4 ms·

I normally ignore these hey posts, but this caught my eye: > But Microsoft’s brutish tactics also managed to turn an entire generation of developers against th

I normally ignore these hey posts, but this caught my eye: > But Microsoft’s brutish tactics also managed to turn an entire generation of developers against them. And the bill for that didn’t come due until Windows Phone. Nobody, and I mean nobody, wanted to lift a finger to help Microsoft gain a foothold in mobile. The wounds from the late 90s and early 2000s were still fresh in many developers minds. So many cheered as Apple went from underdog, favored by developers for their embrace of Unix roots in their operating system, to the dominant player on a new platform. I was there. The only reasons for not building for Windows Phone for me were (1) they were very late and not very serious, (2) the development kit was similar (but incompatible) with their desktop target. The platform itself ran great on top notch Nokia hardware with live tiles long before iPhone ever got around to it (or Android showing the actual time on the Clock icon). MS should have tried harder, but they were too blind to recognize a new market. Can't say that's true for Apple they're creating Watch, Vision, Silicon, etc. I don't like Apple's business tactics, but I can't say they're bad at it.

malshe 3y ago
I am not a developer but I have the same understanding of the situation. They were just too late. They even tried launching their own hardware. I remember in 2013/2014 when MS bought Nokia's devices business, they did significant promotion of their phones. This was already about 7 years after iPhone! I also think that in general when people claim that "developers remembered," they are overestimating how much people actually remember and act upon that. Of course, there will be examples of people who held the grudge against MS and never did any development for them. But most people don't have such strong feelings after time has passed. Also, the developer pool is not static and younger developers are unlikely to have universally strong opinion about individual companies based on the past behavior. Recently a friend complained to me that the younger generation does not understand the gravity of 9/11. I pointed out to him that most of the kids he was complaining about were not even born in 2001.

malshe 3y ago

I am not a developer but I have the same understanding of the situation. They were just too late. They even tried launching their own hardware. I remember in 2013/2014 when MS bought Nokia's devices business, they did significant promotion of their phones. This was already about 7 years after iPhone! I also think that in general when people claim that "developers remembered," they are overestimating how much people actually remember and act upon that. Of course, there will be examples of people who held the grudge against MS and never did any development for them. But most people don't have such strong feelings after time has passed. Also, the developer pool is not static and younger developers are unlikely to have universally strong opinion about individual companies based on the past behavior. Recently a friend complained to me that the younger generation does not understand the gravity of 9/11. I pointed out to him that most of the kids he was complaining about were not even born in 2001.