4 ms·

Proprietary product guides? No, thank you.)

mercurial 14y ago
Yeah, I guess I'm not part of the "everyone" refered on the webpage. I'd rather a get a "best papers from Microsoft Research" or something similar.
cooldeal 14y ago
I really don't understand comments like yours. If a posting doesn't interest you, why not just move on to the next instead of feeling compelled to sneeringly comment in a deprecating way with an air of smug superiority? What does your comment add to the discussion?
- belorn 14y ago
  One might "question" the nobility of giving books to students (the blog is named "UK Schools blog"), in which to get any use of, you need to buy proprietary software. If the books includes a copy of SQL server, windows server, Microsoft office or Visual studio, then it might be different, but as it stand, it just advertising masquerading as books, directed at students.
  - CrazedGeek 14y ago
    Microsoft does effectively include that software via DreamSpark: https://www.dreamspark.com https://www.dreamspark.com
- dschiptsov 14y ago
  Lets say I hate such primitive attempts of cheap manipulation. At least not here.
  - EwanToo 14y ago
    What manipulation do you think is going on here? Do you think recoiledsnake is a Microsoft-shill, or something else? Looking at his previous posts and comments, I seriously doubt he is.
- ben0x539 14y ago
  Perspective?
- Create 14y ago
  Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco—in a world where only one company sells tobacco. Like any addictive drug, it inculcates a harmful dependency. (Bill Gates made this comparison in a 1998 issue of Fortune Magazine.) No wonder Microsoft offers the first dose to children at a low price. Microsoft aims to teach poor children this dependency so they can smoke Windows for their whole lives. I don’t think governments or schools should support that aim. http://bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php http://bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php
mmahemoff 14y ago
This is fine though for MS developers. The titles are very clear about the technology. It would only be cause for concern if they used misleadingly generic titles, like Securing Your Server where the whole book after the intro is about security tools for MS stack.
mpyne 14y ago
KDE developer here, still found the link useful (especially for HN). Even when developing for proprietary platforms, many (though not all) of the concepts transfer over well to FOSS platforms, including for security, SQL, cloud/async programming, etc. Free/cheap resources for a proprietary compiler (Borland C++ 5.02) were what led to me learning to program (and later learning about Linux) and so I want to explicitly make clear that such things are not inherently bad for Free Software or open source.
- easytiger 14y ago
  I think his point is all these ebooks are pointless WTR content and you might as well read your bus pass to learn anything useful

Yeah, I guess I'm not part of the "everyone" refered on the webpage. I'd rather a get a "best papers from Microsoft Research" or something similar.

cooldeal 14y ago

I really don't understand comments like yours. If a posting doesn't interest you, why not just move on to the next instead of feeling compelled to sneeringly comment in a deprecating way with an air of smug superiority? What does your comment add to the discussion?

belorn 14y ago
One might "question" the nobility of giving books to students (the blog is named "UK Schools blog"), in which to get any use of, you need to buy proprietary software. If the books includes a copy of SQL server, windows server, Microsoft office or Visual studio, then it might be different, but as it stand, it just advertising masquerading as books, directed at students.
- CrazedGeek 14y ago
  Microsoft does effectively include that software via DreamSpark: https://www.dreamspark.com https://www.dreamspark.com
dschiptsov 14y ago
Lets say I hate such primitive attempts of cheap manipulation. At least not here.
- EwanToo 14y ago
  What manipulation do you think is going on here? Do you think recoiledsnake is a Microsoft-shill, or something else? Looking at his previous posts and comments, I seriously doubt he is.
ben0x539 14y ago
Perspective?
Create 14y ago
Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco—in a world where only one company sells tobacco. Like any addictive drug, it inculcates a harmful dependency. (Bill Gates made this comparison in a 1998 issue of Fortune Magazine.) No wonder Microsoft offers the first dose to children at a low price. Microsoft aims to teach poor children this dependency so they can smoke Windows for their whole lives. I don’t think governments or schools should support that aim. http://bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php http://bostonreview.net/BR33.6/stallman.php

mmahemoff 14y ago

This is fine though for MS developers. The titles are very clear about the technology. It would only be cause for concern if they used misleadingly generic titles, like Securing Your Server where the whole book after the intro is about security tools for MS stack.

mpyne 14y ago

KDE developer here, still found the link useful (especially for HN). Even when developing for proprietary platforms, many (though not all) of the concepts transfer over well to FOSS platforms, including for security, SQL, cloud/async programming, etc. Free/cheap resources for a proprietary compiler (Borland C++ 5.02) were what led to me learning to program (and later learning about Linux) and so I want to explicitly make clear that such things are not inherently bad for Free Software or open source.

easytiger 14y ago
I think his point is all these ebooks are pointless WTR content and you might as well read your bus pass to learn anything useful