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by atonse 3706 days ago
Ok I'll feed the troll.

I've excitedly watched what Apple has done in the last 10 years (and exclusively use Apple devices in my home, and have convinced many family members to switch).

But as a technologist who likes to see companies with great resources move fast, to me MS has been much more exciting lately as a tech company than Apple.

We are seeing the manifestation of the new Satya Nadella decree, which went from "prop up Windows at any cost" to just "build stuff people like."

We're constantly seeing these kinds of things come out of MS now, and I can't help but see that it must be a really exciting time to be an MS employee right now, judging by the sheer amount of experimentation going on.
2 comments
akadien 3706 days ago
I think this nails it. In many ways, Microsoft is playing catch-up with Apple, Google, and Facebook. But they have good momentum right now. I, for one, am happy with the Nadella era.
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arsalanb 3706 days ago
Firstly, I didn't intend to "troll" Microsoft.

Well, I agree with the last sentence. Satya Nadella was the much needed U-turn from the Balmer era. It's just that by the standards Microsoft has set for itself, they've under-performed over the years. I'm talking about major failed experiments like Windows Vista, Lumia (or even the entire Nokia acquisition)

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crandycodes 3705 days ago
And I think that's why the "Satya U-Turn" is so promising. Vista and Lumia were Ballmer-era failures. I work at Microsoft on Azure; it feels like a new era. The open source feel is real, even if we might fail at it here and there. PMs on the freaking SQL Server team were using Macs, because they want to feel the pain of SQL users on Macs. It's really good stuff.
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arsalanb 3705 days ago
Absolutely. Now by my estimation there is still some effort going into supporting those Ballmer-era failures, but such is the burden of being a company as large as Microsoft.

Microsoft without the dead-weight of having to support failed tech — Now that is a place I would like to work.

Edit: Do you think that Microsoft is actively taking steps in trying to do away with supporting things like Vista, etc?

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