6 ms·

Don’t ever forget that at its core Microsoft is still the same company we grew up with. Just because they’re singing sweet songs now doesn’t mean they’re fundam

by a2tech 5y ago

Don’t ever forget that at its core Microsoft is still the same company we grew up with. Just because they’re singing sweet songs now doesn’t mean they’re fundamentally different. I know that there are a lot of developers on here that disagree with me and are all in on the ‘new’ Microsoft. I can’t change your mind. Ive watched Microsoft since the early 90s though and they’ve never really changed—-and buying GitHub and releasing some things as open source doesn’t change things a bit.

CRConrad 5y ago
There are still a few of us who remember; I've tried posting responses here when the Nadella Kool-Aid gets too thick. But on the whole, kids nowadays -- even on here -- are far too easily impressed by superficial "Internet and Open Source-friendly" bling-bling BS. (Geroffmylawn, punks.)
causi 5y ago
Just because they’re singing sweet songs now doesn’t mean they’re fundamentally different. Frankly I think it's only because Google, Facebook, et al. invented new kinds of evil too fast for Microsoft to keep up that they seemed warm and fuzzy at all. They're still the company that force-upgraded users to Windows 10, and they're still the company that's requiring you to have a Microsoft account for future versions of Windows 11.
- simion314 5y ago
  And they are the company that bought Skype, forced me to create Microsoft accounts and then mess things up, now they boutght Minecraft and I just receive an ultimatum to switch my Mojang account to a Microsoft account. F U MS, can't you let me login with existing shit,. On a different topic, I am using some MS APIs at work (TTS stuff) and my impression of this MS products is bad, it feels like different teams that hate each other were forced to work on this shit and some other team is forced to cover it up with documentation. I don't recommend MS stuff if you have alternatives.
  - moron4hire 5y ago
    What are you talking about? Microsoft's Text-To-Speech APIs are the best on the market. Google's are definitely a distant second: not as many languages, not as many voices, and the output is nowhere near as good. After those two, there isn't really anything left worth mentioning.
    - causi 5y ago
      Microsoft's Text-To-Speech APIs are the best on the market. Wow, I had no idea they were that good. Is there a way to get at them from a consumer level? For example, there are plenty of e-reader apps that use Google's TTS to read epub books as audiobooks. Anything similar for Microsoft or is it all on the developer side?
      - zidad 5y ago
        You can just try it out here from the browser if you like: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/text-to-speech/#features https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-service...
        causi 5y ago
        That's a good demo, but it isn't much use for making audio content from ebooks.
        hobo_mark 5y ago
        Transcribing an entire ebook this way is going to be _expensive_.
      - AshamedCaptain 5y ago
        They have basically been licensing L&H then Nuance until they bought it outright.
    - simion314 5y ago
- justsomehnguy 5y ago
  > requiring you to have a Microsoft account for future versions of Windows 11. How quickly people forgot about mandatory iTunes activation... > They're still the company that force-upgraded users to Windows 10 This is response for all those cries what MS should take the security of the OS seriously. No wonder what after a decade of disabled Windows Update on the endpoints (to conserve resources, to not to receive WPA update so a pirated copy would continue to work, so it wouldn't waste the precious Internet traffic and bunch of other ridiculous reasons) they took the forced approach.
  - causi 5y ago
    But that forced approach only worked on the people who had auto-update enabled. For people like me who had WU disabled it didn't affect me at all.
    - justsomehnguy 5y ago
      > For people like me who had WU disabled ... Yes. This is the reason it is so hard to disable WU now. YOU are one of those reasons. > forced approach only worked on the people who had auto-update enabled Also I want to hear what kind of magic should they used to do that on people with WU disabled.
      - robertlagrant 5y ago
        Also the fact that WU breaks things. Might be worth considering that.
      - causi 5y ago
        I would've been one of those people, if I'd ever had a security breach. At this point I've been saved so much time and hassle not putting up with Microsoft's nonsense I could spend a month dealing with a stolen identity and I'd still come out on top. Of course I'm not one of the numpties that runs untrusted JS in my browser or installs rando programs.
        5y ago
- rob74 5y ago
  Well in my book the order is still something like Google < M$ < Facebook < Amazon when it comes to "evilness". Not sure where I would rank Apple on that scale (and I also don't use Apple products a lot), so I left them out. About Windows 11: I switched my home desktop PC to Linux when I upgraded it early last year. I still have Windows 8 lying around mostly unused on a partition, but since it's a 32 bit version I would have to do a complete reinstall, and most of the software I'm using (including most games, thanks to Steam) runs just fine on Linux, so I haven't worked up the motivation to do it yet. And stories like this don't really increase my urge to install Windows...
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    Apple and Microsoft are equals.
  - Shared404 5y ago
    > Well in my book the order is still something like Google < M$ < Facebook < Amazon when it comes to "evilness". I find this an interesting order to think about. Amazon has directly lead to fatalities and ( I would describe as ) an abusive work environment, but Facebook I would say has done more harm on a larger "societal shift" scale. I suppose just looking at direct consequences of actions, I agree with your assessment - Amazon knowingly builds itself of labor abuse, and Facebook can at least lie to themselves.
skrebbel 5y ago
Just a nit: I fully agree with you that deep inside, Microsoft is still as evil as in the past (competition forced them to hide it a bit better is all). But I'm still all in on the `new’ Microsoft. I don't think these two necessarily exclude each other. I mean the alternatives are Linux, which I haven't the patience for, or Apple which is also evil but just in different ways.
- fartcannon 5y ago
  You deserve what you get then.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

by a2tech 5y ago

CRConrad 5y ago

There are still a few of us who remember; I've tried posting responses here when the Nadella Kool-Aid gets too thick. But on the whole, kids nowadays -- even on here -- are far too easily impressed by superficial "Internet and Open Source-friendly" bling-bling BS. (Geroffmylawn, punks.)

