[WorldWideWayne]

Looking at the submitter's background I don't see any professional experience with Microsoft tech. Maybe someone can explain it to me - I don't understand why a guy has avoided Microsoft for his entire career feels the need to dredge up a 10 year old article that talks about events from over 30 years ago.

Too much pro-Microsoft news for you? Honestly - what's your interest here?

[mindcrime]

I don't understand why a guy has avoided Microsoft for his entire career feels the need to dredge up a 10 year old article that talks about events from over 30 years ago. Too much pro-Microsoft news for you? Honestly - what's your interest here?

A comment[1] somebody made yesterday on the "Twitter apologizes" story reminded me of this. I think it's an important story regardless of your opinion on Microsoft specifically, exactly because it highlights the risk inherent in building something on top of a platform you don't control. I wanted to highlight that that particular bit of wisdom isn't exactly something new.

Looking at the submitter's background I don't see any professional experience with Microsoft tech.

FWIW, I have spent plenty of time working with Windows and DOS in my life, I just don't highlight it, because it isn't really relevant to what I do now. I also don't mention OS/2, AS/400, RPG, Visual Basic and a laundry list of other things I've worked with that now seem more or less irrelevant.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10427499

[mgkimsal]

you should highlight some grails. :)

[crgt]

This quote was mentioned in the recent discussion of Twitter's outreach to developers. I believe the intent of this submission was to share a slice of relevant history with those in the community too young to have lived through it.

[mindcrime]

I believe the intent of this submission was to share a slice of relevant history with those in the community too young to have lived through it.

Exactly.

[WorldWideWayne]

I'm guessing that the millions of tech people who make their living off of Microsoft's back would probably disagree that building on a Microsoft platform is a bad idea.

[mindcrime]

would probably disagree that building on a Microsoft platform is a bad idea

But nobody said "building on a Microsoft platform is a bad idea". What is being said is that "building on anybody's platform involves risk, whether it's twitter, microsoft, facebook, google, IBM or $WHOEVER". The point of this post was to highlight an example of the discussion around this topic and to emphasize that it isn't a novel thing.

[WorldWideWayne]

Actually, "nobody said those words in the article or anywhere in the comments".

So, if your purpose was indeed to highlight that, you obviously failed since nobody here seems to be discussing that.

Here are some articles that say what you allegedly wanted to - https://www.google.com/search?q=risks%20building%20on%20some...

[mindcrime]

Dude, just drop it OK? I'm not sure what kind of fight you're trying to start here, or why, but I really don't give a fuck.

[Shorel]

Then I would say that building software that runs exclusively on MS is a bad idea.

That's the reason I don't use .NET and I have never poked inside a metro app.

And it is a reason for the explosion of the Appstores for mobile and webapps in general, startups want to bet on something that's not MS.

I guess not a single one of the YC companies writes exclusively windows software.

Multiplatform software for the win.

[JadeNB]

Can one only submit articles on topics in which one has professional experience?

[WorldWideWayne]

No, but I'm interested in the motivation in relation to their point of view.

But in general, it's beyond me at this stage why people single out Microsoft for being anti-competitive. It's completely unbalanced.

[JadeNB]

The posted article seems to be doing quite the opposite; it is arguing against that perception of Microsoft.

[WorldWideWayne]

It's a really bad example of what the submitter was allegedly trying to point out as you can see from his comment above.