skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
May I know whom attacking MS Office?

Last time I checked, none of the online web two point ooh software can open big documents. These web-apps only match probably 20% of MS Office features and it's simply not enough these days when people are more tech-savvy than in the past.
Thanks SO MUCH for this...As a "green" company that (ohmygod!) doesn't actually have the word "green" in the title, we're constantly being asked "why the name?" Meanwhile, we're sitting there talking to VCs about sites like "Etsy." I hate being condescended to by a painfully obvious name. Like those washcloths that say "wash" and the towels that say "dry." C'mon.
Attention Orange County hackers..I need two co-founders
Microsoft died shortly before Bill Gates became a saint. Anyone who knows religion knows that you become a saint only when you die.
-
Anil Philip
Why stop there at geek-frat-house life? Add a camera, and wham, instant reality show: the trials and tribulations of six young programmers hard at work for their millions. There will be drama, and tears, and laughter, and everyone will come out better for it.
sounds like a solution in search of a problem. the ticket selling platform is esy, there are dozens of people doing that, but ticketmaster has a contractual lock on virtually all big venues and all big acts. Pearl Jam tried to tour without them in the late 90s and were blackballed. It was a great gesture, but none of their fans got to see them
We haven't heard back either. I guess the responses will be late.
So YC becoming hot bed of talent search? Good for everyone :D
"FYI, IPTV is better than YouTube."

If such blunt and sweeping statements are being made in Redmond then surely Paul Graham is right. Microsoft is dead.

To even think that IPTV and YouTube are 1 on 1 competitors represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what YouTube is all about.
I like radar a lot despite not having a camera phone anymore! It's wonderfully slick software.
'... whom attacking MS Office? (sic) ...'

every time I fire-up and use OpenOffice, I hear the 'cry' of another microsofty programmers` heart, breaking in two ... guess I fall in the second half.
I'm actually trying to build exactly that ... http://www.fluidplay.com. It is like media master, but it is streaming from a local PC instead of uploading your library.
Great hackers know that they can build anything; what they don't know is what they should be building. My problem is the opposite. I know what to build because I have customers who are clamoring for it, but I don't have the right people to build it.

Your skills: Database guru, VB6 tinkerer (not a typo!), browser-to-hardware connectivity hacker, RoR lover.

One co-founder can complement the other, so you don't have to have all the skills.

My background: 10 years in ecommerce at founder/ceo level. Have developed a working app by hiring coders, and even have paying customers, but ran out of money and went back to investment banking. But the entrepreneural bug bites, and bites real bad. Meanwhile, the app continues to run and generate revenue. A month ago, I came across PG's writings and this forum, and now I am convinced that I was doing it wrong - instead of paying unmotivated coders, I should have brought on two hackers as my partners and co-founders.

Ideally, you should be based in Orange County CA where I am, so we can fully develop the core system in the next few months. We will then apply to YC's fall program, so you must be willing to move to the Bay Area.

While I am confident that YC will accept us (PG's Viaweb experience will create tremendous leverage), there are two other routes we can take - apply for Charles River's $100k-$250K program, or completely bootstrap this and not seek any outside capital.

Your equity is fully negotiable. If you are a true hacker, I need you and you need me. This Steve Jobs is seeking two Wozniaks!

Send me your background info to: me.jobs.r.u.woz at gee male dott comm.
Intriguing. I'd be interested in participating in such a deal, but I can't commit at the moment. Location is everything, of course, and I'm in Mountain View. Menlo Park would be about as far away as I could handle. Good luck!
"How many Google apps dying? How many Google apps that people use these days? AdSense, GMail, GMap, and of course, their search engine."

Google's way is to play with dozens of ideas in the hope that somewhere around 10% of them succeed to cover their growth, sort of like an in-house venture capital. In that respect they're doing remarkably well.
Microsoft is still and will likely continue to be the world's most profitable software company. OS X will not reach 20% global marketshare by the end of the decade and Goldman Sachs IBankers will still be punching away on MS Excel for the foreseeable future.

