Having come of age when Microsoft was a goliath, it’s actually kind of funny that this becomes a point of pride for them.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google and several offshoots like Waymo and Google Fiber, has been leading Microsoft since it was first formed in 2015. But over the past few months, Microsoft slowly gained ground due to its valuable cloud computing business, according to the report.
This makes Microsoft the third most valuable publicly traded company, with Apple in first at $918 billion and Amazon second at $788 billion.
Microsoft has quietly been doing a pretty good job of improving their product line. Edge is pretty decent for a browser. Outlook/Hotmail is almost as good as Gmail these days (and you can actually even get a good email address with it!). I recently made the switch from GoogleDrive to OneDrive. And Bing is really good.
Of course, Zune was really good and it’s dead. That’s the thing about all of the above: They’re getting good only after it ceases to matter.
But diving into OneDrive is a pretty big deal for me, as someone who was looking into leaving Microsoft entirely (for Linux) a few years ago. They made Windows authentication a lot easier so I wasn’t fighting them for the ability to install software I had a legal right to. I made the decision a while back for potential future career reasons I should refamiliarize myself with Microsoft Office and so I’ve been moving away from LibreOffice. The mark of their success is creating something where all of these things OneDrive, Office, and Windows make each other better and make it harder for me to deviate.
Except, unlike in the big bad monopoly days, they do so by making their products better instead of sabotaging everyone else’s.
On the other hand, I had a laptop with Windows 10 and absolutely despised it. I also resented the efforts to strong-arm me into switching my desktop to 10 from 7. This included actually loading it, I assume because in a moment of inattention I didn’t tell them no firmly enough. I solved this problem by refusing to agree to the terms of service, producing a reaction of shock and mystification. I didn’t replace the laptop, since I can do most of what I did on it with a tablet. Should I decide to get another, Linux is a real possibility.Report
I hate Windows 10’s search function.
I try to search for my resume and it sends me to the web. No, I’m trying to search for *MY* resume. The one on *MY* computer.
If Linux could just figure out games…Report
I was myself annoyed with Microsoft’s persistence on upgrading, but once I really had wished I had done it sooner.
My main issue with Linux these days is that it doesn’t have much in the way of cloud support. I mean, it’s a lot to expect Microsoft to sign on but Google didn’t, either. That’s becoming a bigger part of how I compute.Report
Yeah, Windows 10 is absolute flaming horse shit in my opinion. Lord(Lady?) I -loathe- it. I can’t think of a Windows I hated more.Report
After years and years on a Mac, I recently picked up a Surface Book 2.
Windows 10 is sort of adequate, but otherwise it’s just a much better product than the MacBooks I’ve been using for the last several iterations. Comparable or superior specs and display at a somewhat lower price, similar fit ‘n’ finish, but they actually did a really good job making it convert between a laptop and a tablet.
Also, maybe the best laptop keyboard I’ve used. while the current generation of MacBook Pro keyboards are almost unusably bad.Report