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What changed five years ago, that Microsoft suddenly became so active again? I mostly forgot about them for almost two decades. From around 2002 to 2018, I did
by mg 4y ago
What changed five years ago, that Microsoft suddenly became so active again?
I mostly forgot about them for almost two decades. From around 2002 to 2018, I did not use any of their products or services. And in my interactions with other indie makers, I heard about them less and less.
I remember reading Paul Graham's "Microsoft is Dead" in 2007 (http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html) and was jokingly thinking "Micro who?".
Then in 2018 they suddenly bought GitHub. And were back on the radar of every developer I know. With Azure, they became a bigger and bigger datacenter player. Then last year they made huge waves again, this time with Github CoPilot. Then this year, they were the first to put AI into a popular search engine. Before Google! And now they might become the first to put a crypto wallet into a popular browser.
Microsoft is 48 years old, but 2/3 of their market cap has been created in the last 5 years.
- TechBro8615 4y agoDevelopers, developers, developers.
- polygamous_bat 4y ago> Microsoft is 48 years old, but 2/3 of their market cap has been created in the last 5 years. Unsure about the rest, but a quick search shows that 75% of Apple and 50% of Google market cap was created in the last 5 years. So some of the effect is a general tech boom that has been captured by Microsoft as well.
- mg 4y agoTrue. Google is much younger though. And its 50% are in line with the NASDAQ. Apple had a crazy run under Tim Cook. While Steve Jobs is rightfully remembered as a visionary who built one of the biggest companies in the world, over 90% of Apples value was created under Cook.
- tokinonagare 4y ago> And now they might become the first to put a crypto wallet into a popular browser? Edge has less than 5% marketshare, it's hardly a popular browser. And the crypto wallet thing is present in Brave for years.
- atrettel 4y agoI never use Edge except during work at my current job. Management there has basically mandated its use and does not test any internal sites for anything other than Edge. Indeed, many sites refuse to work even in Google Chrome, but they work fine in Edge. Timekeeping is one major example. As soon as Microsoft fully deprecated Internet Explorer, my current employer basically switched from Internet Explorer to Edge. My point is that while it may not be popular in the overall market, it does play a major role in some organizations, since it may have a large captured audience in effect.
- beached_whale 4y agooften it’s “modern authentication” for the webapps as the gateway to locking into Edge. The sync facility in Edge is tied to it too. There’s a plugin for Chrome.
- 1123581321 4y agoThey decided to use their power to make their products available everywhere, rather than try to get everyone to use Windows.
- olalonde 4y agoNew CEO, Satya Nadella (arrived in 2014, but takes time for changes to become noticeable).
- modernpink 4y agoGreat leadership from Satya Nadella since 2014 seems to be the leading explanatory factor here. A sequence of very good decisions and products coming one after another. You forgot to mention VSCode as well which has now become an industry standard code editor. They have really focused on great developer experience.