4 ms·

I think that's the most twisted definition of "dogfooding" I've ever heard. Also, this article seems to be about 98% speculation from a site that has no previo

by mrkurt 17y ago

I think that's the most twisted definition of "dogfooding" I've ever heard. Also, this article seems to be about 98% speculation from a site that has no previous history of "inside sources" at Microsoft. Boo on that.

jay_kyburz 17y ago
Yeah, I came in here to say that in my world "dogfooding" means using your own application during development. To eat your own dog food.
- Timothee 17y ago
  I agree as well on that definition. Which is what brought me to start reading the article since I was really curious to know how Microsoft engineers using Sidekicks could have caused any issue.
- tvon 17y ago
  That's what came to mind for me as well, though I've never heard the term "dogfooding" before, just "eating our own dogfood" or something along those lines.
wglb 17y ago
Right, but the article seems to describe a culture that uses dogfooding to an extreme and rewriting/replacing software systems of acquired companies to use MS technologies.
- karzeem 17y ago
  Doesn't Google do the same thing, at least with a lot of its smaller acquisitions? Job #1 is rewriting the thing with Google's usual set of tools? (Not to suggest that Google doing it makes it right or wrong.)
  - pyre 17y ago
    I think the point is that Microsoft has a history of failures resulting from rewriting things in MS tech. At some point you just have to admit your weaknesses and deal with them rather than living in some sort of management-denial.
tlb 17y ago
Should there be a word? "NIH mentality" is close, but not exactly what's claimed in the article.
wizzard 17y ago
This. I love how the author takes the fact that Microsoft/T-Mobile haven't issued an official statement on the cause of the outage, and decides that it therefore MUST have been caused by an elaborate and sophisticated act of sabotage by some ne'er-do-well engineer. QED.
moonpolysoft 17y ago
The section on why danger failed within MS and the section on dogfooding are mostly true in my experience, having worked for an acquired company for almost a year now within MS. There is an unnatural compulsion within the company to expel foreign technologies, especially those of competitors. Inevitably acquired companies will wind up porting their software to whatever insane crap their business unit is using as a development stack. We're about to start going through that pain right now.

by mrkurt 17y ago

jay_kyburz 17y ago

Yeah, I came in here to say that in my world "dogfooding" means using your own application during development. To eat your own dog food.

Timothee 17y ago
I agree as well on that definition. Which is what brought me to start reading the article since I was really curious to know how Microsoft engineers using Sidekicks could have caused any issue.
tvon 17y ago
That's what came to mind for me as well, though I've never heard the term "dogfooding" before, just "eating our own dogfood" or something along those lines.

wglb 17y ago

Right, but the article seems to describe a culture that uses dogfooding to an extreme and rewriting/replacing software systems of acquired companies to use MS technologies.

karzeem 17y ago
Doesn't Google do the same thing, at least with a lot of its smaller acquisitions? Job #1 is rewriting the thing with Google's usual set of tools? (Not to suggest that Google doing it makes it right or wrong.)
- pyre 17y ago
  I think the point is that Microsoft has a history of failures resulting from rewriting things in MS tech. At some point you just have to admit your weaknesses and deal with them rather than living in some sort of management-denial.

tlb 17y ago

Should there be a word? "NIH mentality" is close, but not exactly what's claimed in the article.

wizzard 17y ago

This. I love how the author takes the fact that Microsoft/T-Mobile haven't issued an official statement on the cause of the outage, and decides that it therefore MUST have been caused by an elaborate and sophisticated act of sabotage by some ne'er-do-well engineer. QED.

moonpolysoft 17y ago

The section on why danger failed within MS and the section on dogfooding are mostly true in my experience, having worked for an acquired company for almost a year now within MS. There is an unnatural compulsion within the company to expel foreign technologies, especially those of competitors. Inevitably acquired companies will wind up porting their software to whatever insane crap their business unit is using as a development stack. We're about to start going through that pain right now.