7 ms·

> I still don't forgive Microsoft for being absolutely massive tools in the past. As a person who seems to defend Microsoft quite often on HN, I can't shake th

by runjake 13y ago

> I still don't forgive Microsoft for being absolutely massive tools in the past. As a person who seems to defend Microsoft quite often on HN, I can't shake the feeling that if they get to first place in anything, they'll become massive tools once again. I like seeing them as the underdog, it forces Microsoft to be kinder and more free, but I think innovation and progress would be seriously hindered (once again) if they grabbed the crown in a particular space.

loup-vaillant 13y ago
What does "being massive tools" mean?
- eksith 13y ago
  A "tool" in this context is something to be avoided : http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tool http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tool
- ChuckMcM 13y ago
  At least in American slang "a tool" is synonymous with someone who is rude, uncaring, and generally arrogant. A "massive tool" is someone who takes all of those properties up a level.
- Toshio 13y ago
  Excerpted from Urban Dictionary: "The tool is usually someone who is unwelcome but no one has the balls to tell them to get lost. The tool is alwasys making comments that are out-of-place, out-of-line or just plain stupid. The tool is always trying too hard to fit in, and because of this, never will."
- gpvos 13y ago
  http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tool#Noun http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tool#Noun I guess it's #7: An obnoxious or uptight person.
- jtms 13y ago
  in this context a "tool" is a synonym for "dick"... basically stating that Microsoft are a bunch of dicks.
- pohl 13y ago
  "Tool" is a synonym for "dick" that you can utter even in polite company.
electrichead 13y ago
In a way it has happened already with the XBox. After (in my opinion) winning the previous generation of console wars, they set out to ignore their main audience to appeal to the ones their marketing team has decide to target. The only thing I really liked seeing from MS recently was Sharepoint 2013, which really is very good, especially for developers.
- enjo 13y ago
  Really? I'd actually be interested to hear more about Sharepoint. My experience with it is getting to be awhile ago, and it was VERY unpleasant. What does it do for developers now?
  - electrichead 13y ago
    The single biggest thing for me was the framework for deploying "apps" through azure. You can create webparts or other bits of functionality that can be reused but hosted externally on Azure. There is a self-hosted option where the URL is a generated one but has a trust setup already; but there is also the option to use your own azure hosting but you need configure the trust yourself. One other thing I liked is that there is no more need for a SharePoint Designer - there is a new method of designing sites that is way more configurable than in the past. You can configure almost everything, but as it always is, you will find that you need to do quite a bit of research on your own to get things 100%. All in all though, it is a very solid offering from MS that nobody really talks about. One of the main pain points from the past is that everyone thought it was a CMS when really it was a document management system. Now it actually can be both. There is a talk on YouTube from the unveiling of 2013 that is well worth a watch (although it is over an hour long)
  - Maarten88 13y ago
    You program "Apps" for it that work very much like Facebook Apps. It's all web standards: get an oath token with sufficient scope from the user and then use the new _api to get data in and out. .net, Azure and javascript are supported and documented best, but you can use any language and run SharePoint apps on any platform.
MichaelGG 13y ago
Take, for instance, SQL Server. It's become quite an interesting and capable platform over the last decade. It used to be that Microsoft took the stance that hardware improvements were the customer's benefit, so they'd license per socket, full stop. They used to mock Oracle with their licensing depending on what kind of CPU and how powerful it was. Latest SQL Server? Yep, you pay depending on the CPU vendor (AMD or Intel) and the type of chip.
- bad_user 13y ago
  Just use something open-source - you'll get the Awesome [1] edition on any kind of chip. I never understood why some people prefer to buy licensed stuff from Oracle or Microsoft. Do you like pain? [1] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/oh-you-wanted-awesome-edition.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/oh-you-wanted-aweso...
  - icebraining 13y ago
    I never understood why some people prefer to buy licensed stuff from Oracle or Microsoft. Do you like pain? "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment"
    - jlgreco 13y ago
      Right, there is more than one sort of pain. There is the pain your developers feel when they work with something painful, and there is the pain managers feel when they have to justify "not buying IBM" when something goes wrong (something will go wrong regardless, that is the nature of the beast). So people "buy IBM" because they don't like pain.
  - MichaelGG 13y ago
    The only good open source SQL RDBMS I'm aware of is Postgres. The moment Postgres has the feature range of SQL Server (SSIS, SSRS, SSAS), supports the same HA features without hassle, and is generally even half as easy to manage, I'll switch. Meanwhile, life's too short for me to want to become a "real" DBA.