causi 5y ago

Just because they’re singing sweet songs now doesn’t mean they’re fundamentally different. Frankly I think it's only because Google, Facebook, et al. invented new kinds of evil too fast for Microsoft to keep up that they seemed warm and fuzzy at all. They're still the company that force-upgraded users to Windows 10, and they're still the company that's requiring you to have a Microsoft account for future versions of Windows 11.

simion314 5y ago
And they are the company that bought Skype, forced me to create Microsoft accounts and then mess things up, now they boutght Minecraft and I just receive an ultimatum to switch my Mojang account to a Microsoft account. F U MS, can't you let me login with existing shit,. On a different topic, I am using some MS APIs at work (TTS stuff) and my impression of this MS products is bad, it feels like different teams that hate each other were forced to work on this shit and some other team is forced to cover it up with documentation. I don't recommend MS stuff if you have alternatives.
- moron4hire 5y ago
  What are you talking about? Microsoft's Text-To-Speech APIs are the best on the market. Google's are definitely a distant second: not as many languages, not as many voices, and the output is nowhere near as good. After those two, there isn't really anything left worth mentioning.
  - causi 5y ago
    Microsoft's Text-To-Speech APIs are the best on the market. Wow, I had no idea they were that good. Is there a way to get at them from a consumer level? For example, there are plenty of e-reader apps that use Google's TTS to read epub books as audiobooks. Anything similar for Microsoft or is it all on the developer side?
    - zidad 5y ago
      You can just try it out here from the browser if you like: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/text-to-speech/#features https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-service...
      - causi 5y ago
        That's a good demo, but it isn't much use for making audio content from ebooks.
        hobo_mark 5y ago
        Transcribing an entire ebook this way is going to be _expensive_.
    - AshamedCaptain 5y ago
      They have basically been licensing L&H then Nuance until they bought it outright.
  - simion314 5y ago
justsomehnguy 5y ago
> requiring you to have a Microsoft account for future versions of Windows 11. How quickly people forgot about mandatory iTunes activation... > They're still the company that force-upgraded users to Windows 10 This is response for all those cries what MS should take the security of the OS seriously. No wonder what after a decade of disabled Windows Update on the endpoints (to conserve resources, to not to receive WPA update so a pirated copy would continue to work, so it wouldn't waste the precious Internet traffic and bunch of other ridiculous reasons) they took the forced approach.
- causi 5y ago
  But that forced approach only worked on the people who had auto-update enabled. For people like me who had WU disabled it didn't affect me at all.
  - justsomehnguy 5y ago
    > For people like me who had WU disabled ... Yes. This is the reason it is so hard to disable WU now. YOU are one of those reasons. > forced approach only worked on the people who had auto-update enabled Also I want to hear what kind of magic should they used to do that on people with WU disabled.
    - robertlagrant 5y ago
      Also the fact that WU breaks things. Might be worth considering that.
    - causi 5y ago
      I would've been one of those people, if I'd ever had a security breach. At this point I've been saved so much time and hassle not putting up with Microsoft's nonsense I could spend a month dealing with a stolen identity and I'd still come out on top. Of course I'm not one of the numpties that runs untrusted JS in my browser or installs rando programs.
      - 5y ago
rob74 5y ago
Well in my book the order is still something like Google < M$ < Facebook < Amazon when it comes to "evilness". Not sure where I would rank Apple on that scale (and I also don't use Apple products a lot), so I left them out. About Windows 11: I switched my home desktop PC to Linux when I upgraded it early last year. I still have Windows 8 lying around mostly unused on a partition, but since it's a 32 bit version I would have to do a complete reinstall, and most of the software I'm using (including most games, thanks to Steam) runs just fine on Linux, so I haven't worked up the motivation to do it yet. And stories like this don't really increase my urge to install Windows...
- fartcannon 5y ago
  Apple and Microsoft are equals.
- Shared404 5y ago
  > Well in my book the order is still something like Google < M$ < Facebook < Amazon when it comes to "evilness". I find this an interesting order to think about. Amazon has directly lead to fatalities and ( I would describe as ) an abusive work environment, but Facebook I would say has done more harm on a larger "societal shift" scale. I suppose just looking at direct consequences of actions, I agree with your assessment - Amazon knowingly builds itself of labor abuse, and Facebook can at least lie to themselves.

skrebbel 5y ago

Just a nit: I fully agree with you that deep inside, Microsoft is still as evil as in the past (competition forced them to hide it a bit better is all). But I'm still all in on the `new’ Microsoft. I don't think these two necessarily exclude each other. I mean the alternatives are Linux, which I haven't the patience for, or Apple which is also evil but just in different ways.

fartcannon 5y ago
You deserve what you get then.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]