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From what I understand, like you said, the problem was that they spent too many years in "lets fix that later" mode. They couldn't be agile because they had too
by educating 13y ago
From what I understand, like you said, the problem was that they spent too many years in "lets fix that later" mode. They couldn't be agile because they had too much crap on the plate.
MS needs to have a haircut like Marissa Mayer gave Yahoo. Hardware and SAAS are not the way for MS; they need to get back into large(r) system OS dev in a big way, to run house and building automation. The game console should only be part of it. If they want to do hardware, it better be to run the code they write, otherwise they will be stomped.
- sillysaurus2 13y agoSpeaking of Yahoo, have Mayer's ideas turned out to be very effective yet?
- presidentender 13y agoWell, we are speaking of Yahoo.
- cremnob 13y agoThey're definitely seeing more traffic. http://readwrite.com/2013/09/11/yahoo-marissa-mayer#awesm=~ohbfUjbayJ7bJz http://readwrite.com/2013/09/11/yahoo-marissa-mayer#awesm=~o...
- InclinedPlane 13y agoPart of that is due to the way they do employee reviews. People are rewarded more (in the form of control over their own job, promotions, and bonuses) for building new things in a short time frame than they are for fixing old stuff that's broken or flawed.
- dreamfactory 13y agoare you saying they have too much focus on innovation?
- CamperBob2 13y agoHe's confusing Microsoft and Google, it sounds like. At Microsoft you're rewarded primarily for stabbing your co-workers in the back.
- educating 13y agoBackstabbing happens everywhere, unfortunately. The main problem with MS was that it was too profit driven for too many years instead of trying to do what was best for the users. Making profit eventually has a direct correlation to providing consistent quality that is better than the next guy or more consistently better. It all comes back to happiness; customers are happier when they get what they expect (intuitive) and what the need (low bugs, fast), not what they want (shiny UI). They had some really shitty code. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/2/15/71552/7795 http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/2/15/71552/7795 My fav: private\ntos\w32\ntuser\client\nt6\user.h: * The magnitude of this hack compares favorably with that of the national debt.
- notJim 13y agoDid you read your link? > Despite the above, the quality of the code is generally > excellent...
- educating 13y agoThe author was very obviously biased: > In short, there is nothing really surprising in this leak. Microsoft does not steal open-source code. Their older code is flaky, their modern code excellent. Their programmers are skilled and enthusiastic. Problems are generally due to a trade-off of current quality against vast hardware, software and backward compatibility. "Their programmers are skilled and enthusiastic." How would you get that from a code reading? Comments? No developer I know puts enthusiastic comments in unless they are being sarcastic. So, I think the summary tries to whitewash it. The comments show some problems that never got fixed or addressed properly. They are signs that code at the time was being developed quickly and haphazardly. That is what I mean by crappy. And I'm talking about it being historically crappy, not the way it is today. I can't speak for the state of their code in every project they currently manage.