You really have something against Microsoft don't you? It's kind of weird that from the dozens of posts that appear on HN on a daily basis, most(more than 80%) of your comments are on posts about Microsoft or nokia. (and even when the post isn't about them, your comment is).
Oh and you actually do submit stuff about Microsoft, but they are all Anti-Microsoft posts. (do elaborate how THAT equates to startup-relevant)
As much as we hate shills who just blatantly support brands for no good reason, we also hate people who blatantly hate companies for no good reasons. HN is a place for reasonable debate. If you think Some big player did something right, you praise them. If you think they made a mistake, you point it out and discuss why it is a bad move on their part. But why the pure hatred?
I believe the fact that you can collaborate on documents online with a suite that offers you quite high level of compatibility with legacy documents is relevant. Also, a big player in the software industry implemented something significant.
It's probably much more relevant to hackers that how important role India plays in controlling AIDS (or, for that matter, the daily BTC/Tesla/etc. posts).
Are you honestly saying that you cannot see how smart people with excellent computing could possibly do anything to help with significant problems such as HIV/AIDS or world hunger or food insecurity?
Are you really only interested in news about the latest cat-photo startup?
(I'm not dismissing those web sites. People have fun, and winning a start-up lottery gives that person money to spend on good science.)
All I'm saying is that I follow a subset of news that's related to tech and startup. Which means I don't have an informed opinion on:
> how smart people with excellent computing could possibly do anything to help with significant problems such as HIV/AIDS or world hunger or food insecurity
The fact that the most used office suite has added one of the most relevant features which may make it interesting as an alternative to google docs may be somewhat relevant to startups (they may be interested in using the 'most used office suite' again...).
But obviously, you are entitled to your own decisions.
> I flagged this submission, I hope the usual complainers understand why.
Perhaps you could explain why you think this is flag-worthy? I could understand that you might find it unimportant, or dull. But you've flagged it, and declared that you flagged it, which suggests you have some strongly negative feeling toward it appearing here.
I'd be interested to see where you'd put this on a scale with all the other stories that get subbed to HN.
> "strongly negative feeling toward it appearing here"
This isn't about feelings, I'm just adding a data point to HN ranking algorithm.
The reason I enjoy being on HN is because of this community's mindset of "let's disrupt the big, established, old players". Seen from that angle, this submission is irrelevant because it's not about disrupting a big player, it's about perpetuating a harmful monopoly.
It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle. -- widely attributed to Sun Tzu
Ahem, your post sounds so enthusiastic about a product that has proven to be a dud with consumers, that I'm missing some kind of disclosure from you. Therefore, let me ask you this: are you in any way affiliated with microsoft? As in, you know, employee, freelance evangelist or member of a benefit program such as MVP.
LATER EDIT: Yeah I looked at your profile, my suspicions were confirmed.
Its good to be aware that he does have a connection, but there are unaffiliated people that do like the Surface Pro.
Its a dud with consumers because the price is high and the implementation is lacking.
When the day finally arrives where someone absolutely nails the implementation of a hybrid device that's light enough to function as a tablet, as powerful and long-lasting as an ultrabook, capable of transforming from one to role to the other, while remaining competitively priced, pretty much everyone is going to want one.
I think that we are nearing the time when such a device is possible. Unfortunately, it hasn't been designed yet, so here we are discussing the failures of another half-hearted attempt at making convergence a reality.
There are bound to be people that say "Not everyone wants that", but if you could have a device that's equally well-suited to each role, without paying more, why wouldn't you?
Maybe because of my UNIX-influenced worldview which says that the things I'm using should be streamlined, do-one-thing-but-do-it-very-well, and should be "composable" as in ... via UNIX pipes, if we're talking about software utilities, and by putting them on the same network, if we're talking about computing devices.
Before the introduction of tablets, traditional computng devices performed the tasks now expected of tablets. They simply offered an alternative input method and a more convenient form factor.
We need to quit acting like convergence forces a computer to do something that its not well-suited for. Before the iPad, computers were used to consume content. In the past, we did have to make compromises, because the technology wasn't sufficiently mature. Now it is, and we don't have to compromise.
In my hypothetical scenario, the device is equally well suited to being used as a tablet or an ultrabook. Such a hypothetical device renders your argument moot, because your argument depdends on a hybrid device not being able to perform as well as a single purpose device. We are at the point where hybrids are a small fraction of a lb heavier than a tablet while in tablet mode, and a small fraction heavier than a Macbook Air while in laptop mode. This indicates that the technology is there, we simply need someone to come up with a good design.
Or perhaps it could just be that we find anything made by microsoft mind-numbingly uninteresting. Just like anything made by SAP, IBM, Oracle, CA and other old-guard tech companies. Seriously, why are there e.g. no SAP employees on HN wondering whether HN is really that anti SAP?
Is "I don't find this article interesting" a good reason to flag? If it got to the front page, people must have found it interesting. It seems like flagging would mean "this article does not belong on HN". I think the announcement of new phones and tablets in new form factors with new apps and an upcoming software update from Nokia would be relevant, moreso than a slightly thinner iPad with the same internals and software as the already released iPhone 5s, which will undoubtedly be filling the front page later today.
I'll take your word for it. But you have to be careful with your enthusiasm, because microsoft and satellites are known for their aggressive astroturfing, and you might sound like a paid shill.
Because the date on the account tells you how long somebody's been lurking, or if they had previous accounts.
I have been lurking here since about 2 years before you created your account (see what I did there?), and while comparisons with Reddit may have been misplaced, comparisons with Slashdot look more and more apt to me.
This kind of what's-a-good-word-for-it behavior is what makes me wish upon a star that microsoft would slide into irrelevance already and leave the software industry alone.
I think the point he is trying to make is that MS falling into irrelevancy correlates with something else replacing their products, thus, the alternatives in this scenario are better.
It's a nice thought, and not en entirely pointless one. The more population that migrates to alternatives, the better those alternatives become. Of course it's not linear, but right now it's all likely positive gains.
I flagged this submission, I hope the usual complainers understand why.
If you don't, by all means, please elaborate.