5 ms·

Beware a wolf in sheep's clothing... Edit: the downvoters clearly weren't in the industry in the 80's and 90's and haven't dealt with them in the enterprise /

Beware a wolf in sheep's clothing... Edit: the downvoters clearly weren't in the industry in the 80's and 90's and haven't dealt with them in the enterprise / volume licensing department recently. Comparing the two, they're even more ruthless, unfair and incompetent than ever and will screw you as hard as they can once you're locked in. This stuff gets you through the door, as does BizSpark etc, then you're not a friend but a cow for the milking via VL, audits and licensing changes. I speak from experience working for 4 paid up gold partners over the last decade and then dealing with them in a corporate capacity back to '95. Every game ends the same. Edit 2: appears you can't tell the truth about Microsoft these days in the same fashion you couldn't tell the truth about Apple about 3-4 years ago...

chipotle_coyote 12y ago
Either that or the downvoters are willing to consider the possibility that 25 years -- not to mention a radically different market position -- makes a difference. The Microsoft of 2014 is not the Microsoft of 1989. ...in the same fashion you couldn't tell the truth about Apple about 3-4 years ago... Yeah, if only there had been lots of people highly critical of Apple in 2011. Whatever happened to that Android thing, anyway?
- allegory 12y ago
  Having been there, as I stated in '95 and '14 (19 years difference), the story is exactly the same. Only the marketing and front end has changed. The cogs that drive the machine and the revenue mill have the same components and structure. The market position is pretty much the same. Bar some new consumer markets, they have almost total domination of the business and enterprise sector. They even made a big dent in the entertainment sector with XBox with the piles of cash and losses they incurred and came out on top.
- mbreese 12y ago
  If you were around here back then, you'd know that it was pretty common for anti-Apple things to get down-voted quickly on HN. I think the pro-Apple / pro-Android voting has pretty much gone away since the comment scores have been hidden.
  - guiomie 12y ago
    HN existed in 95' ?
    - jaredsohn 12y ago
      That was referring to the second half of the GGP post (i.e. "you couldn't tell the truth about Apple about 3-4 years ago.")
  - coldtea 12y ago
    >If you were around here back then, you'd know that it was pretty common for anti-Apple things to get down-voted quickly on HN. Because most were trite-BS? Like the same advice market pundits used to give Apple that in hindsight was always wrong, like that "Zune will crash them", or they "need to make a netbook NOW" (in 2010), "stuff is overpriced" etc etc. Heck, people were even championing the Dell Ditty in forums... Now, if you have something serious to say about Apple, e.g regarding their technology, or the consequences of having a walled garden approach (and say it without assuming that everybody in a discussion "ought" to be against a walled garden approach), then I don't think there would be a problem. We have had serious discussions critisizing Apple in HN for ages.

chipotle_coyote 12y ago

Either that or the downvoters are willing to consider the possibility that 25 years -- not to mention a radically different market position -- makes a difference. The Microsoft of 2014 is not the Microsoft of 1989. ...in the same fashion you couldn't tell the truth about Apple about 3-4 years ago... Yeah, if only there had been lots of people highly critical of Apple in 2011. Whatever happened to that Android thing, anyway?

allegory 12y ago
Having been there, as I stated in '95 and '14 (19 years difference), the story is exactly the same. Only the marketing and front end has changed. The cogs that drive the machine and the revenue mill have the same components and structure. The market position is pretty much the same. Bar some new consumer markets, they have almost total domination of the business and enterprise sector. They even made a big dent in the entertainment sector with XBox with the piles of cash and losses they incurred and came out on top.
mbreese 12y ago
If you were around here back then, you'd know that it was pretty common for anti-Apple things to get down-voted quickly on HN. I think the pro-Apple / pro-Android voting has pretty much gone away since the comment scores have been hidden.
- guiomie 12y ago
  HN existed in 95' ?
  - jaredsohn 12y ago
    That was referring to the second half of the GGP post (i.e. "you couldn't tell the truth about Apple about 3-4 years ago.")
- coldtea 12y ago
  >If you were around here back then, you'd know that it was pretty common for anti-Apple things to get down-voted quickly on HN. Because most were trite-BS? Like the same advice market pundits used to give Apple that in hindsight was always wrong, like that "Zune will crash them", or they "need to make a netbook NOW" (in 2010), "stuff is overpriced" etc etc. Heck, people were even championing the Dell Ditty in forums... Now, if you have something serious to say about Apple, e.g regarding their technology, or the consequences of having a walled garden approach (and say it without assuming that everybody in a discussion "ought" to be against a walled garden approach), then I don't think there would be a problem. We have had serious discussions critisizing Apple in HN for ages.