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Comment by whatshisface | Hacker News Reader

It is true that Microsoft has been behaving well lately (GWX aside,) but it is also the case that their getting-away-with-it power is at an all time low.

Microsoft would benefit if they could do all of these anti-consumer things, but that recent stampede towards Linux proved that the tennantry can be easily spooked and dangerous when on the move. Developers are leaving windows to work on Linux and Mac, to the extent that I have not seen a start menu on a single laptop in the entire CS department. If, at some point in the future we all ended up locked in to .net, I would be surprised if Microsoft's management continued their support of these charitable projects.

In that light, I think it would be wise for us to avoid getting locked back in - so that Windows might continue moving towards being a nice place to work.

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>but it is also the case that their getting-away-with-it power is at an all time low.

Actually, most, if not all of the provisions, of the DOJ settlement have expired. This is why they can ship an AV with their OS and tell OEM's to cut it out with the crapware and offer special installers to remove this stuff.

I think they're just too weak to be the MS of the 90s. They just have to play ball to be competitive like everyone else. This is a good thing. Yet somehow the hysterical anti-MS attitudes are still here. Look at this thread. Its 90% conspiracy theories and axe grinding from things a decade out.

It's not just MS that has changed. Every aspect of every industry that MS competes in has changed.

To argue that the same business practices from the 90s apply today, especially in the technology sector where the entire plane shifts radically every other year... that's just crazy. I don't see why so many people buy into it still.

I suspect a lot of is that people formed that opinion of Microsoft in their formative years. This generation we commonly see on HN has this childhood definition of Microsoft as evil internalized at a pretty deep level. People look for reasons to justify their beliefs more than they look for reasons to challenge them.

There are companies I got a bad impression of many years ago too that I am hesitant to reevaluate. I think it's pretty normal/natural, even though it's kinda unhealthy from an intellectual standpoint.

> Yet somehow the hysterical anti-MS attitudes are still here.

Reputation is everything.

> Its 90% conspiracy theories and axe grinding from things a decade out.

There are 2/64 comments expressing this view. You're being hyperbolic. The main theme recently has been "Wow, I never thought I would like MS again, but they're impressing me!"

If anything, MS is the new darling brand of the big five here.

If anything, MS is the new darling brand of the big five here.

Eh, they're not as evil as they used to be. But they're not doing as much as I would like to protect user privacy either. So I'm not super happy with them.

Though I really the the Hololens, I hope that goes into mass production soon with a good field of view. That product might get me to buy into more of their ecosystem.

To be fair, nobody is really doing anything to protect user privacy anymore.

>Look at this thread. Its 90% conspiracy theories and axe grinding from things a decade out.

To be fair, M$ earned this.

Are we still writing "M$" in 2016? G$$g£€ or A$$$on seem more appropriate based on growth and profits.

We do not forget what the M$ stands for. Nor should we. Sure there are others, who are admittedly more evil, but M$ is no angel and it never was.

I am, at least a couple others are, so there is a 'we' using it.

You'll stay with the tech you locked yourself in. I work in one of several buildings and macs there are just to let others know that you are a manager and you can get away with anything you want. Beside that everything is a MS pc and will stay that way until the business die.

Getting everyone into the system is infinitively expensive, so is getting everyone out of it.

> Getting everyone into the system is infinitively expensive, so is getting everyone out of it.

While there are some costs to switching away from an OS/ecosystem, there's a limit to them, and it's often low enough to be economical for a business to switch or to allow some of its employees to switch (I've seen this with development shops that switch from Windows to mostly Linux with a little OS X).

I work in a large 5000+ software company and were honestly about 30-40% macs. An MBPr is a good investment - I figure my 3yo machine will easily retain about 35-50% of its value if resold.

That's an odd definition of an investment. My MBPr was definitely an expense, and I love it.

I suppose the enjoyment I have received from using it could be considered dividends of sorts, and so I could see calling it an investment from that perspective. But not financially.

Is that one of the ones that is old enough that it can actually be opened up and have components upgraded?

I've been hearing about used 2012 MBPs selling for more than they cost new.

>> I've been hearing about used 2012 MBPs selling for more than they cost new.

Where? They go for $700 at the most on for sale forums.

Their 'getting-away-with-it' power hit an all-time low 10 to 15 years ago. They have drastically more room to abuse their position now than they did back when they were universally feared and relentlessly pursued by the US Government. Smart people actually thought Bill Gates was going to seize control of the Internet and put up toll roads, and that Microsoft would own all commerce. The scare-mongering and media insanity was non-stop for years in that regard. If I started listing sensational scare quotes about Microsoft from that time by other industry leaders, journalists, media publications, government leaders and other billionaires, we'd be here all day.

By comparison to what Microsoft went through in the late 1990s, today is a cakewalk, they have drastically more freedom and less of a spotlight on their behavior. Nobody really cares about Windows now, nobody fears Microsoft like they did in 1998, nobody thinks Bill Gates is Satan incarnate, nobody is calling for Microsoft to be broken into pieces.

I think you are misunderstanding... there are multiple dimensions to 'getting-away-with-it' power. While you are correct that Microsoft is under way less legal and public image scrutiny, they also have lost the lock in that gave them the power to do what they want and have everyone else in tech follow.

point blank most families these days have 3 or 4 iOS or Android computing devices for every 1 windows computing device.

> (GWX aside,)

Really, that lawsuit not enough to convince you it's a big deal? They're "upgrading" users without their consent/knowledge using ui dark patterns.

At least be honest if you work for Microsoft.

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