Microsoft Is the Most Exciting Company in Tech, Hands Down

by kurrent • 14 years ago

6 12 14 years ago

dougabug2• 14 years ago

Am I the only one who cringes at the notion of buying anything from Microsoft? In the 90's, if you mentioned the "Evil Empire," everyone knew who you were talking about. Today, Microsoft is, to quote Steve Jobs, "Largely irrelevant."

The Surface is a convertible tablet pc (like the one my gf was smashing out of frustration a couple nights ago), flattened by 10^5 atmospheres of pressure to 1cm thickness.

Let sleeping evil empires rest.

mtgx• 14 years ago

No. This is probably our own opportunity to get rid of/slow down the Microsoft monopoly, and yet many people "are excited to have Microsoft back". Strange.

Anyways, I fail to see how a company that brings us a boxy UI is more exciting than one that will bring us self-driving cars and AR glasses. But maybe it's just me.

bediger4000• 14 years ago

I figured this latest burst of news from Microsoft is just a bunch of PR hits, the kind Microsoft used to get in exchange for trade rag journalist trips to Redmond & etc. The late print magazine "Brill's Content" ran something of an expose of Microsoft's journalist grooming techniques in the late 90s.

Maascamp• 14 years ago

And support the conscious ones? Pretty much every major tech company these days (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Oracle, etc.) is evil in some ways and not in others. People are excited because Microsoft is one of the few tech companies with the resources to bring new choices to market on a large scale. Actively hoping for less competition seems rather myopic to me.

Who needs to leave Microsoft for you to stop cringing? Does it matter? Do you need to see the company fail before you're comfortable? What about the companies that hire their ex-employees? Will they become evil as well?

I'm a linux guy, but to Microsoft I say, "bring the noise!" In the end we'll all benefit.

shirkey• 14 years ago

You ask a compelling question with "who needs to leave Microsoft for you stop cringing?". I'd suggest it is an institutional problem, and while not completely unique to Microsoft (see Apple, Oracle), it is embodied within nearly every aspect of their business model -- save the recent open source bear-hug, the overarching corporate goal is to do precisely the opposite of what you would wish to see: to have all other market options whittled down to One Microsoft Way. They are not currently open -- and as long as Windows and Office continue their bewildering dominance within corporate IT departments, they will never be open, as it is antagonistic to that goal.

Hominem3• 14 years ago

They really are doing some cool stuff, the author mentions a few things. I'd also mention the stuff they are doing in software. ASP.NET MVC, F#, hell even good old C# is just getting better and better. There is plenty of room for Google, Apple and Microsoft to all create cool stuff.

MatthewPhillips2• 14 years ago

ASP MVC isn't very good.

Hominem3• 14 years ago

I'm not going to defend them any more unless they start cutting checks but you have to admit that even if you don't think it is any good at least they are trying. You work in a windows shop you use whatever Microsoft gives you, we could still be stuck with Web Forms.

Microsoft Is the Most Exciting Company in Tech, Hands Down

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