3 ms·

I’ll take that as a sign that Right to Repair advocacy and legislation has begun to bear fruit. It's more likely a sign that whatever OEM they decided to use t

I’ll take that as a sign that Right to Repair advocacy and legislation has begun to bear fruit. It's more likely a sign that whatever OEM they decided to use this time just went in a slightly different direction because it made things easier for them, or they are aiming for the enterprise market that Dell and Lenovo occupy (and where things like "FRU replacement" manuals and labeled screws are still the norm.) MS has lobbied heavily against RtR in the past and I don't think that's changed.

transpute 2y ago
Possible factor: this generation of Surface is under new leadership, https://pureinfotech.com/panos-panay-quits-microsoft-yusuf-mehdi-replacement/ https://pureinfotech.com/panos-panay-quits-microsoft-yusuf-m... Even Lenovo is improving repairability, https://www.androidauthority.com/easily-upgradeable-laptops-are-making-a-comeback-and-im-here-for-it-3418970/ https://www.androidauthority.com/easily-upgradeable-laptops-...
- fhub 2y ago
  Could a hardware product be turned around that quickly? Sep 18 2023. Honest question.
  - transpute 2y ago
    Some staff departures can signal the end of a process that started earlier. Either way, past Surface may not predict future Surface.
- shrubble 2y ago
  Also left, now at telecom Lumen (merger of Level3 and CenturyLink) https://news.lumen.com/ryan-asdourian https://news.lumen.com/ryan-asdourian : "Ryan also led Business Development and Marketing for the Microsoft Surface business group in the United States"
- praisewhitey 2y ago
  The article says the Surface had a 7/10 in 2022. A bump to 8/10 in 2024 isn't that significant to chalk up to a change in leadership.
  - transpute 2y ago
    Thanks for the correction, https://www.ifixit.com/News/33243/microsoft-announces-a-repairable-surface-laptop-and-boy-are-we-excited https://www.ifixit.com/News/33243/microsoft-announces-a-repa...
devjab 2y ago
It’s probably also in preparation for EU legislation on the area. Microsoft is a major player in the EU public sector and for good reason. They are one of the best IT-business partners you can have as an enterprise organisation on every aspect which isn’t necessarily technical, and their tech isn’t exactly bad either. What is the “realistic” alternative to most of their 365 platform? I say “realistic” because it’ll need to be used by people who can’t tell you if they are using iOS or Android when they need support. I’m guessing that part of staying on top of EU enterprise in general is being EU compliant, it’s a lesson AWS quickly learned from Microsoft as their support area went from Google to Microsoft in like half a year as they realized it was the only way to get in on all those billions.
- sofixa 2y ago
  > What is the “realistic” alternative to most of their 365 platform? I say “realistic” because it’ll need to be used by people who can’t tell you if they are using iOS or Android when they need support. Google's Workspace or whatever they call it this week. It's not really better than Microsoft in any aspect, but covers enough features and is familiar enough (most people probably had a Gmail at some point) to everyone.
  - creshal 2y ago
    Right until you need support. Microsoft's isn't great, but I don't have to create a new account at Bing's ad department and shove a few hundred bucks into it to guilt trip them into unblocking my old O365 tenant because a haywire AI accidentally closed it down, and that's the only department with something occasionally approaching customer support. With Google, that's just Tuesday.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      Used Workplace at my last company. (Paid of course.) I don't have any visibility into how IT liked their support but it seemed like a pretty good service--especially over time. Even Chat and Meet seemed more than adequate although they basically cut over to Slack if only because a good subset of the company insisted on using Slack whether officially or not.
elygre 2y ago
Perhaps unrelated, but it feels like Microsoft exists in a zone where anything good is by perceived to be by accident, while anything bad is by intention.

transpute 2y ago

Possible factor: this generation of Surface is under new leadership, https://pureinfotech.com/panos-panay-quits-microsoft-yusuf-mehdi-replacement/ https://pureinfotech.com/panos-panay-quits-microsoft-yusuf-m... Even Lenovo is improving repairability, https://www.androidauthority.com/easily-upgradeable-laptops-are-making-a-comeback-and-im-here-for-it-3418970/ https://www.androidauthority.com/easily-upgradeable-laptops-...

fhub 2y ago
Could a hardware product be turned around that quickly? Sep 18 2023. Honest question.
- transpute 2y ago
  Some staff departures can signal the end of a process that started earlier. Either way, past Surface may not predict future Surface.
shrubble 2y ago
Also left, now at telecom Lumen (merger of Level3 and CenturyLink) https://news.lumen.com/ryan-asdourian https://news.lumen.com/ryan-asdourian : "Ryan also led Business Development and Marketing for the Microsoft Surface business group in the United States"
praisewhitey 2y ago
The article says the Surface had a 7/10 in 2022. A bump to 8/10 in 2024 isn't that significant to chalk up to a change in leadership.
- transpute 2y ago
  Thanks for the correction, https://www.ifixit.com/News/33243/microsoft-announces-a-repairable-surface-laptop-and-boy-are-we-excited https://www.ifixit.com/News/33243/microsoft-announces-a-repa...

devjab 2y ago

It’s probably also in preparation for EU legislation on the area. Microsoft is a major player in the EU public sector and for good reason. They are one of the best IT-business partners you can have as an enterprise organisation on every aspect which isn’t necessarily technical, and their tech isn’t exactly bad either. What is the “realistic” alternative to most of their 365 platform? I say “realistic” because it’ll need to be used by people who can’t tell you if they are using iOS or Android when they need support. I’m guessing that part of staying on top of EU enterprise in general is being EU compliant, it’s a lesson AWS quickly learned from Microsoft as their support area went from Google to Microsoft in like half a year as they realized it was the only way to get in on all those billions.

sofixa 2y ago
> What is the “realistic” alternative to most of their 365 platform? I say “realistic” because it’ll need to be used by people who can’t tell you if they are using iOS or Android when they need support. Google's Workspace or whatever they call it this week. It's not really better than Microsoft in any aspect, but covers enough features and is familiar enough (most people probably had a Gmail at some point) to everyone.
- creshal 2y ago
  Right until you need support. Microsoft's isn't great, but I don't have to create a new account at Bing's ad department and shove a few hundred bucks into it to guilt trip them into unblocking my old O365 tenant because a haywire AI accidentally closed it down, and that's the only department with something occasionally approaching customer support. With Google, that's just Tuesday.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    Used Workplace at my last company. (Paid of course.) I don't have any visibility into how IT liked their support but it seemed like a pretty good service--especially over time. Even Chat and Meet seemed more than adequate although they basically cut over to Slack if only because a good subset of the company insisted on using Slack whether officially or not.

elygre 2y ago

Perhaps unrelated, but it feels like Microsoft exists in a zone where anything good is by perceived to be by accident, while anything bad is by intention.