by runjake 13y ago

loup-vaillant 13y ago

What does "being massive tools" mean?

eksith 13y ago
A "tool" in this context is something to be avoided : http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tool http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tool
ChuckMcM 13y ago
At least in American slang "a tool" is synonymous with someone who is rude, uncaring, and generally arrogant. A "massive tool" is someone who takes all of those properties up a level.
Toshio 13y ago
Excerpted from Urban Dictionary: "The tool is usually someone who is unwelcome but no one has the balls to tell them to get lost. The tool is alwasys making comments that are out-of-place, out-of-line or just plain stupid. The tool is always trying too hard to fit in, and because of this, never will."
gpvos 13y ago
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tool#Noun http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tool#Noun I guess it's #7: An obnoxious or uptight person.
jtms 13y ago
in this context a "tool" is a synonym for "dick"... basically stating that Microsoft are a bunch of dicks.
pohl 13y ago
"Tool" is a synonym for "dick" that you can utter even in polite company.

electrichead 13y ago

In a way it has happened already with the XBox. After (in my opinion) winning the previous generation of console wars, they set out to ignore their main audience to appeal to the ones their marketing team has decide to target. The only thing I really liked seeing from MS recently was Sharepoint 2013, which really is very good, especially for developers.

enjo 13y ago
Really? I'd actually be interested to hear more about Sharepoint. My experience with it is getting to be awhile ago, and it was VERY unpleasant. What does it do for developers now?
- electrichead 13y ago
  The single biggest thing for me was the framework for deploying "apps" through azure. You can create webparts or other bits of functionality that can be reused but hosted externally on Azure. There is a self-hosted option where the URL is a generated one but has a trust setup already; but there is also the option to use your own azure hosting but you need configure the trust yourself. One other thing I liked is that there is no more need for a SharePoint Designer - there is a new method of designing sites that is way more configurable than in the past. You can configure almost everything, but as it always is, you will find that you need to do quite a bit of research on your own to get things 100%. All in all though, it is a very solid offering from MS that nobody really talks about. One of the main pain points from the past is that everyone thought it was a CMS when really it was a document management system. Now it actually can be both. There is a talk on YouTube from the unveiling of 2013 that is well worth a watch (although it is over an hour long)
- Maarten88 13y ago
  You program "Apps" for it that work very much like Facebook Apps. It's all web standards: get an oath token with sufficient scope from the user and then use the new _api to get data in and out. .net, Azure and javascript are supported and documented best, but you can use any language and run SharePoint apps on any platform.

MichaelGG 13y ago

Take, for instance, SQL Server. It's become quite an interesting and capable platform over the last decade. It used to be that Microsoft took the stance that hardware improvements were the customer's benefit, so they'd license per socket, full stop. They used to mock Oracle with their licensing depending on what kind of CPU and how powerful it was. Latest SQL Server? Yep, you pay depending on the CPU vendor (AMD or Intel) and the type of chip.

bad_user 13y ago
Just use something open-source - you'll get the Awesome [1] edition on any kind of chip. I never understood why some people prefer to buy licensed stuff from Oracle or Microsoft. Do you like pain? [1] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/oh-you-wanted-awesome-edition.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/oh-you-wanted-aweso...
- icebraining 13y ago
  I never understood why some people prefer to buy licensed stuff from Oracle or Microsoft. Do you like pain? "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment"
  - jlgreco 13y ago
    Right, there is more than one sort of pain. There is the pain your developers feel when they work with something painful, and there is the pain managers feel when they have to justify "not buying IBM" when something goes wrong (something will go wrong regardless, that is the nature of the beast). So people "buy IBM" because they don't like pain.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  The only good open source SQL RDBMS I'm aware of is Postgres. The moment Postgres has the feature range of SQL Server (SSIS, SSRS, SSAS), supports the same HA features without hassle, and is generally even half as easy to manage, I'll switch. Meanwhile, life's too short for me to want to become a "real" DBA.