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If you were a professional filmmaker, would you only watch movies made by Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay? If you were a chef, would you refuse to eat anything
by hawkharris 13y ago
If you were a professional filmmaker, would you only watch movies made by Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay? If you were a chef, would you refuse to eat anything but lobster and filet mignon?
Apple and Google are the lobsters and the Steven Spielbergs of the technology world, so to speak: they're highly respected, rich and popular. In a way, there's nothing wrong with that: I use a Macbook, Gmail, etc., because I think they're very well made.
My argument isn't that the software industry should jump into bed with Microsoft; I'm saying that trying technologies like the Windows Phone is vital to our professional development as software engineers.
If you consider yourself a creator in any given field, you can't keep up without at least dabbling with different and sometimes lesser appreciated products. New ideas often emerge when we deviate from standard tools and practices.
- DanBC 13y agoI strongly agree with your post. It is baffling to me that some people on HN have such strong resistance to trying other platforms, or are so defensive of their favoured platform. I assume that all software sucks, all hardware sucks, and there are only minor variations in levels of suckage for experienced users. It's weird that many people on HN will have no experience with home computers of the 80s era, or different OSs.
- melling 13y agoYes, I agree and I completely understand. It would have been great if BeOS and OS/2 survived, for example. Unfortunately, Microsoft killed off all competition. Now we're stuck in a world where 90% of the world runs Microsoft's operating system, and there's very little innovation. I'm all for looking at Microsoft's ideas. I just feel safer with Google on 80% of the world's phones. It'll add balance have another major player.