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Comment by jw2013 | Hacker News Reader

jw2013

It's better late than never. It's just easier to say 'I quit' because it's likely none of Node.js developers will switch to using Visual Studio rather than give it a try. Though I probably will never use Visual Studio for writing my Node.js project, kudos for MS not being the old MS.

So what's next for MS? I think they are getting the direction right for opening up for external MS product users, and now it's time to recruit top talent again. There are just too many great hackers think MS is old (just look at some of replies in this story), which to large degree is true, and it will take time to fix that, but it can be possible done with: 1) create openness [culture, keep taking more open-source project like open-day-light, keep opening tech inside MS to others, etc.]; 2) buy early-stage companies through acqui-hire. It will be an uphill-battle and I am not an expert on this, and I am very interested in what other people here on HN thinks.

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There's a reason why Visual Studio continues to impress you.

I once saw a presentation of the Visual Studio lead in Belgium, where he claimed that there were over 1200 people involved in the Visual Studio project. If that's true, i don't think there is any IDE that can top that number and it explains why Visual Studio is the best tool for (almost any) job.

People should realize that Visual Studio is not solely C#, it's NodeJS, PHP, Mono, Python, javascript and so much more in one environment (with a good autocompletion). If you have Windows and are a developer, i suggest you to install one of the Express editions, just to try it out.

I must admit, not everything is "as awesome as it is" in the express versions because of some limitations on extensions, but in my experience, you can do everything you need in the Express editions. But i don't think visual studio wouldn't be as good as it is, if it was free or opensource. (replacing 1200 developers would be very hard).

PS. Can anyone confirm my statement of 1200 developers/freelancers? I really think that's the number the Visual Studio lead developer mentioned.

I think msft building this kind of tooling around exciting tech like node gives node more credibility in a big enterprise type of shop...will only be a good thing for node,

Exactly. This is a play for the next tier of developers, which will mostly be enterprise, mostly use Windows, and be much larger.

Very true. See my comment about the informal poll at Build -- 70/80% of ppl were planning on deploying python & node in their shops. Biased a bit since it was a node/python talk, but otoh, it was a Windows/.Net conference...

And with JS average developers being potentially cheaper (at least in future) the enterprise might actually consider it.

> I think they are getting the direction right for opening up for external MS product users, and now it's time to recruit top talent again. There are just too many great hackers think MS is old ...

I don't know who you think the "great hackers" are that Microsoft should hire, but Microsoft is overflowing with top talent. They don't need to "recruit top talent again", because they already were and long have been.

The research division of Microsoft was created in 1991 and employs computer scientists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians, including Turing Award winners, Fields Medal winners, MacArthur Fellows, and Dijkstra Prize winners. These 1,100 scientists and engineers collaborate with academic, government, and industry researchers to advance the state of the art of computing, and solve difficult world problems through technological innovation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Research

Microsoft's problem is management, not talent. They already some of the best talent money can buy.

> 2) buy early-stage companies through acqui-hire.

Why would Microsoft benefit from hiring inexperienced teams out of startups on the acquihire market?

Honestly, we are getting a lot better at management too. The tech leaders are starting to move to the front (see Scott Guthrie). In the past, it would have been the beancounter (see Kevin Turner).

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