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Microsoft Out of Favor With Young, Hip Developers

Posted by kdawson on from the so-last-week dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft's failures with the KIN phone (only two months on the market, less than 10,000 phones sold) are well-known to this community. Now the NY Times goes farther, quoting Tim O'Reilly: 'Microsoft is totally off the radar of the cool, hip, cutting-edge software developers.' Microsoft has acknowledged that they have lost young developers to the lures of free software. 'We did not get access to kids as they were going through college,' acknowledged Bob Muglia, the president of Microsoft's business software group, in an interview last year. 'And then, when people, particularly younger people, wanted to build a start-up, and they were generally under-capitalized, the idea of buying Microsoft software was a really problematic idea for them.' Microsoft's program to seed start-ups with its software for free requires the fledgling companies to meet certain guidelines and jump through hoops to receive software — while its free competitors simply allow anyone to download products off a website with the click of a button." Update: 07/07 13:21 GMT by T : Tim O'Reilly says that while he "[doesn't] disagree with all of his conclusions," he's not happy with it Ashlee Vance's piece, writing "I was not the source for the various comments that were attributed to me," including the bit about "totally off the radar." (Thanks to reader gbll.)

10 of 775 comments (clear)

  1. Lure of free software? by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Funny

    But all my Microsoft software was fr.... uh, nevermind

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  2. A more appropriate quote seems to be... by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Developers, developers, developers, developers!

    -Steve Ballmer

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    1. Re:A more appropriate quote seems to be... by NNKK · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's when they actually lost all the "young, hip developers".

    2. Re:A more appropriate quote seems to be... by PRMan · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Microsoft needs new developers that are hip, not developers that need a new hip."

      (An homage to my favorite joke on Home Improvement.)

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    3. Re:A more appropriate quote seems to be... by Jurily · · Score: 5, Funny

      How does a snarky comment about Ballmer's on-stage antics turn into anything regarding C#/.NET/C++/Qt?

      I was drunk last night, that's how.

  3. Re:The New York Times. by sirrunsalot · · Score: 5, Funny

    True homosexual hipsters use mac and iPhone.

    Hey, but I... oh.

  4. Re:An appropriate quote seems to be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Burma Shave (tm)

  5. Re:Too narrow by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just reformat every two months, practice safe clicking, and have a separate, isolated machine dedicated to porn and Adobe products.

    That's just insane. Did you really think about the risk of infecting all your porn files?

  6. Re:Free by maugle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hoo, boy, I can just see the next wave of Microsoft ads:

    Most startups prefer to spend money on their core business instead of on Microsoft software...
    90% of startups fail.
    Buy from Microsoft!
    if you know what's good for you

  7. Re:An appropriate quote seems to be... by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Funny

    First they ignore you.
    Then they ridicule you.
    Then they fight you.
    Then you win.

    First you copy this quote.
    Then you paste it into the comment box.
    Then you post the quote in any vaguely appropriate thread.
    Then you get an instant +5 karma.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne