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Some Developers Leaving Google For Microsoft

recoiledsnake writes "We have heard about lots of talented developers jumping ship from Microsoft to Google, but is the trend beginning to turn? Dare Obasanjo (a Microsoft employee) writes about a few high-profile people picking Microsoft over Google — either making the jump directly, or choosing Microsoft after receiving offers at both. Sergey Solyanik is back to Microsoft and he primarily gripes about the culture and lack of career development at Google. He writes, 'Everything is pretty much run by [engineering] — PMs and testers are conspicuously absent from the process. Google as an organization is not geared — culturally — to delivering enterprise class reliability to its user applications.' Danny Thorpe, who was the key architect of Google Gears, is back at Microsoft for his second stint working on developer technologies related to Windows Live."

38 of 685 comments (clear)

  1. In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Observers report large numbers of chairs flying out the windows of Google headquarters. More at 11.

    1. Re:In other news by CDMA_Demo · · Score: 2, Funny

      Some memes never get old.

      Yes,and others are killed and buried prematurely...the zombies crawl out regardless.

  2. Right.... by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Google as an organization is not geared - culturally - to delivering enterprise class reliability to its user applications."

    Whew, good thing Microsoft is.

    1. Re:Right.... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Screw that. I want miranda-class reliability. Just so I can scream "Khaaaaan!" everytime I have a Windows problem.

      And by the way, it's not enterprise-class, it's Constitution-class. Sheesh.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    2. Re:Right.... by corbettw · · Score: 2, Funny

      -- godwin filter removed reference to unethical but successful leader --

      Since when is FDR part of Godwin's Law?

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  3. Hypocrisy or cluelessness? by subl33t · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Google as an organization is not geared -- culturally -- to delivering enterprise class reliability to its user applications." - Sergey Solyanik

    As opposed to Microsoft, which seems to be not geared - professionally - to delivering enterprise class reliability to its user applications.

  4. I don't know what "PMs" are by Punto · · Score: 5, Funny

    but they better STFU while the engineers are talking.

    --

    --
    Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!

    1. Re:I don't know what "PMs" are by jaminJay · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought they were more like DMs: they keep making stuff up until the entire team is eaten by a grue, out of money or their mums call them all home for dinner. They also get to deal out experience points if a mission ever completes...

      --
      Leela: "Is all the work done by children?" Alien: "No, not the whipping."
  5. Re:Is that so? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah! They should be run by marketing and management people, just like at Microsoft! Everyone knows that engineers can't be relied upon to produce enterprise quality software without marketing's careful guidance and input.

  6. Re:Cost of Living? by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pity poor Bill.
    Now that he is retired he has nothing better to do than troll /.

  7. Re:Cost of Living? by stewbacca · · Score: 4, Funny

    I prefer Austin. Our weather rocks, are salaries are great, and our houses are cheap. Unfortunately, Austin is surrounded by Texas.

  8. Re:Money talks by MMC+Monster · · Score: 4, Funny

    You are thinking small. Ask how many dump trucks full of money.

    Microsoft may consider it worthwhile to throw money at developers to keep them from working for google.

    Of course some people are going to choose Microsoft over Google. Just like there are some people that like wasabi flavored ice cream. There are freaks everywhere.

    --
    Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
  9. It's good to be useful. by FlyingBishop · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd have figured that they were just leaving Google so they'd actually have something interesting to do. At Microsoft, there's still loads of core functionality missing from their software.

    The myriad possibilities for improvement simply boggle the mind.

  10. that'll teach me by pete-wilko · · Score: 5, Funny

    I havn't RTFA's in a long time here, but wow, that second article is such a reminder in !RTFA = less desire to punch monitor. Wtf seriously, guy seems to be motivated only if people are buying the product as a measure of usefulness?? I dunno, maybe having 20 million people using some software you built might also be an indication of that? ;)

  11. Re:Cost of Living? by Surt · · Score: 4, Funny

    No doubt that's why the bookstores all have huge sections on 'dealing with depression' and great titles like 'bad weather, good mood' and 'gray skies aren't the end'.

    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  12. Re:Is that so? by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow. Where is this alleged paradise where Program Managers STFU and pay attention to the coders? Where testers don't get to touch it until it's ready for testing?

    ...do they have unicorns there too?

    /P

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  13. Chair throwing please by Eudial · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hopefully some of the google brass will have the humor to upload a video of themselves throwing a chair on youtube^Hgoogle video.

    --
    GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
  14. OMG! by martin-boundary · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sergey has left Google? SELL! SELL! SELL!

