I find the “new Microsoft” bittersweet. I’m happy about the embrace of open-source, but these improvements are more than offset by their new lows in user abuse and disrespect.
Windows 10 is loaded with native spyware, comes with ads in the Start Menu and file browser, the privacy settings that are available (which do not shut off all the spyware) use UI dark patterns to cajole users into leaving it on. Am I the only one who remembers that they were going to have the Xbox Kinect camera always-on in peoples’ living rooms until there was a giant public outcry?
I wish things were different but I don’t trust Microsoft whatsoever.
If I have to choose between the Win10 adware and the Win98/XP “crush all things not MSFT” mindset, I go for the adware (I mean I use Facebook)… but it feels so messy for such little gain. If it were just Cortana, sure, but everyone wants to be a marketplace + ad network nowadays.
But I feel like Microsoft is doing a lot of stuff that is well intentioned to making computing better. Some stuff like Edge is reacting to competition. But stuff like WSL is a great replacement to stuff like Cygwin (which has existed for years, WSL was not a necessity). Typescript and other Microsoft Research stuff is all very good. There’s a bit more earnest participation in standards because they want to be on the terrain
And even at the OS level, all the stuff that goes into driver signing/verification, advances in antivirus, etc. Given recent MacOS issues, I would trust new code by Microsoft over new code by Apple for correctness. There’s still legacy issues, ofc
Yeah, srsly. If you’d told me 5 years ago that I’d have newfound respect for MS today I would have laughed almost as hard as I would have if you told me in 2008 that 10 years later Windows would no longer be the dominant consumer OS. Major props to Satya for dragging MS out from the decadence that Ballmer lead it into.
“there is no denying that Microsoft has changed as a company in a way that is beneficial to the open source community and beyond.”
this is a bold claim which he doesn’t seem to back up. i see no reason to think that their new-found love for linux is anything but the “embrace” phase of a 3-part plan.
I find it hard to trust “new Microsoft” over old MS over QA. I haven’t used a Windows release buggy as 10 since 98.
They fired their QA department and outsourced them with script kiddie beta addicts - I can feel the difference in quality between 8.1 and 10, then you have the botched patches every so months, that used to almost never happen. It’s like they got infected with a nasty case of CADT when they “embraced” OSS.
Yeah, this is cool and all. Just don’t forget that one of Microsoft’s tried and true tactics is Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish. They’re currently embracing (“we <3 Linux”) and extending (WSL).
I find the “new Microsoft” bittersweet. I’m happy about the embrace of open-source, but these improvements are more than offset by their new lows in user abuse and disrespect.
Windows 10 is loaded with native spyware, comes with ads in the Start Menu and file browser, the privacy settings that are available (which do not shut off all the spyware) use UI dark patterns to cajole users into leaving it on. Am I the only one who remembers that they were going to have the Xbox Kinect camera always-on in peoples’ living rooms until there was a giant public outcry?
I wish things were different but I don’t trust Microsoft whatsoever.
Yeah, it’s all a bit rough.
If I have to choose between the Win10 adware and the Win98/XP “crush all things not MSFT” mindset, I go for the adware (I mean I use Facebook)… but it feels so messy for such little gain. If it were just Cortana, sure, but everyone wants to be a marketplace + ad network nowadays.
But I feel like Microsoft is doing a lot of stuff that is well intentioned to making computing better. Some stuff like Edge is reacting to competition. But stuff like WSL is a great replacement to stuff like Cygwin (which has existed for years, WSL was not a necessity). Typescript and other Microsoft Research stuff is all very good. There’s a bit more earnest participation in standards because they want to be on the terrain
And even at the OS level, all the stuff that goes into driver signing/verification, advances in antivirus, etc. Given recent MacOS issues, I would trust new code by Microsoft over new code by Apple for correctness. There’s still legacy issues, ofc
Yeah, srsly. If you’d told me 5 years ago that I’d have newfound respect for MS today I would have laughed almost as hard as I would have if you told me in 2008 that 10 years later Windows would no longer be the dominant consumer OS. Major props to Satya for dragging MS out from the decadence that Ballmer lead it into.
“there is no denying that Microsoft has changed as a company in a way that is beneficial to the open source community and beyond.”
this is a bold claim which he doesn’t seem to back up. i see no reason to think that their new-found love for linux is anything but the “embrace” phase of a 3-part plan.
agreed.
Embrace, extend, and extinguish.
I find it hard to trust “new Microsoft” over old MS over QA. I haven’t used a Windows release buggy as 10 since 98. They fired their QA department and outsourced them with script kiddie beta addicts - I can feel the difference in quality between 8.1 and 10, then you have the botched patches every so months, that used to almost never happen. It’s like they got infected with a nasty case of CADT when they “embraced” OSS.
Yeah, this is cool and all. Just don’t forget that one of Microsoft’s tried and true tactics is Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish. They’re currently embracing (“we <3 Linux”) and extending (WSL).