3 ms·

>> Walmart gets a lot of flak In a way, it reminds me of "MSFT is Dead" stuff from circa 2008. Google had taken email by storm, was moving on office and seemed

>> Walmart gets a lot of flak In a way, it reminds me of "MSFT is Dead" stuff from circa 2008. Google had taken email by storm, was moving on office and seemed to be making web into their own OS. Windows Vista & IE sucked. Google just seemed so much nimbler. Apple had risen from the dead, and was reinventing consumer electronics. MSFT was looking decrepit, the next IBM. MSFT never panicked. Software was a great business to be in, and the pressure was never financial. Meanwhile, they maintained their own ways and their own cultural advantages, long term perseverance, reverse compatibility, etc. They didn't win every race. Google won mobile OS, the "browser war. MSFT's attempts at a search business didn't succeed. They did win enough though, plenty. Google was better at web based software earlier, but MSFT held on to Office/Productivity. Office 365 wasn't as slick as early, but it was/is the product businesses will pay for. Most notably, they beat Google on cloud. Cloud was in Google's wheelhouse, and emphatically not in MSFT's. They started late. Google's "paradigm" mentality was great for the early part of the game. Getting where we are today though, that required carrying old paradigms into the new world. It required lots of mess, details, requirements that don't really make sense... That is MSFT's wheelhouse. Meeting companies where they are. Its a foreign concept to Google. Today, Google is the one that seems weaker. They're plenty rich, and plenty capable technologically. They aren't very good at building businesses though. It's still all about adwords. MSFT could have gone the way of IBM.

nly 5y ago
To be fair a lot of this is because Google can't execute properly. Office 365 just destroys Google Docs, everything MSFT offer just integrated well, is priced well. Chrome OS + Android + Docs could have been the productivity Windows PC killer if they'd executed it with vision.
- dalbasal 5y ago
  Sure, but this covers a lot of territory. Executing well on a new paradigm for a 30 year old suite, maintaining compatibility, etc. These are really hard, and MSFT's speciality. Office became office originally for maintaining meticulous compatibility with its predecessor, Lotus. It's incredibly tedious, frustrating work. Takes a ton of perseverance. Google docs came out of the gate to oohs and ahs. It was slick. Cool, innovative features like real-time collaboration worked well. MSFT's start was much clunkier, and expectations were already high. It took years before it wasn't an embarrassment. Even then, office 365 was never cool, not even now. These two companies are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Google likes paradigms, impressive launches. Then, they expect that the paradigm, being better, will just win. Everyone will adapt to their new way. They don't have the belly for years of kludgy, schleppy work while everyone makes fun of them. Google cloud was a great example of this. It was early. It solved the problems that needed solving, in theory... especially the sexy ones. Everyone just needed to abandon everything they had been doing and come over to the New Way. This is the exact opposite mentality to the one that maintains badly thought out feature of excel from 1996, itself design to clumsily support Lotus notes features from 1985. A million boring details, technical debt and nothing sexy. Where there's muck there's brass.
- mschuetz 5y ago
  > Office 365 just destroys Google Docs I disagree. Office licensing and the whole Microsoft account managament is so incredibly annoying to the point where I prefer the google suite simply because it works. Office recently left me stranded with an outdated license and no way to enable it because the ones in charge were not in office that day, so I went with google, and I'm sticking to it now even though there would be the option to enable to license. I don't want to go through the same hoops and hurdles every 6 months again.

nly 5y ago

To be fair a lot of this is because Google can't execute properly. Office 365 just destroys Google Docs, everything MSFT offer just integrated well, is priced well. Chrome OS + Android + Docs could have been the productivity Windows PC killer if they'd executed it with vision.

dalbasal 5y ago
Sure, but this covers a lot of territory. Executing well on a new paradigm for a 30 year old suite, maintaining compatibility, etc. These are really hard, and MSFT's speciality. Office became office originally for maintaining meticulous compatibility with its predecessor, Lotus. It's incredibly tedious, frustrating work. Takes a ton of perseverance. Google docs came out of the gate to oohs and ahs. It was slick. Cool, innovative features like real-time collaboration worked well. MSFT's start was much clunkier, and expectations were already high. It took years before it wasn't an embarrassment. Even then, office 365 was never cool, not even now. These two companies are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Google likes paradigms, impressive launches. Then, they expect that the paradigm, being better, will just win. Everyone will adapt to their new way. They don't have the belly for years of kludgy, schleppy work while everyone makes fun of them. Google cloud was a great example of this. It was early. It solved the problems that needed solving, in theory... especially the sexy ones. Everyone just needed to abandon everything they had been doing and come over to the New Way. This is the exact opposite mentality to the one that maintains badly thought out feature of excel from 1996, itself design to clumsily support Lotus notes features from 1985. A million boring details, technical debt and nothing sexy. Where there's muck there's brass.
mschuetz 5y ago
> Office 365 just destroys Google Docs I disagree. Office licensing and the whole Microsoft account managament is so incredibly annoying to the point where I prefer the google suite simply because it works. Office recently left me stranded with an outdated license and no way to enable it because the ones in charge were not in office that day, so I went with google, and I'm sticking to it now even though there would be the option to enable to license. I don't want to go through the same hoops and hurdles every 6 months again.