  15. In other news... by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...several sales associates left Walmart for Target.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  16. Re:less microsoft bias please? by Penguinisto · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bill, is that you? I thought retirees didn't get homesick for the old office until at least 12 months into retirement... ;)


    Reg'ds,
    /P

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  17. Re:Cost of Living? by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 4, Funny

    As a resident of the weather-blessed United Kingdom, I say: "HAH!"

  18. Re:Organization is everything... by Renderer+of+Evil · · Score: 4, Funny

    The problem is that beta products should eventually *leave* beta.


    That's what my parents told me in slightly different wording when I moved back with them after college. I tried to explain to them that forking the codebase would be a waste of resources but my developers wouldn't have any of it.

  19. Re:Organization is everything... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Hey, Vista was released. Unfortunately it feels more like alpha.

  20. Re:less microsoft bias please? by RattFink · · Score: 2, Funny

    Exchange? Active Directory? Group policy? Try to find an open source replacement for those products?

    How about a .45cal pistol and your foot? Has about the same 'user experience'.

    --
    "I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
  21. Huh? by lewp · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google as an organization is not geared -- culturally -- to delivering enterprise class reliability to its user applications.

    So Google isn't "geared... culturally" to deliver enterprise class reliability.

    What's Microsoft's excuse?

    --
    Game... blouses.
  22. Re:Cost of Living? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    As a Seattle resident, I can tell you that 1) the bookstores have no such thing

    Out of stock in Seattle isn't really a defense...

  23. Re:The worste? by funwithBSD · · Score: 2, Funny

    I heard in Seattle that you have to work all the rainy days and you get the sunny days off.

    Is that true?

    =)

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  24. Re:Cost of Living? by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Funny
    Yeah, the whole article just reeks of astroturf.

    Though I didn't find this argument quite so convincing...

    People working in Microsoft are relly very smart and skillful.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  25. Re:To waste time vs eyeballs by freakxx · · Score: 4, Funny

    hey, I have got a question: what the hell does your signature do? i mean: ":(){ :|:&};:". I tried to execute it and my computer got frozen. I don't know shell-scripting and have no idea what did it do (google didn't help).

  26. Re:The worste? by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 3, Funny

    A down poor at 80 degrees with extreme humidity in June

    ... is called shorts weather

    --
    "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
  27. Re:The worste? by raftpeople · · Score: 4, Funny

    and you get the sunny days off


    Yep, both of 'em.

  28. Re:The worste? by Evanisincontrol · · Score: 2, Funny

    I heard in Seattle that you have to work all the rainy days and you get the sunny days off.

    Is that true?

    =)

    Yes, but unfortunately that means you only get nine days off per year. Including weekends.

  29. Re:Cost of Living? by marcmerlin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Eh, I won't claim that the cost of living in the bay area is good, but your comments about being peer pressured into working until nighttime and weekends at google, aren't true.
    As you said "I work there, so I know".

    Sure, some people work there late, some by choice, and others because they showed up at work after noon.
    Sure, amongst 10K+ employees, you can find a few who are working late nights or occasional weekends, but those are definitely the exception more than the rule, and this is no different than your average company in the bay area.
    Also, believe it or not, but some geeks actually work nights and weekends, not because they have to, or feel pressured, but because they really have nothing else they want to do with their time.
    This has nothing to do with Google, some of the ones I know have always done this, whichever company happens to pay their salary at the time.

    Oh, and I apologize for working there and having a good livestyle with freetime during which I enjoy doing other things. Really, I'm sorry.

  30. Re:The worste? by niktemadur · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey, what did the Seattle guy say to the Pillsbury Dough Boy?

    "Nice tan, dude".

    --
    Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
  31. Re:Ready, aim... by BlueCollarCamel · · Score: 3, Funny

    Star Wars != Nerd

    --
    1&1 - Cheap domain and web hosting.
  32. Re:I've worked at both by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Given the choice, I'd probably choose to work for Google"

    no insight at all. everything you wrote could be gleaned from stories about these companies.

    you haven't worked for either, have you?

  33. Re:Dare Obasanjo may only be promoting himself. by melted · · Score: 3, Funny

    >> He doesn't want to be a manager

    That is, perhaps, why he got a title of "Principal Development Manager" when he returned. Man, there's a bridge I want to sell you.

  34. Re:Cost of Living? by Daengbo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, I lived in Monterey, which is a bit south of SF, and in Tacoma, just south of Seattle. I would take Monterey over Tacoma any day.

    I like to say that there's a reason Starbuck's and Seatlle's Best started in Seattle: when it comes on to February and you haven't seen anything but gray for six months, you've got a choice of super-caffeinating yourself or putting the barrel of a gun in your mouth ....