm 7y ago
  The updates are a bit ridiculous. I did a clean install, and like I used to do before, I installed all updates right away so I can take my mind off it for a while. But no, Windows 10 kept finding restart-worthy updates for a week. Seems to have stopped now. Is that normal? Telemetry can be blocked through a firewall.
  - zeppelin101 7y ago
    That might be a decent approach. I went with blocking some Windows 10 functionality via the hosts file. Many months later, I wanted to download the new Windows Terminal from the Microsoft store and I just could not figure out why the MS store wasn't working properly. After hours and hours I vaguely remembered messing with the hosts file (probably via a Powershell script). I opened it and the evidence was plain to see. I removed all the non-default entries and MS store was working again. But I saw so many people suffering from the same problem on online forums. Really makes you think as to how many people ran some questionable script, made no backups, and had to reinstall the OS because they didn't know how to revert the changes.
- wayneftw 7y ago
  I have much longer lists of issues for Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and Chrome but I still use all of them because the benefits outweigh the problems. What platform is perfect?
  - zeppelin101 7y ago
    Exactly my sentiments. Every time I use a different OS - any of those that you mentioned - I find tons of things to complain about that Windows does not suffer from. At the end of the day, most of these operating systems are awesome. But they each have different strengths and weaknesses.

kexx 7y ago

While the business software and development side seems to go to the right direction, the consumer product side is basically series of incompetent and/or anti-customer decision/catastrophes. IMO You were right about Satya, all the positive things happening, because there is someone who can hold against him. (because if he would be the origin of the positive changes, than everything would be improving)

nicoburns 7y ago

> due to electrons memory hogging issues a while back. You realise VSCode is also electron based, right?

IGotThroughIt 7y ago
Noticed it almost instantly and edited. You probably didn't see the edit due to hn's caching.
- sillysaurusx 7y ago
  There’s no caching for logged-in users. Not that it takes away from your point, I just love how the codebase is designed.
  - IGotThroughIt 7y ago
    > There’s no caching for logged-in users. Was not aware of this. Very good to know.
    - Operyl 7y ago
      What you perceived as caching was just this particular user loading the page at the right time :).

CivBase 7y ago

> I shifted to VSCode from atom (before they purchased github) It just hit me that since GitHub was bought, both VSCode and Atom are owned by Microsoft. And somehow Windows still doesn't ship with a decent text editor out of the box...

cltsang 7y ago
Well it's getting less awful at least https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-insider/at-home/whats-new-wip-at-home-1903#notepad-updates https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-insider/at-home/wha...
save_ferris 7y ago
Installing atom or Vscode is ridiculously easy, what’s with this obsession that things need to be available out of the box? Perhaps it’s just my conditioning, but I automatically trust software that ships with a windows machine less than any binary I install myself.
- macspoofing 7y ago
  >Installing atom or Vscode is ridiculously easy, what’s with this obsession that things need to be available out of the box? What if your enterprise customer staged a VM for you with no access to the internet and a highly restricted environment? You know what happens in that case? You're editing configuration files in notepad. You'll never run into it because you're just working on your home workstation but a good set of defaults will have an impact on these kinds of use-cases.
  - Someone1234 7y ago
    Seems like you're solving political problems with technical solutions. One could similarly argue a USB stick or shared drive with infinite vetted piece of software is superior to a single additional text editor pre-installed in the OS (which only solves a single, niche, use-case).
    - 7y ago

stiray 7y ago

My prediction since windows 8: - windows moving to metro, to get its users used to much simpler GUI elements - embracing open source and move nt kernel to linux kernel, reducing the costs of development - slowly move its on premise infrastructure to the cloud (office, exchange) - move windows to the cloud and leave only smaller part local, just to pick up network (and potentially some other devices like graphic card) - stop developing/selling locally installed windows and move to subscription based in cloud infrastructure We will see if Satya is stellar or just devil. I have moved after 20 years of system developmeny on Windows to Linux. We will see what will happen.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
> windows moving to metro, to get its users used to much simpler GUI elements Tried in 8, met with utter failure, reverted by 10. > embracing open source and move nt kernel to linux kernel, reducing the costs of development ...and throwing out pretty much everything that makes Windows better for a Desktop? Including their driver model, their backwards compatibility, etc? Unlikely. Replicating all of that to an appreciable standard would be significantly costly. > slowly move its on premise infrastructure to the cloud (office, exchange) This does seem to be happening, much to the chagrin of many, many smaller business that don't like to pay rent on their tools. > move windows to the cloud and leave only smaller part local, just to pick up network (and potentially some other devices like graphic card) Possible. Microsoft already has some kind of Windows Desktop as a Service, and RDP is damned good. > stop developing/selling locally installed windows and move to subscription based in cloud infrastructure They can try, but at best that just means that a whole lot of people will just stick with the last version of non-subscription-only Windows (as many did with 7 instead of moving to 8-10). I imagine it will be a large enough group that third parties pick up the slack and provide solutions to things MS is no longer fixing. At worst, there will be lynchings.
kace91 7y ago
I can see them stopping the sale of windows, but not really using an online OS. I think they've just given up on the OS war and will try to get users to subscribe to their walled environment (office, azure, onenote, etc). They're already doing that on mobile, they stopped fighting android and are now trying to be there in the form of apps and services for both android and ios. Personally I think it makes sense: An OS is becoming more and more a layer to access the web. Most people use just a web browser and a couple other apps. It makes sense for their focus to be not in that layer, but in being the app/web that the user searches for.

pluma 7y ago

> I tried WSL but didn't like it to due problems with paths but at this rate with which they're moving Docker Desktop for Windows seems to still be a bit iffy and WSL is sometimes painfully slow (especially when compiling native code) but overall I'm quite happy with it now thanks to the Remote VSCode extensions. I'm really looking forward to WSL2 though.

jakear 7y ago

Have you posted/upvoted issues regarding these path problems? If so can you link to some?

IGotThroughIt 7y ago
No I haven't due to time constraints. I was just disappointed and uninstalled to free up space. I will be getting some time off soon so I will reinstall and log the issues.

paulcarroty 7y ago

> couldn't run away from Ms/Windows environment fast enough. My condolences about living with * spending ~20% of traffic for telemetry * bloatware/low quality updates * unexpected reboots after system upgrade * non-removable Sugar Bob game in Windows Pro(!) edition Sorry, but all this crap doesn't makes MS "good" in any sense.

jotm 7y ago
The updates are a bit ridiculous. I did a clean install, and like I used to do before, I installed all updates right away so I can take my mind off it for a while. But no, Windows 10 kept finding restart-worthy updates for a week. Seems to have stopped now. Is that normal? Telemetry can be blocked through a firewall.
- zeppelin101 7y ago
  That might be a decent approach. I went with blocking some Windows 10 functionality via the hosts file. Many months later, I wanted to download the new Windows Terminal from the Microsoft store and I just could not figure out why the MS store wasn't working properly. After hours and hours I vaguely remembered messing with the hosts file (probably via a Powershell script). I opened it and the evidence was plain to see. I removed all the non-default entries and MS store was working again. But I saw so many people suffering from the same problem on online forums. Really makes you think as to how many people ran some questionable script, made no backups, and had to reinstall the OS because they didn't know how to revert the changes.
wayneftw 7y ago
I have much longer lists of issues for Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and Chrome but I still use all of them because the benefits outweigh the problems. What platform is perfect?
- zeppelin101 7y ago
  Exactly my sentiments. Every time I use a different OS - any of those that you mentioned - I find tons of things to complain about that Windows does not suffer from. At the end of the day, most of these operating systems are awesome. But they each have different strengths and weaknesses.