What does it mean to be dead then?

What I think Paul Graham is saying, and this is underscored by the notion of "being dangerous," is that Microsoft is no longer the place where new ideas and true innovation is going to come from. Startups are born from fresh ideas, and the companies that are dangerous to them are places like Google which seem to being designed to produce competitors to startups.

Microsoft will continue to sell $50 OEM copies of Windows to Dell and licenses of Office but this is a business on the decline. Microsoft is Old-tech stuck in the era of desktop applications, closed development strategies, and the economics of software licensing.

The financial effects of MS being dead are already showing some effect, MSFT has moved much since the dot-com boom, but it will take 5-10 years and continued blunders from MS to see some real damage.
I guess I'm in the younger half, because on reflection, I realize that not only do I agree, but that this is old news to me. I'm not complaining, though -- this article made me realize something I didn't know consciously.

A lot of commenters here seem to argue that Microsoft still has the vast majority of desktop installations, and that this isn't likely to go away soon. I agree (I don't like it, but I think it's true). But I also agree that Microsoft isn't a threat any more, like it used to be. And, on reflection, I agree that it is web apps that are making the difference.

I don't think that Word or Photoshop moving online is what really makes the difference, though. Every hoary Windows competitor has had a word processor and an image editor. (Sure, they didn't match Word feature-for-feature; does Writely?) But I believe a major reason that prevented people from switching has been the long tail of applications: "It doesn't have any accounting software for plumbers!"

The feeling that Microsoft had a secure monopoly came from the fact that these long-tail programs were all written for Windows, because that was what was economic for its developers. Word and Photoshop always had a Mac version. Accounting for Plumbers never did.

Now, these applications live on the Web. And while the people using them still might use Windows, it doesn't matter; it makes Microsoft money, but it doesn't buy them any leverage.
Startups are the ones with fresh ideas because larger companies don't want to take the risks. Larger companies could later acquire those cutting-edge startups when it is more apparent that their ideas are good ones.
Did you read the article? By "dead", pg does not mean that Bill Gates has to resort to dumpster diving to get his evening meal. He's not saying that they're not still up and running, or that that they're not enormously profitable. He's saying that its "shadow is gone", that startup founders aren't afraid of it anymore. He's saying that another company, Google, is now the leader where Microsoft once was.

I'm not sure why you think it's necessary to dismiss the accomplishments of Google and Apple while at the same time being condescending toward the people who use their products. For example, to say "Google is popular because people like Michael Arrington, Walleywag, and those biased non-professional bloggers-turned-online-reporters sing praises toward Google" is to imply that Google's products are basically worthless and the people who use them are too foolish to realize it because they've been duped into using them by a cadre of clever bloggers. This doesn't logically support your argument that Microsoft isn't dead, so why say it?

If you want to show how pg is wrong, I suggest starting by rebutting his arguments, not putting down most of the people who enjoy this site.
'... Steve Jobs is seeking two Wozniaks ...'

I'd say you're out by a factor of two taking into account the 'reality distortion field' ~ http://tinyurl.com/2qznlq
I think Microsoft is playing it safe. And don't forget everyone, that MSN Messenger is being used by as much x20 times the users of Facebook. Microsoft did the smartest acquisition in 1997 when they bought Hotmail and caught the train. What would it stop them from doing that again? I don't know.
And what if they took PG's advice and their new move was his suggestion to buy all new startups?!

They introduced VS.Net and again they were able to provide services to the enterprise.
Then it killed the Sony Playstation.

And to everyone who missed the point, I think thats what PG means with dead. They are not direct threat to someone starting-up --because their products are on the market which is the platform for accessing web services (Windows and IE), which web services is the new trend to bringing something of value to users), as much as Google is (because web services is their essential market) or another startup doing something similar.

