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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."

24 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.

  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
  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.

    --

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

  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 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.

  7. 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.
  8. 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.

  9. 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? ;)

  10. 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
  11. 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?
  12. In other news... by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...several sales associates left Walmart for Target.

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    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  13. Re:Cost of Living? by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  14. 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.

  15. 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.
  16. 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...

  17. 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).

  18. 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"
  19. Re:The worste? by raftpeople · · Score: 4, Funny

    and you get the sunny days off


    Yep, both of 'em.

  20. 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.

  21. 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
  22. Re:Ready, aim... by BlueCollarCamel · · Score: 3, Funny

    Star Wars != Nerd

    --
    1&1 - Cheap domain and web hosting.
  23. 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.