[hevelvarik]

If when people say big tech they exclude msft (and include Facebook), they are simply wrong. .net, sqlserver, power bi, hell office are the blood flowing through Government and industry. Gaming is also tech and azure will get there if they just keep at it. The startup world is only a slice of the pie, and not the largest or most important .

If you don’t live on the coasts, and you want to invest in a stack that will keep you employed indefinitely and wherever you go, you pick dotnet hands down, and I say this as someone who hasn’t written a line of dotnet code

[raunakdag]

No matter what technologies MSFT have, the number one thought in people’s minds these days when you say big tech is simply FB G Amazon and Apple. It’s no longer MSFT up there with them. Definitely a stigma thing.

[vp8989]

FB is big ad. To say that MSFT is not big tech is absurd.

They have a widely used desktop operating system, a top-3 public cloud, they make their own laptops and other hardware, they make multiple widely used programming languages, they have one of the most widely used databases, they have a well regarded research division ... the list goes on

The scope of tech that MSFT works on is as big as anyone, and is what they primarily make their money from ... so why wouldn't anyone think it's "big tech"?

[muricula]

The Silicon Valley's idea of Big Tech didn't include MS a few months ago when they were leading the pack for most valuable company in the world. And somehow they're escaping anti-trust scrutiny right now too, so maybe it's better to have a less sexy profile.

[slaymaker1907]

Part of that could also be that Microsoft is much more willing to do things in order to avoid looking like a monopoly more than just forbidding the word monopoly. A lot of effort has been spent in bringing SQL Server to Linux as opposed to continuing to use it as a way to lock people into using Windows Server. That's not a charitable act mind you, but I doubt Microsoft under Balmer would have done it.

Disclaimer: I do work for Microsoft on SQL, but I am not in management nor do I speak in any capacity for Microsoft.

[anirudhgarg]

And simply from market cap - no. 2 in the world just behind Apple. 1.62 T

[Tsarbomb]

The only tech company that my grandparents from the old country could name is Microsoft. I think there is definitely a skewed perception from the commentators living in USA/CAN.

[RandallBrown]

It could be because I live in Seattle, but this seems completely untrue.

[pas]

it's absurd, but people rarely appreciate the runner ups. bing? not the best. office 365? nah, google docs is better.

and so it's not seen ad big tech, even if it's used by more people.

maybe it's also because MS tech talks don't really make no1 on HN.

[oblio]

Office 365 is crushing Google Docs in sales. It would have been hard not to :-)

[tester756]

Yea, I used to visit cs career questions too, but I don't think it is healthly and in touch with reality

Loud people do not always reflect reality very well :)

[unethical_ban]

Who cares?

They have sustainable business models in several segments, and even though they aren't on the cutting edge of pop culture, they're doing well.

[bennysonething]

Plus c# seems to be usually much further a head than java. See lamdas, async await...

One thing about Microsoft, their tooling just seems more polished and things tend to just work.

I'd be surprised if a lot of start ups don't start using c# since it's now open source and more platform agnostic.

[fauigerzigerk]

I was considering .NET Core for a project but they appear to have fallen behind the JVM rather dramatically when it comes to GC performance. The JVM now has low latency collectors for very large heaps. Is there any work being done in .NET Core to catch up?

[tester756]

dude, of course.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/performance-improvemen...

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/performance-improvemen...

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/performance-improvemen...

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/performance-improvemen... (most recent)

[cvhashim]

Yeah I work in the Midwest and have been learning .NET for a project I was recently onboarded on. C#/.NET has a stronghold in most enterprise companies out here.

[nobleach]

That's interesting. The .NET Core experience shows a lot of promise. I'd fear getting into an old school .NET shop almost as much as I'd fear getting into a "stuck in Java <= 1.7" shop.

[alfalfasprout]

I would kill for C# to be more popular in SV instead of the mess that is Java/JVM. Then again, Go is a better choice by far.

[rini17]

No need, just code a fully compatible alternative implementation. It's very unclear what is the situation with Mono (unlike alternative JVM implementations).