I think MS will really worry when mobile devices become your desktop...But they seem to be catching up there too...
Maybe that explains acquiring Tellme for 800 million few weeks ago...

But does anybody even remembers MS's attempt to make a video sharing site. Whats was its name? I can't even remember...
Is Microsoft Dead? (From July 21st, 2005)
The Microsoft malaise
I think despite Steve Ballmer's fanaticism, Microsoft knows its dying. They're already diversifying into safer industries like enterprise, gaming, and media. These are not hostile takeovers like in the old days, they're major moves trying to position MS as a major player in the respective fields. I think the MS identity well remain, but it will become a much more diluted entity, with branches each going its separate way.
It would take an incredible amount of sack for Microsoft to deliberately break IE; there's no way they would ever take a risk like that and I really doubt it would play out like you think. Web based applications have way too much momentum. Initially the clueless would go without, but the backlash would be so severe in the development and tech communities that pretty soon the clueless would have a working alternative preinstalled. The big internet companies (the ones we should still actually fear) would step in right away and partner with consumer hardware companies to make this happen.
A good one :-)
The problem with posts like this is that a lot of hackers here see themselves more like an all coding, all designing Steve Jobs rather than just Wozes who need a Steve.
I suggest that you start teaching yourself to code while you wait for a wozniak. You need to know your program inside out and the best way is to learn code to assist your programmer to do minor tasks.
We could call it vlad.tv or something.
Microsoft was never the place new ideas and true innovation came from. But they did once have the power to shut down people who had them. They no longer do; that's what's changed.
Speaking of CAD software, how long until we will have an online version? (I would guess CAD software is on the same order of complexity as photoshop.) Are any perspective YCers working on it?
Leonidas is 100% right. Learn by poking around, google things or read books, thats one way you will be able to guide programmers. Sometimes it so happens that whatever you want may not be done with the tech u r using, so its better you also get technically sound ... think on those lines and advice/guide people to approach things
...but not all of us. There must be a bunch of hackers here who'd rather not deal with people, but feel forced to because, well, who else is going to?

By the way, Steve Jobs is more of a design critic and salesman than designer. It takes different skills to do well at being a novelist vs. a book critic.
Thanks for the suggestion; I am trying to avoid this path, as my best case outcome is that I will be an ok programmer - and that's not good enough to succeed. To win today, you have to have a real team.
I'm not sure I see the point, actually. Why would this be more interesting than the current reddit behavior?
The mobile industry needs to be fixed. The sooner the better. I know the two major limitations are restrictive Operators and fragmented Handsets, I just cant yet find the correct solution. The best I can see is to fix it in the same way we made microsoft irrelevant. Ensure that phones have reliable fast low latency internet connections and consistent web browser support accross handsets. Its not ideal and it'll take another 5-10 years or so.
Well if you dont get good on tech side, you will see a dangerous thing creeping behind you bwahahahhaha (yeah u will hear that laugh this way) and this dreaded thing is losing your independence and become a puppet in the hands of your coder partners ;-) (just kidding), but think on these lines too, what will happen if those 2 woz tie u up for ransom? :D
To paraphrase how management guru Peter Drucker put it "Growth that increases productivity is healthy, growth without an increase in productivity is fat, and growth that decreases productivity is cancer...."

Lately, MS has been coming up with nothing but Bloatware. To be productive these days, all I need is a Live CD of Linux Puppy and connect to the net to access all the online applications I need for work.... I store all my files online and access them from anywhere in the world....

Once I am on the net, it matters little if I use OSX, Windows or Linux. It is only a matter of time before Web based applications will be as good as desktop applications....
That's why I am looking for great hackers, as opposed to good hackers. Great hackers know that the value of the group is greater than the sum of its parts ;-)
Media isn't a safe industry. Not for very long at least.
haha good that you have nice outlook on hackers ;-)
you working on the product.

