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What Microsoft has done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor...

gtaylor 12y ago
Nobody here is denying that they've done bad things, but name a public tech giant that hasn't done stupid/bad things. They all suck. They answer to profit, first and foremost. They're going to bend rules and push the limits in the name of making a few pennies for their shareholders. Apple does it, Google does it, IBM does it, Amazon does it, they all do skeezy things in the name of profit. MS isn't special in this regard.
- astrodust 12y ago
  Microsoft is uniquely special in that they've built an empire on making second-rate versions of things other companies have done well. Internet Explorer, Windows Server, Windows itself. Apart from BASIC, which they built independently, everything else has been ripping on someone else. DOS, their first big success, was actually a crappy clone of CP/M. Design decisions in that haunt Microsoft to this very day. It's like the adage "good artists copy, great artists steal". Microsoft is firmly in the copy department. In any case, this recent missive from Microsoft shows, at best, a tiny shift in strategy. They're still doomed to obscurity. They'll be around for decades to come, they might even be fairly profitable, but nobody will care about Microsoft. They'll use their products for lack of choice. Few people today are choosing to use Microsoft and this couldn't be any clearer than their nearly complete failure in the tablet and phone market. Until they reinvent themselves, divest themselves of all the baggage anchoring them to the past, they're stuck. IBM unloaded an awful lot to get to the place they are today. Imagine how crippled they'd be if they were still making PCs and printers.
  - mkr-hn 12y ago
    Microsoft ICE is pretty solid. Also: https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/our-research/default.aspx https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/our-research/defa... My understanding is that Microsoft does a lot of cool stuff, but until recently most of it got shut down for conflicting with Windows/Office-centric priorities.
    - astrodust 12y ago
      It's interesting to see the contrast between Google, Apple and Microsoft. Google: Does tons of crazy things, launches a lot of them, many fail. Apple: Does tons of crazy things, tells nobody, launches a select few that turn into huge hits. Microsoft: Does tons of crazy things, tells some people, launches almost none of them, instead sells perpetually boring but massively profitable Office + Windows suite. The few break-out hits that Microsoft has had, Bing and Xbox, are both renegade projects that succeeded only because the teams were exceptionally determined and fought tooth and nail to avoid being sucked into the "Microsoft" world. Others, like Kin, were given weak support and pulled almost immediately after launch. The rest never see the light of day other than through papers and glimpses in tech demos.
      - icantthinkofone 12y ago
        Bing is not a "break-out hit". It loses $1 billion every year for Microsoft last I checked about a year ago. It's relatively little used and rarely do any of my client sites get search referrals from them (I own a web dev company).
- icantthinkofone 12y ago
  None of the companies you mention were almost broken up by the Justice Department, fined billions of dollars for this one event, or put under Federal oversight for almost 12 years.
  - smackfu 12y ago
    Well, IBM certainly had problem with antitrust back in the 60's and 70's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_IBM#1969:_Antitrust.2C_the_Unbundling_of_software_and_services http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_IBM#1969:_Antitrust....
    - icantthinkofone 12y ago
      "...the Justice Department finally concluded that the case was “without merit” and dropped it"
  - gtaylor 12y ago
    Never mind the price fixing, illegal hiring treaties, misuse of patents to stifle competition, the use of third world labor in terrible conditions, and more... Again, they all suck. Trying to paint one as better than the other is pretty silly.
wernercd 12y ago
Woosh. That's the sound of you being a complete retard. The post you are replying to even mentions anti-competitive practices. Pay attention? DESPITE faults (like anti-competitive behavior), MS has changed the world... What company hasn't made mistakes?

gtaylor 12y ago

Nobody here is denying that they've done bad things, but name a public tech giant that hasn't done stupid/bad things. They all suck. They answer to profit, first and foremost. They're going to bend rules and push the limits in the name of making a few pennies for their shareholders. Apple does it, Google does it, IBM does it, Amazon does it, they all do skeezy things in the name of profit. MS isn't special in this regard.

astrodust 12y ago
Microsoft is uniquely special in that they've built an empire on making second-rate versions of things other companies have done well. Internet Explorer, Windows Server, Windows itself. Apart from BASIC, which they built independently, everything else has been ripping on someone else. DOS, their first big success, was actually a crappy clone of CP/M. Design decisions in that haunt Microsoft to this very day. It's like the adage "good artists copy, great artists steal". Microsoft is firmly in the copy department. In any case, this recent missive from Microsoft shows, at best, a tiny shift in strategy. They're still doomed to obscurity. They'll be around for decades to come, they might even be fairly profitable, but nobody will care about Microsoft. They'll use their products for lack of choice. Few people today are choosing to use Microsoft and this couldn't be any clearer than their nearly complete failure in the tablet and phone market. Until they reinvent themselves, divest themselves of all the baggage anchoring them to the past, they're stuck. IBM unloaded an awful lot to get to the place they are today. Imagine how crippled they'd be if they were still making PCs and printers.
- mkr-hn 12y ago
  Microsoft ICE is pretty solid. Also: https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/our-research/default.aspx https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/about/our-research/defa... My understanding is that Microsoft does a lot of cool stuff, but until recently most of it got shut down for conflicting with Windows/Office-centric priorities.
  - astrodust 12y ago
    It's interesting to see the contrast between Google, Apple and Microsoft. Google: Does tons of crazy things, launches a lot of them, many fail. Apple: Does tons of crazy things, tells nobody, launches a select few that turn into huge hits. Microsoft: Does tons of crazy things, tells some people, launches almost none of them, instead sells perpetually boring but massively profitable Office + Windows suite. The few break-out hits that Microsoft has had, Bing and Xbox, are both renegade projects that succeeded only because the teams were exceptionally determined and fought tooth and nail to avoid being sucked into the "Microsoft" world. Others, like Kin, were given weak support and pulled almost immediately after launch. The rest never see the light of day other than through papers and glimpses in tech demos.
    - icantthinkofone 12y ago
      Bing is not a "break-out hit". It loses $1 billion every year for Microsoft last I checked about a year ago. It's relatively little used and rarely do any of my client sites get search referrals from them (I own a web dev company).
icantthinkofone 12y ago
None of the companies you mention were almost broken up by the Justice Department, fined billions of dollars for this one event, or put under Federal oversight for almost 12 years.
- smackfu 12y ago
  Well, IBM certainly had problem with antitrust back in the 60's and 70's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_IBM#1969:_Antitrust.2C_the_Unbundling_of_software_and_services http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_IBM#1969:_Antitrust....
  - icantthinkofone 12y ago
    "...the Justice Department finally concluded that the case was “without merit” and dropped it"
- gtaylor 12y ago
  Never mind the price fixing, illegal hiring treaties, misuse of patents to stifle competition, the use of third world labor in terrible conditions, and more... Again, they all suck. Trying to paint one as better than the other is pretty silly.

wernercd 12y ago

Woosh. That's the sound of you being a complete retard. The post you are replying to even mentions anti-competitive practices. Pay attention? DESPITE faults (like anti-competitive behavior), MS has changed the world... What company hasn't made mistakes?