4 ms·

"It is not a beloved consumer brand like Apple, Facebook, Amazon, or Google." They're not a beloved consumer brand, yet. Microsoft has made an enormous invest

by urthor 5y ago

"It is not a beloved consumer brand like Apple, Facebook, Amazon, or Google." They're not a beloved consumer brand, yet. Microsoft has made an enormous investment in consumer and developer sentiment. VS Code, Microsoft Flight Simulator, WSL, and Xbox are huge, long term plays that are a rocket ship in their brand's sentiment.

toiletfuneral 5y ago
redisman 5y ago
Office has a good reputation with most white collar professionals. Windows is still ubiquitous outside of programmers
- eatonphil 5y ago
  Going by the StackOverflow yearly survey, Windows is still the most used among professional developers by a good margin. But yeah maybe 40% doesn't equate to ubiquitous. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-popular-technologies-op-sys-prof https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-popular-...
- herbst 5y ago
  It's super easy to convert an average user to libre office tho. Just wait for the next major office update and tell them that there is a piece of software that has a UI that still reflects what these people are used to.
colinmhayes 5y ago
I agree that Microsoft has put tons of resources into developer evangelism. Wsl, vscode, and terminal have been a major turn around for them. But I’m not sure they’re trying to be anything more than “the only option that was presented to me” with anyone else other than executives that sign the office365 contract.
suby 5y ago
I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm a software developer and my sentiment regarding Microsoft is negative and growing more so as the years go by. VS Code, Flight Simulator, WSL, and Xbox are fine, but they have destroyed goodwill with me through mismanaging Windows. Windows is now sprinkled with dark patterns like not allowing local accounts w/ windows 10 unless you turn off your internet during install. Windows 11 now requires a MS account. The number of advertisements in the OS continues to grow. The enormous and unforgivable amount of e-waste that they will soon create with the Windows 11 hardware requirements / the end of life date for 10. The sense that everything I do on their OS / software is being monitored through telemetry. The UI regressions w/ 11. Hard to quantify this but the I have encountered a lot of bugs with Windows in recent years and some of these bugs are infuriating. I could go on, but I'll leave it there. Like I said, I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I suspect that the number of dissatisfied users is growing.
- tartoran 5y ago
  Yes, it is getting more and more on the horrible side. But something’s gotta give at some point. I stopped using Windows for my personal computing but continue to use it for work because I have no other choice. Give Linux a try if haven’t yet
- urthor 5y ago
  My counterpoint: More than half the population doesn't use ad block when they browse the internet. The mind boggles. There is, clearly, an enormous gap between the Hackernews perception of Windows, and actual non-ad block using end users. Microsoft is intrinsically following a pathway I've seen before with Reddit, Reddit has two completely different value propositions to power users and the great unwashed. Reddit has two modes, "new" reddit which is available by default, and the "official" Reddit mobile app. And "old" Reddit, which is buried in the settings menu, powered by a third party browser extension on desktops, alongside third party paid for mobile apps that use a Reddit API. Microsoft to me is following the exact same strategy. They are screwballing "the internet explorer users" with Windows, and meanwhile they are creating a parallel, WSL enabled value proposition for power users.
  - 5y ago
BlueTemplar 5y ago
Don't forget GitHub and LinkedIn !

by urthor 5y ago

toiletfuneral 5y ago

redisman 5y ago

Office has a good reputation with most white collar professionals. Windows is still ubiquitous outside of programmers

eatonphil 5y ago
Going by the StackOverflow yearly survey, Windows is still the most used among professional developers by a good margin. But yeah maybe 40% doesn't equate to ubiquitous. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-popular-technologies-op-sys-prof https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-popular-...
herbst 5y ago
It's super easy to convert an average user to libre office tho. Just wait for the next major office update and tell them that there is a piece of software that has a UI that still reflects what these people are used to.

colinmhayes 5y ago

I agree that Microsoft has put tons of resources into developer evangelism. Wsl, vscode, and terminal have been a major turn around for them. But I’m not sure they’re trying to be anything more than “the only option that was presented to me” with anyone else other than executives that sign the office365 contract.

suby 5y ago

I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm a software developer and my sentiment regarding Microsoft is negative and growing more so as the years go by. VS Code, Flight Simulator, WSL, and Xbox are fine, but they have destroyed goodwill with me through mismanaging Windows. Windows is now sprinkled with dark patterns like not allowing local accounts w/ windows 10 unless you turn off your internet during install. Windows 11 now requires a MS account. The number of advertisements in the OS continues to grow. The enormous and unforgivable amount of e-waste that they will soon create with the Windows 11 hardware requirements / the end of life date for 10. The sense that everything I do on their OS / software is being monitored through telemetry. The UI regressions w/ 11. Hard to quantify this but the I have encountered a lot of bugs with Windows in recent years and some of these bugs are infuriating. I could go on, but I'll leave it there. Like I said, I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I suspect that the number of dissatisfied users is growing.

tartoran 5y ago
Yes, it is getting more and more on the horrible side. But something’s gotta give at some point. I stopped using Windows for my personal computing but continue to use it for work because I have no other choice. Give Linux a try if haven’t yet
urthor 5y ago
My counterpoint: More than half the population doesn't use ad block when they browse the internet. The mind boggles. There is, clearly, an enormous gap between the Hackernews perception of Windows, and actual non-ad block using end users. Microsoft is intrinsically following a pathway I've seen before with Reddit, Reddit has two completely different value propositions to power users and the great unwashed. Reddit has two modes, "new" reddit which is available by default, and the "official" Reddit mobile app. And "old" Reddit, which is buried in the settings menu, powered by a third party browser extension on desktops, alongside third party paid for mobile apps that use a Reddit API. Microsoft to me is following the exact same strategy. They are screwballing "the internet explorer users" with Windows, and meanwhile they are creating a parallel, WSL enabled value proposition for power users.
- 5y ago

BlueTemplar 5y ago

Don't forget GitHub and LinkedIn !