Not if you rushed a demo out the door just to have a demo..

Oh yes, we'll be launching something around the same time.
Even if Microsoft does not intentionally break IE, what incentive would it have to improve support for AJAX apps?

For example, what incentive would it have to support an offline mode for AJAX apps?
I disagree with the general sentiment of the article (mostly the hyperbole), but one quote hit the nail on the head: "They're in a different world."

There's no question that Microsoft is still dominant in the areas they care about, and because of that dominance they're likely to stay there. At this point, I think people understand that dominance intuitively and so don't really even try to beat Microsoft, especially since the web-as-a-platform thing is looking so exciting.
Users would have more control over what appears on the front page and for how long. Also, old submissions would still have a chance to make it to the front page.
My friend applied and was rejected, so that might be a sliver of good news for people who haven't heard back yet.
The link to 'The Other Road Ahead' is broken.

Edit: looks fixed now.
Mukund explained what I was trying to say much better.

Learning the code will allow you to better understand and communicate with your programmer. Besides, if there are minor things like registration problems or design issues, you can do it yourself as opposed to bugging the programmer who is handling the major programming parts. Can you imagine the 'business' co-founder bugging the hell out of the programmer to take ONE word out of a category title while the programmer is trying to go through hundreds of lines to fix a major bug that is much more important than a category title?

I know everyone keeps saying "Wozniak needs a Jobs" and vice versa ...but in 'Wozniak' I bet there was a little 'Jobs' and in "Jobs" there was a little 'Wozniak'. Otherwise, there would be no way in hell they would have gotten along and worked together successfully.
I haven't seen any account signups that seem to be from YC, judging from logs and signup email addresses.
Gerry Sussman in a fez! Yes!
I think there are more efficient ways than SICP to learn Lisp if you're already a competent programmer. Scheme was my first functional language and I picked it up directly from R5RS. Then I moved over to CL by skimming ANSI Common Lisp and then reading On Lisp.
Oh app, for crying out loud, go update yourself
This is one of my favorite posts on UI from my favorite UI blog.
I agree with the article in general, but you lost some credibility by equating Snipshot to Photoshop. I realize that you have an investment to promote, but please.
Being nearly 50years old, what frightens me about MS is that they think they can sell an OS which they can remotely turn off without out a court warrant and then its up to you if your business hasn't gone bankrupt to sue them . This just shows complete and utter contempt for their customers.Which will do for them in the long run.My next box will be linux. Maybe the apple setup etc looks attractive to the younger generation but its only superficial. They have their own history of arrogant greed too. Bob G
For Developers: Favorite editor fonts?
What is everyone's favorite font for editing code?

My own personal favorite is Triskweline: http://www.netalive.org/tinkering/triskweline/

Clean and scannable. What's yours?
I realized Microsoft was dead in early January 2007 when it occured to me that vista was about to come out and I didn't see anyone who really cared. Of course now that Vista has failed to garner any real attention, this view is confirmed.

Further, I think that even on the desktop things are going to change and fast.

I don't think people realize just how well Apple is doing.

Their Mac sales are up something like %50, but they havent' really experienced network effects yet... as MS fails to come up with anything inspiring, PC owners are going to try switching in larger and larger numbers.

We aren't yet seeing the watershet that this is yet-- but the Mac has moved from the margins to a viable maisntream possibility.... and as PCs bought between 2004-2006 come up for replacement, a huge number of those machines will be replaced with Macs.

It was only in 2006 that people outside the software and web industry really started to see the Mac as a viable alternative.

Personally, I am starting to feel a bit odd, since suddenly there are all these new Mac users.

When the Mac becomes mainstream, I'll lose the comfortable non-conformity I've enjoyed since 1988.
Mukund and Leonidas, I have a reasonable understanding of programming; I designed and helped build a significant part of the code. I did not mean to appear as if I have no knowledge of, or desire to, learn code. But the opportunity I am talking about is to complete the transformation of the current app at hyper speed, so that we can fill the need right now, not in 12 months or longer. Surely, if the demand is as great as I am saying, someone will fill the gap very soon.
My next invention would entail reducing medication errors. Current available applications are developed by hackers who make it too difficult for non-hacker healthcare professionals to understand how to use. In addition, the logical layout of lab values, prescriptions and so forth is not optimized for decreased error. To have hospitals pay 40-60 million a year to license an ineffective, flawed, application is ridiculous. I've been in one of the most advanced hospitals in the United States and my gawd, they still use a "DOS" system like interface ...wth...60 million a year for that?

Personally, my error medication invention will be a contribution I'd like to make to patients and to my profession. You don't get second chances when you deal with patients.. a first error can kill.
hey dont take it seriously, i was just kidding on the programming part. I was giving what worst could happen. So if you have built and designed things then its better. We dont know what you are so we just assumed you to be like another manager guy
I recently acquired a Mac Book Pro. There was precisely one Windows program I wanted to run on it (SuperMemo) under Parallels, which received good reviews. Rather than wait to purchase a copy of Windows from the local CompUSA, I used an OEM copy of Windows from a defenestrated a DELL box (I replaced Windows with Debian). After installing XP as a guest OS under Parallels, I activated XP online by purchasing a product key through the Genuine Advantage program.

But that wasn't good enough for Microsoft. Microsoft informed me in their emailed order acknowledgment that I was some kind of felon: "To convert your counterfeit Windows XP software to a genuine copy of Windows XP using the new Product Key, you will need to download and run the Windows Product Key Update Tool on the same computer you used to purchase the electronic license for Windows XP."

The following week I received in the mail a Windows Genuine Advantage Kit for Windows XP Professional; it contained a letter asserting that I had "submitted a counterfeit report" with my order, and that this report would be "treated as confidential." Moreover, "...Microsoft's anti-piracy team investigates each and every lead we receive. Since investigations are ongoing and extremely confidential, we are unable to provide you with the status of the particular lead you have submitted. The length of time to bring about enforcements varies depending on the nature of a particular investigation."

Hateful monsters! Frightful miscreants! I suppose I deserve this for having anything to do with Windows.
For your #'s game, which I think is a fun one... No one from Ycombinator has looked at our demo yet.

It was a wonderful deadline, no? We worked three straight days at the end that we'd have spread out otherwise. I imagine YCombinator often jumpstarts even the companies it doesn't fund. That would be interesting to see numbers on. How many companies YCombinator has played a role in helping indirectly. We've certainly been inspired by this process.
Why think of the next? we would put our entire energy into running this current one. There is no question of NEXT one unless we get this one up and running successfully.May be we may need to modify or add more things but if that is called NEXT thing then we will take it ;-)
This is a very thought provoking essay. Very forward thinking. I agree with many of the things that you say, but the fact of the matter is that much of the economy - domestic and global - runs in a Windows environment. Most consumers still run Windows. Am I missing the point? Perhaps. I suppose it is true that anybody who takes personal computing seriously is running Firefox and Thunderbird and Google Desktop on Windows. In that sense, yeah Windows is dead. Personally, I use Macs, so I am well insulated from Microsoft. However, they are alive and well if only because of the Office suite. If I send a an OpenDocument file to ten of my friends, they won't be able to open it. If I send a Word file, everybody can open it. The point is, Microsoft is still quite relevant today. Although, I can see your points and would fully agree that free Linux could easily supplant Windows as a desktop environment (to run your stated Web 2.0 apps) or Macs. I applaud your essay; you take some interesting positions and provide some profound insight. Very interesting. Brad Engelmann.
Wanted to point out a typo. You have:

"Thanks to OSX, Apple has come back from the dead in a way that is extremely rare technology."

I think that should be "extremely rare IN technology."
The greatest Demos/screencasts you've seen